Payroll Software for Accounting Practice

Description of the software:   Payroll Software for Accounting Practice   helps small and medium-sized accounting firms in the U.S. and Canada keep track of time, payroll, and attendance information for multiple clients. Designed for accounting practices with up to 5 employees, it is fully compatible with QuickBooks and all industry’s most popular payroll service providers (ADP, Paychex, etc.). Available in Demo version and as Online/Offline (downloadable) installation.

The ideal small business accounting software for payroll providers, individual accountants and bookkeeping service providers, MYOB AccountRight Plus Payroll software takes care of the administration, simplifying your work day. Easily manage multiple clients and pay periods, without need for a costly support staff. MYOB AccountRight Plus offers complete control over every task involved in processing payrolls, employee leave records and calculating superannuation liabilities for multiple clients.

Gusto

Gusto offers three plans for small businesses, with all plans offering full-service payroll. Gusto takes care of everything from new hire reporting to supporting unlimited payroll runs along with multi-state payroll capability.

Gusto lets you easily add integration with your current accounting software. Source: Gusto software.

Gusto currently integrates with popular accounting applications such as Xero, FreshBooks, and QuickBooks Online, so you’ll be able to import your payroll transactions into your accounting software. This will eliminate the need to enter payroll transactions separately.

In addition, Gusto handles all tax filing including creating reports, filling out forms, and submitting tax payments. Gusto also handles year-end filing of Form 940 and 941 as well as employee year-end forms such as W-2’s and 1099s.

Gusto’s Basic plan runs $19.99/month for a team of two, and the Core plan is $39/month. Both plans have a $6 per-employee charge.

What We Like

• Integrates with several accounting programs
• Partner program for accountants has a revenue share option
• Access to free marketing collateral to advertise your payroll services

• Lacks an in-house accounting system
• Health insurance coverage limited to 39 states
• Time tracking and next-day direct deposits available only in higher tiers

Gusto for Accountants Pricing

• Software fees: Three plans (Core, Complete, and Concierge) with monthly base fees of $39–$149 plus $6–$12 per employee, per month
• Accountant perks: Discounted pricing and revenue share options; free access to its Complete plan if you onboard one client with Gusto each year
• Client discounts: 10%–20% off the monthly software fees (doesn’t apply to paid add-ons)

Read Gusto ReviewVisit Gusto for Accountants

Gusto is a highly-rated and popular payroll service that provides HR support. It offers an accountant partnership program that goes beyond supplying client payroll as it includes certification programs and marketing venues for getting more clients. And with Gusto Pro, you get a client dashboard and tools to help you serve your customers well.

In our evaluation, Gusto earned an overall rating of 4.39 out of 5 with perfect scores in pricing and reporting capabilities. It lost some points for not having as many HR features as others on our list and for not providing insurance in all 50 states, although it does offer online onboarding. However, users still love its efficient payroll and tax filing services, plus they find its features robust given its price.

Gusto for Accountants Pricing

With Gusto, you and your clients can choose from four reasonably priced plans (Core, Complete, Concierge, and Select) with monthly fees that start at $39 plus $6 per employee. The differences between these include access to additional solutions like time tracking, onboarding, workforce costing, and compliance alerts.

Gusto Plans

• Core: Priced at $39 per month + $6 per employee monthly, this plan includes full-service payroll with automated payroll tax filings, unlimited and automatic pay runs, multi-state payroll, two-day direct deposits, accounting and time tracking integrations, health insurance administration, and access to employee benefits
• Complete: At $39 per month + $12 per employee monthly, it has all of Core’s features plus next-day direct deposits, basic time tracking, PTO policy management, onboarding tools, project tracking and workforce costing, permission settings, staff directory, and employee surveys
• Concierge: Costing $149 per month + $12 per employee monthly, you get all of Complete’s functionalities plus compliance alerts, dedicated support, an HR resource center, and access to HR advisers

For accountants, you enjoy several perks as a Gusto partner. Aside from being featured in the Gusto Partner Directory, you get free payroll migration for your clients, free payroll software for your firm (provided you enroll one client with Gusto per year), and the chance to get People Advisory Certified.

When signing up for Gusto’s partner accountant program, you will be asked to choose one of its discount and incentive options:

• Gusto to bill your clients at discounted rates
• Gusto to bill your clients using advertised rates but you’ll receive revenue shares
• Gusto to bill you at a discounted rate

The percentage of the discount or revenue share varies, depending on the number of clients you have. Newly enrolled accountant partners are also required to run client payroll with Gusto within 30 days of signing up for the program to receive the resulting discount or revenue share.

Gusto Discounts for Accountants

	Starter	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Number of Gusto Clients	1–2	3–14	15–49	50+
Discount or Revenue Share Percentage	N/A	10%	15%	20%
Free Gusto Complete Payroll For Your Firm	✔	✔	✔	✔
One-month Free Trial for your Clients	✔	✔	✔	✔
Gusto Account Dashboard	✔	✔	✔	✔
Dedicated Account Representative	✔	✔	✔	✔
Free marketing collateral	✔	✔	✔	✔
Featured Listing in Gusto’s Partner Directory	N/A	✔	✔	✔
Gusto Partner Badges for your Website	N/A	✔	✔	✔
VIP Support	N/A	✔	✔	✔

