QuickBooks desktop payroll

 

Quickbooks desktop payroll

 

Everyone loves payday—except, that is, the QuickBooks desktop payroll administrator. Paying employees (as well as contractors and freelancers) is the most complex element of small business accounting. It's also the scariest. Not only do you have to produce checks and direct deposits that are 100 percent accurate, but you also have to make certain that the underlying calculations—taxes, benefits, and other withholding—are also correct down to the penny. Furthermore, you have to submit taxes and filings to the IRS and other tax agencies.

Cloud-based QuickBooks desktop payroll applications can help ensure that all of these obligations are met with precision and timeliness. We reviewed eight of the most popular online small business accounting services. Some have been around for years, including Gusto, OnPay, Patriot Software Full Service Quickbooks desktop payroll phone number, QuickBooks Payroll, Square Payroll, and SurePayroll. New to our roundup this year is Hourly, a payroll service designed for contractors but appropriate for other small businesses. Note that it’s available only for California at this writing. Work is another newer QuickBooks desktop payroll website, appearing here only for the second time; it's built for tracking hourly employees.

This year, we’re awarding Editors’ Choices to two payroll websites: Gusto is a returning winner; it delivers an exceptional user experience and four different subscription levels, so companies can grow with it. We recommend it highly for both novice and seasoned payroll administrators. Our second Editors' Choice, OnPay, is an excellent choice for small businesses, too, but it also supports vertical industries like agriculture and nonprofits very capably, as well as companies with more than 100 employees.

What's Not Here

There are dozens of payroll websites we could have reviewed, some from household names like ADP and Paychex. Both of these companies offer entry-level DIY QuickBooks desktop payroll services. They lack some of the features found in the sites we reviewed, however, and they’re slightly pricier (both charge $59 per month plus $4 per employee per month). ADP limits its low-end payroll site to two employees, and both require that you provide them with a lot of information about your business before they’ll give you a quote for more expansive services. They’re able to scale up easily, though, so they can be good choices for larger businesses or those who expect to grow rapidly—or companies that simply want to go with a well-known name. That said, they are expensive and getting started can be a considerable undertaking—especially with ADP.

At the other end of the spectrum are sites for businesses that have more complex payroll needs or want to get their payroll as a part of all-encompassing HR software or benefits administration service. Rippling is one of the best of these. It’s surprisingly affordable and offers an exceptional user experience. It also provides all of the tools you need for onboarding, payroll processing, tax filing, and reporting. Advanced features include job costing, highly customizable reports, and global quickbooks desktop payroll. Zenefits, too, would be a good choice for even an inexperienced payroll or HR manager who must stay current with the myriad compliance issues that exist in today’s workplace. Both Rippling and Zenefits are Editors' Choice winners. These are excellent services, but if you just want to get the QuickBooks desktop payroll out, they may be more than you need.

We chose to review the services we judge best suited for small businesses that process compensation for 10 workers or fewer—businesses, furthermore, that have modest human resources and benefits administration needs.

Precision Is Paramount

If you're still doing your company's QuickBooks desktop payroll manually, you're well aware of how complex, exacting, and deadline-driven this process is. Your employees count on you to dispatch their paychecks and authorize direct deposits on scheduled paydays. They expect you to know how much to withhold for all the taxes you owe and the benefits you offer.

There’s an enormous amount of detail to track, especially if you're trying to do it all on paper. Mistakes aren't tolerated well by anyone involved. Tax agencies can assess stiff fines if payroll filings and taxes aren't received by the scheduled dates. Benefits providers can cut off services like health insurance if you fall behind on payments.

Simplifying the Complex

Cloud-based QuickBooks desktop payroll solutions can help you organize and automate this onerous task. Some of them offer step-by-step wizards to guide you through the time-intensive process of creating records for employees and supplying the information needed for withholding. They let you establish your own payroll schedules. They do all the required calculations, and most of them actually submit your QuickBooks desktop payroll taxes and filings to the appropriate agencies.

These sites walk you through each payroll run and tell you how much each will cost you. They provide report templates and offer online portals and mobile apps for employees that display current and historical pay stub data, and more in some cases. Not surprisingly, they're equipped with generous support options. And they're not overly expensive: They mostly run between $25 and $40 per month for the base fee and charge a few extra dollars per month for each employee.

The benefits are obvious. You save time and minimize frustration. You don't have to keep up with payroll tax tables nor deal with the myriad compliance issues associated with employee compensation. You can modify your records quickly, and you have instant access to the smallest details. You're much less likely to make errors using one of these services.

Setting Up Your QuickBooks desktop payroll phone number

Though each Quickbooks desktop payroll site we looked at provides its own unique user experience, they all share similar structures. They begin with the setup process, which is by far the most time-consuming and detail-oriented element of paying your staff. Though the exact order varies, some of them walk you through pages of questions in an orderly, step-by-step fashion. Others provide partial setup wizards and leave the rest to you. Patriot Software offers the most comprehensive process of those we tested. These setup wizards ask for information about your company, such as its address and Employee Identification Number (EIN). You select your QuickBooks desktop payroll schedule (usually weekly or biweekly) and name your QuickBooks desktop payroll administrator and signatory.

