About half of employees have had mistakes on their paychecks at least one time.
As a business owner, simple payroll errors can be costly to your business. The IRS could charge you penalties for underpaying payroll taxes. The Department of Labor could accuse you of deliberately underpaying your employees.
These are worst-case scenarios, but they could happen if you don’t have a payroll system in place to limit mistakes. There are countless payroll solutions available to help you create a smart payroll system that will save you time and headaches.
Read on to learn the top payroll solutions for your business.
1. ADP
ADP is one of the top payroll solutions for small businesses. It’s generally used in businesses with 20 or more employees because it has so many features.
For example, if you have employees through a professional employer organization (PEO), ADP has the flexibility to pay them. Your employees will find ADP easy to track time worked.
2. QuickBooks
QuickBooks is often the first choice for business owners because the company has been around for so long. QuickBooks is a good solution for small businesses that need payroll, invoicing, and reporting in one dashboard.
QuickBooks offers payroll plans for self-employed to companies with many employees. That allows you to use one program as your business grows.
Plus, since so many companies use QuickBooks, there are usually countless integrations so you can automate more.
3. PayStubCreator
For businesses that like to keep things simple without a ton of technology or complicated programs, PayStubCreator is a good fit for your business.
You can use one of several professional pay stub templates and create pay stubs for your employees. It’s a simple and effective online tool that will help you limit mistakes in your payroll processing.
4. Gusto
Gusto has been gaining in popularity in recent years because of its affordability. It has a broad range of features and it’s easy to use. Many companies find that it has benefits and HR rolled into payroll processing.
That helps business owners keep everything in one place to ensure that they comply with labor laws and standards.
5. FreshBooks
Self-employed people have payroll issues, too. Those issues mostly lie in getting paid on time by clients and tracking how much time they worked on client projects.
FreshBooks is great for freelancers who have to bill clients for hourly work. You can manage your time spent on a project, and turn that into an invoice. FreshBooks can accept payments on your behalf, so you can pay yourself faster.
The software recently expanded to include more accounting features for teams.
How to Choose from the Top Payroll Solutions
Now that you know what the top payroll solutions are for small businesses, you can start to find the program that’s right for your needs. How do you begin to do that?
The first step is to look at your business needs. Any time you try to invest in technology, you want to make sure that it works for your business, not create more problems.
You need to know how many users will need to access payroll processing and how many employees you need to pay. Many payroll solutions will charge by the number of employees plus a flat fee.
You should also think about how much automation you want and need when it comes to processing payroll.
Integrations and Features
The differences in the various payroll solutions are that they come with different bells and whistles. Most standard features include automated payroll tax payments and check printing.
Other features include the ability to add tax credits and charitable deductions to your suite.
You may need all or none of those features. This is why knowing your business needs is so important. It prevents you from spending money on features you don’t need.
Budget
Speaking of spending money, you have to set a budget for your software solution. There are free tools out there, but they usually aren’t worth a mention.
You should expect to set aside funds for your payroll suite. The more people you have to pay, the more it will cost your business. You should have a rough estimate as to what you can spend in mind before you shop around for solutions.
Reporting
Do you need access to detailed financial reports? Some payroll software solutions will provide detailed accounting reports along with payroll distribution reports.
Some of these reports are useful to see how your payroll overhead changes over time.
Compliance
You have more responsibilities because you’re responsible for paying employees and payroll taxes. You also have to comply with labor laws. In some cases, you have industry regulations to comply with as well.
Your choice of payroll software should help you stay in compliance with the regulations.
Support
You’re bound to have questions when you set up your payroll software. Some programs like QuickBooks, Gusto, and ADP are complicated and require a bit of onboarding and support.
You have to make sure that the payroll software you choose gives you a number of support options. Not only that, but the support staff needs to be knowledgeable and responsive to your business needs.
The Best Payroll Software for Your Business
Managing employees isn’t easy. Paying them isn’t a walk in the park either unless you invest in payroll processing software. The best payroll solutions will fit the needs of your business.
Your choice should have a full range of features and integrations. It will help you with reporting and compliance. Most of all, it needs to fit your budget. The payroll solutions listed here have a broad range of offerings. You want to make sure that you know what you need before investing in a solution.
For more great business tips, be sure to check out the featured articles on this site.