Gusto for Accountants Features

• Payroll: Unlimited payroll, multiple pay rates and schedules, and automatic pay runs, are just some of Gusto’s pay processing features. Aside from hourly and salaried employees, it can handle payroll for contractors, hourly, and salaried employees. It supports pay cards, paychecks, and direct deposits with four- and two-day options, and if you sign up for its higher tiers, you get next-day direct deposits.
• Tax filing services: Unlike QuickBooks Payroll, all of Gusto’s plans include tax payment and filing services for federal, state, and local taxes. It also handles year-end tax reporting (W-2 and 1099) and—unlike SurePayroll, ADP, and Paychex—won’t charge you extra for this.
• Accountant-specific tools: Gusto may not have in-house accounting software like QuickBooks and Patriot, but it can integrate with accounting programs such as Xero, FreshBooks, and QuickBooks. Plus, with Gusto Pro, you get a client dashboard to help you manage your customers’ payroll needs, track pay run deadlines, and spot issues like missed and blocked payrolls. It also includes access to helpful resources on maintaining revenue and regulatory changes, enabling you to provide personalized guidance to your clients.
• Marketing collaterals: All accountant partners get free Gusto marketing collateral, co-branded dashboards, and referral tools to help advertise payroll services to clients. As your incentive level increases, you get additional marketing resources—like inclusion in Gusto’s partner directory, Gusto partner badges that you can add to your website, and a featured partner profile.
• HR features: Aside from online new hire forms and onboarding tools, Gusto lets you upload and store electronic documents (like e-signed offer letters) into its platform. If you subscribe to its higher tiers, you get basic time tracking, workforce costing, expert advisers, and an HR library that contains job description templates, sample policies, and HR guides.
• Employee benefits: While its health insurance is available only in 39 states, Gusto offers a wide range of benefits options like commuter benefits, pay-as-you-go workers’ comp, health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health reimbursement, and 401(k) plans. Your clients and their employees can also download the Gusto Wallet, Gusto’s free financial management app that has time tracking capabilities and a “Cashout” feature in case your client’s staff need early access to earned wages.

Gusto for Accountants Drawbacks

• Discount perks require at least three clients: If you want to get discounted rates or plan to pass your discount perk to customers, you need to have at least three clients with Gusto. For those who are just starting their payroll accountant services, we recommend QuickBooks Payroll since its accountant partner program doesn’t have client limits and offer higher discounts (30% and 15% off the monthly base and per-employee fees, respectively) compared to Gusto (10%–20% only).
• Health insurance only in 39 states: Gusto may have solid payroll tools, but your clients won’t be able to maximize all of its benefits offerings if their business is located in a state that’s not covered by its health insurance. For health plans available across the US, consider any of the other providers on this list (except Patriot Payroll).

 QuickBooks Online Payroll

One of the biggest things to consider when choosing a payroll service or software is whether it will integrate with your accounting software. If you’re using QuickBooks Online, that’s one less thing to worry about.

The Review and Submit screen provides an overview of total payroll cost each pay period. Source: QuickBooks Online Payroll software.

Designed for up to 50 employees, QuickBooks Online Payroll makes life a lot easier for your accountant (or you). It offers complete integration with QuickBooks Online Accounting, which updates your G/L with payroll-related expenses, eliminating the need to post entries manually.

Another advantage of using QuickBooks Online Payroll is that it calculates, processes, and files all payroll tax forms, including tax deposits for all the necessary states, saving you or your accountant a lot of time. It also processes year-end forms for your employees such as W-2s and 1099s.

QuickBooks Online Payroll offers three plans, starting at $22.50/month for the first three months, with all three plans offering full-service payroll.

QuickBooks Payroll has top of the line automation-ready tools that can track inventory, manage more than a thousand contractors, customize user permission, track income and expenses, maximize tax deductions, create invoices, and accept payments.  All its tools are one-click solutions that require no advanced technical skills from its users. Hence, payroll service providers and accountants can easily delegate tasks and still secure accurate and updated data.

Try out QuickBooks Payroll with their free trialVISIT WEBSITEFREE TRIAL

QuickBooks Payroll outshines all current software for payroll service providers and accountants with its monitoring tools. Its monitoring tools can handle multiple projects with easy-to-understand and clear periodical reports. All users can instantly see profitability data transposed with payroll costs.

Payroll software providers and accountants have the option to choose between a Self Service or Full Service payroll plan. QuickBooks Payroll is cost-efficient as pricing is scalable and based on the number of employees enrolled for payroll.

What is unique about QuickBooks Payroll?

1. Clean User Interface. QuickBooks Payroll is a popular payroll software among service providers for its user-friendly interface that does not intimidate non-technical users. Users can take full advantage of its cost-efficient Self Service Payroll Plan, since all tools can be managed and operated by users with no advanced accounting and bookkeeping skills.
2. Instant Payment. QuickBooks Payroll provides a feature that allows for funds to be transferred within 24 hours. This advanced tool effectively prevents delays in payroll.
3. Project Profitability Tracker. Users can utilize QuickBook Pro’s patented Project Profitability Tracker to maximize profit and minimize expenses through real-time monitoring and analytics.
4. Inventory Tracker. QuickBooks Payroll offers an inventory tracker for accountants that handle expanded bookkeeping tools for retail shops, restaurants, cafes, and merchandisers.
5. Tax compliance. A dedicated group of tax experts provides updated tax compliance tools for maximum utilization of deductions. Forms for W2s are also accessible and print-ready.

Conclusion

Our Payroll Software for Accounting Practice gives you the ability to run multiple payrolls for different clients in one system, with advanced features to help you save time and deliver more value. Our free system allows you to pay employees quickly and easily, with the support of a free expert advice line so you can keep up to date on the latest payroll updates.