Makoto | HR. Payroll. Peace of mind.

01 Our story

After more than 30 years in HR and payroll technology, Sam and Ned left the comfort of the corporate world to build Makoto.

On project after project, the same picture came up. The new systems went in, yet teams were still checking one system against another by hand, keeping spreadsheets alive and carrying the compliance risk themselves.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Plugging the gaps by hand is the norm, nowhere more so than in payroll and HR. It costs time and creates risk. It also holds companies back from getting the efficiency that AI brings.

So, after almost four years side by side on the executive team of a leading HR and payroll partner, they stepped away to fix it. Together.

Ned McEvoy

Co-founder

Ned grew up in the North East of England around his family's growing payroll business. His first taste of payroll was work experience as a teenager, typing overtime into the system from spreadsheets.

That shaped what he cares about today: the people doing the unseen work that keeps everyone paid. He has since spent 20 years in HR and payroll technology, transforming global payroll operations for some of the world's leading brands.

Every project went live and the systems worked as designed. Yet he was often left with the sense that the job wasn't quite finished. The spreadsheets and manual steps were still there, held together by people quietly carrying the worry of getting it right. Makoto exists to finish the job.

He holds an Executive MBA and a BSc in Computing.

Sam Garwood

Co-founder

Sam has spent a decade in software, eight years of it in HR and payroll, working with some of the world’s largest organisations. Most recently, he was CRO of a leading SAP partner.

Along the way, he has seen first-hand how fragmented technology landscapes leave teams wrestling with disconnected systems and data they can’t fully trust, however much they invest.

As AI moves to the top of every agenda, for companies of all sizes, that fragmentation won’t just persist. It will stand between organisations and the value AI can deliver.

Sam is passionate about solving complex problems with simple solutions, and that’s exactly what Makoto is here to do.

02 What we do

The systems went in.The manual work remains.

Compliance spreadsheets. Reconciliations. The workaround only one person understands.

Makoto is built for the teams that always pick this up.

Agents that you use in the flow of your work.

We build agents around your needs, replacing spreadsheets and manual processes that create risk. The three below are useful examples of where to start.

Secure

The foundation

Golden record

Not sure where to start with AI?

Start by making sure you can trust your data. Makoto brings your people data together into one reliable record, stored securely in your own dedicated, private Azure tenant, so you have a foundation you can build on.

One trusted record becomes the foundation for your agents. See examples below.

01Reconciliation

Do your systems agree with each other?

Bring your HR, payroll and time data together. Spot discrepancies, check for gaps and ensure your people are paid correctly and compliantly.

Read an example

Sometimes it's simple. Someone is a leaver in your HR system but is still on the payroll. Sometimes it's complex payroll checks with short deadlines, running across several countries.

Either way, Makoto reconciles the data for you, flags discrepancies openly and gives you a Data Trust Score, so you know exactly where you stand.

02Payroll compliance

The calculations nobody wants to do by hand.

Makoto replaces those painful spreadsheets with complex calculations, checks and pivot tables. Giving you what you need, when you need it.

Read an example

Average holiday pay for shift workers with commission, weeks of zero pay and an ad hoc bonus. Or National Minimum Wage checks once your clock-in grace periods and salary sacrifice benefits are taken into account.

This is what Makoto was built for. It works them out and delivers the results straight into your existing payroll system.

03Right to work

Keeping within student visa working limits.

Keep sight of permitted working hours across sites and systems, with a Teams alert so you can act in time.

Read an example

You have rota staff on student visas, and someone is checking their permitted working hours by hand. For those with a 20-hour term-time limit, that means pulling together shifts across your rostering, HR and payroll systems, every single week.

What if Makoto just pinged you a Teams message before someone reached their permitted hours, so you could act in time?

Every agent is built to deliver the outcomes that matter.

The outcomes

Reduce effort
Increase accuracy
Reduce risk
Free up time
Save money

03 Meet Makoto

Peace of mind for the people who care about getting it right.

The Makoto character, a hand-drawn robot with a vermilion ring on its chest

04 Register your interest

Keen to hear more?

Pop your details below and we'll keep you up to speed with how we're progressing.

Help shape what comes next

We're also opening a design partner programme. You'll get dedicated founder time and early bird pricing. Tick the optional box if you'd like to apply.

Four of five places remaining

Design partner programme

Let’s keep in touch.

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