Best Payroll Vendors - 2023

The Best Payroll Vendors plus pricing guidelines, implementation advice and more!

Phil Strazzulla
HR Tech Expert, Harvard MBA, Software Enthusiast

Contributing Experts

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We spend all day researching the best HR software so you don’t have to.  We never take money from vendors during our research phase and rely heavily on experts to refine our recommendations.  We may earn a fee if you click on vendor links on this page. Learn more about SelectSoftware Reviews

The best payroll services don’t grow on trees, but that didn’t stop us from picking our top three! Deel, Remote and OnPay represent the best of the best of payroll services. Our selection criteria includes research results on ease of use, ROI, integrations, and much more.

While our top three are great picks for most companies, read on to be sure you get what’s right for your company. Learn how to isolate your company needs from “nice-to-haves”, then confidently pick the best payroll provider to match. Read on to make the right choice!

The Best Payroll and Benefits Software

Hand picked by our HR Technology experts after product testing, user research, and much debate - enjoy!

Deel is making waves in the payroll space, being one of the first companies to specialize in international payroll for remote teams.
Remote is a robust and modern platform specialized in HR, payroll, and benefits for, as their name suggests, remote-first teams.
We love OnPay because it takes less than one hour to setup and is the lowest cost option on the market.
Paycor is a robust and data-centric HCM for leaders at US-based companies that want their teams to save time with HR transactional tasks.
Rippling is a great choice for SMBs who want payroll to be a seamless and highly accurate process they don’t have to worry about.
ADP is a widely-trusted payroll solution that also offers many other HR tools if you need them. Their expertise is a good fit at SMBs but also enterprises.
PayChex is a top player in HR software for SMBs, with an offering that includes PEO, 401(k) management, benefits, and of course, easy payroll.
Quickbooks is a trusted name in financial tracking, payroll, expense reports, and even time and attendance software for small businesses.
Paycom offers online payroll services and HR software solutions for both big and small businesses to manage the entire employment life cycle.
Gusto recently an ATS to its features. It can handle job posting, syndication to job boards, interview notes, and basic scheduling – all within the Gusto platform. It is currently optimized for employers with “moderate” hiring needs, but they can help you determine whether their new native ATS or another within their ecosystem is right for you. The tool is promising and it operates well within the environment it, and, like the platform itself, has the uncanny feel of a product that is sound in its inception and sturdy in its architecture.
Zenefits is known for effortless payroll and a self-service experience that's intuitive and simple. They're also known for a full HRIS, benefits management, onboarding, and more.
Namely provides a quick and easy payroll solution with modern design and UX. Their all-in-one HR platform is designed to be used by everyone and made specifically with mid-sized companies in mind.
Paylocity is one of the top names in payroll for the US market. They're fit for many company sizes and industries. People love them for their great support and friendly approach.

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Introduction to Payroll and Benefits Software

Are you looking to upgrade your payroll vendor to a more automated and modern solution?  We've done hours of research to put together the below list of the best payroll vendors so that you can zero in on the solutions that make sense for your business. Please note, this list is really for companies that are less than 1,000 employees!

In addition to the best payroll software, we're also going to tell you a bit of advice around what to look for in these vendors, pitfalls that we've seen HR teams fall into, the key benefits, and some pricing guidelines.

We hope this is a useful resource as you look to pick the payroll company that is best for your business.

Our criteria: How we chose the best vendors

We take research seriously. To make sure we’re offering our readers the very best solutions in a given software category, we are methodical, rigorous, and expansive in our research. We consult with HR professionals, vendors, and industry experts. We cut through the noise to bring you a carefully curated list of vendors, along with other essential information, to help you find the right software platform for your business. 

Here’s how we chose who makes the cut: 

Product: We believe in gaining a comprehensive understanding of a product before we recommend it, so we start by getting to know the software. Whenever possible, we meet with a senior executive (CEO or Head of Product) for a demo and Q&A. We also test the product ourselves to make sure it has a solid UI, intuitive workflows, and the features to make it a best-in-class offering. 

