Online Payroll Services and Prcing

[joelgilb]

I am a one man shop, so have always avoided payroll services, other than quarterly returns. Always concerned that I could never leave on vacation or have other conflicts if I was tied to weekly payroll.

I just started looking to add online payroll services for my clients, specifically because 2 clients have wanted more than I do right now, including direct deposit and having the payroll tax deposits made for them automatically. I was hoping that some of you have used or are using these services and had some questions about taking on payroll as another service.

One, I was looking at ATX/Taxwise 's Paycycle (apparently CCH owns them), at $14.099 per moth to accountants and AccountantWorlds payroll product, (pricing is totally different at $9.95, plus $195 per year I believe). Initially I will only have half a dozen clients using the system, so PayCycle would be cheaper in the short run.

1. Wanted to know what others experience with doing payroll this way vs in-house.

2. Wondered what would be fair price to charge for this service? Note that most of my payroll clients would be 1 to 5 employees at best. Currently I charge for the returns and by the hour for calculations and phone advice, and find to keep the coustomers happy often have to write down the time.

3. Experience with client input vs accountant input.

4. How involved is the accountant in the process and how much time do you tend to spend with this type of service, both upfront and an ongoing basis?

5. Anything else I missed!

Thx

Joel

[Margaret CPA in OH]

This is a great topic to raise just now for me, too. I have just a couple of clients that somehow convinced me to handle their payroll and I WANT OUT! The problem is that the services charge much more - meaning I charge not nearly enough! And my clients really can't afford much.

I will be watching this for comments. If the clients can do their own input and I just monitor, that would be the best, I think.

[joelgilb]

So, does anyone use the online payroll systems?

Joel

[michaelmars]

i go on line - log into citibank and watch my wife spend my payroll - does that count?

[joelgilb]

i go on line - log into citibank and watch my wife spend my payroll - does that count?

I think we see a lot of that.

Joel

[Mike D]

I began using PayCycle in January this year for approx. 6 clients to date. I found them through a recommendation from QuickBooks. It seems that they were formally a partner of QB and had severed their relationship.

I can say that the setup is easy and customer service is responsive and you can't beat the price. They do it all and for me it means that I unloaded the entire burden of payroll processing and compliance back to the clients where I sincerely believe they belong.

I was unaware that they are owned by CCH. This may be a blessing in disguise for CCH of how to treat their other corporate affiliates like ATX customers!

Good luck

Mike Dubin CPA

[ed_accountant]

I recommend paycycle.com. I have been using paycyle for a couple of years now and it works well for small payroll clients. Paycycles pricing structure for accountants is also fair. Paycycle customer service is excellent. The electronic features are timesaving. I use to process payroll with Amerisoftware and have my clients make the tax deposits. Clients like paycycle's free direct deposit, free electronic tax deposits, and free E-filing..

I can't say anything positive about Accountantworld. It is privately held. I use to have my website with them and did not like the annual price increases with less services. I also did not like the sales calls I would receive from them pushing their other software ..

[Lion EA]

I also have shied away from doing payroll to keep from being tied down. But, I hired a part-time assistant and now have my own to deal with. I'm using QB, which I get at a deep discount as a ProAdvisor. I just type in her hours for the period. Direct deposit. Info is automatically put in my QB file. They have several levels of payroll. Demos on their web site.

Just read that Bank of America has a new payroll service. If you use their bank and if your direct deposit employees use B of A, then it's free! Didn't pay attention to the details since I'm already using QB, but worth checking out.

[Peggy Cobb]

PayCycle for over a year and really like it. I had my W-2s this year finished by January 10th. For 1 to 5 clients I charge $80 to $90 per month. I make myself one of the contractors and pay myself via direct deposit. I tell the client upfront and they have all be great with this arrangement. If you have one employee or contractor on direct deposit, the 941, 940, and some state taxes can be paid electroncially. Plus your W-2s, 941s, 940s and some state returns are filed electroncially. They charge $15 for each client that you file the 1099s with them electronically.

I have had some frustration with the first direct deposit, because they require a pre-funding. You have to give them the amount of the net checks. So I make myself or the owner that is on salary the first direct deposit and manually write the other checks. After this it works great. You can have the program email the employees their pay stubs, or one employer was me send all the pay stubs to her and she either forwards them or prints and attaches them to the pay checks.

I have had 4 churches that used ADP and ADP got the pastor's salary and housing wrong. It took one church 6 months to get ADP to correct the W-2, 941 and refund the excess amount the church paid for Social Security and Medicare on the pastor's wages. Paycycle has handled this church correctly without a hitch.

[Daune/CA]

TRX is currently offering a payroll system for trial. I don't know if it is on their website, but you can call their 800 number for sales and ask about it. I do not use it, but have been using their tax program this year, after 5 yrs with ATX. Conversion went very well, some input required for PY depr and setting up depr sch. More on that after tax season and we report our experiences to each other on this forum.

TRX phone to Sales=866-829-9777. I have not any wait over 6 minutes to get Tech help and they have stayed with me until sure it worked, in one case over an hr.

Daune/CA

[joelgilb]

I began using PayCycle in January this year for approx. 6 clients to date. I found them through a recommendation from QuickBooks. It seems that they were formally a partner of QB and had severed their relationship.

I can say that the setup is easy and customer service is responsive and you can't beat the price. They do it all and for me it means that I unloaded the entire burden of payroll processing and compliance back to the clients where I sincerely believe they belong.

I was unaware that they are owned by CCH. This may be a blessing in disguise for CCH of how to treat their other corporate affiliates like ATX customers!

Good luck

Mike Dubin CPA

Anyone have some suggestions as to what would be a fair charge for online payroll services?

Joel

[Charley in Ohio]

My wife and I have been using PayCycle for several years and haven't had any big problems (to my knowledge, but she is the one that uses it most of the time). The only issue I've noticed is that when creating the W-2s for clients with Dependent Care Accounts, you have to manually enter the amount to place in Box 10. The wage amounts are correct, but there is no number in Box 10. Luckily, we prepare the tax return for the only person that receives dependant care benefits for that client, so we just fix it on her personal return.

We charge a flat amount for access to the service (basically what PayCycle charges us) and then an hourly fee for the processing. Hope that helps.

Charley