QuickBooks Payroll is a complete payroll management platform for small businesses that provides companies with complete control over their employee salary calculations and labor hours. The payroll solution incorporates an internal calculator which automatically assesses tax returns based on the amount of employee hours entered.
QuickBooks Payroll lets users enter the salaries and hours of employees, then allocates staff wages to their linked accounts. Full tax reports can also be viewed and return payments are automatically calculated and can be processed within a matter of seconds. Tax returns can be managed based on geographical location to abide by state employment laws.
All data entered into QuickBooks Payroll is completely transparent and users can view real-time reports which can be exported to Excel spreadsheets. The complete backend dashboard is optimised for mobile devices giving users the ability to control payroll operations whilst out of office. Once logged in, QuickBooks Payroll lets users add, edit and execute payment tasks, and generates notifications for important updates.
Pros
I love QBO - their software just works! I own a bookkeeping firm and nearly all of our clients use QBO. Nearly all bookkeeping activities can be completed, including accounts payable/receivable, financial statements, journal entries, bank reconciliations, sales tax, and even payroll. I find our clients want us to use QBO and they are eager to learn it. Along those lines, it is an easy piece of software to teach someone how to use, but still packs many robust features.
Cons
Two items:
1) The Intuit QBO customer service needs work, and lots of it. I have only web-chatted with them on three occasions, and on all three occasions, I solved the problem myself before the support agent could find a solution. A company as big as Intuit should know that their support agents need to be MORE knowledgeable than the end-user. In my experience, this is rarely the case. Possibly more training is necessary?
2) Intuit keeps raising monthly subscription prices on their QBO products. In using them for just about five years now, I have gone through five price increases/changes for their QBO Essentials and QBO Plus products, and an additional two on Intuit/Quickbooks Payroll (their payroll increases actually caused me to switch to another provider). Watch your e-mail for notifications diligently.
The online version is a decent product but I am sure there are other online accounting software packages that provide the same or much more. Dealing with the online accountant customer service department is a total waste of time. Their management team seems to be concerned with their numbers more than customer appreciation. Terrrrrible! My advice: "Buyer beware!"
Pros
The ability to assign classes in creating rules for the electronic bank transaction imports. The desktop version does not offer that function. It's sad because I know that if the QuickBooks Online software code writers can create that functionality in the online version, then they certainly should be able to create that functionality for the desktop versions which most subscribers have been using for decades now.
Cons
The unexpected price hikes on your account without formal notification or fair warning. Quickbooks has probably been the worst software vendor in that they always find a way to raise your rates by using creative and deceptive means such as switching online account holders and their client accounts to the Advanced Online version as a trial run without the account holders authorization. They leave the burden on the account holder to cancel the Advanced version trail for each of their online client accounts, which most account holders are not even aware that their clients have been switched. Terrrrrible! I'm sure there are laws that prohibit this type of deceptive behavior. Currently I am switching most of my clients back to the desktop versions until I can find an alternative Accounting software that my clients and I can appreciate.
QuickBooks online has its weaknesses and bugs. However, after my research I think it's the best option out there for now.
Pros
Quickbooks is easy to "plug in" and go... You can use their templates and basic accounts and set up your own accounting system in no time. I had no bookkeeping or accounting experience before using QuickBooks Online, and I was proficient after about 6 months of part-time use.
Having an accountant log-in is so helpful in today's world so many people are working from home/ traveling/ etc. It is indispensable for my organization to have an online accounting platform that I, my organization's volunteer treasurer, and our hired accountant can all access from our home computers.
As a non-profit organization that only pays a tiny amount of sales tax, that portion of the software is very functional and is one fewer thing I have to deal with.
I do not use payroll through this system, so I cannot comment on the functionality of that portion.
Cons
The bugs in the software (accounts that won't delete, messing up check numbers, etc) are the most annoying part of using QuickBooks Online for me. If you are a small team, you can just work around them and you eventually learn what they are, but it is repeatedly annoying. Their customer service is weak, but there are lots of affordable training courses that can fill in those gaps as you use the program.
I sometimes wish that Quickbooks Online were MORE customizable (i.e. allow you to delete certain generic accounts), and I sometimes wish it were LESS customizable (journal entries can be numbered ANYTHING which confuses me). Overall, I think it allows me to do most of what I need to do in bookkeeping for my non-profit.
Pros
I am not an accounting professional but with a basic understanding of accounting principal, I have been able to use this software to organize my company for the last 10 years. I have made the switch in 2014 to the online version of it. It lets me to use the software anywhere including mobile device and I have been very happy with all the updates Intuit has been making last 3-4 years.