User feedback: We go straight to the source and compile feedback on user experience. Real-world input supports our commitment to diligence in our software evaluation methods and the products we recommend. Keeping up with the everyday experience of HR pros also puts new vendors on our radar, and it keeps us close to our community so we can better connect the right products to the right people.

Financial metrics: We are certified finance nerds, so we use all the data we can get our hands on to make selections for our guides. We comb through data for concrete statistics like retention rates, growth, profitability, and scalability. We evaluate the bottom line of each product because we know making a software purchase can put your reputation on the line. 

Best for a use case: Software is never a one-size-fits-all product. Sometimes the best solution is free or cheap. Other times it’s the one that is best for global companies or the one that’s sized right for early-stage startups. Keeping this in mind, we include solutions across the spectrum so our readers can find the best fit for their unique needs.

Here's more detail if you want to read more about how we research vendors. Our dedicated staff writers rely on hard data, impartial experts, and user feedback to ensure our reviews are helpful, truthful, and hopefully a pleasure to read!

Top Payroll and Benefits Software for HR Teams

We track thousands of HRTech solutions, these are the best payroll software for HR per our research and expert council as of 2023.

Deel's payroll service software dashboard

Deel

Review:

With Deel, companies can hire employees in a multitude of countries without it getting messy. From the same dashboard, you can manage international payroll, benefits, taxes, and compliance in 150 countries.

Deel

Pricing:

A cool thing about Deel is that you can sign up for free and play around with the tool, not being charged until you pay your first team member. Once you do, pricing for Deel will vary as follows: 

  • Contractors: At $49 per contractor per month, Deel takes care of payroll and compliance for contracts in 150 countries. 
  • Full-time: From $500, this plan lets you hire full-time employees in a new country without having to set up a legal entity there. Deel becomes an Employer of Record and hires the employee for you.

A cool thing about Deel is that you can sign up for free and play around with the tool, not being charged until you pay your first team member. Once you do, pricing for Deel will vary as follows: 

  • Contractors: At $49 per contractor per month, Deel takes care of payroll and compliance for contracts in 150 countries. 
  • Full-time: From $500, this plan lets you hire full-time employees in a new country without having to set up a legal entity there. Deel becomes an Employer of Record and hires the employee for you.

Best For

Companies, big or small, who wish to stay compliant when hiring people in multiple countries.

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Remote's Payroll Service Dashboard

Remote

Review:

Remote fully owns local legal entities in all the countries they cover. Since they have no intermediaries to deal with, they’re able to offer more flexibility and speed at very interesting costs.

Their platform is a globally-distributed HR hub where you can process payroll, perform salary simulations, onboard new team members, manage benefits, and take care of most of the administrative tasks that come with having a distributed team.

Remote

Pricing:

Remote has four plans. “Contractors” lets you manage and pay global contract workers for free; you only pay for payment processing fees. Then, they have their “Global Employment” plan, which starts at $299 per employee per month. For the other two plans, “Payroll & Benefits” and “Global Employment Plus”, they offer customized pricing.

Remote has four plans. "Contractors" lets you manage and pay global contract workers for free; you only pay for payment processing fees. Then, they have their "Global Employment" plan, which starts at $299 per employee per month. For the other two plans, "Payroll & Benefits" and "Global Employment Plus", they offer customized pricing.

Best For

Remote-first teams

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OnPay's Payroll Software Dashboard

OnPay

Review:

OnPay is perfect for smaller companies (500 employees or less) who want a simple and straight-forward payroll process, plus help with HR. Onpay customers love the customer service and the transparent pricing - it’s one monthly fee for everything. They offer benefits management in all 50 states including medical, dental, vision, and 401k retirement plans.

OnPay

Pricing:

OnPay charges a base fee of $36, plus $4 per employee per month. They also offer a one month free trial.

OnPay charges a base fee of $36, plus $4 per employee per month. They also offer a one month free trial.

Best For

OnPay is a great solution for smaller, budget conscious companies that also want a basic HRIS in addition to payroll.

