10 Best Payroll Software for Small Business Of 2023

Find the best payroll software for your business. We have compared top payroll software with features and prices.

Do you like to manage payrolls? Of course not, but still, we have to do it for our valued employees. But now things have been changed. You need Payroll software that manages the payrolls of employees and does many other essential tasks. It is highly irritating and stressful to manage payrolls manually because one mistake in payroll can directly affect employees’ morale.

If you want smooth and accurate Payroll management, all you do is try the best payroll software. We all have many options in everything and even in payroll software, but we picked the 10 best software that allows you to manage several things simultaneously with accuracy. Continue to read further for more details.

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What Is Payroll Software?

We all value our employees; after all, they work hard, and you can’t run a business successfully without them. Because of this, we know the importance of paying competitive wages and ensuring that you are paid regularly without hiccups. As a result, the most important job the payroll software does is to calculate payroll accurately.

Payroll software can easily track hours worked, explain payroll percentages, and calculate the amount owed to an employee over a payroll period. Payroll software automates the process of paying payroll, hourly, and contingent employees. Human resource technology vendors and professional payroll companies often sell payroll software as standalone systems.

The best payroll software tracks time and attendance, allows employees to submit vacation requests, calculate pre-and post-tax deductions, and manage expenses. It may sound like it’s time to say goodbye to your payroll staff, but there may be more to consider. If you have ten or more employees, you can keep a payroll expert on the team to monitor and update your system.

Best Payroll Software Features

1. Payroll management:

The apparent use of payroll software is of payroll management. The automatic calculation of wages, according to a preset schedule, is a huge advantage. Often this feature has to be set manually. However, after setup, the system can run the payroll process without any additional effort from the user other than to customize it occasionally.

2. Time and attendance tracking:

The capability to track time and attendance can be the most beneficial feature of payroll software. A system that combines payroll and time management eliminates all the hassle of monitoring an employee’s working hours card.

This strategy can monitor absenteeism, sick leave, working hours, overtime, and other factors. Then these systems can seamlessly synchronize this information to process payroll efficiently.

3. Taxes Calculation:

It’s a fact that tax laws are tedious and confusing. It’s so easy to misunderstand state or federal tax laws. It’s much more comfortable than sticking to social security requirements. And it certainly doesn’t help that these laws can change often. Here’s another benefit of payroll software. Many best payroll software systems update automatically as tax laws change, eliminating tedious and often confusing legal readings.

Also, depending on the system chosen when submitting the tax form, the payroll software can fill out the form. You will most likely need to sign the form yourself, but the system will allow you to remember when to submit it. It saves you the hassle of applying for an extension or paying a fine if you miss the deadline.

4. Additional financial management:

Cost, benefit, and bonus management can all be done with payroll software. Payroll software for small business can track and calculate various employee expenses. If your company needs to handle mileage reimbursements or offer employee benefits like a paid vacation for birthdays, payroll software can help.

5. General forms:

Payroll software can also help by generating various reports and summaries. This software can create reports like pay stubs or benefits reports. These payroll management systems allow employees to access and print forms such as pay stubs or W-2s.

6. Record Keeping:

Finally, payroll management software can eliminate the hassle of keeping records. This type of feature makes it easy to store employee records and find more critical locations. With this kind of organization, you don’t have to worry about misplaced documents, and you can conveniently manage and keep employee and organizational information confidential in one place.

Best Payroll Software

1. QuickBooks Payroll

Website: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payroll/

QuickBooks is the best payroll software for small business. If you’re already using QuickBooks accounting software to track your business’ finances (and many business owners do), this might be one of the easiest ways to automate payroll. Indeed, if you are using QuickBooks Online, you can turn on this payroll software at the click of a button in your accounting software.

There are three versions of the QuickBooks Payroll software to choose from. The first plan option is QuickBooks Payroll Core, a self-service version of QuickBooks Payroll software. This product allows you to calculate salaries, pay employees, calculate and submit year-end forms. If you want to get more help from payroll software than the basic version of QuickBooks Payroll can offer, consider raising it to the premium version.

Premium QuickBooks Payroll gives you access to all the features the self-service version offers, along with a few additional features. Finally, there is QuickBooks Payroll Elite, the most comprehensive payroll product QuickBooks has to offer. It offers User-based authorization, premium time tracking function via mobile apps, guaranteed no penalty for tax returns, and many other exciting features.

