Payroll Outsourcing In 2023: The Ultimate Guide

RUN is its small business solution and a good place to start if you’re a small business expecting to grow into a large enterprise. ADP RUN is a simple payroll and benefits administration platform with room to grow into enterprise plans with the main ADP platform. The platform provides automated, full-service through its AutoPilot payroll software for both employees and contractors—and even offers a low-cost contractor-only plan.

And they’ll set you up with software that makes your tasks straightforward. They can be accountants or bookkeepers, or specialist payroll companies. Some providers may be better at dealing with small payrolls, while others target big businesses. They also differ in the level of service they provide, and the way they deliver it.

Payroll laws vary by country—and sometimes by state or county. These laws dictate how employees can receive their compensation, when you have to pay them, and their payroll deductions, such as health insurance and social security. Whether you’re running payroll domestically or internationally, you must ensure you’re operating in compliance with the employee’s payroll laws. The best payroll providers will work with HR — not against it — to find the best process. You might need to opt for paid add-ons to ensure you have all the “must have” features in your payroll service. If you can squeeze some “good to have” features as well, do so but don’t overextend yourself.

• Once the possible cost savings of the practice became clearer, there was no turning back.
• They make sure that the withheld tax is calculated properly, and they can even handle things like wage garnishment.
• We recommend checking out our 2023 guides for the best cheap payroll services, best payroll services for small businesses and best PEO services.
• For the client, this is an opportunity to ensure everything is going according to plan.

A full-service payroll provider manages your payroll from start to finish – all you have to do is supply them with your business and employee data. In addition, payroll providers are often able to do your payroll at a relatively low cost as they use software to automate many of the tasks involved. Statista estimates there are currently around 57.3 million gig economy workers in the United States alone. The American workforce is placing increasing value on flexibility and work-life balance—two of the main benefits of gig work. It’s not hard to see why 77% of gig workers report satisfaction with their current employment.

Look for a PEO with both extensive international experience and robust integrations with your existing software. This scalability eliminates the need for additional investments in HR infrastructure, enabling your team to focus on your core operations. Christie Schmidt and Sarah Johnson join Morgan Beard to highlight industry-first technology and why it’s vital to millions of employees. Payroll can become messy and stressful when you have several employees. This table is designed to give you an idea of the relative pricing of the top payroll companies available.

Outsourcing Payroll: How It Works, Pros & Cons, & Costs

Payroll responsibilities are much more than just cutting checks for employees. It’s vital to complete tax-related tasks accurately and make payments on time, whether to the state or your employees. That’s why the first thing you should consider when hiring a payroll outsourcing provider is establishing trust. Payroll providers can also handle payroll taxes and ensure you comply with local tax regulations, regardless of where employees are from. You may need to supply specific tax forms and other necessary information about workers, like their Social Security numbers or Tax Identification Numbers (TIN). Deluxe uniquely offers the option to use its HR features in conjunction with your existing payroll provider.

• Payroll outsourcing can lead to big cost savings and provide access to payroll management experts, but doing so also comes with unique challenges and risks.
• The Payroll Team Manager is responsible for leading, engaging and supporting team in day to day payroll processing and reporting activities.
• If the answer is yes, look closely at the cost for year-end calculations because that usually comes with an extra price tag.
• Paycom helps businesses prevent mistakes and their staggering consequences.
• As Payroll Team Manager you will ensure that payroll is processed timely and accurately using the agreed upon standards and client requirements.

The first few payrolls will likely be the most difficult as you walk through the process and get used to what you need to do. It may be helpful to consult with a tax professional or accountant to make sure that you are checking everything in the process. As your business grows, you may decide to bring payroll in house.

Let’s explore what it entails and how it gives businesses like yours an edge. Correcting any of these factors after submitting payroll can require a costly fix or a steep penalty. Even seasoned HR pros could lose days getting the process right manually. Outsourcing payroll, however, helps organizations ensure their compensation is accurate and compliant without drowning HR. Xero does not provide accounting, tax, business or legal advice.

How To Do Payroll in 8 Steps

Be sure to answer these questions as you look for the right payroll service provider for your organization. For organizations, inaccurate data is the top barrier to effective payroll operations. A payroll provider’s sole responsibility is to ensure payments are made correctly and tax laws are followed. As a result, entrepreneur 2020 the chances of making a mistake are lower than with an in-house accounting team. Payroll outsourcing also enables globally dispersed organizations to save money if they use one global payroll provider. Hiring and paying employees in multiple countries requires more payroll administrators and legal advisors.

Mitigate risk and improve accuracy

Paychex is a payroll and HR service provider for businesses of all sizes. Paychex Flex is its simplified payroll platform designed for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Naturally, the quality of payroll outsourcing will vary, but it’s clear many companies still see these third-party payroll managers as more effective than internal capabilities.

See how payroll outsourcing fits with your business

We have written an article detailing our picks for the 7 best payroll services out there. One of the main outsourcing advantages regardless of the task is time savings. If you do payroll in-house, you have to consider all the time it takes to research and follow the correct process of setting it up. Think about managing it, too, and finding ways of automating different processes. You need to collate and enter worker information and learn about a whole lot of other things to do it accurately.

The cost of outsourcing payroll can range anywhere from under $100 per month to thousands of dollars per year. What’s different about service providers is how much they do vs how much work you do as the employer. Here are the payroll outsourcing services that businesses can use. Yes, they can, and it’s one of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your payroll to a payroll service provider. Another benefit to outsourcing is that payroll functions can be assumed by providers specializing in effective payroll management.

Why should businesses outsource payroll to Paycom?

Based on our research, we calculated that a weekly payroll for a business with 25 employees would take about 16 hours per month and cost about $4,800 per year. To learn more about QuickBooks’ pay processing features, read our QuickBooks Payroll review. If you want to try the services of a ProAdvisor-certified accountant, check out our guide to finding a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Primarily, we look at how in-depth the service you need is and how many workers you have.

It’s impossible to know which payroll processing software is right for your company without doing solid research beforehand. Your research should involve asking questions like the ones listed above, then seeing what each platform offers. Finding a high-quality outsourcing solution can make payroll management simpler and decrease the chance of mistakes. Using payroll software isn’t typically considered outsourcing since it still requires work from your team. But if your team is currently using spreadsheets to manually manage payroll, investing in payroll software is a good first step to improving your processes. When selecting an outsourced payroll provider, consider your budget, expansion goals, and payroll team’s bandwidth.

The PEO model also means that Justworks handles all of your HR and payroll duties, so you don’t have to hire or manage HR in-house. Its monthly per-employee fee looks high at first glance, but it could be well below the cost of an HR hire and goes lower the more employees you have. Gusto includes features that might appeal particularly to modern startup workers, including automated charitable donations. Plus Gusto’s Wallet app gives employees greater control of and access to their money. OnPay is a straightforward, all-in-one payroll and HR solution for small businesses. It comes with just one competitive price—$40 plus $6 per employee per month—that includes all services.