With additional features like time tracking and tax penalty protection, QuickBooks Payroll allows you to create a flexible work environment for your employees, ensuring you won’t have to spend excess fees to get to that point. 

QuickBooks Payroll Compared

QuickBooks Payroll did make it onto our top list for being the best payroll service for small teams and solopreneurs. However, the best online payroll service for most people is Gusto because of its ability to provide excellent features for dispersed workforces. Sign up for Gusto today, with pricing plans starting at just $46 per month. 

Want to read more about the top best online payroll services? We reviewed dozens of options and narrowed it down to the top five. If you want to scope out all of your options, see all of our top picks here.

• Gusto — Best for dispersed workforces
• Paychex — Best for experienced payroll teams
• OnPay — Best for simplifying all things payroll
• QuickBooks Payroll — Best for solopreneurs and small teams
• ADP — Best for never outgrowing your payroll provider

About QuickBooks Payroll

QuickBooks Payroll is an affordable service for small teams because of its features. You don’t have to worry about paying for functionality you will never use. QuickBooks Payroll aims to provide a hassle-free payroll service by automating your entire payment process. 

• QuickBooks Payroll Online Payroll Services Review

With that said, QuickBooks Payroll offers products and services in additional areas, including accounting, bookkeeping, payments, time tracking, and ecommerce. 

QuickBooks Payroll Health and Stability

QuickBooks Payroll is a byproduct organization of Intuit, which is a business software company specializing in financial software. QuickBooks was first founded in 1983 and is a privately held company. 

While there’s not much public information on QuickBooks Payroll, Intuit is an incredibly stable company, raising more than $18.9 million in three funding rounds, with investments from Kleiner Perkins, Sierra Ventures, and Technology Venture Investors. 

Today, QuickBooks employs more than 100 people across the United States, and Intuit employs more than 14,000 across the globe. With a 4.4-star rating on Glassdoor, it seems Intuit cultivates a diverse culture across its businesses, including at QuickBooks. 

QuickBooks Payroll Pricing

QuickBooks Payroll currently has two different pricing packages. One is an individual payroll solution and the other is a payroll and accounting bundle. It also has separate pricing packages for additional features, like time tracking. 

QuickBooks Payroll Pricing Structure

QuickBooks Payroll’s pricing structure for its payroll solutions and bundle packaging is on a per-employee-per-month basis. For example, to benefit from its individual payroll Core package, you will need to pay a base rate of $45 per month, with an additional $5 per employee, per month. 

This pricing structure is the same across the board for most QuickBooks Payroll products, except for its payment, bookkeeping, and ecommerce products, which are consultation and fee-based pricing structures instead. 

QuickBooks Payroll Pricing Comparison

QuickBooks Payroll is an affordable solution compared to other payroll services on the market today. While it doesn’t have one-off pricing for an all-in-one platform, it still offers great value for money for small teams. For the sake of these comparisons, we will be discussing pricing for QuickBooks Payroll’s individual payroll solution. 

Compared to other online payroll services, QuickBooks Payroll can be a little more expensive, depending on the company you compare it to. For example, Gusto’s starting price is $40 per month plus $6 per month per person—and while QuickBooks Payroll’s per person rate is cheaper by $1, Gusto’s base fee is $5 less, making it a more affordable alternative overall. 

With that said, OnPay offers the same rate as Gusto, but only for the first month. After the first month, OnPay will expect you to pay a $46 per month base fee for one person, and this jumps up to $100 per month for up to 10 people. 

QuickBooks Payroll Trials and Guarantees

QuickBooks Payroll permanently offers a 50% off deal for three months if you purchase a plan immediately. However, it also has a 30-day free trial, but you will have to pay full price after the 30 days.

QuickBooks Payroll Online Payroll Services Review

Compared to other online payroll services, QuickBooks Payroll stands out for its ability to cater to small teams efficiently. With same-day deposits and tax penalty protection, you can automate your processes with ease. 

The best part about QuickBooks Payroll is that it can scale to growing businesses because of its bundled pricing packages. To read more about QuickBooks Payroll’s competitors and how they stack up against each other, check out our top picks for online payroll services. 