If your business offers benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans, you can create records for them that contain information about the cost to employees and any company contributions. Funds will then be deducted during the QuickBooks desktop payroll process. You must also create detailed records for each employee, such as contact information, birth date, Social Security number, salary or hourly pay rate, and a number of allowances from the W-4 form. Since most of these sites submit your quickbooks desktop payroll taxes and support direct deposit of compensation, you need to supply bank account information to make a connection.

You also need to enter any payroll history that exists if you've already been compensating employees. This can be an arduous chore, one that may require assistance from the site's onboarding specialists.

If you offer additional QuickBooks desktop payroll types like Paid Time Off (PTO) and sick pay, you can define your policies for accruing these benefits; the services keep track of them for you. Bonuses and commissions can also be paid during a regular pay run, or you can issue them by creating an "off-cycle" Quickbooks desktop payroll phone number. Need to include garnishments like child support on paychecks? These sites support such withholding. In fact, most offer custom pay types, so you can create your own—sometimes even when you're in the middle of a pay run.

Running Your Payroll

Once you've completed setup, you generally can't return to the dedicated setup tools, so it's important to get it right the first time. That said, every service we tested has a comprehensive settings section where you can modify and add to the payroll information you've already entered.

Setup is done, you're ready to run your first QuickBooks desktop payroll phone number. This is the easy part. Though there are some differences, these sites function similarly during the actual pay run. When you launch a QuickBooks desktop payroll phone number, they display a list of employees along with their pay rates. You first check to make sure the pay period and pay date are correct. Then, you simply enter the number of hours worked (where applicable) in the appropriate pay type boxes (regular, overtime, vacation, and so on). Most sites let you add dollars for other earnings types and reimbursements on this same page.

Once you enter everything necessary, you next see a preview of your Quickbooks payroll support. The various services handle this slightly differently, but you'll be able to see each employee's gross and net pay; you also see withholding for taxes, benefits, and any company contributions. The QuickBooks desktop payroll site then shows you the total amount of money that will be withdrawn from your bank account for direct deposits and taxes, as well as the exact date it will be debited.

After you approve your QuickBooks payroll support, additional tables or reports can display absolutely every detail of the pay run.

If you have few employees or a very simple Quickbooks desktop payroll, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to do the actual processing. Depending on which site you're using, you may be able to let payrolls process automatically (assuming, of course, that there are no changes from the previous run). Some even offer same-day QuickBooks desktop payroll phone numbers.

HR Support Improving

In larger companies, QuickBooks desktop payroll and benefits administration are usually handled by separate departments. In your small business, though, both of those responsibilities may land on your desk or that of another employee. Fortunately, most of the QuickBooks desktop payroll sites we reviewed offer basic HR components, such as online W-4 and I-9 forms, new-hire reporting, document templates, and document storage. Electronic signatures are often allowed, as is employee participation in the data-entry process.

OnPay kicked its HR capabilities up by quite a bit since our last review, adding compliance audits, an HR resource library, automated onboarding flows, and direct messaging. QuickBooks desktop payroll has partnered with SimplyInsured to offer medical, dental, and vision insurance options, as well as benefits administration. Gusto offers a similar service.

COVID-19 Support

Payroll website developers really had to scramble last spring and summer to keep up with the changing QuickBooks desktop payroll landscape brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. New legislative rules had to be incorporated into the existing QuickBooks desktop payroll structures of these sites. For example, any business that received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, had to be able to run the special reports required. Some payroll services included here even served as the lender for these loans or partnered with third-party lenders so that users could apply directly through them.

Other legislation had to be built into the websites themselves, like employee QuickBooks payroll tax deferral, new tax credits, and paid leave laws through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Most sites included extra educational content to help payroll managers understand the new laws and their QuickBooks desktop payroll impact; OnPay was especially good at this.

Two Clear Winners

All of the QuickBooks desktop payroll services reviewed here come from reputable companies with years or even decades of experience behind their tools. I wouldn't hesitate to trust any of them with this critical task. They all share similar parts, though their user experiences are very different, and each has a slightly different set of extras. They're all designed for general small business use, though OnPay goes above and beyond by offering support for multiple vertical industries, including agriculture and foodservice. That’s one reason why OnPay wins its first Editors’ Choice award this year; it’s also highly customizable in both QuickBooks desktop payroll and HR areas, and its usability is top-notch.

Gusto, too, receives an Editors’ Choice this year. It hits the sweet spot for QuickBooks desktop payroll phone numbers, offering enough functionality to please a wide variety of small businesses, while not overwhelming with additional features and fees. Its user interface and navigation system are among the best, and its four-tiered pricing structure gives potential users multiple options. In a tough group of competitors, it's a smart choice.