Best Payroll Software for Your Small Business- Pay Up or Shut Up

As a small business, most aspects of running a business usually fall on one person. This can be especially tricky with something as technical as HR, and in particular payroll. Even though you might not have many employees in your business, following all the laws and regulations when it comes to payroll can be tricky for anybody. So why not alleviate some of the burden by automating with payroll software? Keep reading to see our top picks for your small business.

When you work in or own a small business, you wear many faces, so sometimes knowing all the specifics about a subject in particular is unrealistic. The same goes for payroll, depending on where you live, there are different regulations and rules you need to follow. If you live in New York, you’re not going to pay the same taxes and deductions as somebody living and working in Miami. Big businesses and corporations can do this all in house because they have the resources to hire big HR departments, which obviously isn’t the case for small businesses. One way to compensate for this is to automate payroll with a software program. In the long run it will save you and your small business a lot of time and money.

The software programs that you’ll read about were chosen because we believe they’re the best at what they do. We decided that due to a combination of factors, including: features, integrations and value. Take a look at the best programs for a small business like yours!

Gusto is a HR operating system that has a dedicated payroll management system embedded in it. Gusto’s payroll system is extremely easy to use, and it’s incredibly intuitive. It makes paying your employees so much easier, so you can focus on more pressing matters. Gusto makes payroll easier with features like:

• Automatic payroll tax filing, after an automatic calculation
• Integrated features like health insurance, 401k, workers’ comp, time tracking, PTO, and more
• Tax compliance, state tax registration in all 50 states, employee I-9 and W-2 database
• The ability to pay contractors in more than 80 countries
• Mobile app

What we like about Gusto is that it has everything a small business would need. It’s an end-to-end solution for payroll, no more stressing about things like tax compliance and employees’ W-2’s anymore.

The only completely free solution on this list, HR.my is a perfect payroll solution for small businesses looking for a complete system for free.

In addition to its price, HR.my offers a wide range of features that you usually wouldn’t find on a free program:

• Payroll and salary management modules- allows you to track individual employees
• Employee space, where they can access things like their payslips
• Mobile app
• Payroll reprocessing
• Salary adjustment

HR.my is the only completely free program on this list, making it the perfect option for any company looking to cut costs. What’s more, even though it has no cost doesn’t mean it has no features, HR.my keeps up with the big boys in terms of all main features.

Onpay, with its over 30 years of tax and payroll experience, is one of the most comprehensive programs on this list. With integrations and automations, Onepay is an all-inclusive end-to-end payroll solution that you should look at for your small business. Some of the features that make Onpay so impressive are:

• Automated taxes- even with local and state taxes, taxes are calculated and then filed all directly on the platform
• Accounting integrations with platforms like Quickbooks and Xero
• Payroll reporting and analytics
• Direct deposit to employees
• Workers’ comp and benefits

We like Onpay because it’s a no-fuss payroll and HR software program designed specifically for small businesses. Everything in their program is designed to make the lives of small businesses and their owners easier, and it works.

Get your payroll and tax filing done faster and easier with ADP, the software program that’s backed up by payroll experts at the tip of your fingers. In addition, ADP is a full fledged HR management system so it has every possible relevant integration for payroll. Some of the features that make ADP so unique are:

• Automated online payroll
• Payroll taxes
• Federal, state and local compliance
• HR and time tracking integrations
• Self-service app for employees

ADP is a global payroll and HR solution that also works very well for small businesses. Having other solutions in HR allows them to effectively cover all the bases of payroll, so you don’t have to worry about them.

With 20 years experience, SurePayroll knows small businesses and their payroll. SurePayroll knows that payroll and taxes aren’t the first thing small business owners think of when they get started. That’s why SurePayroll makes filing taxes and paying your employees super easy, so you can focus on the things that matter most.

SurePayroll makes payroll super easy through a combination of innovative features such as:

• Same-day or next-day payroll, making it faster than ever to pay your employees
• Automatic payroll
• Mobile app
• Built-in integrations to HR management and accounting features and programs
• Auto-payroll
• Cancel payroll, if you ever make a mistake

Like some other programs on this list, SurePayroll is a no-frills payroll solution, designed for one purpose, to make payroll easy and fast for small businesses. And with all things considered, they succeeded. All of their features and integrations make payroll a quick and painless process for small businesses.

The easiest and most powerful payroll software tool on the market, according to Paycor, Paycor Perform makes your life a little bit easier by automating and taking care of payroll. Paycor Perform guides you through each step of the payroll process, and automates all the essentials, so you don’t have to worry.

Some of the ways Paycor makes your life easier is through:

• Allowing you to make custom workflows and pay-on demand and other features
• Automatic reporting and analytics, even on specific employees
• Custom pay stubs and grids
• Integrations with other software programs
• Employees can access have their own portal that they can access, allowing them to fill in their own information
• Workers comp

Paycor Perform is an end-to-end full solution for small business payroll that is trusted by a wide spectrum of companies, small to big. It’s ease of use is unmatched on the market. What’s more, unlike other programs Paycor allows you to customize the way you do payroll through custom workflows that fit the needs of your business.

Like many of the other programs on this list, Patriot Payroll is specifically designed for the US, hence “patriot”. Meaning that you’ll find more targeted features than say another program designed for multiple markets with few country-specific features.

Some of the Patriot Payroll’s best features include:

• A simple three step payroll process, Enter hours, Approve payroll, Print checks
• Quick and accurate payroll reporting and analytics
• Comprehensive reports that save companies thousands of dollars each year

We really like Patriot Payroll because it’s the perfect software program for any American small business looking to automate payroll. They include all the features necessary to file, report, and analyze payroll in an easy and quick way.

Trusted by over 700,000 customers, Paychex knows how to manage payroll. Payroll is only one facet in their wide array of digital HR services, allowing them to cover all the bases of payroll.

Some of the ways Paychex does this is through:

• Automatic payroll administration
• Regularly updated tax rates
• Time and attendance
• Integrated HR services
• Retirement services
• Workers’ compensation
• Thorough reports
• New-hire reporting to government agencies
• Online employee self-service

Paychex, besides being a leader in payroll software, is a giant HR software developer, meaning that everything you need when doing payroll is there. From retirement bookkeeping to time and attendance and workers’ compensation, everything is there for you and your business.

As we said before, payroll sometimes can be a pain in the neck. Having to know all the up to date regulations, exemptions, etc. sometimes just isn’t possible for small businesses. You need something that will be quick and easy, and will let you focus on things that actually matter to your business. The software programs on this list do all that and more.