QuickBooks Payroll Reviews

It has incredibly made the tracking of every payment aspect of my business easier.

After updating it the last time, I couldn't get somethings done on it anymore.

Easy to understand setup process to manage payroll from start to finish.

Error corrections required connecting to the QBO support team.

- Pretty good for simple payroll (hourly/salary employees in one state)
- Simple to use
- Easy to teach and implement with new clients

- Cumbersome implementation of complex payroll
- Difficult to edit payroll and employee details aside from very basic aspects
- "Not fantastic" customer support

It is a well designed. Offer free trial.

Older version may not manage bills well.

I really liked how everything was very organized and easy to access.

The price. It was too expensive for me. I found I can do my own payroll with my own systems and just use quickbooks for my business accounting. I can add contractors to quickbooks online without having the payroll services.

It's relatively easy to use once you set it up and take the time to understand the tax lines to which expenses, income, payroll, etc should be assigned. Once you learn how to use it and custom your reports, it saves time and the data from years back can be accessed.

It gets too complicated in generating reports. If you only use the reports as QB configures them, you won't get the most accurate view of the business. And I do NOT like the password being required on my own device. I want to decide that for myself. It's a real pain to have to log into a device that only I use even if you can set it for 90 days. I don't want to do that at all.

The app is pretty straight forward and simple. All you have to do is take a picture of your work papers and it logs it for you

Nothing at all, I wouldn't change anything about it

It's easy! What you don't understand, customer service will guide you through it. Once payroll is set up, it really is automatic.

It's easy to use but difficult to set up. You might want to have QB help you get started. They will do that as part of your subscription. A lot of payroll is actually manual - entering time, paying and submitting taxes, setting up garnishments, etc. My personal opinion is if you are a large business, you should probably let a payroll company do your payroll.

Quick calculation of payroll
Interface with general accounting

The time I have invested in getting the product to work correctly.
The lack of qualified Customer Service staff to assist. Most CSR are not trained in the product and are trying to relay information to staff via chat or message.

It's fast and easy to use Quickbooks Payroll for my biweekly payroll runs.

I have no current complaints with Quickbooks Payroll. Just with QBO.

The payroll service is really easy overall. All the tasks that I use are quite simple to navigate around, including adding new employees, paying employees, and sending out payroll liability payments. These are what I do most often and they've been really simplified by Quickbooks.

Other functions that I use are payroll deductions (401k, etc), tracking sick/vacation time, and managing direct deposit.

Another feature I like (part of QB Online, not sure about Desktop), is that employees are emailed a link to join their payroll management website, where they can access payroll stubs, W2's etc. It has made managing a lot of the HR parts of hiring employees much more streamlined.

Not really a con, but I don't have any experience with any of the direct competitors, e.g. Freshbooks, Sage, Xero, etc., so I can't say if Quickbooks does anything better or worse than those others.

But what I can say is that I did switch from Quickbooks Desktop to Quickbooks Online, which is a much better experience overall (although more expensive).

Ease of implementation and constant guidance available from customer service to resolve any issue. Also the ability to access and run payroll from any device that can reach the internet provides so much productivity.

The Elite payroll service seems so restrictive. I cannot access many of the settings or execute many of the functions that I could through the Core payroll service. To change these settings I need to go through customer service, which was very confusing and frustrating during the implementation of the payroll service.

My favorite thing about Quickbooks payroll also happens to be the most important thing about it...it is accurate! The payroll tax rates and rules are always updated to maintain accuracy in a changing landscape. When processing payroll, everything is automatically calculated and tracked for accuracy - including annual salary, vacation and/or sick pay, holiday pay, withholding tax, and unemployment tax. I don't have to worry about manually calculating things, knowing when there are tax changes, or potentially making mistakes.

I most dislike how expensive Quickbooks Payroll is. I only use the Enhanced Payroll subscription that integrates with existing Quickbooks desktop software or Quickbooks online subscription. That means I do all of actual work in processing payroll and payroll taxes, rather than using a more full-service option. I think the (ever increasing) several hundred dollars per year it costs to have the subscription is unreasonable. (In addition there's a separate fee for each direct deposit check.) However, the truth is, I rely so much on the functions of Quickbooks payroll that I continue utilizing it despite the cost complaints. I haven't come across anything better so I feel I have no choice.

This software includes all the features I was looking for in one place and for a great price. My main concern as a business owner was ease of usage, accessibility and automation. This software met all these requirements and then some. The interface is very easy to navigate and user friendly and I can access everything whether I'm at home, office or on the go with their array of applications. Once everything is set up properly, there's no need to worry about it which is a huge time saver for me. I'm very busy as it is meeting clients, drafting proposals and doing the accounting, so anything I can automate reliably is of great help.

The actual set up of the payroll was a lengthy process and required to have a lot of information on hand but I wouldn't really consider this too much of a con since I had one of their amazing specialists helping me with every single step of the process. She did almost of all the work for me if I'm being honest, I just inputted data as instructed. She was very thorough and thought of concerns I didn't even think about. Just make sure you have ample time to get through the whole set up calmly.

pretty easy to use
set up easily
integrated in QuickBooks Online

Biggest issues are:
-Customer service transfers you around many times because no one owns the issues with payroll with contractors.
- Time drain - Normal issues have either taken multiple calls to resolve, or have taken hours on the phone because if an agent hangs up, they cannot continue to work on your issue - they have to take the next call - so they waste your time waiting while someone tries to read the full manual to figure it out, when in fact, it is a recent programming changes issue.
- Integration with other Apps - You cannot integrate a time card app because only hours are uploaded from app to QuickBooks and we cannot map $/hr pay for contractors, only employees.
Who focuses on contractor payments?
- RECENT "improvements" and rate increase double the cost of the tool for my company.

