Best Payroll Software for Accountants In 2025

The best payroll service for your small business is the one that makes your payroll operations as accurate and efficient as possible while staying within your budget. Gusto emerges as an online payroll software and HR administration platform tailored for startups and small businesses. Most of Gusto’s customers are companies ranging from 1-9 employees with some having as many as 50 employees, focusing on smaller startups and businesses that may grow in the future.

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The platform is a popular and easy-to-use payroll service with a feature-rich profile of net-to-gross calculations, expense integration, and calendar syncing tools. The software includes less common features, such as payroll reminders and the option to pay contractors, but is not available in all states. TriNet Zenefits is competitively priced, provides both monthly and annual plans, and offers the most features overall. Includes comparisons between top picks Gusto, TriNet Zenefits, and QuickBooks Payroll. For many accounting businesses, their best bet is to join the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program that supports solo practitioners, small accounting practices and large accountant firms.

• You can define these to align with your business structure, each with its own unique parameters like wage rates, overhead percentages, and benefit allocations.
• Spend more time advising clients and less time on payroll and workforce services with QuickBooks Online Payroll.
• Look at the quality and quantity of features and integrations, customer support options, and additional benefits that can help you better meet your clients’ needs and grow your business.
• One of the biggest advantages of using payroll software is its ability to automate repetitive tasks.
• For instance, in March 2022, Gusto’s rating on consumer review site Trustpilot was just 2.6 out of 5.

Spend more time advising clients and less time on payroll and workforce services with QuickBooks Online Payroll. Whether you’re a big accounting firm or an accounting team of one, QuickBooks Online Payroll has tools to help you grow. This, more often than not, means the implementation of full-service payroll software into your accounting system. Without this automated software, the detailed elements of each task could quickly become overwhelming. Denali Payroll from Cougar Mountain Software is a mid-market payroll solution designed to support businesses with anywhere from one to 1,000 employees.

There’s also an employee portal, so your team can print pay stubs and W-2s and review their accrued vacation time. Overall, this is a reliable payroll software for businesses looking for a quick and simple solution. Rippling is an HR and payroll solution for small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses. It powers your company’s backend, offering everything from payroll features to IT support.

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For accountants, signing up for QuickBooks Online Accountant and QuickBooks ProAdvisor offers numerous perks — from free software subscriptions to client discounts and more. Unfortunately, Paychex isn’t very forthcoming on its website with the pricing of its products. You will need to contact the company directly to receive a quote for services. We expect to see more developments like this in the near future as the rapid advancement of AI and machine learning presents a unique opportunity for payroll management tools. For help choosing the best payroll software for your business, read our step-by-step guide on how to choose payroll software. Most users report the leading platforms Gusto, QuickBooks, and OnPay to be easy to use.

Patriot is a top pick for payroll with benefits like affordable pricing, unlimited payrolls, US-based support, and free direct deposit. Getting started is now a better deal than ever with 30 days free, plus 50% off for 3 months after that. The home page of payroll software is referred to as the activity dashboard, and it is from this dashboard that users can access apps and services, reminders, calendars, to-do lists, employee data, and payroll data insights.

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You can define these to align with your business structure, each with its own unique parameters like wage rates, overhead percentages, and benefit allocations. Clarity can even split employee costs across multiple departments or jobs based on hours worked or preset percentages. This helps you track project profitability and uncover opportunities to save on labor costs.

Use our free analytics tool to see how your business compares to the competition and find out what customers are saying about you. Deciding on the right business phone system for your company can take a lot of research. Since you’re interested in Payroll Software, here are some other reviews you might find interesting.

This is because they have intuitive interfaces and are designed to be used by people with little to no background in payroll. The payroll report should include bank transactions, deductions, taxes, and paid time off. Garnishments are a portion of an employee’s wages that employers withhold for outstanding, court-ordered payments, such as debt and child support. Sage HRMS, is a comprehensive, customizable HR software solution that includes payroll functionalities. This user-friendly option includes some uncommon features, such as data migration, but is overall not as feature-rich and comprehensive as Gusto and TriNet Zenefits.

Essential Payroll Software Features for Accountants

Offboarding workflows handle exit interviews, asset returns, access deactivation, and final documentation. By standardizing these processes, organizations can minimize administrative burdens, reduce compliance risks, and create a seamless transition that reinforces company culture. Zenefits is an ideal workforce management tool for businesses seeking a straightforward and cost-effective way to manage HR functions without unnecessary complexity. CPA Practice Advisor is the definitive technology and practice management resource for accounting and tax professionals.

• In other words, the add-ons up Patriot’s price by quite a bit without adding as many features as Gusto, which includes more features than Patriot in its base pricing.
• CPA Practice Advisor is the definitive technology and practice management resource for accounting and tax professionals.
• Many small businesses find it most effective to purchase their payroll and HR support services from the same vendor, such as Gusto or Rippling, both of which sell plans that combine the two functions.
• However, it remains one of the top options for small businesses, especially if you’re interested in integration options.

Gusto Plus and TriNet Zenefits Essentials represent the best value for mixed-user HR and payroll solutions. Although TriNet Zenefits charges $6.00 per employee per month for their payroll add-on, you can use it with their Essentials package for a total of $14.00 per employee per month billed annually or $16.00 per employee month-to-month. This basic solution integrates with accounting and time-tracking software but lacks features such as expense integration, digital paystubs, and flexible payment schedules. This simple but fairly comprehensive option offers intelligent automation, built-in reporting and analytics, and continuous payroll processing. While this is a Canada-specific payroll service, U.S.-based employers can use the software payroll and accounting software to pay Canadian staff from the U.S. Pretax deductions are subtracted from employees’ pay before income taxes are calculated.

How To Choose the Best Payroll Software for Accountants

The templates can be downloaded as Word docs, Excel files, PDFs, Google Docs or Google Sheets. Our top picks as the best payroll services for small businesses offer companies more payroll options than Baskin-Robbins has flavors. After putting the 10 products through two rounds of evaluations and hands-on testing, we identify the one characteristic that sets each apart from the crowd. Whether you’re paying workers in countries on multiple continents or looking for the service that offers the keenest insight into your payroll operations, we’ve got the payroll solution that fits your organization’s needs to a T. True to its name, Payroll4Free.com is a free payroll service for small businesses. With this software, you can trigger direct deposits, calculate your taxes, and track employee time-off.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help your organization adopt the right employee management software efficiently and effectively. Namely is a robust HR management system tailored for mid-sized companies seeking an all-in-one platform to handle HR compliance, benefits, and performance management. It combines essential tools into a single interface to simplify workforce management while ensuring regulatory adherence. Cover the basics—easily pay your team and have your payroll taxes done for you. There are 3 plans available for Gusto, depending on the feature set your business needs.