bad) you are at math: every small-business owner, from a freelance copywriter to a neighborhood grocer, can adjust to QuickBooks Online’s platform without much stress, and the same holds true for QuickBooks Payroll. QuickBooks scores big on user friendliness-the software’s point is to simplify accounting for non-accountants. Plenty of other payroll services will give you HR help and a tax penalty guarantee for way less than $125 a month. Our take? Core and Premium have some perks, especially for existing QuickBooks users, but stay away from QuickBooks Elite. The fact that QuickBooks offers the guarantee with only their most expensive plan (a plan that doesn’t have many extra services to warrant the cost), is both strange and frustrating.
#Intuit quickbooks desktop payroll plus
Sounds great, right? It definitely is-but a lot of services offer a tax penalty guarantee for plans that cost substantially less than $125 a month plus $10 per employee. QuickBooks will also intervene in any payroll tax filing issues, dealing directly with the IRS on your behalf. With QuickBooks’ guarantee, they’ll pay up to $25,000 a year plus interest if you incur any IRS fines. Most importantly, though, it’s the only QuickBooks Online Payroll plan to include a tax penalty guarantee. It comes with a personal HR advisor, time tracking, and additional customer service. Still, if you think that’s expensive, check out the Elite plan, which (in our opinion) is out of range for most small and midsize businesses.Įlite starts at a whopping $125 a month and an extra $10 per payee.
but the $8 additional cost is much higher than most other payroll providers charge for their mid-tier payroll services. At this price, Premium makes the most sense for midsize business owners. The Premium plan starts at $75 and doubles Core’s per-employee price to $8. Premium also bumps up next-day direct deposit to same-day direct deposit, which means you can run payroll later in the week without worrying that your employees won’t get paid on time. They won’t throw the service in unless you ask, so make sure to do so, especially if you’re importing employee information from your old payroll provider. Note that to get expert help setting up your account, you must directly request it for QuickBooks. Expert setup review, meaning a QuickBooks expert will review your information for accuracy after you set up your account.Easy time tracking through TSheets, a mobile app for employees to clock in and out anywhere.QuickBooks Payroll’s Premium plan gets you all of Core’s features plus some key additions: But QuickBooks’ cost-per-employee fee is just $4 with Core (that’s $2 cheaper than Gusto), so if you have only a handful of employees, you could end up saving more with QuickBooks than with Gusto. Even with Core, you can see multiple payroll reports, including contractor payment history and bank transactions.Ĭore isn’t as comprehensive as some other basic payroll plans, including Gusto’s Core plan, which starts at $39 and includes features like workers compensation coverage. Pay special attention to that final bullet point: not all basic payroll plans include access to reports, but QuickBooks has always been at the top of the reporting game. Health benefits through SimplyInsured (not available in DC, VT, and HI).Automatic payroll runs (if all employees are salaried and use direct deposit).Wage garnishment and deduction management.Employee self-service for accessing W-2 forms, PTO accruals, and pay stubs.Automatic federal and state payroll tax filing.Core, starting at $45 a month, helps small-business owners manage payroll basics: