Payroll Software

What is Payroll Software?

Payroll software offers a centralized suite of tools that help organizations manage and automate employee payments, achieve compliance with tax laws, and reduce operational and HR costs. Payroll systems integrate with other business software systems to help guarantee accurate, timely compensation, and allow employees to manage their personal information and payment preferences.

Payroll software benefits organizations by improving payment reliability, streamlining payroll tasks, and increasing flexibility in payment types for global employees. Companies using payroll software can also obtain deep business insights, and improve employee payment reporting capabilities.

Key Features of Payroll Software

The key features and capabilities of Payroll software include the following:

  • Payroll Processing: Payroll software helps organizations streamline payroll processing by integrating with time and attendance tools to automatically pull necessary data, make ACH deposits, and print checks.
  • Direct Deposit: Payroll software provides direct deposit functionality, which helps companies reduce payroll processing costs, provides employees with immediate access to funds, and reduces the risk of fraud or lost paychecks.
  • Tax Calculations & Filing: Payroll software automates tax calculations and filing by automatically generating necessary forms with tax information, which helps businesses reduce errors and file taxes on time.
  • Payroll Compliance: Payroll software helps organizations maintain compliance with federal, state, county, and city payroll regulations by double-checking entries against current laws, to minimize the chance of legal problems and fines.
  • Mobile Apps for Self-Service: Payroll software often provides mobile access that organizations can use to run payroll and view reports while on the go. Employees can also use mobile payroll apps to manage personal information and view pay stubs.
  • Reporting and Analytics: Payroll software offers extensive reporting capabilities that help organizations analyze spend, budgets, tax summaries, and other financial metrics to better manage employee resources and payroll.

Common Payroll Software Integrations

Payroll software often integrates with the following business software systems:

  • HR Software: Integrating Payroll software with HR software helps organizations process payments, manage employees more efficiently, and frees up HR teams to focus on improving employee experience and building a positive workplace culture. This integration also streamlines HR and payroll workflows, improves compliance, and enhances data visibility to help HR teams work with increased efficiency and accuracy.
  • Accounting Software: Integrating Payroll software with Accounting software eliminates the need for double data entry, automatically updates ledgers, and reduces the risk of manual data entry errors. This integration also helps companies improve financial efficiency by ensuring that payroll data such as deductions, overtime, and other payroll spending is accurately tracked within their business accounting system.
  • Expense Management Software: Integrating Payroll software with Expense Management software helps companies streamline their employee reimbursement processes, ensure timely, accurate reimbursements, and improve HR team efficiency by automatically incorporating expenses into payroll.

Top 10 Payroll Software Providers

NetSuite / Sage Intacct / Gusto / APS / RUN / QuickBooks Accounting / isolved / Oracle ERP / Paychex Flex / Patriot Payroll

WH Score
8.8
Paylocity
65reviews
Starting Price:N/A
Paylocity is a cloud-based payroll and human capital management (HCM) software for small to mid-sized businesses. It offers a comprehensive suite of HR tools to streamline HR processes, improve employee engagement, and support business growth. 
WH Score
8.8
Workday
13reviews
Starting Price:N/A
Workday is a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. With a modern, intuitive user interface and a suite of applications that work seamlessly together, Workday delivers a better way for organizations to manage their financials, workforce, and business perfo...
WH Score
8.7
ADP Workforce Now
91reviews
Starting Price:N/A
ADP Workforce Now is a comprehensive software solution designed to help businesses of all sizes manage their human resources (HR) needs. With a range of features that include payroll, benefits administration, time and attendance tracking, and compliance management, ADP Workforce Now is a powerful to...
WH Score
8.7
Paycor
238reviews
Starting Price:$5 per employee / per month
More than 30,000 medium and small businesses nationwide trust Paycor to help them engage, manage and develop their people. Paycor is known for delivering the best unified HCM platform for the SMB market, featuring user-friendly Payroll & Tax compliance software, HR & Benefits, Learning Manag...
WH Score
8.7
UKG Pro
178reviews
Starting Price:N/A
Designed for organizations that prioritize diverse workforces and cultures of trust and belonging, UKG Pro® aims to put people at the center of an organization's strategy. From HR and complex payroll to talent and industry-focused Workforce Management (WFM), UKG's Human Capital Management Soluti...
WH Score
8.7
BambooHR
28reviews
Starting Price:N/A
BambooHR is a leading human resources (HR) software that helps small and medium-sized businesses streamline their HR processes. With BambooHR, you can easily manage employee records, track time off, and automate paperwork.
WH Score
8.7
Aptean
58reviews
Starting Price:N/A
Aptean Enterprise Resource Planning Software is a product of the Aptean Corporation, a company formed in 2012 after the merging of CDC Software and Consona Corp. The highly customizable ERP solution is designed on a flexible framework that incorporates finance, manufacturing, and distribution functi...
WH Score
8.7
Namely
51reviews
Starting Price:N/A
Namely is a comprehensive HR software that helps companies manage their employees efficiently. It offers many features, including employee records management, performance management, benefits administration, and payroll management.
WH Score
8.6
Dayforce
24reviews
Starting Price:N/A
Dayforce is a modern, comprehensive, global human capital management (HCM) platform that has features and tools focused on delivering an excellent employee experience.  Dayforce tracks all your data, generated during the whole of an employee's time at your company to provide centralized org...
WH Score
8.6
SyncHR
5reviews
Starting Price:N/A
A complete enterprise HR suite, SyncHR helps companies manage all their workforce demands for smooth and efficient operations. Create a single source of truth with one centralized platform, as all data is stored and accessed within the same location.
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