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Paycor's dashboard - one of the best payroll service

Paycor

Review:

Aside from having payroll, employee experience, recruiting, benefits, and performance management, Paycor stands out from most HCM and payroll vendors for having some of the most potent HR analytics out there. They provide a custom company dashboard that leaders can build out as they please, choosing from literally hundreds of reports such as headcount trends by employment time, projected headcount, and voluntary turnover by tenure, just to mention a few.

Paycor

Pricing:

Fees will vary depending on your number of employees and the modules you add.

Paycor's ACA Connect service is an add-on to their greater HR software. Therefore, you're paying for an entire HCM. The ACA is relevant only to companies with over 50 employees. This means you'll have to pay for their Mid-Market plan, which doesn't have listed prices online. You'll have to meet with their sales team to negotiate pricing. However, you do get the bonus of a free first three months.

Best For

Companies in the US with up to 1,000 employees, mainly in manufacturing, healthcare, food and beverage, non profits, and professional sport organizations.

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Rippling's Online Payroll Software Dashboad

Rippling

Review:

Rippling was started by Zenefits alumni. They focus on helping small and medium organizations extinguish HR and IT busywork with one solution. The tool is built to be used, with ease, across every department.

Their product aligns with what you’d expect from a Silicon Valley-based startup: a great UI, eye-catching design, and fast performance. Notably, they have over 500 integrations (and counting) so they are likely to be able to meet any team where they are at, technically speaking.

Rippling

Pricing:

Rippling’s pricing starts at $8 per month per user and will vary depending on which modules you’d like to use (or if you want the whole platform) and for how many people.

Get a quote

Rippling's Core HR platform starts at $8 per employee per month. Contact Rippling regarding a custom Spend Management quote.

Best For

SMBs with a strong need for automation in HR processes.

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ADP's business payroll service software dashboard

ADP

Review:

ADP is perhaps the best known company in the payroll space. Given their scale, they can offer just about everything your business needs when it comes to payroll and benefits.

ADP

Pricing:

Sometimes ADP has special offers, like getting 3 months free when you sign up for their small business payroll processing plan. However, they don't share the prices for their payroll packages, so you'd have to request a quote to move forward.

Custom pricing is available upon request of a demo for each specific product.

Best For

ADP can work for companies with less than 50 employees, less than 1,000, or those with well over a thousand team members.

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Paychex Payroll Software Dashboard screenshot

PayChex

Review:

Nearly 700,000 clients us PayChex to run their payroll, nearly all of them are less than 1,000 employees. Simply put, this is one of the largest providers in the space.

PayChex

Pricing:

PayChex's pricing is not provided on their website, but the process to get a quote is pretty quick and simple.

PayChex's pricing is not provided on their website, but the process to get a quote is pretty quick and simple.

Best For

Mainly, PayChex can handle payroll for SMBs.

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Quickbooks' payroll software dashboard

QuickBooks

Review:

Many small businesses use Quickbooks for their accounting and financial reporting. They know that small business owners may not have enough time to be doing payroll, so their solution focuses a lot on running things automatically and freeing up your time. The same goes for taxes, as they'll calculate, file, and pay your payroll taxes for you, in some cases.

QuickBooks

Pricing:

For payroll, Quickbooks has three plans:

  • Core: The basics to pay your team and have payroll taxes done for you at $22.50 per month
  • Premium: Manage your team's payroll with HR support and some employee services for $37.50 per month
  • Elite: This plan provides access to on-demand experts in order to simplify payroll to the max. It starts at $62.50 per month.

QuickBooks often offers discounts for its plans. They currently have a 50% discount on all plans for the first three months of subscription.

For payroll, Quickbooks has three plans:

  • Core: The basics to pay your team and have payroll taxes done for you at $22.50 per month
  • Premium: Manage your team's payroll with HR support and some employee services for $37.50 per month
  • Elite: This plan provides access to on-demand experts in order to simplify payroll to the max. It starts at $62.50 per month.

QuickBooks often offers discounts for its plans. They currently have a 50% discount on all plans for the first three months of subscription.

