Managing payroll can be an incredibly complex and stressful task for any business owner.
But having the right payroll software solution can make the process smooth, accurate, and efficient.
In this review, we will explore the key features to look for when selecting payroll software, provide an in-depth comparison of top solutions on the market, and offer guidance on finding the best fit for your business needs.
Introduction: Navigating the Payroll Tax Software Maze
Payroll tax software is essential for modern businesses to calculate taxes, ensure compliance, and streamline payments for employees. However, with many options on the market, it can be challenging to determine which solution best suits your needs. This article will provide an overview of payroll software, discussing key features and top considerations when selecting the right platform, especially for small business owners and accountants.
Understanding Payroll Tax Software Essentials
Payroll tax software automates the process of calculating, reporting, and paying payroll taxes. The system tracks employee hours, pay rates, withholdings, benefits, and more to determine gross and net pay. It then calculates all applicable federal, state, and local payroll taxes to deduct from employee paychecks. This ensures full compliance and accurate tax payments.
Other key features include:
- Direct deposit for employee pay
- Integrations with accounting software
- Tax form generation (W-2s, 1099s)
- Reporting dashboards and analytics
High-quality payroll software enables businesses to save time, reduce errors, and eliminate the hassle of manual processes when managing payroll.
The Pillars of High-Quality Payroll Software
When evaluating payroll systems, there are a few fundamental capabilities to look for:
Accurate Tax Calculations
The software should reliably determine income taxes, Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment taxes, and any local taxes. This prevents costly tax penalties and problems.
Seamless Accounting Platform Integrations
Integration with accounting software like QuickBooks streamlines data sharing between the payroll and bookkeeping systems. This saves time, provides a holistic financial view, and tightens compliance.
Strong Reporting and Analytics
Robust reporting allows customized views into payroll data trends over time. Key metrics and interactive dashboards provide actionable insights to inform business decisions.
Employee Self-Service Portal
An online portal lets employees manage their own information, review pay stubs and tax documents, and make any updates required. This saves administrative time.
Tailoring Payroll Solutions for Small Businesses
For small business owners, opting for a full-service payroll provider often provides the best blend of affordability, convenience, and meeting needs. Leading solutions like Gusto and QuickBooks Payroll provide tailored plans for smaller teams. Key advantages include:
- Lower Pricing: Plans scale cost-effectively based on number of employees
- Simplicity: Easy to set up and handle payroll with no extensive HR/payroll experience required
- Strong Integrations: Tight connections with small business accounting platforms already in use
- Employee Self-Service: Gives employees ownership over their own payroll information
- Compliance Guarantee: Ensures full federal, state, and local tax compliance, preventing problems
This quick introduction provides critical context so small businesses can select optimal payroll software for their needs. Next, we will review the top options available to recommend the best solutions.
What is a good software for payroll?
Finding the right payroll software is crucial for businesses to efficiently manage payroll processing and compliance. When reviewing payroll solutions, key aspects to evaluate include:
Integrations
The ability to integrate with existing accounting, HR, and other business systems streamlines payroll tasks. Rippling stands out for its tight integrations enabling centralized management across HR, IT, payroll, and benefits.
Ease of Use
Solutions like Gusto or Paychex Flex simplify payroll with intuitive platforms and helpful wizards guiding users. Their self-service models remove administrative headaches.
Affordability
QuickBooks Payroll offers some of the most cost-effective payroll processing paired with discounted bookkeeping services. Scaled pricing models also help growing startups minimize costs.
Specialization
Industry-specific solutions like Workful for restaurants or OnPay for nonprofits cater to unique payroll needs with customized features and niche expertise.
Payroll is a complex process, but the right software helps businesses pay employees accurately and efficiently while remaining compliant. Assessing core requirements and specialized needs is key to determining which solution delivers the best overall payroll management experience.
Who is the top payroll company?
Gusto Payroll software is widely considered one of the best payroll services for small businesses in 2023. It goes beyond basic payroll features to provide a robust platform integrating payroll, benefits, HR, and more.
Key benefits of Gusto include:
- Easy and intuitive payroll setup and processing
- Full-service payroll features including direct deposit, tax payments, filings and compliance
- Seamless integration with accounting software like QuickBooks
- Additional HR features like applicant tracking, employee databases, org charts, and more
- Benefits administration for health insurance, 401(k) plans, and other offerings
- Dedicated customer support specialists
In Gusto payroll reviews, users consistently rate the platform’s ease of use, compliance accuracy, responsive support, and value added by integrated HR and benefits management.
