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Payroll Programs for Small Business [Best Out of 25 Tested]
Track income & expenses with the best payroll software
11 min. read
Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
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Key notes
Small business owners face various challenges, not necessarily the same magnitude as those of corporations and enterprises, but they’re similar in many ways.
In the eyes of the tax collector, however, each and every form of business is liable for submitting and/or filing returns, thus small businesses that don’t do so get penalties in the form of fees or fines, including payroll errors.
However, there’s a lot that goes into working on the payroll system, much time and energy are also spent trying to understand it, but businesses opt to use payroll services instead, so they don’t have to worry about errors, or legal mistakes, and save time in the process.
If you’re looking for a payroll service for your business, consider the price, vital features, and functions, plus whether there’s a free product trial and demos so you can test run and see if it matches your needs.
Here’s a list of the best payroll software for small businesses to get their taxes, benefits, and other withholding calculations correct to the penny.
What are the best small business payroll services?
QuickBooks– The most popular
QuickBooksis one of the most popular bookkeeping software that supports small businesses, as well as big business environments.
The tool helps to secure data sharing with an accountant and it supports integration with Microsoft Outlook. Besides, it is easy to use anywhere, on any device, and by all the employees that you give access to, including your accountant.
Some of the most notable features include:
✅Pros
❌Cons
QuickBooks
Turbotax– Focus on tax
Similarly, with QuickBooks, TurboTax is an app also owned by Intuit, that focuses on facilitating the process of filing tax returns for small businesses.
One of the best things about it is that it’s free to use for certain operations, such asfiling your federal and state taxes, importing your return from a previous year from similar tax software, or offering guidance in case of an audit.
With the free account, you also get access to an online community of specialists and customers, where you can share ideas and get informed about various processes.
Furthermore, with the paid plans the software also helps you find the besttax break depending on how you choose to itemize deductions from expenses, auto-import your investment info and tax data, get one-to-one specialized help if necessary, and even turn donations into big deductions.
TurboTax is suitable for both small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs alike.
✅Pros
❌Cons
TurboTax
Papaya Global– Great for remote work
Papaya Global is a great software that comes packed and fitted with amazing tools that will certainly help you with your payroll needs in the modern world.
This software is the world’s first integrated, licensed, and regulated global payroll and payment system. It offers support for 12 currencies and 160+ countries.
Papaya Global can also create complex reports and facilitate the hiring process especially when it comes to nowadays remote work trends.
All the data you need about your employees is gathered within a single platform, making it much more easy to handle.
Another great feature of Papaya Global is that it also comes with a mobile app that grants you access to most of the more complex aspects of running your business and handling payrolls.
This is one software you should take a serious look at if your business employs quite a few remote workers.
✅Pros
❌Cons
Papaya Global
Sage Intacct– Built-in report templates
This accounting software is based on a merger by Sage Group and ERP Solutions, which bought Intacct, a 19-year-old software accounting company.
This merger combines the expertise, experience, and world-class quality of Sage, the result of which is Sage Intacct, a comprehensive accounting and payroll system.
With this payroll software for small businesses, you can manage cash, purchases, billing, vendors, revenues, contracts, projects and funds, inventory, and subscriptions, while generating financial reports, all through the cloud system.
It is both flexible and accurate in a bid to improve your business performance andemployee productivityin the long run.
The benefits of using this tool include HR accounting which covers aspects such as payroll, benefits, time tracking, and insurance with its single, connected payroll system in different locations to give a view into your payroll structure, its performance, and activities therein.
It is also recognized by AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) as a top financial app provider with numerous industry awards to its belt.
Additionally, it has a wide range of accounting capabilities, and you can use built-in report templates to create reports that are configurable and analyze your business’ performance, track sales, and much more.
✅Pros
❌Cons
Sage Intacct
Gusto– Streamline and automatize
Previously known as ZenPayroll, this tool is a cloud-hosted software that combines payroll, administration of benefits, human resources, and compliance capabilities in one simple package.
The software is built for small businesses that want to manage their payroll system and HR needs, and it handles this by streamlining and automating the calculation, payment, and submission of payroll taxes while ensuring your business is fully compliant to avoid critical errors.
It doubles up as an HR solution to manage your team without all the paperwork, emails, andspreadsheetsand keeps all employee data synced.
Among its advantages include the elimination of human errors, and full compliance with HIPAA, ACA, and ERISA standards while checking data automatically to prepare reviews, send notices, and maintain employee privacy.