Best For

SMBs with a fairly simple payroll structure but little time to handle it all themselves.

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Paycom's payroll platform dashboard

Paycom

Review:

Paycom ensures your payroll is processed quickly and efficiently, so your efforts to attract, hire, engage and retain great employees aren’t blemished by errors. Besides payroll processing, the platform also offers features for expense management, tax management, garnishment administration and reporting.

Paycom

Pricing:

The pricing of Paycom’s plans isn’t disclosed upfront. Contact their sales team to get a custom quote.

The pricing of Paycom's plans isn't disclosed upfront. Contact their sales team to get a custom quote.

Best For

Paycom serves companies of all sizes across different verticals.

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Gusto

Review:

Gusto has done a great job avoiding a common software pitfall. Many good tech teams have fallen under the spell of the Shiny New Thing, and, in allowing themselves to be distracted and diluted, their core products and loyal customs suffer from neglect. Gusto has kept a steady pace through the years and their primary focus on payroll and benefits has not been clouded by impulsive building more features into their stack. Instead, they work with numerous integrated partners who take the wheel on new initiatives, letting Gusto stay in its lane.

Gusto

Pricing:

  • Simple: $40/month +$6/month/person
  • Plus: $60/month +$9/month/person (limited time sale)
  • Premium: call sales for customized plan options
  • Contractor only (no W-2 employees): $6/month/person
  • Simple: $40/month +$6/month/person
  • Plus: $60/month +$9 / month/person (limited-time sale)
  • Premium: call sales for customized plan options
  • Contractor only (no W-2 employees): $6/month/person

Best For

Even budget-strapped startups can afford Gusto’s basic plan, and for companies who have some bank capital to invest in human capital, the top-tier Premium plan is a great choice, especially if they have an HR department of one person.

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Zenefits payroll dashboard

Zenefits

Review:

Zenefits is best known for their product experience with an effortless payroll and a self-service benefits experience. They work with companies that are as small as 1-employee to companies with up to 1,000 employees.

Zenefits

Pricing:

Zenefits' Payroll tool starts at $6 per month per employee.

Zenefits starts with the following plans: 

  • Essentials: This plan costs $8 per employee per month and packs all of Zenefits’ core HR features, employee time and scheduling tools, 3rd party integrations, as well as access to Zenefits’ mobile app.
  • Growth: This plan costs $14 per employee per month and includes all of the features under the Essentials plan, plus compensation and performance management tools.
  • Zen: This plan costs $21 per employee per month and includes all of the features under the Growth plan, plus tools and services for employee well-being tracking, employee engagement surveys, as well as access to Zenefits’ People Hub, where employees and admins can communicate and collaborate directly in their HR system of record.

 In addition to the above, Zenefits offers the following add‑ons that can go on top of any of its base plans:

  • Payroll: $6 per employee per month.
  • Advisory services: $8 per employee per month.
  • Benefits administration (with your own broker): $5 per employee per month.

The Essentials plan features ACA compliance. If you have 50 employees, the ACA minimum, it will cost $400 per month at its least expensive. However, if you use your own insurance broker, it's an extra $5 per employee per month. They offer a free two week trial before you have to buy. 

Lastly, for larger businesses looking into Zenefits, Enterprise pricing is available upon request.

Best For

SMBs and companies with less than 1,000 team members.

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Namely's payroll dashboard

Namely

Review:

Namely’s HR software includes payroll and benefits functionality that also integrates into the rest of their HRIS. If you’re looking for a full HR software suite, check out Namely’s solution.

Namely

Pricing:

Namely's pricing is not provided on their website.

Custom pricing is available upon request of a demo. It will vary depending on which package you choose. They start with a basic HR package and then sell extensions or enhanced services for things like payroll solutions and employee benefits.

Best For

Namely is suitable for many company sizes, but it's best for those that would like more HR functions to be administered through the same tool.

