Looking for the all-things-guide around payroll software for small businesses? Then, this is it. You have found the right page. Such software is essential for small businesses as they contribute payroll to more than a third of the private sector. This is a significant amount, which we can’t ignore.
Did you know that around 30% of small businesses make payroll errors? To us, it is an alarming rate. On the other hand, small organizations that use software for payroll for small businesses avoid these errors.
Why is Payroll Essential for Small Businesses?
Payroll with or without the software for payroll for HR is an important aspect of running a small business. Simply put, it’s the backbone, which keeps everything in the enterprise standing straight and running smoothly. To summarize, how you process your payroll can make or break your day-to-day operations. Here are a few reasons why.
- Efficiently processing payroll is essential for filing taxes as per the federal law of your state or nation.
- It helps in correctly compensating your employees, resulting in higher employee retention rates.
- Correctly paying the salaries and bonuses of employees leads to better work performance as employees get the motivation to earn more.
- Efficient payroll also ensures that you don’t go bankrupt, as it ensures optimal expenses and financial management.
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Challenges of Manual Payroll Processing
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So now we know why payroll is important for small enterprises. However, processing it without small business payroll software can have dire consequences. So, let’s take a look at these 5 disadvantages of manual payroll processing.
1. Manual Attendance Tracking
Without payroll processing software, you will also have no choice but to manually track employee attendance. A thing to remember about employee attendance is that it is uncertain. You will have to account for many things, which is a lot of work, including:
- Emergency leaves
- Paid and unpaid vacations
- Half days
- Casual leaves
- Resignations and terminations
You can make many errors here, including still paying a terminated employee because you forgot to cross off their name from the payroll list. Overall, this is just one of the many issues without payroll software for small businesses.
2. Inefficient Calculations
Without the right software for payroll for small businesses, the possibility of inefficiencies and errors in calculations increases by up to 69%. Plus, around 60% of small businesses face payroll fluctuations according to the no. of employees they hire.
3. Security Issues
Without payroll software for small businesses, up-and-coming enterprises will have serious security issues with their data. Here’s why.
- Storing the personal information of your employees in paper copies or Excel sheets is not at all secure.
- Failing to protect sensitive data can decrease or eliminate the trust your employees have in you.
- Manual payroll processing increases the chance of confidential data leaking. You don’t want this information to fall into the wrong hands. Don’t you?
4. Costly
Let’s consider not using small business software with payroll for a moment. You can hire an entire payroll team. However, won’t that be expensive? Even large enterprises don’t do such a thing these days.
5. Documenting Issues
Even a small business has at least 10-49 employees, which is seemingly a lot. Especially when it comes to documentation. Without the right software for payroll:
- Documenting your employees will consume a lot of time.
- Paper files can get lost due to any major or minor handling mistakes.
- Re-documenting lost information adds more unnecessary time to the work.
- There are also high chances of errors in documentation, which can lead to non-compliance fines and penalties.
What is Payroll Software for Small Businesses?
So now you know the need for software for payroll for small businesses and HR. However, what is it? Simply put, a payroll software solution is a feature-rich, advanced digital solution that simplifies and accrues your payroll processes via automation. What it does is:
- Streamline payroll management and other functions.
- Automates and accrues payroll calculations.
- Secures employee information.
- Helps you adhere to compliance standards, labor laws, and regulations.
- Saves valuable time for your HRs to attend to other crucial matters.
Features and Benefits of Payroll Software for Small Businesses
So now you know what small business payroll software does. However, how does it do it? Let’s take a look at the 6 features and benefits.
1. Automated Payroll Processing
As the name suggests, payroll software automates all the payroll calculations. This not only saves time but also provides you with accurate results. Overall, it eliminates the issue of recalculations and checks.
2. Employee Self-Service Dashboards
In a usual case scenario, employees storm HR offices with many questions regarding their salaries, pending leaves, bonuses, and other queries, wasting time. Payroll software for small businesses provides your employees with self-service dashboards, where they can track and manage all their information.
3. Accounting Software Integration
A good thing about payroll software for businesses is that it can also integrate with your accounting software. What this does is:
- Brings accounting and payroll together on a single platform.
- Streamlines the entire accounting and payroll process.
- Adds additional functionality to the software.
4. Security and Compliance
What we like about software for payroll is that it also provides you with excellent security features to keep your confidential and personal employee data safe. Plus, the software also helps you stay updated with the latest compliance standards, labor laws, and regulations.
5. Seamless Scaling
Your small enterprise will surely grow into a medium-scale one and then become a large business. So will your payroll software. It means that you can:
- Add and remove features as per your changing requirements.
- Allow more integrations.
- Frequently update and upgrade the software to meet your new requirements.
6. Customizable
You can customize the features as per your varying business requirements to get the best output. Software personalization can be done:
- Based on business size.
- As per the number, size, and diversity of your teams.
- According to your needs, goal settings, targets, and objectives.
Steps to Choose the Best Payroll Software for Your Business
Although small business payroll software is affordable, you can’t just pick any software and hope it works as per your requirements and goal settings. Fortunately, choosing the right solution for payroll takes only a few steps.
1. Cost Analysis
Although software for payroll for small businesses is affordable, you still need to evaluate the costs involved. It is essential to determine the return on investment to select the best software. Furthermore, having a budget ensures that you don’t spend all your profits on mere software.
2. Requirement Analysis
What will the payroll software for small businesses automate for you? Which features and functions do you require? What is the expected boost in accuracy? Answering such questions will help you make a better shortlist of the best-fit options.
3. Essential Features Check
The next step in selecting the best software for payroll for your organization is feature analysis. Here, you will need to check for the required features and their scalability levels.
