Payroll Mate: Desktop Payroll Software for SMBs

Handling payroll can be an extremely tedious and complex process for small and medium-sized businesses.

Luckily, Payroll Mate offers an affordable desktop solution that can simplify payroll management and ensure accuracy of payments.

In this review, we will overview Payroll Mate's main features, benefits, and capabilities to manage payroll end-to-end. We'll also discuss its ideal customer profile, pricing, and how it compares to other solutions.

Introduction to Payroll Mate

Payroll Mate is a desktop payroll software designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking to efficiently manage payroll in-house.

Overview of Features

Key features of Payroll Mate include:

• Unlimited pay runs
• Automated federal, state, and local tax calculations
• Direct deposit setup
• Customizable reports
• Employee self-service portal
• Integrations with accounting software

It handles all aspects of payroll processing and compliance for SMBs.

Pricing and Plans

Payroll Mate offers tiered pricing based on number of employees:

• Up to 10 employees: $XX per month
• 11-25 employees: $XX per month
• 26-50 employees: $XX per month
• 51-100 employees: $XX per month

Additional services like payroll tax filings, W-2 printing, and 1099 forms can be added for an extra fee.

Ideal Customer Profile

Payroll Mate is designed for SMBs with 5-100 employees who want to manage payroll in-house without needing an accountant.

It is an affordable and full-featured solution for growing companies to calculate payroll, taxes, and reporting accurately. The self-service portal also reduces administrative tasks for HR and managers.

Overall, Payroll Mate is best suited for SMBs that have outgrown basic payroll services but aren't big enough to justify the cost of enterprise solutions.

Key Benefits of Using Payroll Mate

Payroll Mate offers several key advantages for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking to streamline payroll management.

Cost Savings

By handling payroll in-house using Payroll Mate's software, SMBs can realize significant cost savings compared to outsourcing to an accountant or payroll company. The affordable per-month subscription plans support businesses with up to 100 employees. Automation and simplicity of the platform reduce the need for additional accounting support.

Time Savings

Payroll Mate reduces the time needed to calculate taxes, print checks, and complete payroll tasks. Features like automated federal and state tax calculations prevent the need to manually compute percentages. Direct deposit eliminates check printing and signing. Easy-to-use templates simplify paystub generation. These time savers enable managers to focus their efforts on other priorities.

Accuracy of Payments

With Payroll Mate, businesses can feel confident they are paying employees and filing taxes accurately. The software includes robust checks to detect errors in pay rates, deductions, withholdings, and net pay amounts. These validations help minimize compliance risks and prevent incorrect payments to staff or tax agencies.

Data Security

Protecting sensitive employee payroll information is crucial. Payroll Mate utilizes encryption, access controls, and data backups to keep data secure from unauthorized access and disruption. Usage audits provide visibility into who accessed payroll records and when. These measures give SMBs peace of mind their payroll data is safe.

Payroll Management Features

Payroll Mate comes equipped with a robust set of tools to streamline every aspect of payroll management. From calculating taxes to paying employees, it aims to simplify payroll for SMBs.

Tax Calculations and Filings

Payroll Mate automatically computes federal, state, and local payroll taxes each pay period based on latest tax rates and employee information. It can generate and e-file quarterly and annual payroll tax returns, including:

• Form 941 (Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return)
• Form 940 (Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment Tax Return)
• State unemployment tax returns
• Local returns (occupational, etc.)

This eliminates the need to manually compute taxes or submit filings.

Payroll Checks or Direct Deposit

Users can pay employees by printed checks or direct deposit. Payroll Mate supports splitting payments across multiple bank accounts for each employee.

Checks can be printed directly from the software on blank check stock. Payroll Mate also integrates with major check printing services.

Garnishments and Deductions

Common deductions like 401(k) contributions, health insurance premiums, and child support can be automatically withheld per pay period. Simply enter the deduction amount and payment details.

Garnishments are also handled automatically. If the company receives a court order to garnish an employee's wages, Payroll Mate deducts the specified amount each pay period.