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Paylocity Payroll Program dashboard

Paylocity

Review:

Paylocity is one of the largest payroll providers in the United States. Nearly 1/3 of their company is in R&D to continue to build a great product, and their average hold time for customer service is only 19 seconds! If you're looking to work with an established company, Paylocity is a great option.

Paylocity

Pricing:

The exact pricing for Paylocity's offering is not publicly-disclosed.

The exact pricing for Paylocity's offering is not publicly-disclosed.

Best For

Paylocity is used by small, medium, and large businesses in widely-varying industries, but mostly in the United States.

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Why use Payroll and Benefits Software?

There are a few apparent use cases for payroll and benefits software. However, we also wanted to explain some of the benefits that may not be quite as self-evident. Here is the “why” behind buying new payroll and benefits software:

  • Pain-free payroll: All of these solutions will handle running payroll for you in a streamlined way that reduces your time and effort. To teams using outdated systems or completing operations manually, this could mean hours or even days saved per pay period.
  • Simplify health benefits: These solutions guide you through the benefits selection process, sometimes with a trusted consultant who recommends packages that are a good fit for your company. Your employees are then able to choose which option is right for them during open enrollment, qualifying events, or onboarding.
  • Access to experts: Managing benefits and payroll internally can be complicated, especially if this is not the focus of your day to day. There are a wide range of regulations and requirements that you must be aware of and keep up-to-date with, as they can change frequently! To assist with this, the best benefits and payroll solutions not only offer day-to-day customer support, but also will work closely with you when making strategic decisions and throughout regulatory updates.
  • Access to better health plans: The best payroll and benefits solutions provide you with greater access to competitive benefits plans so that you can create a package that makes the most sense for your employees. You will also be able to more easily compare plans from different providers and therefore ensure you have selected the best package for your business’s needs.
  • Cost effective: Using an external vendor for payroll and benefits will help decrease the number of employees you need dedicated to this function, and help save on costs in technology, support, and training.
  • Save time: On average, over 20% of small businesses spend 120+ hours on dealing with federal employee taxes alone. And there are only so many hours in the day. Small and medium businesses that arm themselves with the right solution to handle payroll and efficiently manage benefits save a lot of time, resulting in their ability to better allocate time to their core business and product.
  • Ease of use: Software solutions today are serious about their product experience. They have built their platforms with their various end users in mind and provide them with a simple to use, mobile friendly and feature rich experience.  Your employees can now look up co-pays on mobile when at the doctor, or request time off in given pay period.
  • Increase employee retention: Benefits and payroll are paramount to retaining your employees. With greater access to a wide range of health, dental, and vision insurance, plus retirement plans such as 401k and 529 savings plans, you will be able to assure that your employees are taken care of when in need which influences employee retention.
  • Aids in your talent strategy: Attract talent by offering the best and most comprehensive benefits packages. In a recent survey, AICPA found that 80% of those surveyed would choose a role with a comprehensive benefits package versus a position with a much higher salary but no benefits.
  • Enhanced security benefits: Most top payroll and benefits vendors will have high levels of security that contemplate HIPPA and have varying levels of SOC compliance.
  • Compliance guarantee: The IRS has stated that an estimated 40% of small and medium businesses are fined for late or incorrect filings and payments. Payroll and benefits software have access to the most up-to-date information which means that you never have to worry about missing tax notices and other regulatory notices. This is a huge benefit as you will help protect your company and reduce your risk of compliance related expenditures.

Pro Tips on Best Payroll and Benefits Software

Some Pitfalls to Avoid

There are pitfalls that we’ve identified to help you avoid during the entire decision making process and implementation:

