How to Choose a Payroll Software for My Business?

How to Choose a Payroll Software for My Business?

There are many questions you should ask yourself when you are deciding to choose a payroll system for your business. With countless options on the market today, you do not want to end up investing your money on payroll software that does not save you time, does not perform the process you want, or provide you with the tools you need.

Your payroll software should not be a burden to use or require a lot of training, it should be user-friendly and a genuine pleasure to use. Before you start your search for payroll software, you should estimate your budget and know your business' size and how many employees you have working for you because the larger your company is, the more you will end up paying the payroll software.

So let us start breaking down what questions you should be asking yourself before you decide which payroll software to implement in your business.
 

Questions to Ask Yourself

1. Does this payroll software fit my business?

There are many factors that affect the answer to this question because every business is unique, and each needs its own solutions. Upon answering this question, you should first research if said payroll software is designed for your business size. Secondly, you should know if it serves the location where your business operates.

If you are running a large business with remote workers in different countries, you need to make sure your payroll software is compliant in those countries and can process payroll runs to the workers residing there.

On the other hand, if you are running a small business, you need to make sure that the payroll software of your choice is scalable, flexible, and can grow with your business. Most importantly, however, it should have clear and simple pricing so you do not end up paying for extra hidden fees as your company grows.

Lastly, the payroll software of your choice should have a knowledge base and great customer support that is always ready to answer your questions and can help you set up their payroll software.
 

2. Does this payroll software provide me with the solutions I need?

The best payroll software out there does most of the work for you and takes off heavy burdens and paperwork; there are a number of features you should expect to find. The first being is that your payroll software should be cloud-based, as payroll is key to any business, so you may need to access your payroll operations at any time in any place.

Next up, your payroll software should have flexible payment options such as payment cards or direct deposits. Most employees nowadays prefer getting paid through direct deposits as it's fast and more reliable than receiving paychecks that could get lost and need time to clear. Speaking of payments, great payroll software should automate benefits deductions, expense reimbursements, commissions, and other taxable benefits.

While we are on the subject of taxes, the payroll software you are choosing should help you handle and file all your taxes, as it is the most time-consuming and critical process. Your tax deposits and electronic tax form filing should automatically be taken care of, as this is one of the main reasons businesses invest in payroll software.

Moreover, most payroll software has full integrations with HR software and tools that will help you manage your employees, their profiles, their working hours. It should also allow you to create an automated workflow to save you time on redundant processes and double data entry.

Furthermore, the right payroll software for your business should be able to process payroll runs for any kind of salary structure such as hourly wages, weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly. And finally, while performing all its processes, your payroll software should help your business stay compliant with regular software updates and notifications about new labor and minimum wage laws and regulations.
 

3. Will it save me time?

As we mentioned earlier, payroll software usually has integrated HR solutions that allow you to create automated workflows for countless processes. Such processes include onboarding and employee termination. Your employees should be able to create their profiles fast and easily and have their data automatically synchronized with the payroll software.

Self-service should also be provided for your employees, so they can retrieve their own tax documents and paystubs by themselves and easily request time offs using a mobile application for the payroll or time tracking software.

Your payroll software should also be able to save you time while processing off-cycle payroll for bonus distribution, advances, or making payment corrections. Finally, and most importantly, it should be able to run by itself as you 'set-it-and-forget-it.' So when you are taking a vacation or a day off, it can run its tasks by itself.

Now that you have sorted out your thoughts and answers about what kind of payroll software you should choose, let us present you with our top three recommendations with a brief review of their features and prices.
 

Top Payroll Software Recommendations

1. Paycor

Paycor is one of the most comprehensive and feature-rich payroll software on the market, which is why we are placing it as our number one payroll software recommendation. Paycor offers industry-based solutions and packages to businesses of all sizes, as it scales to their size and can help them grow.

Paycor offers you all you need in terms of payroll and HR solutions. It provides you with a mobile application where you can access all the data you need, have your employees use it to clock in and out, and have their working hours automatically recorded and synced with payroll. You have flexible options to pay your employees; you can choose between direct deposits, pay cards, and OnDemand pay. OnDemand pay allows you to pay your employees a cut of their salaries before payday, so they never have to worry about late bill payments.

