Payroll Tax Processing Software

Payroll tax software is often used by payroll companies in conjunction with online payroll services, although there are some software used for in-house payroll administration. You will need to manually input information during hiring, but hereafter, payroll calculation and deductions, with the exception of inputting hours worked, are done automatically. Choosing the wrong software can do more harm than good though, so ensure the following.
Features
Most payroll tax software have the same core features - payroll calculation, tax filing, generation of electronic reports, payment delivery information and new-hire reporting. The usual feature for payment delivery options is direct deposit although some advanced software feature check signing and stuffing and payment via a reload-able debit card. HR options include access to government forms and resources, HR news, HR check-ups, and information about HR industry standards. What you need to do is make a list of features you need; and for that, you need to consider the payroll tasks that you will have difficulty carrying out. The most common payroll tasks outsourced are those occurring at the latter part such as tax filing and calculations. Proceed to make a list of "nice-to-haves".
Switch-ability
You should choose payroll and tax administration software which would allow you to integrate input year-to-date payroll information. This way, you wouldn't have to redo things and spend hours entering data for past pay periods. Your software should also be able to expand so you can still use it upon expansion.
Ease of Use
A complicated program will more likely cost you a lot of time and the truth is, people usually change payroll software because whatever it was they were using was too difficult to use. You can avoid getting in the same platform by examining the graphic user interface. That is the part which lets you input information and configure things without getting into the code. You can take a look at product screen shots and examine the lay-out. Lay-out should be intuitive.
Pricing
While it is true that acquiring payroll services and purchasing payroll tax software wasn't as pricey as it used to, it is by no means cheap. Do not be lured by a waived sign-up fee, in case of a payroll tax software bundled with online payroll services. Find out what you will need to pay on average in an entire year instead of the initial fee. Learn about what it would cost to update the software, should there be tax changes or when you use it for multiple businesses.