  • Choose a payroll service that has a track record for serving companies of your size.
  • Remember, change management requires a team effort. You may need to involve a few different teams during the buying and implementation process including your operations, HR/recruiting, information technology, and communications teams.
  • Core features that you probably already have and that employees/HR are used to, like direct deposit, automated pay stub distribution, and payroll taxes need to be in any future offering you use.
  • Don’t forget about integrations! We’ve mentioned a few that you may want to consider in our demo questions.
  • Make sure the vendor that you choose can operate in all of your office locations (don’t forget your remote employees).
  • Documentation is paramount - get your ducks in a row in advance to help streamline implementation and prevent any delays or impact on employees.
  • Choose a vendor that is compliant with the most recent regulations and that takes data privacy very seriously. HIPAA and tax payment violations can be extremely costly.
  • If you already have your own insurance broker with whom you like to work, make sure that your new vendor allows for this - not all of them do and those that do may charge an additional fee.
  • If you are moving to benefits with a provider, do not forget to report any employees who are on COBRA to the new provider and make sure to ask if they assist in COBRA administration.
  • Lastly, choose a vendor that you can grow with. Make sure that the vendor is confident in their ability to work with you based on your targeted employee growth rates as a company.

ROI of the right Payroll and Benefits Solution

While there are costs associated with these tools, the rationale for partnering with the right vendor is pretty clear.  The average salary for a benefits administrator is ~$50,000 per year and a payroll administrator’s average salary is also about $50,000 per year.  The ability to remove one to two FTEs from your headcount at these rates will pay for your solution several times over.

At some point you may want to move more of your payroll and HR in house, but this doesn’t happen for most organizations until they hit 500 employees.  When you hit a milestone like this, it’s best to re-evaluate where you are and what makes sense for your human resource function.

Payroll Services Pricing

Pricing for payroll and benefits providers is typically priced per employee per month. Therefore, larger organizations should expect to pay more. Pricing also depends on the feature set you are looking for. Only running payroll and benefits is far more affordable than adding on employee onboarding, and other feature sets typically found in a more robust HRIS including an employee directory, performance management, etc. So, there is typically a base price that grows with more features.

See below for an example pricing chart that includes a base monthly price for a few company sizes. Most providers have multiple base plans with add-on options. Contracts are typically monthly or annual (annual contracts will include a discount on pricing). Please note that this is an example only and you should consult with each vendor as there are many factors that go into pricing for your specific use (*These examples do not include benefits premiums.) Two last points, you can many times negotiate away the initial setup fee, and some vendors will be beyond these ranges (PEOs, full HCM suite) - but you get what you pay for so don’t be turned off initially by much larger price ranges for a given vendor.

Payroll Software Pricing Guidelines

Number of Employees

Estimated Annual Cost

10$2,000
100$15,000
1,000$50,000
10,000$150,000

*Note: Some vendors charge a base monthly rate plus a monthly rate per employee. Others charge only a monthly rate per employee. As you grow, the per employee rate may decrease depending on vendor.

Lastly, make sure you ask about any other fees that will come up during the course of the year.  Some vendors charge for filing W-9s and 1099s - and these costs can add up!

Key Features of Payroll Software

The majority of the top rated benefits and payroll vendors provide feature-rich offerings that are wrapped into an intuitive user experience. Business owners and HR teams alike need to be aware of these key features. While we’ve focused on payroll and benefits, there are additional add-ons that you may also be interested in, especially if you do not currently have another solution in place. Many of these also map to the demo questions we have suggested below:

Payroll Features:

  • Automated and Unlimited Payroll Runs (plus contractor & vendor payments, tips reporting)
  • Off-Schedule Payroll Runs
  • All Tax Filing/Payments
  • Multiple Pay-Rates and Schedules
  • Reporting including Year-end Payroll Reporting
  • Direct deposit

Employee Benefits Features:

  • Employee Self-Service (including self-service benefits enrollment and changes)
  • Benefits Administration & COBRA administration (Health, Dental, Vision)
  • Additional Benefits Options including 401k/retirement, life insurance & disability, FSA, HSA, commuter and additional supplemental benefits

Other Important Features:

  • Time Tracking & Paid Time Off
  • HR Documentation & PTO Policies
  • Employee Directory & Surveys
  • Workers’ Compensation & Risk Mitigation
  • New Hire Onboarding
  • HR Expertise (varied based on level)
  • Online Resource Center (best practices, FAQs, and more)
  • Mobile Friendly and/or Mobile App

Choosing the right vendor - questions to ask on demos

Once you have chosen a few vendors to demo, it is imperative to ask pertinent questions. Here is a list of questions we think you should ask on demos.