4. Shortlisting
Now that we are done checking the features, costs, and requirement analysis, you can make a list of the best payroll software for businesses. So far, if you have done everything right, your list will only have a few best-fit options as per your needs.
5. Get a Free Trial
Now that we have a shortlist of the best software for payroll, we can get down to business. Availing of free trials ensures that:
- Whether the software will work as per your diverse requirements or not.
- It helps you cut off software solutions that aren’t the best fit.
Top 10 Payroll Software for Small Businesses
Unless you have a dedicated team for it, it’s wise to choose the best payroll software from expert shortlists. Otherwise, it will waste your time, contrary to the purpose for which you are looking for tools for payroll automation.
- DeskTrack
- Deel
- Rippling
- Paycor
- Remofirst
- RUN Powered by ADP
- myHR Partner
- OnPay
- Xero
- Paychex Flex
1. DeskTrack
DeskTrack is more than just small business payroll software. It’s an integration of intuitive employee monitoring, project management, productivity tracking, and time tracking features. In our opinion, DeskTrack is the best for your remote, field, and in-office teams and employees.
| Best For | Most Affordable Paid Plan | User Rating |
| Best overall | $5.99/user/month | 5/5 |
2. Deel
Deel is a cloud-based software for payroll for small businesses, which claims to be ideal for businesses of all sizes. What we like about it is that it lets you hire additional workforce from anywhere, hassle-free. I.e., the software will take care of local laws, international payroll, and tax systems.
| Best For | Most Affordable Paid Plan | User Rating |
| Global payroll service with free HR tools | $5/employee/month | 4.8/5 |
3. Rippling
Rippling is the payroll software for small businesses, best known for workflow and payment templates. It’s a global tool that lets you pay international employees and contractors worldwide. Furthermore, you can send payments via checks or direct deposits, which is a convenient feature.
| Best For | Most Affordable Paid Plan | User Rating |
| Workflow and payment templates | Quote on contact | 4.8/5 |
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4. Paycor
Paycor is one of the leading human resource tools and the best software for payroll for small businesses for automating processes. The best thing about Paycor is the integration with accounting and 401K software solutions, allowing you to manage payroll and employee benefits without any difficulties.
| Best For | Most Affordable Paid Plan | User Rating |
| Single solution for payroll and benefits management | Quote on contact | 4.1/5 |
5. Remofirst
Remofirst is one of the best small business payroll software for employee benefits management. The software is most effective for your global and remote teams. However, what we like about Remofirst is that it also provides you with a complete HRIS.
| Best For | Most Affordable Paid Plan | User Rating |
| Global workforce payroll management and EOR system | $25/user/month | 4.4/5 |
6. RUN Powered by ADP
RUN from ADP is an HR and small business payroll software that offers quick and accurate payroll and tax services for small businesses. Plus, it also helps you adhere to federal and state tax laws.
| Best For | Most Affordable Paid Plan | User Rating |
| Automating payroll processes | Quote on contact | 4.5/5 |
7. myHR Partner
myHR Partner is all about tailor-made HR solutions and payroll software. It provides you with a plethora of features, including payroll management, compliance management, and benefits administration.
| Best For | Most Affordable Paid Plan | User Rating |
| Personalized payroll administration | Quote on contact | 4.8/5 |
8. OnPay
Looking for payroll for small businesses software for handling tax filings? We recommend OnPay. Thanks to its automated tax filing feature, it will manage your federal, local, and state taxes.
| Best For | Most Affordable Paid Plan | User Rating |
| Automated tax filings | $49/month base fee + $6/user/month | 4.8/5 |
9. Xero
Xero is one of the best small business payroll software for enterprises that want and need simple features. Plus, the best part is that it’s primarily a cloud-based accounting software, meaning that you won’t have to look anywhere else for additional accounting features.
| Best For | Most Affordable Paid Plan | User Rating |
| Businesses that want simple features | $2.90/month | 4.4/5 |
10. Paychex Flex
This software for payroll for HR on our list lets you run your payroll on desktops and smartphones. What makes this one unique is that you can submit payroll to one of its specialists for hands-free payroll checks, approvals, and submissions via the voice assist feature.
| Best For | Most Affordable Paid Plan | User Rating |
| Hands-free payroll reviews and approvals | Quote on contact | 4.2/5 |
Why is DeskTrack the Best Payroll Software Integration?
As we mentioned before, DeskTrack is more than just software for payroll for small business automation. It is the best, most affordable, and intuitive time tracking, employee monitoring, productivity monitoring, and project management integration with these helpful features, tools, and functionalities:
- Seamless integrations with the other tools and apps you use, including accounting software.
- Direct transmission of employee work hours for faster and more accurate payroll processing.
- Real-time and automated detailed analysis and reporting, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is Small Business Software with Payroll?
Ans. Small business software with payroll is a feature-rich digital solution that helps small businesses eliminate payroll errors with automated processing and simplification. It helps you streamline payroll management and comply with the latest labor laws, tax rules, and standards.
Q. What are the Benefits of Using Software for Payroll for HR?
Ans. Using software tools for payroll automation provides you with many advantages, including:
- Automated Payroll Processing
- Employee Self-Service Dashboards
- Accounting Software Integration
- Seamless Scaling
- Customizable
- Remote Access
Q. Which are the Best Software Solutions for Payroll?
Ans. To help you choose the best software for payroll for your small business, we have shortlisted the best options for you.
- DeskTrack
- Deel
- Rippling
- Paycor
- Remofirst
- RUN Powered by ADP
- myHR Partner
- OnPay
- Xero
- Paychex Flex
