Did you know that the tax time is one of the busiest seasons for small businesses, who must manage their different tax-related reports, forms, filings and payments? The process of doing payrolls can be stressful especially for small business owners. This makes it essential to replace your manual payroll process with a modern software solution like Us Payroll Software for Small Business, an online service that offers solutions for both employers and benefit providers.
Using the right payroll software can be a game changer for your small business. You know that making mistakes on your paycheck is stressful for you and your employees, and what happens if you don’t pay your taxes on time? Things get worse when you receive fines and penalties from the government. These are just some of the reasons why it’s important for you to use a payroll software in your company.
Best Payroll Software for Small Business in Detail
OnPay – Best Small Business Payroll Software of 2021OnPay »
View Plans
Best Small Business Payroll Software of 2021360 OVERALL RATING
4.2 out of 5MONTHLY FEE$36 + $4/Payee and UpDIRECT DEPOSITTRIAL PERIOD30 DaysPRIORITY SUPPORTMORE DETAILSSEE REVIEW
OnPay: OnPay is No. 1 on our Best Small Business Payroll Software of 2021 rating. It offers straightforward pricing that will cost your small business $36, plus $4 per person per month. That fee gets you access to all of OnPay’s features, including unlimited payroll runs, state and federal tax filings, and accounting and time tracking software integrations. OnPay’s customer service will set up your account for you, including adding in your employees’ information and helping you integrate any compatible business software. The payroll software comes with OnPay’s human resources (HR) software that gives you access to tools for onboarding, tracking paid time off (PTO), document storage, and HR auditing. Your company will also have the ability to add and manage employee benefits.
OnPay is also ready to help small businesses in special situations, such as restaurants with minimum wage tip makeup, agricultural workers that need to file Form 943, workers on H-2A visas, and nonprofits and churches that are exempt from federal unemployment taxes (FUTA).
Read more in our full OnPay review.
Patriot – Best Payroll Software for StartupsPatriot »
Best Payroll Software for Startups360 OVERALL RATING
4.0 out of 5MONTHLY FEE$10 + $4/Payee and UpDIRECT DEPOSITTRIAL PERIOD30 DaysPRIORITY SUPPORTMORE DETAILSSEE REVIEW
Patriot: Patriot comes in at No. 2 on our Best Payroll Software for Small Businesses rating. It offers the most affordable plan in our payroll software ratings, starting at just $10, plus $4 per payee per month for its Self-Service plan. Small business owners may be attracted to Patriot by the price alone, but even at such a low cost, Patriot offers its users comparable features to most other payroll providers. Patriot will set up your account for you and allow you to process unlimited payroll runs, at any frequency, across multiple office locations. You can integrate payroll with Patriot’s accounting software or QuickBooks, and use Patriot Time and Attendance or TSheets to track your employees’ hours. And Patriot offers an add-on HR service for $6, plus $2 per employee per month.
However, Patriot’s Self-Service plan does not cover your payroll taxes. If you want to automate your local, state, and federal taxes, you will need to get Patriot’s Full Service plan for $30, plus $4 per payee per month.
Read more in our full Patriot review.
Block (formerly Square) – Best Payroll Software for ContractorsBlock (formerly Square) »
Best Payroll Software for Contractors360 OVERALL RATING
3.8 out of 5MONTHLY FEE$29 + $5/Payee and UpDIRECT DEPOSITTRIAL PERIODN/APRIORITY SUPPORTMORE DETAILSSEE REVIEW
Block: No. 3 in our small business ratings is Block’s payroll software. Another payroll software with simple pricing, you get access to everything Block offers for $29, plus $5 per employee per month. And if your business only needs to pay contractors, Block waves the monthly fee of $29 and will only charge you $5 per payee per month. Block is ideal for small businesses that are already using one of Block’s other business products, such as its point-of-sales (POS) system. The payroll software integrates with Block’s POS and the Block Team app to help you manage your business. It will sync all of your business’s data together, including your employees’ hours and your company’s sales data. And payroll can be run from anywhere using the Block Payroll App from your cell phone.
However, you don’t have to use other Block products to make Block payroll software a good choice for you. It is compatible with third-party software, such as QuickBooks Online, and it has free seasonal inactivity, which will benefit small businesses, like pop-up shops, that only run certain months of the year.
Read more in our full Block review.
Intuit QuickBooks – Best Payroll for Quick Direct Deposit
Intuit QuickBooks »
Best Payroll for Quick Direct Deposit360 OVERALL RATING
3.6 out of 5MONTHLY FEE$45 + $4/Payee and UpDIRECT DEPOSITTRIAL PERIOD30 DaysPRIORITY SUPPORTMORE DETAILSSEE REVIEW
Intuit QuickBooks: The Best Payroll Software for Small Businesses rating is rounded out with Intuit QuickBooks in the No. 4 spot. Intuit QuickBooks offers three tiers of payroll software. The Core plan offers a great deal of value for small business owners. It will help you automate your payroll and federal and state taxes for $45, plus $4 per employee per month. You can also add 401(k) retirement plans and health benefits for your employees to the Core plan. If you want HR support and workers compensation administration, you will need to go with one of QuickBooks’s higher-tier plans, known as Premium or Elite. However, the higher-tier plans are more expensive and may be out of the standard small business’s budget.
A key difference between Intuit QuickBooks and the rest of the payroll providers in our ratings is that all of its plans provide quick direct deposit. While the average direct deposit in our ratings takes four days after payroll processing, with some companies offering faster deposits at higher-tier plans, QuickBooks Core has next-day direct deposit, and Premium and Elite provide same-day deposits. This can make all the difference to your employees because the American Payroll Association reports that “49% of U.S. workers will leave a job after experiencing just two problems with their paychecks,” including late payments.