Paycor will also handle all your tax filing, including W-2s and 1099s. It keeps a precise record-keeping that captures critical data to ensure your company's compliance. Its HR tools will allow you to create custom automated workflows, reminders, notifications, and much more to save you time on redundant processes.

In addition, you will have a centralized space for communication and self-service, where your employees can retrieve their own documents, as your document management will all become paperless as they can be digitally created, assigned, shared, and stored.

Paycor provides an exclusive risk-monitoring tool to protect your company and help it stay compliant. The tool allows you to easily identify compliance risks by monitoring trends in overtime, absenteeism, payroll, and more.

You are also gifted with workforce management tools that present you with a time dashboard where you get to approve or deny all time-off requests, manage your employees' scheduling and keep their working hours recorded for compliance.

Paycor divides its plans for businesses with over 50 employees and businesses with under 50. Small businesses get these four subscription plans:

• Basic - $99 per month + $5 per month per employee
• Essential - $149 per month + $6 per month per employee
• Complete - $199 per month + $7 per month per employee
• HCM - $199 per month + $12 per month per employee

Each plan earns a free month of payroll with free set-up; while plans for large businesses are quote-based, you will need to contact their team to get your custom price and package.

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2. Paychex

As for our second recommendation for payroll software, we have crowned Paychex. Paychex is a giant in the payroll software industry as it has been providing its payroll solutions to business owners since 1971.

Paychex offers flexible plans that suit businesses of any size and the tools and solutions that would benefit them the most. It goes without saying that Paychex can automate your payroll runs and handle all of your tax filings. You are also gifted a mobile application where you can perform your payroll processes and allow your employees to use it as a self-service platform to retrieve their documents. You can pay your employees using either pay cards provided by Paychex, direct deposits, or physical checks.

Paychex will ensure your company's compliance in several ways, one of which is providing you with a labor compliance poster kit to display federal and state posters in your workspace, in addition to new-hire reporting, so you make sure you are always meeting the state requirements for new and rehired employees, and independent contractors.

Paychex also provides a benefits administration platform that connects you with top-tier national carriers with the aid of licensed agents of Paychex Insurance Agency. Your employees can build their own plans and manage their contributions; benefits plans include health insurance, tax-saving plans, health savings accounts, worker's compensation, and many more.

Moreover, Paychex offers you its own time and attendance software, Flex Time. It provides you with a variety of tools to manage your administrative services, your scheduling, communications, and reporting. Employees can record their working hours by clocking in and out using either Flex Time, web punch, a kiosk with facial integration, biometric iris scanners, and an interactive voice response system.

Paychex also offers some optional services at no extra cost, such as a financial wellness program to help your employees meet their financial goals, tax credit services that help you find and apply for tax credits, and finally, an employee assistance program to help your employees solve personal problems that may affect their performance at work.

Paychex's three subscription plans are as follows:

Paychex Flex Essentials - $39/month, + $5 per employee

Paychex Flex Select – Quote-based

Paychex Flex Pro – Quote-based

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3. Sage

Sage is our third recommendation for payroll software that may be beneficial for your business. It provides a complete set of human resources management system software and tools to fulfill the needs of small to medium-sized businesses.

First and foremost, Sage can automate your payroll runs, calculations, deductions, and tax filing, so you do not have to do these operations manually. It has an easy-to-use interface where you can streamline validating and importing time tracking data to sync with payroll calculations. It allows you to pay your employees with direct deposits, as well as Pay cards and checks.

Its time tracking software will provide you with payroll accuracy, which will save you money as you gain control of your attendance and labor data. For example, it can track the number of sick, vacation, and paid time off days each employee takes per year.

Sage's integrated HR tools allow you to automate workflows and eliminate duplicate data entry. Every HR-related service is streamlined with a unified platform where you can create digital forms and certificates, have your employees digitally sign them, and give them retrieval access at any time.

Furthermore, Sage provides you with an easy-to-use benefits management platform. A step-by-step wizard guide will walk you through the open enrollment process, and the software will automate your benefits carrier connectivity to provide your employees with clear information regarding their benefits plans.

Last but not least, Sage will keep you informed about employment laws, reporting rules, and developing workforce compliance issues to reduce your exposure risks to costly fines and keep your company compliant.

Sage's plans and prices are not advertised, as they are quote-based. So you will need to contact their team to get your best price and the human capital management package that suits your business most, so you only pay for what you need.

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