Quickbooks online has made it incredibly easy for me to run and maintain my business from an administrative standpoint. I am able to manage my business from an iPad, which gives me the freedom that I need to move around. It is easy to use with an incredibly intuitive user interface. I can track payments, invoices, project management, etc. I will continue using this software.

I do not particularly like the Quickbooks mobile application. I've found that it lacks features or is harder to navigate than the online platform. I'm able to pull up the online platform from my iPad, which is the direction I tend to go when using Quickbooks from a mobile device. I wish the mobile application more closely resembled the online web platform.

This software is very easy to use. Has all of the options we need for tracking deductions, types of pay, vacation accruals, 401K, flexplan deductions, etc. Online check stubs for the employees. They can just log on and get a copy of their paycheck. They automatically receive an email when the check is ready to review. Easy data entry. Quickbooks takes care of all of the Federal and state filing forms and payments. If you use Quickbooks for your business you can set it up to automatically transfer the payroll to your general ledger. Saves time and prevents errors.

If you don't start out using this software with your quickbooks when you first implement - you are not able to keep your payroll history. If you need to convert from one software to another - I would recommend doing it at the time of your physical year.

The software is extremely user friendly. I love the simplicity of it. And When I have an issue chatting online instantly is amazing. Today I had an issue with our address since we moved our office and [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] was amazing. He was genuine in asking how my day was and very understanding and friendly. He took care of my issue and made sure it would not come up again.

In the 5 years that we have been with quickbooks there is really nothing bad I can say about the software. It has been great for our business.

The ability to run payroll efficiently, early and make edits before payday if need be. Also printing previous pay checks and payroll summary is very helpful

some of the reports are more complicated than they need to be and the credit card sync is not fluid. it creates too many duplicates when there is a business credit account with multiple cards on the same credit account.

We use the Intuit Full Service payroll. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] was very helpful the other day spending many ous on the phone with me in efforts to correct our issue.

There are two CONS I want to mention. Both of them do not have to do with the service [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] provided.
1 - it is very difficult to get a hold of a representative on the phone. We have desktop version of Quickbooks. The Intuit Full Service payroll advertises we should use a feature embedded in Quickbooks online to call speak to a representative. We do not have that option as we do not use the online version of the software. This needs to be attended to. No one wants to be on hold for 45 minutes to be able to talk to a representative.
2 - the IIF file import form Intuit Full Service payroll to desktop Quickbooks has a flaw. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and I spent hours the other day talking to Quickbooks desktop people and although they found a fix, it was just one-time fix. Please, refer to the service ticket [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and I were working on for details. This also requires immediate attention.

Online customer service features/chat option and being able to integrate with QuickBooks software.

Some of the updates can be frustrating as well as the importing features (lost files, duplicate files, etc).

A comprehensive online payroll service likely to meet the needs of most small businesses with good integration to other products and services sold by QuickBooks. Easy setup, good customer service. I liked being able to schedule so that payroll taxes were deducted from my corporate account close to the date the remittance was due to the taxing authority. Some payroll services deduct taxes from the bank account just after payroll is run, then hold it (presumably making interest on those funds) until the taxes are actually due. QuickBooks doesn't appear to do that.

A few too many steps are required to run a payroll with a few informational messages being displayed that I usually disregard (of the "are you sure you want to do that?" kind). Also, QuickBooks was never able to successfully report and remit certain of Washington's state taxes. QuickBooks' calculation of these taxes never quite matched the calculation made by the state taxing authority and correcting QuickBooks' record of what I actually paid was a bit complicated. Also, the price for this service is not competitive, compared to other services, for very small businesses.

We use Tsheets as well to integrate with QB payroll and i find the process to be very easy. Processing payroll as well as the cut off times are easy and excellent for our business.

The reporting on payroll is not sufficient, for instance, being able to run customized reports has not been easy. It would also be great to be able to have a secondary payroll user that doesn't have access to all the accounting as well.

Cost is much less expensive than any payroll services company. Direct deposit payments, employee portals, Form W-2 and Form 1099-MISC filing, quarterly tax filing, electronic tax payments, direct deposit payments for independent contractors, powerful and customizable financial reporting, easy collection of Form W-9 information, reliable mobile app for process payroll from anywhere, support for multiple pay rates, benefits and withholding support, and more.

QuickBooks Payroll is available for both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online accounts. With QuickBooks Online, you are dependent on the availability of an Internet connection at the time you wish to process payroll.

I've had many people tell me that QuickBooks Payroll isn't a "true" or "real" payroll system, but I have yet to experience any major problems.

Our use case is fairly simple / straight forward, and we have 10's of employees, not 100's. In this context it works very well, handles all the tax reporting almost automatically (there is a bit of manual work, but it's trivial) and basically allows us to manage this fairly simply as a small company with not tons of resources.

It handles the direct deposit for our employees nicely as well.

This is more of an issue with any Quickbooks product, not just Payroll. The UI is not always super clear, and sometimes you have to go to weird places (from a navigation perspective) to find a particular function. Getting our annual forms for employees and the government is always a pain, because it's been a year since it was done last and it takes some time to find where you can do it in the software.

The support is also hit and miss. Sometimes the agent you get is very helpful and solves the problem relatively quickly, and sometimes the agent you get can't even really understand the problem no matter how often you explain it.

Finally my last gripe is that I have to manage the dates to process payroll manually. i.e. Quickbooks knows when payroll has to be run, but doesn't send me any type of notification, so I have to manually track this. It occasionally results in running it too close to a holiday, resulting in staff getting paid a day late, I'd really appreciate it if I got a notice from Quickbooks on the last day to process on time, since it's only one of the many things I have to keep track of.