While Gusto may cost more than basic payroll services, for many small businesses the all-in-one platform, compliance guarantees, and top-notch support justify the fees. Scaled pricing also keeps costs affordable.
For those needing comprehensive payroll with built-in HR, applicant tracking, and benefits management, Gusto stands apart as a top payroll service enabling efficient, accurate people management processes. The platform makes payroll, HR and benefits administration for SMBs simple and compliant.
Is Lacerte a good tax software?
Lacerte is one of the most popular professional tax preparation software options used by tax professionals and accountants. It's designed specifically for handling complex returns and includes robust features for managing high-volume tax practices.
Overall, Lacerte receives high marks for its usability, accuracy, and productivity tools that streamline workflows. The intuitive interface allows you to easily navigate between data entry forms, supporting documents, diagnostics, and other features. Built-in calculators help minimize errors while accelerating tax return completion.
One of Lacerte's standout features is its workflow tracking capabilities. You can track the status of every return to stay on top of deadlines. The tax return checklist feature is also handy for identifying any missing forms or unfinished tasks before filing. With Lacerte, you can easily find everything related to a specific tax return in one place.
The reporting functions could be more advanced but are sufficient for most tax professionals' needs. You can run reports on return statuses, diagnostics, exceptions, productivities, etc. The Client Organizer feature enables customizing and branding tax organizers that can be emailed to clients for collecting tax documents.
Overall, Lacerte strikes an excellent balance by combining comprehensive tax compliance capabilities with intuitive usability and efficiency-boosting features for high-volume filing. For most tax professionals, Lacerte delivers an exceptional experience at a reasonable price point compared to competing software options.
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What is the best way to do payroll for a small business?
Payroll can be a complicated process for small businesses, but choosing the right payroll software can simplify things. The best payroll software for small businesses offers the following features:
Integration with Accounting Software
Most small businesses already use accounting software, so integrating payroll with the existing system saves time and reduces mistakes. QuickBooks Payroll integrates seamlessly with the popular QuickBooks accounting software. Gusto payroll software also integrates with QuickBooks, Xero, and other accounting programs. Both allow you to easily keep accounting records up to date.
Easy Tax Calculations and Filing
Payroll software automatically calculates withholding and payroll taxes, saving you time and avoiding mistakes. QuickBooks Payroll and Gusto also let you electronically file payroll forms and W-2s, including 940s, 941s, State Withholding Forms, and more.
Multiple Payment Options
The best payroll providers allow you to pay employees using paychecks or direct deposit. Gusto, for example, offers free direct deposit to any bank or debit card. QuickBooks Payroll charges a small monthly fee for direct deposit. Both services allow you to print checks if needed. Paying employees electronically is usually more convenient and faster.
Affordable Pricing
Pricing varies depending on the number of employees and company size. QuickBooks Payroll starts at $45 per month plus $4 per employee per month. Gusto charges $6 per person per month, with an additional charge for full service payroll. The most affordable payroll software for small businesses will have a basic tier with core payroll features.
Many small business owners handle payroll themselves using dedicated payroll providers like QuickBooks and Gusto. This saves money and resources compared to hiring an accountant or bookkeeper. The key is choosing payroll software that makes tax calculations, reporting, and payments easy while integrating with your accounting system.
Comparative Gusto Payroll Reviews and Beyond
As a small business owner, one of the most vital parts of your operations is payroll. Choosing the right payroll software can simplify payroll tax calculations, payments, reporting, and more. In this comprehensive review, we’ll compare Gusto payroll with 4 other top providers - analyzing key features, pricing, and suitability for small businesses to help you make an informed decision.
Gusto: A User-Friendly Choice for Small Businesses
Gusto stands out with its focus on exceptional user experience for small business owners and making payroll & HR easy.
Intuitive Interface: Gusto earns strong Gusto payroll reviews for its simple, clean interface. Features are easy to navigate with self-guided onboarding. This enables business owners to get up and running quickly without reliance on Gusto support.
Affordable Pricing: Pricing starts at $39/month base fee plus $6 per person per month. Volume discounts available. No hidden fees for full-service payroll. Cheaper than many competitors for comprehensive payroll.
Key Integrations: Gusto connects with over 100 apps including Xero, QuickBooks Online, Slack, Zenefits and more. APIs available for further customization. Lacks integration with desktop QuickBooks.
Excellent Support: Gusto is lauded for responsive, hands-on support via phone, email and chat. Quick answers to pain points builds trust for small business owners.
