A Brief Overview of Payroll Software

Old-school methods for payroll tracking were incredibly time-consuming. Even small businesses needed to invest way too much time into things like calculating payroll manually, tracking hours, writing checks, and calculating taxes. Thankfully, technology has simplified this process significantly.

Today, entrepreneurs can instead pay a reasonable monthly fee to one of many payroll software services and receive automated assistance with these and other related tasks. Patriot is one of the best payroll software providers available, so let’s find out if it’s the ideal option for you.

Patriot Payroll Software Review

Patriot is an outstanding payroll software solution for small businesses, like single-member LLCs with a small handful of employees and/or contractors. Let’s take a look at some of its pros and cons before we dig into the details.

Pros

• Low price points
• Unlimited payroll runs
• Integrations with accounting and time-tracking apps
• Strong customer feedback

Cons

• Many advanced features require upgraded service

The Details of Patriot Payroll Software

With Patriot’s payroll software — which costs $10 per month plus $4 per employee or contractor — it’s incredibly easy to get started, thanks to its full account setup services for each customer. Patriot also includes unlimited payroll runs, and it integrates with some accounting and time-tracking software as well.

Overall Pricing and Value:

The $10 monthly base rate for Patriot is one of the lowest possible price points you’ll find in this industry. In addition, the $4 per employee/contractor rate is on the low end of the industry-standard range from $4-6.

The only common feature you usually find in payroll software programs that you won’t find with Patriot’s base package is payroll tax functionality. That said, Patriot’s $30/month plan does include payroll tax service, and this price point is still lower than most competitors charge for payroll software with tax functionality.

Overall, it’s quite difficult to complain about Patriot’s super-reasonable price points!

Track Record:

Patriot Software has come a long way since the company first set up shop in the basement of a factory in 1986. Over the years, this company has become one of the most popular and respected software providers in the payroll industry.

In the area of customer feedback, Patriot scores even more highly. We found thousands of reviews for Patriot Software on reputable third-party review aggregator websites, and this company maintains high average rating scores across all sites.

Customer Support:

Patriot offers several options to get in touch with its support team. From 9 am to 7 pm ET on weekdays, they answer their phones and provide live voice chat assistance on their website. In addition, you can email them anytime.

Patriot’s support isn’t especially personalized or customized, but all of its reps are based in the U.S. and they’ve always been able to answer our questions quickly and accurately.

Ease of Use:

There wouldn’t be much point in using a payroll software service if it didn’t make the process of running and tracking payroll significantly simpler. Thankfully, Patriot does just that, with an easy-to-use interface and plenty of intuitive features.

Patriot may not have as many advanced payroll features as some competitors offer, but everything it does have is presented in a straightforward manner.

What Are Customers Saying About Patriot Payroll Software?

We tracked down roughly 4,500 unique customer reviews of Patriot Software’s services on reputable third-party review websites. Even with a relatively high volume of feedback, Patriot still maintains very high average rating scores — right around 4.8 stars out of 5.

While we obviously can’t easily summarize thousands of reviews, we did identify some trends in Patriot’s feedback. The two most common threads in these reviews is how impressed people are by Patriot’s pricing model, and how frequently they praise the company’s ease of use.

Overall, customer feedback is a significant advantage for Patriot Software compared to the vast majority of its competitors.

Our Final Thoughts

Overall, Patriot is our favorite payroll software provider for very small businesses. Patriot has super-affordable pricing and an excellent reputation for customer satisfaction, which is always a winning combination in our eyes.

We’re big fans of what Patriot Software has to offer for payroll services, and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this company to our families and friends. That said, we understand that this might not be the right company for everyone.

If you’d like to take a look at your other options for payroll software services, take a look at our guide to the best companies in the industry.

Disclaimer: The content on this page is for informational purposes only, and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.