Key Features:

• Payroll tax payment
• Free W-2 submission and delivery
• Payroll setting support
• User-based authorization
• Premium time tracking (via mobile app)
• HR Support Center

Price:

• Core: $13.50/ month and $4/employee/month
• Premium: $22.50/month and $8/employee/month
• Elite: $125/month and $10/employee/month

2. Gusto Payroll

Website: https://gusto.com/

Gusto is a comprehensive payroll management software that offers the full package at the most reasonable price. Gusto is a payroll, benefits, and HR platform available for small businesses starting at $45 per month ($39 for the base price, plus $4 per month for the lowest cost plan). Gusto also has new options. It is for contractor-only employers who pay only $6 per employee without a base price.

No matter which version of Gusto you use, you will have access to full-service payroll. But as you level up, you can access more features through this best payroll software. It offers PTO tracking, Health benefits management, and customer support in the basic plan. The Gusto complete plan provides a staff roster and survey feature and Certified HR professional support.

In the Gusto Concierge plan, you will get all the above plans’ features along with the HR resource center and PTO approval accompanying the PTO tracking function. Additionally, the three versions of Gusto payroll software each offer a one-month free trial, so you can test it to see if it’s right for you. It’s the most suitable payroll program for small businesses.

Key Features:

• Employee self-service and profile
• Health benefits management
• Comprehensive management of workers
• Customer Support
• PTO tracking

Price

• Basic Plan: $39 base price and $4/employee/month
• Complete plan: $39 base price and $12/employee/month
• Concierge plan: $149 base price and $12/employee/month

3. Patriot Payroll

Website: https://www.patriotsoftware.com/payroll/

Patriot Software Payroll is another great option on our list of the best payroll software for small business. Patriot Payroll software is available in two versions, which can excellently support small businesses depending on their needs and preferences.

Additionally, you can add two bonus features to your Patriot Payroll software: work and attendance tracking and HR software. The basic plan offers some essential features like payroll setup and support and flexible payment scheduling. The advanced plan provides some advanced features like W-2 and W-3 submission and local, state, and federal tax calculation and filings.

Key Features:

• Paycheck or direct deposit
• Payroll setup and support
• Flexible payment schedule
• W-2 and W-3 submission
• Local, state, and federal tax calculation

Price:

• Basic Plan: $10/month and an employee fee of $4/ employee/month
• Advanced Plan: $30/month and $4/ employee/month

4. Payroll4Free

Website: https://www.payroll4free.com/

If you are only looking for free payroll software, Payroll4Free is your best bet. If your company has less than 25 employees, you can access all the essential features that Payroll4Free offers for free. It provides some vital elements like direct deposit, tax calculation and form, Vacation tracking, and some external software integrations in the software’s free version.

In addition to these basic features, you can pay Payroll4Free to deposit and file taxes directly from your payroll software for $12.50 per month. If you want to transfer direct deposit funds to the employee’s bank account rather than your own, you will have to pay an additional $12.50 per month.

In addition to these two optional services, Payroll4Free is entirely free, so don’t sacrifice too much to give it free.

Key Features:

• Direct deposit (to own bank only)
• Tax calculation and form
• Vacation tracking
• External software integration
• Live customer support

Price

• Free software up to 25 employees

5. ADP Payroll

Website: https://www.adp.com/what-we-offer/payroll.aspx

ADP is also called Advanced data processing, and it is well-known and established in the business software world, so you’ve probably heard of it before. They offer a plan called ADP Run that can be used by small businesses. ADP Run has four plans called Essential, Enhanced, Complete, and HR Pro plans.

In some plans, they also offer HR management and tools. If you are looking for a payroll plan, the most basic plan, the Essential Plan, or the most popular plan, the Enhanced plan, will do the task effectively. It’s an excellent option for business owners on the go, as they can be used on mobile apps, tablets, mobile phones on a computer, or call to run payroll.

Key Features:

• Payroll via computer, tablet, mobile app, or phone
• Bank Transfer & Payroll delivery
• General ledger interface & reporting
• Report on new employees
• W-2 and 1099, tax filing

Price:

• Ask the ADP sales team for a price quotation.

6. OnPay Payroll

Website: https://onpay.com/

If you pay primarily to hourly and contract workers, OnPay is an excellent option to consider when it comes to payroll providers. The cost for OnPay is immediately available, and there is only one service it offers for payroll, so I have no plans to classify it. The price is $36 per month, with an additional $4 per month per person paying, whether contractor, full-time, employee or part-time employee.