Support:

  • Who will be on my support team during implementation, how will that change after I’m setup?
  • What the the specific steps our company will have to go through to get this setup and how long does each take?
  • What internal stakeholders do I need to bring into this?
  • What are the support SLAs?
  • How big is your biggest customer and how small is your smallest customer? What is the size of your average customer?
  • What are the most common reasons that companies don’t succeed?
  • How will our pricing change as we scale?

Tech & Security:

  • Can you walk me through the typical workflows that HR would go through?  Employees?
  • What is the mobile experience for HR and employees?
  • What’s on your product roadmap?
  • Do you support multi-factor authentication?
  • Do you support single-sign-on?
  • Are you SOC 2 compliant?
  • What is your security audit process?
  • How do you keep our data safe?

Regulatory & Compliance:

  • Do you have a regulatory compliance team?
  • Who handles regulatory updates for taxes, HR, or benefits?
  • How will I get updated on regulatory changes relevant to my business?
  • Do you handle payroll in my state (within U.S.)?
  • Do you handle international payroll (if you operate internationally)?
  • Are you GDPR compliant?
  • How are tax filings handled?  Is there an extra charge for this?
  • Do you handle new hire onboarding reporting and forms?
  • Are you ACA compliant? What about HIPAA and ERISA?
  • How will you handle benefits for my employees in different states and, if applicable, remote employees?
  • How can my accountant or finance team access the relevant files?

Integrations and Process:

  • Is your offering full-service payroll or a tool that I will use to run my own payroll?
  • How are payroll taxes handled? How are tax forms generated?
  • What standard integrations do you support? Do you integrate to my existing technologies (accounting software, HRIS, ATS)?  
  • How will direct deposit work with our employee bank accounts?

Payroll Services Implementation

The great part about moving forward with one of our top picks is that they make it quite simple for you to get up and running (especially for small businesses). If you are switching from one software to another, or if this is your first time, you will have slightly different implementation processes.

Timelines will depend on how readily available your relevant documents may be (such as employee information like names, departments, positions, salary information, etc.) and how many employees you have. The smaller the company, the quicker the implementation.

Sample documentation that will be required can include:

  • Basic company information such as your EIN (employer identification number)
  • Basic employee information such as employees’ names, SSNs (social security numbers), mailing addresses, and salaries
  • Payroll and taxes information that you’ve already paid for the year (if you are switching providers mid-year)

Thus, implementation could take as little as one day for small businesses, or for larger companies, a couple of weeks.

The identified vendors all include implementation services and can assist in guiding you through this process. Once you’re a customer, they have a very strong incentive to make sure you are successful and will do whatever it takes to get you through the process expeditiously.

Payroll Software FAQs

What is payroll software?

Payroll software is a solution designed to manage, automate, record and organize payment of a company’s employees. 

What is benefits software?

Benefits software is a solution designed to take over all administrative benefits tasks, including managing and organizing health insurance, retirement programs, time off and leave. 

Can my company do payroll and benefits without software?

Yes, your company can process payroll and benefits without the assistance of software. However, manually taking care of payroll and benefits requires a lot of time and effort. On average, over 20% of small businesses spend 120+ hours dealing just with federal employee taxes. That’s before even considering benefits management. That time is better spent perfecting your business or product, therefore automating payroll is a worthy investment. 

Do software providers offer both payroll and benefits software together?

Yes, many payroll vendors offer a benefits solution and vice versa.

Final Advice on Buying Payroll Software

For most HR teams, it’s a matter of who to partner with, not if it should be explored in the first place.  Partnering with a top payroll and benefits solution can save your team a lot of time and money.  Our hope is that this page will arm you with the information you need to make the right decision, and guide you towards the top vendors in the space.

From here, we’d then advise that you jump into demos with 2-3 vendors to get started.  Remember to stay organized as you tick through the feature sets that matter to you on demos.  Good luck and let us know how it goes!

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