What is Payroll Software? & How to Choose a Payroll Application
Software Advice

What is Payroll Software? & How to Choose The Right Payroll Application For You

What is Payroll Software? & How to Choose The Right Payroll Application For You

Payroll software gives business owners peace of mind that their employees will be paid on time and all appropriate financial regulations are being followed. At Housecall Pro, we’ve created a payroll software that takes care of all your company’s payroll needs without breaking the bank. 

What is Payroll Software?

Payroll software is a system that manages employee pay information and automates payments, ensuring compliance with both federal and state tax withholding. It also often allows you to easily offer employee benefits like 401(k), health insurance, and workers’ compensation. 

Accurate time tracking and pay distribution for employees is an essential part of running a successful business. Whether you have one employee or one hundred, you need a way to keep track of their hours, tax withholdings and any benefits they may receive. Payroll software automates this process and allows business owners to focus on the many other tasks involved in running a successful company.

What is Full Service Payroll?

Full service payroll is a system that handles every aspect of your company’s payroll needs. This includes tracking hours, calculating the correct tax withholdings, and deducting for any employee benefits.

Full service payroll typically handles the distribution of employee paychecks via direct deposit as well as year-end tax filing. 

Payroll Systems

There are a variety of payroll systems you can choose from. Each company is unique and it’s important to choose the best option to fit your  needs.

In-house payroll means your company manually records and calculates employee hours, tax information and benefits. Typically the business owner or HR representative takes care of this process. In house payroll is a little more budget friendly for small businesses but can be time consuming and subject to human error. For companies with more than one or two employees, in-house payroll is often impractical. 

Outside accountants are often brought in to do payroll for businesses. Outside accountants offer their expertise in financial affairs and can provide accurate form filing and recording. Most outside accountants take care of all aspects of payroll, including year-end tax filing. Using an accountant can give greater peace of mind to employers than manual in-house payroll, however this option often comes at a high price. 

Payroll software as mentioned above, is a system that manages your payroll for you and often includes other employee benefits you can choose from. Payroll software tends to be a more affordable and scalable option for a growing business. 

Why Use Payroll Software for Your Business?

Payroll software allows your company an affordable option to automate your payroll system. This reduces the chance for accounting errors and ensures your employees are paid on time with the correct tax withholdings.

The goal of payroll software and other full-service payroll options is to simplify the payroll process and to create less internal work for you and your company. Automating the payroll process means that your job is reduced to verifying your employee’s hours at the end of the pay period. Everything else involved in the payroll process is handled for you.  

Get In Touch: 858-842-5746

Let us earn your trust

On average, Pros increase monthly revenue generated through Housecall Pro by 50% after their first year.

See plan options and feature breakdown on our pricing page.

Benefits of Using Payroll Software

Wondering how adopting payroll software can help you and your business? Here are just a few of the benefits you can expect from using payroll software.

Saves you time

Utilizing a payroll software frees up the time you or one of your employees would be spending tracking employee hours and doing tax calculations. That is valuable time that could be allocated elsewhere when managing your growing business. 

Saves you money

Payroll software provides the same benefits as outside hiring without the high price tag. It often has a reasonable monthly subscription cost so you won’t be hit with a large sum at the end of the year.

Helps you retain & attract talent

Ensuring your employees are paid promptly and the correct tax withholdings are taken out makes for greater trust and satisfaction from employees. And you can become an attractive employer by offering employee benefits like 401(k), health insurance, or workers’ compensation. 

What to Look For in a Payroll Software

Before choosing a payroll software, ask yourself:

  • Is the system easy to use?
  • What is the monthly fee? Do you need a subscription or do you own the software outright? What is the cost per employee?
  • Can it scale with your projected growth?
  • Will it work with your other accounting software?
  • Does it automate tax filing?
  • Can it calculate employee benefits (health insurance, workers’ compensation, 401(K) contributions)?
  • What kind of support is included?

What Payroll Features Are Included With Housecall Pro?

Our home service business software starts at $40 per month and a $6 charge per employee per month and that’s it! No hidden fees, added costs or mandatory upgrades that come with some of the other payroll software options on the market. Since you pay per employee, there is no minimum or maximum employee count and you aren’t paying in bulk for an employee count you don’t need.

A lot of thought went into the creation of our payroll system. While our software was designed to work with your Housecall Pro account, we also made sure it can seamlessly integrate with QuickBooks

Housecall Pro’s Payroll includes:

  • Full-service payroll (W-2s and 1099s)
  • Integrated time tracking*
  • Employee benefits (health insurance, pay-as-you-go workers comp, 401(K) contributions)
  • Free payroll tax filing
  • Downloadable payroll reports
  • Data security 
  • QuickBooks integration
  • Ongoing customer support
  • Compliance alerts*
  • HR tools and templates*

With Housecall Pro’s Payroll, you can simplify your payroll process and have a system that will scale with you. For more information, please visit our website! Sign up for a 14-day free trial and start growing your business today.  

*Included in Payroll Advanced plan.


Housecall Pro Author

Housecall Pro

Official Corporate Communications
Contact | 
Last Posted October, 2024
About the Author Solutions for your business Whether you need to improve dispatching, reduce paperwork, increase workforce or grow revenue, we have a solution.