To further evaluate your payroll needs, answer these ten questions about your business and its payroll system. the historical cost principle and business accounting Paycor’s pay run window shows at a glance all the details of the run and employees who are currently on leave. Wave Payroll’s straightforward payroll timesheets show pay numbers for hourly and salaried workers. Overall, though the interface is cluttered, everything I needed was easy to find. Nothing I experienced was particularly confusing, but some tasks were a bit more labor-intensive than I preferred.

Justworks offers two PEO plans, plus a couple of add-ons to expand your chosen plan’s functionality. However, I noticed that payroll and adding new team members, in particular, require a lot of manual data entry upfront. In addition, customization of reporting, templates and the dashboard is limited. The company’s automations ripple across the system so all parts of the software, from its IT and Financial Cloud to its HR and payroll features, are always in sync. When a company keeps everything internal, these types of risks tend to go down. Deel provided us with the convenience of being able to pay all our employees in literally one click.

Payroll services designed for your business

Payroll service providers only handle making payments to your employees. Some mistakenly believe outsourcing payroll services include HR services that help you hire new people, but HR and payroll outsourcing are different. Human resources can be outsourced to a separate service, and while some companies offer both (like Deel), a payroll company only handles payroll. We tested first-hand the usability of the products and the responsiveness of the vendors. In total, we identified nine best payroll services for small businesses that offer an affordable way to run payroll while making the information easy for employees to access and minimizing payroll administration. Check out the rest of our list for more service providers that may meet the needs of your business.

Remain Aware of Regulations and Tax Burdens

It even keeps track of payroll law changes by state and adjusts your withholdings and payments accordingly to ensure you are in compliance. And, if the IRS has any questions and sends you an inquiry, RUN by ADP will handle this communication on your behalf. When you sign up to process your payroll using Paychex Flex, you also access the platform’s Taxpay service.

1. Everything included in our “Select” package and streamline benefits administration with time-saving technology.
2. When running payroll, it allows you to take into account wage garnishments and time-off requests.
3. At the very least, outsourcing payroll lets you offload this crucial task without needing to hire your own expert with a full-time salary.
4. Employees can enter expenses from the app, where managers can then approve them.

Lower costs

Yes, they can, and it’s one of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your payroll to a payroll service provider. Engaging a PEO will also provide you with HR services such as benefits, compliance, and risk management in addition to handling payroll processing, deductions, and reporting tasks. PEOs are suitable to businesses of all sizes as they have the flexibility and expertise to handle the different legal jurisdictions and tax laws. One alternative to outsourcing is using payroll software that automates much of the payroll processing. While this may not fully free you from dealing with payroll issues, it could simplify preparing and issuing paychecks and direct deposits. Review software alternatives before selecting an outside company to handle payroll and benefits.

To determine the best payroll services for small businesses, Forbes Advisor researched the industry and analyzed 23 different companies and their plans. We then scored these contenders across 34 metrics in five categories weighted to favor features that small business owners find valuable in a payroll provider. Here’s a breakdown of the categories we used to rank the providers that made the top of the list. Key Paycor features include its payroll processing tools, tax compliance services, mobile wallet (complete with a self-serve mobile portal) and expense tracking and reimbursement tools. Through Wave Payroll, you can pay employees and contractors via direct deposit and automatically generate W-2 and 1099 forms for tax season. It takes care of payroll tax payment and filing in 14 states (and growing) and offers a self-service employee portal for easy access to tax documents and banking and contact updates.

And they cover needs ranging from hiring and onboarding to benefits to payroll and beyond. Put simply, the brand has a lot in common with the list entries above. Sometimes, you just need someone to take a few things off your hands. Business activities like running payroll are, obviously, a bit more involved and sensitive than, say, having someone run your personal mail to the post office.

Ask potential providers how they guard all the sensitive data they handle and don’t settle for platitudes. Wherever money is being handled and transferred between two parties, there’s always the risk of fraud. And it’s not just theft — you also need to consider your employees’ sensitive data and ensure you’re complying with local data privacy laws.