What Makes QuickBooks Payroll Online Payroll Services Great

• Small-team-friendly services: QuickBooks Payroll is the perfect solution for small teams or solopreneurs because it has great value for money. Its Core plan only starts at $22.50 per month or $45 per month without the 30-day free trial, plus $5 per employee, and covers the foundational aspects of an intuitive and effective payroll service. For the above price, you will receive a full-service, unlimited auto payroll, next-day direct deposit, 1099 e-file and pay, and expert product support. You can also expect automated taxes, workforce portal, payroll reports, and garnishment management—which is more than most services offer on the market today. 
• Tax penalty protection: The best feature of QuickBooks Payroll is its tax penalty protection system. If you ever receive a federal, state, or local tax penalty for up to $25,000 due to an error, QuickBooks Payroll will resolve it and reimburse the cost, as long as you send a notice within 15 days of receiving the penalty. While this feature is only available to Elite tier users, it’s still a valuable feature that most mid to large-sized businesses can benefit from. However, if the tax agency refunds you for a tax penalty that QuickBooks Payroll ended up reimbursing, you will need to reimburse QuickBooks instead. 
• Same-day deposits: Most employees would prefer to be paid sooner rather than later. Luckily, with QuickBooks Payroll, you can run payroll and have your employees paid on the exact same day with its same-day deposits feature. The feature is super simple to set up, as all you have to do is select the employees you wish to pay, set your schedule, and run payroll. The only requirement is that you process your payroll before 7am PST on payday, and QuickBooks will handle the rest. 
• Ease of use: Many reviewers are happy to continue using QuickBooks Payroll because of how easy it is to use. Most users claim that the interface is simple to navigate because every aspect is organized and easy to access. Many areas in the QuickBooks Payroll platform can be automated, and it has many drop-down menus and customizable functionalities that will slightly enhance the solution to suit your business needs better. 
• Simplified time tracking: QuickBooks Premium and Elite plans come with QuickBooks Time, which lets your employees track their hours, clock in and out, switch jobs, or make edits. Managers can track, submit, and approve employee time, while GPS tracking helps your employees stay accountable for their hours and makes it even easier to see the overall status of your workforce. QuickBooks’ powerful time tracking feature can help you save an average of 4% on payroll costs by streamlining your workflow and improving billing and invoicing—especially with scheduling, smart reporting, and intuitive alerts. 

Where QuickBooks Payroll Online Payroll Services Fall Short

• Limited integrations: Unlike other online payroll services, QuickBooks Payroll doesn’t have as many integrations that will enhance the platform. QuickBooks Payroll only integrates with a handful of applications, including SimplyInsured, Guideline, Mineral, Inc., and other Intuit products. If you want extra customization, you will have to purchase QuickBooks Online, which is a separate product. 
• Lackluster customer support: After reading dozens of user reviews, the most prominent complaint trend I found involved QuickBooks’ customer support. Many reviewers claimed that it was difficult to contact a representative, and when they did, the support was slow and unhelpful. A few other reviewers said that the QuickBooks customer service team would rarely follow up on issues, making it even more difficult to resolve situations. 
• High filing fees: According to a disclaimer on the QuickBooks website, if you have to file taxes in more than one state, you will be expected to pay an additional $12 per month for each state. However, this rule doesn’t apply to anyone on the Elite plan, which is currently $62.50 per month, plus $10 per employee, or $125 per month with the 30-day free trial. Depending on how many employees you have in different states, the fees would add up over time. 

QuickBooks Payroll Online Payroll Services Compared

While QuickBooks Payroll is a simple and effective payroll solution for smaller teams, the best online payroll service for most people is Gusto because of its powerful features for dispersed workforces.

• Gusto — Best for dispersed workforces
• Paychex — Best for experienced payroll teams
• OnPay — Best for simplifying all things payroll
• QuickBooks Payroll — Best for solopreneurs and small teams
• ADP — Best for never outgrowing your payroll provider

Final Verdict

QuickBooks Payroll offers an intuitive solution for all your payroll and HR needs. With tax penalty protection, same-day deposits, and simplified time tracking, it would be difficult to be disappointed with QuickBooks’ service. 

With more than 30 years in the industry and 14,000 employees across the globe, QuickBooks Payroll is a stable and reliable company that we would recommend to any business looking for effective payroll services. 

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