If you’re paying a contractor or part-time employee, the reason it’s a good fit for your business is that the payroll doesn’t run automatically in OnPay. To execute the payrolls, you need to select the employee to be paid the salary and then enter the working hours or wages.

However, thanks to the fact that it is a cloud-based service, you can quickly and easily run your payroll from your phone or computer. It is a suitable payroll program for small businesses.

Key Features:

• Tax filing and payment
• Multiple payrolls and schedule options
• Unemployment Insurance Withholding
• Payroll report
• Integration for accounting and time tracking

Price:

• $36/month, with an additional $4 per month per person

7. Paychex

Website: https://www.paychex.com/

Paychex is suitable for your growing business. You can start with one of the lower-tier plans and move on to more expensive and more powerful plans as needed. The most straightforward plan is the Express Payroll plan, followed by the Paychex Flex Select, Paychex Flex Pro, and Paychex Flex Enterprise plans.

Choosing the next level plan gives you more features like a dedicated payroll expert to help you with tax or payroll questions. You can also access additional methods of paying your employees through checks or analysis and reporting.

However, Paychex Flex can be challenging to compare the service to other services with an open pricing structure because you can’t quickly check prices on your website. You need to send an email to the Sales team to know the prices of different plans.

Key Features:

• Payroll tax management
• Report on new employees
• Free mobile app
• 24/7 phone and chat support
• Employee Financial Health Program
• Employment and income verification services

Price:

• Ask Paychex sales team for a price quotation

8. Square Payroll

Website: https://squareup.com/us/en/payroll

Whether you’ve used Square for your business or another business, you’re probably familiar with Square, at least for point-of-sale products. However, they also provide payroll services to business owners. Square Payroll has a plan for $5 per contractor per month if you pay only to contractors. It’s an excellent payroll software for small businesses.

If you have full-time employees, if you pay, the plan costs $29 per month, and the additional cost is $5 per person per month. Using Square as a point of sale makes it easy for employees to commute already. You can then synchronize that information with your payroll service to easily track time and know if your payroll is accurate.

Key Features:

• Payments to employees and contractors
• PTO and sick leave tracking
• Time tracking & tax filling
• Paying employees using a mobile app
• Granting access to employees

Price:

• $29/month and an extra charge of $5 per person per month

9. Zenefits Payroll

Website: https://www.zenefits.com/payroll/

Zenefits is incredibly comprehensive payroll software. The payroll plan integrates seamlessly with HR, benefits, time, and scheduling, and there are also several integration features available to business owners. There is integration for everything from productivity, candidate tracking, retirement savings, accounting, travel, staff management, and performance management.

You may think that all of these features cost quite a bit, but the three plans offered by Zenefits are quite affordable. The cheapest plan, the Essentials plan, the Growth plan Zen plan. The Zen plan has the most advanced functions and features; however, for small businesses Essentials Plan might be enough.

Key Features:

• Automatic proportional allocation for new hires
• Automated payroll notification
• Informational pay stub
• Paystub message
• Direct deposit

Price:

• Essentials Plan: $10/employee/month
• Growth Plan: $18/employee/month
• Zen Plan: $27/employee/month

10. Wave Payroll

Website: https://www.waveapps.com/payroll

You probably already know Wave because they offer a lot of free software for accounting and invoicing. They also offer payroll software, so you have to pay for it, but it could be an excellent opportunity to try both in the accounting software market too. Fortunately, it syncs seamlessly.

The cost of Wave Payroll depends on the state you live in. It is because some states can provide tax services, while others cannot. In both plans, the cost per active employee is the same, only base prices different. It offers excellent customer service and reporting. It is the best payroll software for small businesses that don’t have much finance for payroll software.

Key Features:

• Unlimited free direct deposit
• Self-service check printing
• Payroll notification in email
• Customer Support
• Pay stubs and tax forms for employees

Price

• For tax services provided by Wave Payroll, $35/month and $6 per active employee or independent contractor
• For Self-service taxes, $20/month and $6 per active employee or independent contractor

Conclusion:

If you want to grow your business, you have to make sure your employee receives salaries on time and without any errors. And this payroll software helps you in doing the same. You can save your resources and time with this software. You should any of them and comment below your experience.

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