QuickBooks Payroll Software Review

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. QuickBooks Payroll is one of the best payroll software providers available, so let’s find out if it’s the ideal option for you.

QuickBooks Payroll Software Review

QuickBooks Payroll is an outstanding payroll software solution for companies that already use QuickBooks for accounting, as well as those who need fast direct deposits. Let’s take a look at some of its pros and cons before we dig into the details.

Pros

• Next-day direct deposit
• Employee benefit functionality
• Incredibly easy to use
• Syncs seamlessly with QuickBooks accounting

Cons

• High pricing
• Some features require upgrades

The Details of QuickBooks Payroll Software

QuickBooks Payroll software costs $45 per month, plus an additional $4/month per person. This price point is higher than you’ll pay with most competitors, who typically average around $35/month. The Core plan is QuickBooks Payroll’s cheapest option, and it includes unlimited payroll runs, automated tax forms, payroll reports, next-day direct deposit, and employee benefits assistance.

Overall Pricing and Value:

While QuickBooks Payroll is a somewhat costly option compared to other payroll software solutions, there are two situations in which we feel like the extra expense is worth it. First off, if your company already uses QuickBooks for accounting purposes, QuickBooks Payroll is by far your most convenient option, as its integrations with other Intuit products are seamless.

In addition, QuickBooks Payroll offers next-day direct deposits. With most competitors, the usual setup is that direct deposits are included but they’ll take 3-4 days to process unless you upgrade to a higher level of service.

If either of these scenarios applies to your business, QuickBooks Payroll may well be worth the additional money compared to other payroll software services.

Track Record:

QuickBooks Payroll is produced by Intuit, the same software company that makes the standard QuickBooks accounting software, along with Mint, TurboTax, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp. Intuit has been around since 1983 and has 10,600 employees. As you have probably guessed, this is one of the industry giants, and few competitors can even touch its level of experience.

It’s not always easy to find individual reviews for specific products from a major company like Intuit, but we were able to find more than 850 reviews for QuickBooks Payroll, with an average rating score of around 4.3/5.

Customer Support:

If you purchase QuickBooks Payroll’s Core plan for $45/month, you’ll have access to Intuit’s customer support team from 9 am to 9 pm ET on weekdays. If you opt for one of the higher-priced plans (Premium for $75/month or Elite for $125/month), Intuit throws in 24/7 support.

As for the quality of this support, we have no complaints. We’ve always received helpful and timely support from Intuit’s reps. That said, due to the massive size of this company, there isn’t much personalization involved with its customer service. It’s only a minor drawback, especially considering the excellent hours of availability, but we felt it was worth mentioning.

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, QuickBooks Payroll does just that, with an easy-to-use interface and plenty of intuitive features.

If you’ve ever used other Intuit products, you likely know what to expect from QuickBooks Payroll: a tool capable of complex tasks while still remaining user-friendly and intuitive. There’s a lot you can do with QuickBooks Payroll, but it likely won’t take you long to learn how to do it.

What Are Customers Saying About QuickBooks Payroll Software?

We found more than 850 unique customer reviews for QuickBooks Payroll on reputable third-party review aggregator websites. Overall, most of these reviews are positive, as QuickBooks Payroll maintains an average score of roughly 4.3 out of 5.

Many of these customers seem quite pleased with how easy it is to integrate QuickBooks Payroll with QuickBooks’ accounting software, and others discuss its high ease of use. However, we also found some negative reviews in which customers voiced their displeasure with inconsistent customer support.

Our Final Thoughts

QuickBooks Payroll is our top pick for payroll software services if you already use QuickBooks for accounting or you want access to super-fast direct deposit functionality. We also appreciate this product’s impressive ease of use and long customer support availability hours.

We’re big fans of what QuickBooks Payroll 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.