What is payroll processing? Payroll processing is an administrative function dealing with paying salaries or wages of employees. Payroll refers to the process of collecting and accounting for most types of recurring income from another source. It includes administering payroll tax, using tax tables, and electronic funds transfer systems.
Payroll processing is a critical function for any company that pays employees. Payroll processing is a business process where a business records the details of all the payroll-related transactions and deposits them in the designated bank accounts on time. So, employees get paid on time irrespective of their place or time of work .
Gusto
Gusto comes close to proving that in the world of online payroll software, you really can have it all—from a beautiful, user-friendly interface to a full spectrum of employee benefits. All of Gusto’s plans include these crucial features:
- Unlimited payroll runs in all 50 states
- Automated payroll tax filings
- Direct deposit
- PTO policy creation
- W-2 employee and 1099 contractor management
- Employee pay stubs and tax forms
- Workers compensation administration
- Health insurance add-ons (in 36 states only)
While Gusto doesn’t offer total HR administration, it does include personalized HR help with its priciest plan, Gusto Concierge. If you don’t have enough employees to merit a complete HR department and you’d rather not outsource to a bookkeeper or PEO, the Concierge plan could be a good fit—as long as you’re okay with the high (comparatively, for software) starting price.
However, Gusto’s ratings on the review site Trustpilot have dropped in a big way over the last year, largely because of poor customer service and (worse) tax errors that Gusto won’t resolve.1 We’re keeping an eye on Gusto’s customer service, and if things don’t get better soon, we’ll have to reconsider Gusto’s place on our rankings.
Strengths
- Automatic payroll tax administration
- Unlimited payroll runs
- Thorough employee benefits
Weaknesses
- Dropping customer service reviews
- No customer service availability on weekends
Justworks
Justworks is a professional employer organization (PEO) that will completely outsource all of your payrolls and handle it for you. The drawback of PEOs is that your employees are technically employees of the PEO and you have less control when something goes wrong. Justworks is our best outsourcing payroll service because of its ease of use, pricing, and the number of HR functions you can outsource with payroll.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown of Justworks payroll service:
- Pricing: $39 to $49 per employee per month, depending on how many employees you have
- Ease of Use: The easiest because you don’t have to do anything except point your employees to Justworks to get signed up
- Tax Services: Handles all W2 and 1099 filings and employer payroll tax filings
- Year-End Fees: Issues all year-end W2s and 1099s online, included in the price
- Accounting Integrations: QuickBooks and Xero, with other API options
Justworks has a strong online reputation in regard to its customer support. They offer support via phone, email, Slack, chat, or SMS 24/7. They also offer a lot of helpful articles and other forms of content that might help your employees through any issues they’re having with the service.
ADP
Best for Diverse payroll and HR needs; solutions for businesses of all different sizes
ADP, or Automatic Data Processing, is one of the oldest and best-known names in payroll. Over 600,000 businesses across the country rely on ADP Payroll to pay their workers. They offer payroll services to businesses of all sizes, whether you’ve got just a handful of employees or are a multinational corporation.
With ADP’s small business packages (designed for one to 49 employees), you receive payroll and tax filing software, time and attendance tracking, benefits planning, insurance services, and more.
Although you might find the price tag a little large, especially compared to some competitors on our list, ADP is a powerful tool for any entrepreneur looking for a bit more organization in their lives.
Pros:
- Robust feature set that includes everything from full-service payroll to new hire reporting, HR checkups, state and federal forms, and other resources
- Extremely scalable—can start with one payroll service and increase your features as your business grows
- 24/7 customer support
Cons:
- Quote-based pricing makes it hard to compare pricing upfront
- Expansive platform may be more than some businesses need
SurePayroll
Best for Automated, full-service payroll with customized pricing
Owned by Paychex, SurePayroll is available for desktop or mobile, letting you adjust your small business’s payroll services 24/7. They provide a guarantee on federal, state, and local taxes, so you have peace of mind. And you can easily contact their staff by email, live chat, or phone.
SurePayroll is specifically oriented for small businesses by offering flexible payroll schedules, easy online reporting, a payroll tax guarantee, and options for contract hires.
You can easily run payroll and manage other functions from their comprehensive mobile app, which is convenient for small business owners on the go. It also has special options for paying childcare providers and home-based workers, if those apply to you.
