Suggestions for payroll program

[em914]

Hi Everyone! I own a small business with 5 employees. I have been taking care of payroll on my own, but would love to find an inexpensive program for payroll. Is Intuit worth it? I see some inexpensive websites/programs, but not sure they are any good. Any recommendations/advice? Thanks!

[Freelancier]

You can get the Full Service for Intuit payroll at $67/mo through costco.com's web site (click the services link at the top of the page, then scroll down). Is it worth it? YES. It's < 5 minutes to do everything I need for payroll, including filing and paying taxes.

Intuit Enhanced Payroll 2016 is offline, but seems to have eFile/ePay capabilities built in and only costs $400 or so for the year from Amazon, so that's something to consider if you're always at your desk (or can get to it via remote control software) and don't mind not having it on the web.

[Evan]

What "inexpensive programs" are you looking at and seeking opinions on? Inexpensive often means it lacks features. Do you want it to offer direct deposit? Do you want it to electronically deposit your taxes for you? How about e-file the tax forms (some state forms you may need to mail, just because some states don't have good systems in place)?

Intuit about as good as any other program. They should be all doing roughly the same thing and I think Intuit's service is fairly priced.

[ybarajas]

Intuit is good because its cheap as Freelancier said. You can also try Quickbooks, they have 30 day free trial in order for you to have a time to test it. After the trial period you can pay for it for just $12.95 per month if you like the software. Other than that you can also check freshbooks or pensoft payroll software. I hope this will help.

[jamesray50]

Best Payroll Software Reviews: Gusto vs. Intuit vs. Patriot (http://fitsmallbusiness.com/best-payroll-software-reviews/)

Here is a link to compare payroll services. I use Intuit Online Payroll and am happy with it. A lot of my colleagues like Zen Payroll. Payroll is one area where you don't want cheap. Mistakes can be costly.

[TAAccounting]

I would recommend going with a payroll company - ADP, Paycorp, Paychex, etc

The reason being, they offer liability coverage wherein, "do it yourself" payroll software do not.

So in the off-chance that the IRS shows up and says that you owe taxes on a prior year payroll - these major payroll companies can go to bat for you. Opposed to you trying to prove your innocence to the IRS by digging up check stubs, payroll reports, W2s, and so on.

[jamesray50]

I don't recommend ADP to anyone. That's based on my experience with them in KY. I'mean sure someone in the company knows the payroll rules, but the clerks actually processing the payroll don't.

One client I had paid employees monthly at the beginning of the month. December would include an extra payroll for year end bonuses. ADP would issue the W2s after the 1st payroll in December, not waiting to see if there would be any more wages during the month. After a couple of years of this I convinced the client that I should be doing the payroll.

Another client was a restaurant. ADP did not include reported tips on pay checks. When I questioned them, their response was the client did not request that and it would cost them more. Whoever sold them the service should have included that in the cost of the payroll. And the client didn't know enough about payroll to know it was being done incorrectly.

[Freelancier]

I dumped Paychex years ago when I realized what they offered was twice the cost for half the convenience of just doing it myself online. For larger companies, I'd certainly recommend a full-service payroll service -- and the costs that go with them -- because your needs and time demand having that full-service company helping you. But for shops with <= 10 people, the self-service online offerings are a much better deal overall.

[TAAccounting]

Jamesrays and Freelancier,

I agree with both of you as I have seen that as well. This still circles back to why it's important to have an accountant/outsource cfo who can set these up correctly.

But being a former revenue agent, I steer my clients away from any "Do it yourself payroll" due to the lack of liability coverage. When I was an agent and I showed up with an audit, it was "guilty until proven innocent".

The majority of the business owners I audited spent thousands if not more to hire tax accountants, attorneys, and all the while - they still had to pay the taxes upfront (interest accumulates while you battle it out). So when I went out on my own, it was a scenario I wanted to avoid at all cost. But I see both sides of the coin on this - but on my professional opinion; I always recommend a payroll company with liability coverage.

If clients really want an accountant to provide the payroll service - I generally ask if the accountant is working through a wholesale edition with major payroll companies. For example, I offer payroll service for a few farms in Missouri. They're too rural to have reliable internet and the owner just hates dealing with customer service. So I run their payroll through ADP/Thomson Reuter Wholesale. The liability coverage is still there, I don't have to pay extra on my professional insurance, and they handle all the paperwork/head aches for me - and the owners simply call me to turn in their payroll.

[PZagotti@ZnBcpa.com]

I have to agree wit Tran on the liability issues.
I have seen people put their faith in an accountant / bookkeeper who kind of knew what they were doing but was not registered with the IRS and as a result the client was left with the liabilities and depending on the situation having to pay taxes twice.

I have also had my issues with ADP and Paychex. Most of the bigger providers have customer service issues and right or wrong that is just a fact of doing business with them. With that said prices are in that same range as the do it yourself services by Intuit and other similar providers.

If you do want to do it yourself another option might be Gusto. They have a nice setup as a market price.

Now one other thought that no one has really touched on.
While processing payroll and keeping compliant by submitting taxes reports to the state and federal government is important you might want to make sure you are in compliance with other state and federal labor laws. This is not something that your bargain basement payroll system will provide.
Also other stuff like employee handbooks and related documents to protect your company incase legal actions arise.

This is more of an outsources HR solution then a simple payroll program that you setup and enter weekly hours into.
They tend to be a little more expensive but can be well worth it in the long run.

Good Luck!