Intuit QuickBooks is also the ideal choice for accountants. It provides its Elite payroll plan for free to accounting firms using QuickBooks Online Accountant. The construction industry can also benefit from QuickBooks. Its payroll services are used by 30,000 construction small businesses to help manage the tax laws surrounding their industry.
Read more in our full Intuit QuickBooks review.
What Is Small Business Payroll Software?
Payroll Software is the modern solution to paying your employee’s wages and filing your payroll taxes. While the process used to require hours of a business owner’s time or hiring HR or accounting staff to manage a payroll calendar, payroll software offers an efficient means of automating much of the payroll process.
Instead of manually calculating payroll, tracking your employee’s hours, writing checks, and deducting taxes, payroll software can automatically process your company’s payroll using integrated time and attendance software to sync your staff’s hours. And the American Payroll Association states that “organizations using a solution that has both timekeeping and payroll capabilities were 44% more likely to have a payroll error rate at 2% or less.” Therefore, payroll software offers small businesses a more efficient way to manage their payroll process, cutting back on manual effort and giving business owners more time to invest in running their business.
Best Small Business Payroll Softwares of 2021 Features
| COMPANY | MONTHLY FEE | DIRECT DEPOSIT | W2 | 1099 | FEDERAL, STATE, & LOCAL TAXES | HR ADD ONS | LEARN MORE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OnPay »4.2 out of 5 | $36 + $4/Payee and Up | View Plans » | ||||||
| Patriot »4.0 out of 5 | $10 + $4/Payee and Up | See Review » | ||||||
| Block (formerly Square) »3.8 out of 5 | $29 + $5/Payee and Up | See Review » | ||||||
| Intuit QuickBooks »3.6 out of 5 | $45 + $4/Payee and Up | See Review » |
How Does Small Business Payroll Software Work?
Even for the non-tech savvy business owner, working with payroll software is an easy process that will save you time and effort in managing your payroll calendar. First, you will want to set up your payroll software. And while this is generally a simple process, and many payroll providers offer help or even set up your account for you, you may find our guide on How to Choose a Payroll Software System helpful.
While setting up your account, you or a customer support representative will supply the software with banking information for both your business and employees. The information provided will allow the payroll software to directly deposit wages into your staffs’ bank accounts, calculate your payroll taxes, and keep track of employee’s wages, PTO, personal records, and more. Then, you will set up your payroll calendar, deciding the day of the week and the frequency at which your employees are paid.
Once your payroll calendar is squared away, you will have the option to integrate your payroll software with accounting, time and attendance, and HR software provided by your payroll provider or a third-party provider. Integrations offer a streamlined approach to the payroll process, syncing up your payroll with your employees’ hours of work. This makes automating your payroll calendar even easier. However, you will still want to check over everything even if you decide to automate your payroll.
With your account set up, you will now be able to process payroll quickly while on the go. Many payroll providers offer mobile apps or mobile-optimized websites. And at this point, a few quick clicks on your cell phone is all it takes to run your payroll.
4.0
- Starting at $39.00/mo. + $6.00/payee/mo.
Automatic payroll tax administration
Affordable insurance options (in-house brokers)
Two-day direct deposit
Data as of 12/13/21. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.
The heartily named Gusto is our favorite payroll software for small businesses. Its beautifully designed, full-service payroll system includes plenty of payroll and HR features, including these:
- Automatic local, state, and federal payroll tax filing
- Automatic end-of-year tax-form filing, including W-2s and 1099s
- Automatic state new-hire form filing
- Health benefits administration and workers compensation administration
- Multiple employee benefit options, including HSAs, FSAs, commuter benefits, and college savings plans
- Employee self-service portal for pay stub, direct deposit, and W-2 access
Even better, Gusto includes these features for free when many payroll providers charge extra. For instance, Gusto’s in-house insurance brokers ensure that if you sign up for employee medical insurance and workers compensation insurance through Gusto, you’ll pay the premium only.
In contrast, ADP, which outsources its insurance integrations, charges an extra fee on top of the premium. Ditto Paychex, which does have an in-house insurance team but still charges extra for insurance add-ons. ADP also charges extra for end-of-year tax-form filings. Gusto doesn’t.
Heads-up: Gusto’s Contractor plan
Do you hire contractors on an individual basis instead of working with a full-time team of employees? Gusto’s new Contractor plan has no monthly base cost. You pay only $6 per month per payee.
However, in the last few months, Gusto’s customer service has taken a few hits: for instance, on the review site Trustpilot, Gusto’s rating dropped from nearly four to just 2.1 (yikes!) out of 5 from nearly than 1.3K reviews.1 In particular, users call out slow response times and payroll errors. Thanks to its expansive employee benefits and built-in free tax filing, Gusto’s still our top payroll solution, but we did lower its star rating to account for its lowering user reviews.
Additionally, while Gusto has more employee add-ons than many other online payroll systems, it’s not a total HR management solution. Our Gusto HR review can tell you more, but if you need more than the most basic HR, you’ll want to look elsewhere—like at Paychex.ProsMore employee benefit options than most competitors
No extra fee for payroll tax filing
No extra fee for insurance add-onsCons
Poor customer service ratings
High monthly per-payee fee
Limited HR management and administrationGet Started with Gusto
Conclusion
HR systems are not just for large companies, they have a more important place in small business too. Small businesses have HR issues too, like people being sick and retirement. One company that provides affordable small business payroll software is uspayrollsoftwareforsmallbusiness.com . Unlike other HR systems this one was specifically created to address the needs of small businesses.