Payroll Services

By Dylan Mazeika

Many small and medium-sized companies opt to handle their own payroll by utilizing payroll software. There are a host of programs on the market and a CEO must first decide what functions the software should be able to handle. There are full accounting packages that include payroll; however, our discussion is about payroll and payroll tax software.

What are the most popular brands of payroll software?

Intuit is mentioned in just about every review that is written. It has two versions for small business, Enhanced Payroll and Intuit Full Service. The Enhance package is appropriate for all 50 states and charges a monthly fee of $28 plus $2 per employee. All set up is handled by the employer and while tax forms are pre-printed, the employer must mail them in and pay.

Intuit Full Service has assisted set up. There is a monthly fee of $78 per month plus $2 per employee. For Federal and State taxes, the full service submits the forms and initiates payment. At the time of this writing, Intuit does not offer paper checks. This full service is one of the very few on-line payroll software packages that offers year end 1099's and W-2's.

SurePayroll is very economical for a small business owner. If the business has 10 employees on a biweekly payroll the cost is just $98.90 per month. It covers all 50 states plus set-up is assisted. They also submit the tax forms and initiates payment.

ProPayroll is good for small businesses. A company with 10 employees will pay around $68 per month for a biweekly payroll and this includes state taxes. It offers mobile access and does print and mail paper checks. It also submits the tax forms and initiates payment.

PayChex offers online payroll for small companies. A company with 10 employees will pay around $88.18 per month for a biweekly payroll and this includes state taxes. It does offer direct deposit as well as paper checks; however, paper checks are not printed on-site. They submit tax forms and initiates payments. There is Smartphone and mobile access.

ADP usually comes out as the most expensive software package for small businesses. That employer with 10 employees with biweekly payroll will pay approximately $159.57 per month. The employer does need to sign a long-term contract which is not required with the previous mentions. They submit tax forms and initiates payments but there is no end of the year service without additional costs.

Our Payroll Services Buyer's Guide will help you immensely in finding out which payroll software solution you should use. There are many more apart from the ones evaluated in this article which could meet your needs.