It also simplifies the management and administration of benefits, employment tax reporting, payments, workers’ insurance, andbudget plans, and you can set up and/or manage 401(k) plans easily.
✅Pros
❌Cons
Gusto
⇒Get Gusto
Rippling– Very customisable
The faster your employees get their pay, the more productive they will be. WithRippling,you can provide a simpler and faster way to manage your employee’s payroll.
Payroll running was never an easy task. While Rippling syncs all your business’s HR data, you will never have to manually introduce data or use a calculator again. With all data synced, you just have to press a button to run payroll.
Since it has access to all data about money, it brings an automatic tax-filing feature. Ripple automatically calculates payroll taxes and files them to the IRS and other federal agencies when tax season is close.
For efficiency purposes, you can now create any type of report, containing any information that Rippling has data about. Also, you can visualize and share reports so every department will make faster and better decisions for the business’s future.
Better productivity and efficiency? See where you can make improvements by knowing everything about how your employees work by choosing Rippling.
✅Pros
❌Cons
Rippling
OnPay– Reimbursement management
This payroll software doesn’t have advanced features and add-ons as the others listed here, but its pricing model is simple, andOnPayoffers straightforward necessities for small businesses.
Among its features include unlimited pay runs, tax filings, deposits, and check-printing, plus a mobile-friendly system that’s easy to use and quick. You can run your payroll in minutes, and its simple interface makes entering payroll elements like hours, tips, bonuses, and reimbursements a walk in the park.
Other things it can do for you include covering compensation and insurance, as the software is a licensed health insurance broker, with fully integrated 401(k) plans.
You can also perform HR functions such as employee self-onboarding to save time, automatic new hire reports to the government on your behalf, online access for employees, guaranteed payroll compliance, and automated payroll taxes.
OnPay also works with any employee type, and if you or your employees prefer direct deposit, pre-paid debit cards, or doing your own checks, it is possible to pay without any added costs. If you need assistance, OnPay’s Certified Payroll Professionals are on standby to assist via phone.
✅Pros
❌Cons
OnPay
ADP– Easy cash flow management
If you wanted to do faster payroll and tax filing, you are in the right place.ADPis a payroll software that helps you process payrolls in minutes from anywhere. You can do the payroll at your desk, on the move or you can set it on autopilot.
Let the software do all your taxes for you. Save time by having your taxes calculated, deducted, and paid on time. ADP also includes tax and regulation updates across all 50 states. It has all information about tax and payroll requirements, wage and hour laws as well as many more.
ADP collaborates with world-class security organizations that will make sure that all employees’ information is safe and secure.
ADP also acts as a general ledger interface, giving you a great overview of all payments, all taxes and everything on the payroll. From this, you can create personalized reports for any information that you require.
For all good measures, ADP comes as a greatly optimized mobile app as well. You can now access all data and information from anywhere.
✅Pros
❌Cons
ADP
Xero– Adjusts taxes automatically
This is award-winning cloud-based accounting software that’s used in more than 180 countries across the world and is designed for small and medium-sized businesses.
Its functionalities include invoicing, inventory management, bank reconciliation, expense management and payment of bills, project tracking, multi-currency capability, business performance dashboard, sales tax calculation, and mobile apps, among others.
The unique thing about this payroll software for small businesses is that it processes and runs payrolls while adjusting taxes automatically. It is also very secure with its multiple approvals and two-factor authentication so fraud is minimized, each transaction has details such as dates, users, actions performed, and notes.
With Xero, you can get a summarized report of your financial activities, and keep detailed records of all your transactions including tax status, committed quotes, and purchase costs.
✅Pros
❌Cons
⇒Get Xero
Doing your taxes is not an easy task regardless if you are working on yourpersonal finances,or on your business’s finances, and using specialized services can be your best bet.
Is there payroll software for small businesses that you use and it’s really helpful? Share it with us in the comments section below.
More about the topics:accounting software,Business software
Milan Stanojevic
Windows Toubleshooting Expert
Milan has been enthusiastic about technology ever since his childhood days, and this led him to take interest in all PC-related technologies. He’s a PC enthusiast and he spends most of his time learning about computers and technology.
Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he’s one of the Troubleshooting experts in our worldwide team, specializing in Windows errors & software issues.
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Milan Stanojevic
Windows Toubleshooting Expert
Before joining WindowsReport, he worked as a front-end web developer. Now, he’s specialized in Windows errors & software issues.
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