Cons
Everything about customer service. As a long time user, I know the infamous reputation of Intuit at every level. This is one of the SO MANY experiences I had: I had one issue that persisted since 2014. It was a simple issue, but it also caused me some great inconvenience. So I had been contacting them every now and then and the issue was not resolved until recently in 2018. It turned out to be it was as simple as clearing cache. However, every time I called, I had to explain the situation as if it's never been recorded, follow their instruction to do the troubleshooting, then they were puzzled how that happened, and then say that 'someone' will follow up. And THAT NEVER HAPPENED. I got so fed up and had to be on the phone more than 4 hours to a point that the issue was escalated to the presidents' office. I was told that there was a glitch in the system that I had to move to a new account. As they moved my data to a new account, I found out that it won't move credit card or social security info. As I was preparing for the final move, I realized that they have been charging me double. I requested to refund or extend the membership, but they did it again - made me wait for 1-2 hours, told me that I'll speak to a floor manager, then just transfer to another dpt- ALL THE TACTICS TO DISCOURAGE TO find the solution for the issue. Finally, they 'concluded' not to extend the membership with an excused made up they cannot provide in written permission. NEVER HAD SUCH BAD EXPERIENCE.
Pros
I converted from QB Desktop Pro to QBO about a year ago, and it has been a game changer for me. Some pros:
1. The design is much more aesthetically pleasing and intuitive than QB Desktop. I now feel comfortable doing my own reconciliations rather than paying a bookkeeper, as it is much more natural than the steps required before.
2. I can easily add users and therefore don't need to pass the file back and forth. Before, I'd forget that my bookkeeper is working on my file and would make changes, which caused big problems. This is no longer an issue.
3. I can login anywhere.
4. The apps are a big deal for me. For example, I have an app called "Importer Pro" which allows me to import the schedule from my scheduling software. It then automatically generates and invoice for my clients, and it could also automatically generate an invoice for my independent contractors based on the work they do. This saves me about 25 hours per week. I could not have done this with QB Desktop.
Cons
There are two main (and large) problems I've found:
1. You cannot revert your company. So if you make a big error, or a disgruntled employee with QBO access logs in and messes everything up, there is no going back. That's a big issue. Luckily, it has not been a problem for us yet.
2. If you need to edit a past invoice, it deletes the description and changes the hour to 1. This became a problem for me when I realized that the line items were not mapped to the client, and I needed to change the "product/service" to something that is mapped to the client. Previously, I was using a generic term in "product/service" for all clients, not realizing it was an issue. However, I cannot go back through my past invoices and change the product/service because it will delete the description and edit the hours, which is way too time consuming to deal with. I have thousands of line items that are not mapped to the client.
I reported both of these issues to QBO. Asked to talk to a supervisor after the first person was very unhelpful and clearly not trained well. The supervisor said he would talk to the development team and call me back within 48 hours. That was months ago and of course, no call. Disappointing.
Payroll only:
Self Service Payroll: $17.50/month for the first three months ($35/month thereafter) + $4/employee/month.
Full Service Payroll: $40/month for the first three months ($80/month thereafter) + $4/employee/month.
Payroll with QuickBooks Simple Start:
Self Service Payroll: $27/month for the first three months ($55/month thereafter) + $4/employee/month.
Full Service Payroll: $50/month for the first three months ($100/month thereafter) + $4/employee/month.
• QuickBooks Payroll fully automates tax calculations for employee paychecks, and monitors local, state, and federal taxes for updates.
• The online employee portal allows employees to view their W-2s and pay stubs at any time.
• Self-service payroll lets users prepare and file their own tax forms, and QuickBooks Payroll also offers a full service option which provides US-based support for state and federal forms and payments.
• Payroll can be run as many times as required with no extra fees, and users can create additional checks and bonuses outside of regularly scheduled payroll.
• Native iOS and Android mobile apps allow users to create paychecks, electronically pay taxes and file forms, pay workers, receive reminders, view paycheck histories, and more from anywhere.
Below are some frequently asked questions for QuickBooks Payroll.
QuickBooks Payroll offers the following pricing plans:
Starting from: US$35,00/month
Pricing model: Subscription
Free Trial: Available
Payroll only:
Self Service Payroll: $17.50/month for the first three months ($35/month thereafter) + $4/employee/month.
Full Service Payroll: $40/month for the first three months ($80/month thereafter) + $4/employee/month.
Payroll with QuickBooks Simple Start:
Self Service Payroll: $27/month for the first three months ($55/month thereafter) + $4/employee/month.
Full Service Payroll: $50/month for the first three months ($100/month thereafter) + $4/employee/month.
QuickBooks Payroll offers the following features:
QuickBooks Payroll has the following typical customers:
Non Profit, Small Business
QuickBooks Payroll supports the following languages:
English
QuickBooks Payroll has the following pricing plans:
Subscription
QuickBooks Payroll supports the following devices:
Android, iPhone, iPad
QuickBooks Payroll integrates with the following applications:
Aladtec, Beekeeper, GoCo, QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online, Sage People, xTuple
QuickBooks Payroll offers the following support options:
FAQs, Forum, Knowledge Base, Online Support, Phone Support
Overall, QBO is wonderful software for bookkeepers, accountants, and small business owners. It is arguably the most powerful and robust software on the market, and is priced fairly well. Its integrations with other pieces of software and/or websites that small business owners use is second-to-none, and I am glad Intuit continues to work on that area. I would only say that support's knowledge of their own product is incredibly limited in my experience, and they need to stick by their pricing instead of releasing a few new features every year that have marginal actual use and claiming they need to raise prices because of them.