For those wanting full-service payroll combined with ease of use and human support, Gusto should top the list of payroll software for small businesses. The excellent interface empowers business owners to self-manage payroll with less reliance on accountants and bookkeepers. For those using QuickBooks Desktop specifically, the lack of integration may outweigh other perks.
OnPay: Affordable Payroll Simplified
OnPay focuses on value, simplicity and seamless integration with accounting platforms - making them a top consideration for the cheapest payroll software for small businesses.
Cost Savings: OnPay offers payroll processing for just $36 per month plus $4 per employee. Significant savings especially at higher employee counts compared to Gusto.
Minimal Data Entry: OnPay automatically imports hours from workforce management apps. Further reduction of manual tasks compared to competitors.
QuickBooks Integration: OnPay offers seamless two-way sync with both QuickBooks Online and Desktop versions. A major perk for users of industry-standard QuickBooks software.
For QuickBooks users wanting simple, automated payroll at the lowest cost, OnPay's combination of discount pricing and integration makes it a payroll software worth considering for small businesses or accountants alike. The affordability empowers small business growth by reducing payroll overheads.
QuickBooks Payroll: The Accountant's Ally
QuickBooks Payroll touts seamless integration into the widely-used QuickBooks accounting ecosystem. This makes it a natural fit for accountants, bookkeepers and small businesses running QuickBooks.
Automatic Sync: Data flows automatically between QuickBooks Payroll and QuickBooks accounting software. Hours, pay rates, payments, tax info stays perfectly synced without effort.
Accountant Tools: Features like review payroll before payments, adjusting journal entries, custom reporting and more provide control for managing payroll for clients. Useful add-on for accountants providing bookkeeping services and using payroll software for accountants.
Premium Support: QuickBooks Prioritized Circle support delivers fast, US-based payroll experts for unique configurations or urgent issues. Useful for accountants juggling many client accounts.
For small businesses or accountants using QuickBooks software, the QuickBooks Payroll module offers automatic syncing that saves significant time on data entry and reduces errors from duplicate data. This seamless integration alongside robust accountant tools for managing many accounts makes it the ideal pairing for the QuickBooks ecosystem.
Choosing the Stand-Out Stand-Alone Payroll Software
When searching for payroll software, small business owners should carefully evaluate key criteria to find the solution that best fits their needs and budget. As the best payroll for small business owners requires balancing features, accuracy, and cost, we outline the most vital factors to assess across leading providers.
Ensuring Accuracy in Tax Calculations
Automating payroll tax calculations boosts compliance by enabling the software to seamlessly determine appropriate local, state, and federal payroll taxes. Beyond removing manual workloads, integrated tax payment and filing eliminates common mistakes that lead to penalties.
As the Gusto payroll reviews praise its laser-focused accuracy, Gusto's automatic tax payments perfectly capture complex locality-based taxes across all 50 states. QuickBooks Payroll also automates forms and accurately files taxes, though its support remains limited to 43 states. For national or multi-state businesses, verified tax accuracy across regions should be a top priority when comparing stand-alone payroll software.
Seamless Integration: Merging Payroll With Accounting & HR
Rather than toggling between separate systems, unified HR, accounting, and payroll systems use shared reporting databases to eliminate duplicate data entry. As examples of payroll software for accountants, Gusto and QuickBooks Payroll both deliver native integration with their respective accounting platforms to enable managing payroll liabilities directly within financial reports.
Top systems take workflow optimization further by layering in applicant tracking, onboarding, attendance monitoring, and performance management features alongside core payroll activities. This enables organizations to manage the entire employee lifecycle within a single, intuitive dashboard.
Advanced Payroll Reporting for Strategic Insights
Custom reporting tools transform raw payroll data into actionable business intelligence, answering key questions around workforce costs, overtime trends, and more. As the QuickBooks Payroll software offers over 100 standard reports, it provides unparalleled visibility compared to entry-level systems.
Advanced analytics take workforce insights a step further by enabling custom combinations of fields for tailored reports. For lean startups and growing SMBs, strategic insights derived from granular payroll data can reap competitive advantages in workforce budgeting, productivity improvements, and data-driven hiring strategies aligned to growth.
When evaluating payroll software examples, small business owners should ensure core accuracy in automated tax calculations and filings, seek systems offering seamless integrations with complementary HR and accounting platforms, and leverage robust analytics for data-backed workforce strategies. Prioritizing these factors promises optimized workflows, risk mitigation, and strategic guidance as SMBs scale operations.