Pros:
- Ability to choose between self-service and full-service payroll, as well as customize your plan for your needs
- Live, U.S.-based customer support with weekend and extended hours
- Range of proprietary add-ons, as well as a handful of third-party integrations
Cons:
- No upfront pricing for overall cost of service
- Timeclock and accounting software integrations and tax filings require additional monthly costs
Paycor
Paycor offers very easy-to-use online payroll software that has an employee self-service portal for reviewing compensation data and updating personal or financial information. Employees can also use the portal to request paid time off, monitor their payments, review their benefits, and access their pay stubs.
Paycor offers three pricing plans, each with a flat monthly rate. This is somewhat unusual in the online payroll software industry, where most companies charge a monthly base rate plus a monthly per-employee fee. Paycor’s model might prove cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses, but it could save midsize and large businesses some money as they continue to expand.
- Basic: The Basic plan is $99 per month. It includes payroll processing, payroll tax filing, PDF reports, access to the Paycor mobile app, and employee self-service for wage garnishment and child support information.
- Essential: The Essential plan is $149 per month. It expands on the Basic plan with PTO requests and manager approvals, new-hire onboarding and tax filing, and compliance checklists and templates.
- Complete: The Complete plan is $199 per month. It adds advanced analytics and data benchmarking, integrations with 401(k) providers, and dedicated account manager support.
Of course, prices may go up if you choose add-on services or HR features beyond the payroll module
Intuit Quickbooks Online Payroll
Intuit Quickbooks offers a cloud-based service to manage employee profiles, their details, and payroll all in one place. Besides payroll, Intuit Quickbooks also offers HR support, insurance handling, and compensation coverage for employees.
Some key features of Intuit Quickbooks online payroll are:
- Automated payroll management, tax filing, and payment
- Easy on-the-go time and location tracking
- Expert support for account setup and payroll management
Intuit Quickbooks payroll is available with three price plans – Core, Premium, and Elite.
The premium plan of Intuit Quickbooks payroll is the most popular package for small businesses. It offers HR management, along with payroll. Health benefits, workers’ compensation, and many other features are covered under this plan.
The Premium plan of Quickbooks payroll from Intuit is available for $75 per month, plus $8 per month for each employee. The Core plan of Quickbooks is for $45, plus $4 per employee. And for the Elite plan, Quickbooks online payroll charges $125, plus $10 per employee.
Intuit Quickbooks payroll offers a free trial for a month, or currently, you can pay a 50% discount rate for the first three months. You can get more information from Quickbooks’ website.
PaySmart
PaySmart is an online payroll solutions provider specializing in payroll for small businesses. Along with payroll processing, it provides employee onboarding options, HR tools, and many other complimentary services.
The notable features of PaySmart include:
- Easy and secure access anywhere
- Automatic tax calculation, tax filings, and payment
- Pay-As-You-Go workers’ compensation option
- Remote time tracking, attendance, and PTO management
- Access to regularly updated, important payroll related information
PaySmart provides custom-made payroll plans for small businesses. It offers an array of automated payroll and HR services through its cost-effective, personalized plans. Employee background checks and identity theft protection are also available.
To know the package prices, you’ve to contact their support department. They will provide you with a free quote depending on your specific requirements.
Pay USA
Pay USA is one of the leading products in the cloud-based HCM software market. It offers automated payroll and human resource services to its clients. Along with payroll, it also has different productivity tools and resources essential for small businesses.
Here are some payroll services offered by Pay USA:
- Employee payroll checks and direct deposit
- Tax filings and payments
- Assistance from payroll specialists
- Data export to popular accounting software and other business tools
- Next day or overnight delivery of reports anywhere
Pay USA provides customized payroll processing solutions to each of its clients. Its online tools bring payroll, employee self-service, and other HR features in one place. It offers time tracking, time off records, and attendance management too.
Additionally, Pay USA offers background screening and on-demand HR support. You’ve to contact them to get a custom quote as per your requirements.
Conclusion
Payroll processing is a necessary evil if you have a small business. This particular form of business process outsourcing is all the rage as it allows entrepreneurs to manage their payroll themselves. Sounds great, but how do you identify the best payroll processing solutions for your business? Payroll processing is the backbone of any small business leadership team. It needs to be handled with precision and efficiency but can be tedious and complicated.