4 Tools That Take the Pain Out of Managing Payroll If managing payroll eats up too much of your time these apps and services can help simplify the process.
By Cynthia Boris •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Employees love payday but, for the small-business owner, managing payroll can be a chore. Taxes, benefits, overtime, vacation days -- even if you only have a few employees the process can take hours.
Need a short cut? Here are four tools and apps that can help make payday a breeze:
1. RUN Powered by ADP
If you're a RUN Powered by ADP client for your payroll processing needs, you can download and use the mobile app for free. With it you can pay employees and contractors, calculate taxes and deductions, enter vacation and sick time and see your payroll totals at a glance. Employees can also use the mobile website to check their own paystubs.
RUN is available for iOS and Android.
2. SurePayroll Mobile Payroll
Business owners who use the SurePayroll processing service can download the SurePayroll Mobile Payroll app for iOS and Android. The app has the same features as RUN from ADP but SurePayroll, a wholly owned subsidiary of Paychex, says theirs has a one-click payroll option that makes payday even easier.
It also offers SurePayroll Mobile Paycheck, an employee companion app that allows your workers to view their paycheck details and keep track of available vacation time and sick leave.
Only clients of SurePayroll can access the SurePayroll Mobile Payroll app. Paychex clients have access to a separate app with similar features, the Paychex Mobile app.
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3. Zenefits
For companies, with a lot of employee turnover, Zenefits is a paperwork life saver. The company's roots are in health benefits. It negotiates insurance packages for businesses and handles all of the applications including the paperwork associated with new hires and terminations.
Earlier this year, the company expanded its service to include all of the paperwork involved in hiring -- from the offer letter to the contract, to collecting all of the personal information HR needs. All the employer has to do is fill in five boxes of information online and Zenefits does the rest.
The charge for this time-saving service? Zero dollars. They're licensed insurance brokers so they receive a commission from the insurance company on every employee and not a dime from you.
4. Snap Payroll
If you're a small company and you still write payroll checks by hand, check out Snap Payroll from Intuit.
Load employee names and their hourly wage at the start. Then, each week, all you have to do is enter the hours worked and Snap Payroll figures out rest. The app automatically updates tax rates for 47 states but it does not handle healthcare or retirement deductions.
It's a basic tool that's just right for the small-business owner with a few, part-time employees. Best of all, it's free for iOS.