Launching Startups with the Right Payroll Tools
As a startup founder, choosing the right payroll software is crucial for managing your most valuable assets - your employees. With limited budgets and resources, startups need affordable, easy-to-use payroll solutions that can scale rapidly alongside unpredictable business growth.
When evaluating payroll software for your startup, focus on three key factors - cost, simplicity, and flexibility. The best solutions help startups control payroll expenses, minimize administrative hassles, and adapt to changing team sizes and compliance needs.
Prioritizing Affordability
Payroll is often one of the largest recurring costs for early-stage startups. With tight budgets, it's essential to minimize premiums, fees, and processing charges associated with payroll administration.
Gusto and QuickBooks Payroll are two popular choices that offer basic payroll features and light employee management tools for as low as $39 per month. For the bootstrapped startup, these entry-level plans can save thousands annually compared to solutions from legacy payroll providers like ADP or Paychex.
As your headcount grows, consider switching to payroll vendors like JustWorks or Rippling that bundle extra HR functionality like benefits management, compliance resources, and PTO tracking at competitive rates for startups of all stages.
Optimizing for Simplicity
Between building products, courting investors, and serving customers, early-stage startups rarely have the bandwidth to master complicated payroll software. Solutions that automate tax calculations, payments, filings and compliance checks can liberate precious leadership resources.
Of the major players, Gusto earns top marks for novices due to its clean, intuitive interface and abundance of supporting content like live chat, thorough help docs, email support, and user forums. For those already using QuickBooks for accounting, Intuit's QuickBooks Payroll software best leverages existing integrations and workflows.
Alternatively, bring payroll in-house with a bookkeeping service like Bench or Pilot. For a fixed monthly fee, dedicated accountants handle payroll, taxes, benefits, and compliance on your behalf. The outsourced approach grants startups payroll expertise without having to hire specialist staff early on.
Adapting to Rapid Growth
In today's dynamic business climate, adaptability provides startups with a competitive edge. Payroll software that easily accommodates team expansions, funding events, compliance changes, global hiring needs, and employee life events allows leadership to focus less on administrative upkeep.
Web-based platforms like Gusto, JustWorks, Rippling, and Zenefits make it simple for startups to add unlimited employees across states and nations, unlocking frictionless growth. Meanwhile, Pilot and Bench remove capacity constraints completely by taking payroll operations off startup founders' plates.
For venture-backed startups planning rapid team expansions, consider Paylocity or Paycom for robust payroll functionality, advanced HR features, and enterprise-grade support. Though more expensive than other solutions, the deep payroll tooling and high ceilings on growth create long-term value.
Final Recommendations
Every startup moves at a unique pace, so identify payroll software that aligns with your budget, management preferences, and visions for scaling headcount. Tools like Gusto, QuickBooks Payroll, Pilot, and JustWorks balance affordability, simplicity, and flexibility for most early-stage needs. As your startup matures, reassess whether advanced solutions like Rippling, Paycom, or Zenefits better match your growth trajectory and strengthened resources. With the right payroll partner from day one, you can focus energy on delighting customers, attracting talent, and changing the world.
Final Thoughts: Matching Payroll Software to Your Business DNA
While selecting payroll software for small business or accountants, it is important to consider how well its features and capabilities align with the operational needs, goals, and growth trajectory of your company. Here are key aspects to evaluate:
Pricing - Assess if the pay-as-you-go, monthly fee or annual subscription model fits your budget needs based on number of employees, pay cycles, etc. Gusto, for example, charges per employee + HR features, while QuickBooks payroll has flat monthly pricing.
Features & Tools - Does it cover the payroll tax calculations, direct deposit, reporting, W-2 and 1099 forms generation your business requires? Standalone payroll software like SurePayroll provide comprehensive payroll features but limited HR capabilities compared to solutions like Paychex Flex which offer extensive HR modules.
Ease of use - Evaluate the user interface, implementation process, customer support channels, and automation capabilities to determine the learning curve and administrative effort involved. Intuit's QuickBooks Payroll software deeply integrates with popular QuickBooks accounting platform for easier adoption.
Scalability - As your employee count grows over months and years, ensure the payroll solution can seamlessly scale while retaining functionality, controls and cost efficiency. Gusto, for instance, adapts well from early stage to mature businesses.
By carefully analyzing your company's current and future needs before subscribing to a payroll software, you can make the perfect choice enabling you to effectively manage payroll compliance, taxes and employees without outgrowing the solution as you expand.
