Best Payroll Software for Small Companies

Paying your employees accurately and promptly is one of the most critical elements of running a business. We test the top online payroll services to help you choose the right one. Good payroll software simplifies a lot of the work, but tax laws change, humans make mistakes, and even the best payroll providers experience a hiccup every now and then. From setting up your employees to answering questions to dealing with issues if they ever come up, it’s critical to choose a service with outstanding support. You receive basic hiring and onboarding tools, full payroll support for one state, employee self-service options, time-off reports, and basic technical support. For the price-conscious small business that’s growing, OnPay could be an attractive choice.

A decade later, OnPay is one of the most highly-regarded payroll services on the market. Customers appreciate the strong customer service offerings, and they like being able to manage the service via a mobile app. Not only does the mobile app give employees the ability to self-manage their information, but admins use the app to manage the entire system. “They ran me around in circles actually,” noted one former Gusto user.

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Once the list of possible top software candidates was whittled down, my research team conducted in-depth interviews with actual users of the software. ADP also gives the least pricing information of any product on this list. This is dramatically different from how OnPay, Gusto, and QuickBooks present their services. Multiple reviews in just the past 12 months claimed that ADP missed a change to the law or compliance rules and caused an issue due. The ADP users we interviewed, both current and former, echoed these complaints.

ADP Run has subscription options that include features ranging from payroll to a combination of payroll, time tracking , and HR . It also has numerous products beyond the payroll solution, including a professional employer organization that makes it easy for businesses with plans to grow over the years to transition easily. Full-service payroll software calculates paychecks and automatically files payroll taxes on your behalf. Most full-service payroll options also include optional HR features and employee benefits, such as health and vision insurance.

Income tax forms

Money lost due to human error during payroll preparation proves to be a huge problem. The American Payroll Association estimates that human error can reach 8% while processing payroll manually. To give an example of what this means in hard numbers, an 8% human error rate on a $15,000 payroll equals $1,200 lost in erroneous wage calculation. Many good tech teams have fallen under the spell of the Shiny New Thing, and, in allowing themselves to be distracted and diluted, their core products and loyal customs suffer from neglect. Gusto has kept a steady pace through the years and their primary focus on payroll and benefits has not been clouded by impulsive building more features into their stack.

Further, Rippling has robust integration options with over 500 software. None of the providers in this list can integrate with that many solutions. While Gusto lets you track applicants, its job posting tools aren’t as robust as ADP’s, which can post jobs to 25,000-plus job boards . However, Gusto does provide essential hiring and onboarding tools, such as offer letters, online W-4 and I-9 forms, new hire state reporting, onboarding checklists, and a self-onboarding portal.

Reporting, access, and integrations

You can also easily track your employees’ hours using this software. ADP’s payroll software capabilities are unparalleled, making it an ideal payroll provider for small businesses. The best payroll software automates the payroll process for businesses of all sizes, making it easy to manage team member payments. This software allows you to set up direct deposits, calculate payroll taxes, and maintain accurate records to avoid penalties. In 2020, the IRS penalised over $4.9 billion due to issues like failure to pay and bad checks.

Its payroll software is easy to use, and you can try it free for 30 days. A major drawback is that the free tax filings are only available in 14 states. Paychex offers employee benefits services to help keep your workforce happy. The benefits options include health insurance, dental and vision, HSA, FSA, and retirement plan; but what sets it apart from other providers in this list is its financial wellness program.

It offers automated payroll, tax support, HR features, and unique employee benefits that other software solutions don’t provide. They offer no-contract pricing that starts at $44 per month for the Essentials plan. This plan gives you all the necessary features to manage HR and payroll including, automated payroll, health benefits, 401k plans, and more. You must understand how payroll taxes are handled for your location, so you can choose the best system for your situation.

• Money lost due to human error during payroll preparation proves to be a huge problem.
• A simple toggle switch lets you turn this feature on and off as needed.
• With a lot of choices in the market, we have highlighted the top six HR and payroll software options for 2023.
• Predefined workflows and templates help streamline all business operations.
• Regardless of your business, staying compliant with government and industry regulations is crucial.
• To set up payroll software, you’ll start by connecting your business’s bank account to your payroll platform of choice and entering your employees’ pay rates and withholding information.

This The 5 Best Payroll Services For Small Businesses covers medical expenses and lost wages for employees who are injured on the job. If you have employees spread across different states or around the globe, you will need to meet more regulations. With hybrid and remote work becoming commonplace as a result of the pandemic, you must consider if you might have people working from different locations in the future.

If you are looking for the best option or are switching payroll providers, consider your company’s immediate HR and payroll needs, including your growth plans. If you’ve grown your company to a point that you require a bigger HR team but you’re not willing to hire, then Paychex’s PEO services is a great option. It ranks well in our payroll buyer’s guides—currently holding the No. 1 spot in our Best Payroll Software for Accountants roundup. What we and many users like about the platform is the variety of products it offers. Its online payroll solutions are part of a larger set of Intuit products that integrate seamlessly. Since many small businesses start out using QuickBooks for accounting, adding payroll is usually the logical next step.

Benefits providers can cut off services such as health insurance if you fall behind on payments. If you’re doing payroll manually, the process can take hours every payday. Cloud-based payroll applications, like the nine we review here, can run a payroll in minutes once you’ve done the initial setup.