Overtime and Bonus Payments

Managers can account for various pay types in Payroll Mate, including:

• Overtime pay based on hours worked over 40 per week
• Holiday pay
• Annual bonuses
• Reimburseable expenses
• Tips reported by tipped employees

The software automatically factors special pay types into taxes and deductions. This streamlines accounting of non-regular earnings.

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Reporting and Data Export

Payroll Mate provides robust reporting capabilities to help businesses gain valuable insights into their payroll data.

Standard Reports

Payroll Mate comes with a set of pre-built reports covering common payroll reporting needs:

• Payroll Journals - Track payroll expenses by period
• Tax Reports - Review tax payments and liabilities
• Deduction Reports - Analyze employee deductions like medical, dental, 401k
• Labor Distribution Reports - Breakdown payroll costs by department

These standardized reports make it easy to quickly access key payroll metrics without having to build custom reports from scratch.

Custom Reports

In addition to the standard reports, Payroll Mate allows users to create customized reports filtered by:

• Date range
• Location
• Department
• Employee type
• And more

Custom reports empower businesses to analyze payroll however they see fit - by office, salary tier, or any other parameter. This flexibility caters to diverse business needs when examining payroll costs and productivity.

Export Reports

All reports in Payroll Mate can be exported as printable PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, or CSV files.

Key benefits include:

• Print or save reports for record keeping
• Further analyze report data in Excel
• Redistribute reports securely as PDFs

The ability to export reports also facilitates sharing payroll insights with stakeholders like accounting, finance executives, department heads, and more.

With robust reporting capabilities and easy export options, Payroll Mate strives to provide complete visibility into payroll expenses to inform better business decisions.

Implementation and Support

Payroll Mate offers resources to smoothly transition businesses to their platform and provide ongoing assistance.

Onboarding and Data Migration

Dedicated setup specialists help import employee payroll data and configure software settings during onboarding. This ensures that the transition to Payroll Mate is seamless, with no disruption to existing payroll operations.

The onboarding process involves:

• Mapping employee data from the old system to Payroll Mate
• Configuring tax rates, deductions, pay schedules, etc.
• Testing payroll runs before go-live
• Providing training on generating payslips, reports, and other features

By handling data migration and configuration, the onboarding team simplifies setup so clients can use Payroll Mate effectively from day one.

Ongoing Support

Payroll Mate provides unlimited email and phone support at no additional cost. The support team assists with:

• Answering questions on using features
• Troubleshooting any errors
• Advising on compliance, tax changes, etc.

They also offer free access to webinars and an online knowledge base with guides, FAQs, and training resources. This empowers users to maximize Payroll Mate for their business needs.

On-premises and Cloud Options

Clients can choose to host Payroll Mate locally on their own servers or access it through the cloud.

The on-premises option gives full control over data security and privacy while avoiding reliance on internet connectivity. However, the cloud option enables access from anywhere without needing in-house infrastructure.

Payroll Mate offers deployment flexibility to suit different business requirements and preferences. The software has the same features and pricing regardless of hosting choice.

Conclusion and Recommendation

With its full-featured payroll management optimized for SMBs, competitive pricing, and stellar support, Payroll Mate is a recommended solution for streamlining payroll internally.

Main Benefits

In summary, Payroll Mate offers SMBs cost and time savings, accuracy, security, and ease of payroll management:

• Cost Savings: By automating payroll in-house, SMBs can save up to 50% compared to outsourcing. There are also no hidden fees.

• Time Savings: Automation and integration with accounting software reduces manual work. Easy-to-use interface minimizes training needed.

• Accuracy: Built-in validation rules and automatic tax calculations minimize errors.

• Security: Robust permissions, encryption, and audit trails protect sensitive payroll data.

• Ease of Use: Intuitive dashboards, wizards, and reporting streamline payroll tasks for managers.

Ideal Customer

It's best suited for U.S.-based SMBs with 5-100 employees seeking an affordable, full-service payroll system. Key features like time tracking, accounting software integrations, and contractor payments provide needed flexibility.

Call to Action

SMBs struggling with manual payroll should schedule a consultation to see if Payroll Mate is the right fit for automating their processes. The unified platform can simplify payroll while providing the features and flexibility needed to manage a growing workforce.

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