Patriot Software Payroll excels at providing support from start to finish. The Full Service tier of service, which is the level I reviewed, handles the basic tasks needed to create employee records, processes payroll runs, and automatically submits payroll taxes. Enhancements for 2024 include areas like payroll preview, pay run flexibility, and user experience. It’s capable of running payroll for up to 500 employees and contractors. While Patriot Software Full Service Payroll lacks some of the depth and customization options of our Editors’ Choice winners—Gusto for novices, OnPay for larger SMBs and vertical industries, and ADP Run for growing businesses—it’s a strong choice for small businesses looking for a low-cost option and that don’t have expansive HR needs.How Much Does Patriot Software Payroll Cost?The Basic version of Patriot, which requires you to file your own payroll taxes, is $17 per month plus $4 per employee or contractor per month. Patriot Software Full Service Payroll, the version I tested, costs $37 per month plus $4 per employee or contractor per month. There’s a 30-day free trial and a fully functioning demo.
Patriot Software also charges for an HR add-on (starting at $6 per month plus $2 per employee per month), which most other payroll software includes for free. The Time & Attendance add-on ($6 per month plus $2 per employee per month) adds time clock tools, which Workful gives you for free.Patriot Software is the least expensive payroll service I reviewed, but not by much. Square Payroll is $35 per month plus $6 per month per person. Editors’ Choice winner OnPay is $40 per month plus $6 per employee per month. Intuit QuickBooks Payroll Premium comes in at $80 per month plus $8 per employee per month, and Gusto Plus is the most expensive, at $80 per month plus $12 per employee per month.
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How Do You Get Started With Patriot Software?Payroll is the most complex element of small business accounting, and it requires absolute precision. Patriot Software employs a dedicated setup wizard that describes what you must do prior to your first payroll run. It gives you links to helpful resources, such as how to get a state unemployment number (SUTA). You can’t do your first payroll run until you’ve completed all the steps here.Like some other payroll software companies, Patriot makes payroll experts available to help you get set up, which you may well need for complex tasks like importing payroll histories. In addition to the extensive help you can get during setup, support is always available via free phone, email, and chat support. Excellent step-by-step guides for using the application are at your fingertips, too.Creating Employee RecordsEmployee record creation is simple but time-intensive. These thorough profiles contain personal details, pay options, W-4 information, and deductions and contributions (Patriot Software does not act as a benefits broker, as competitors like Gusto do, and which larger companies would likely want). You can access all this information from the employee homepage. Employees can add these details themselves from their individual portals, which are some of the best I’ve seen.
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How Do You Run a Payroll With Patriot Payroll?Patriot Software’s payroll runs are flexible and intuitive. You can run as many payrolls as you want, and all pay frequencies are supported, as is paying groups of employees on different schedules. Employees can be paid for multiple roles (up to five) in the same pay run.All employees, both salaried and hourly, appear on the first page, along with contractors (though they can be paid separately). If you use Patriot Software’s Time & Attendance add-on, hours will already be filled in. If not, you enter them manually.
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It’s challenging to list all of a company’s hour types (like regular, overtime, and vacation) and money types (including bonus and commission) on one page. Patriot Software solves this problem efficiently by letting you mark given hour and money types as “frequently used” so they always appear. If you need to see more options for a specific pay run, you can toggle a button to show all of them. It requires some horizontal scrolling, but it works. You can’t, though, view complete employee records in the middle of a pay run like you can using OnPay and some other payroll solutions, but you can now change employee pay rates as you go.Once all employee and contractor hours are entered, you advance to the payroll preview page, which provides a thorough breakdown of your pay run before you approve it. Employee paycheck information is available in detail, broken out into hours and earnings, deductions, and taxes. Your company costs for the pay run appear here, too, including employee deductions and taxes, and employer contributions and taxes.
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Running Reports in Patriot SoftwarePatriot Software’s payroll reports are not as customizable as OnPay’s, for example, but what’s available is quite enough to cover the site’s payroll capabilities. You can run, print, and export, for example, Check Payment Detail, Deductions History, Payroll Tax Liabilities, and the new Preview Current Payroll. Patriot also provides a W-2 preview report and takes care of W-2 and 1099 preparation and filing.Most payroll website providers have expanded their HR tools over the past few years, but Patriot Software has very little in this area. What it does offer, such as basic tools for document management, comes with add-on fees, as mentioned.Patriot Software does help you stay compliant with state and federal regulations, though. For example, it provides an excellent page for each state that helps you meet state registration requirements. Federal new hire obligations are also included.Simple and Intuitive to UsePatriot Software is the simplest, most intuitive payroll application I’ve reviewed, in part because it doesn’t have all the features and flexibility that some competitors do. Its user interface and navigation system make it a good choice for a novice payroll manager (or an experienced one). Pages are spacious, attractive, and easy to understand.
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Patriot Software’s usability is its best feature—you simply understand how it works very quickly. The company also has an integrated accounting application, like Intuit QuickBooks Payroll does. Patriot Software Accounting Basic is $20 per month, and Premium is $30 per month. Setup and support for both accounting and payroll are exceptional.Patriot doesn’t offer dedicated mobile apps for the employer, as Intuit QuickBooks Payroll does, but you can access the site through a mobile browser on both Android and iOS devices. The mobile version of the site looks and works much like the desktop version, with user interface differences that are necessary because of the smaller screen size. Still, you can do everything on your mobile device that you can on the desktop, including running a payroll. It’s as attractive, intuitive, and friendly as the desktop version is.
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Patriot Software recently launched the beta version of a new employee app. My Patriot, available for Android and iOS, will initially be accessible to customers who use the company’s time and attendance software. Employees will be able to track work and time-off hours and submit timecards for payroll, among other things. The app was not available for testing at the time of this writing.Is Patriot Software Safe to Use?Patriot Software uses a diverse set of technologies to safeguard your data. Policies are implemented to ensure that these technologies are properly installed and maintained. Third-party audits verify the company meets industry standards.Is Patriot Software Right for Your Business?Patriot Software Full Service Payroll covers the bases where payroll and its associated taxes and deductions are concerned and excels in areas like mobile access and employee portals. Its very simple, attractive, and understandable user interface, combined with its low costs, make Patriot Software a top choice for both novice and experienced payroll managers and businesses employing up to 500 workers. If Patriot doesn’t sound like the right option for you, there are other payroll services that we highly recommend, namely Editors’ Choice winners Gusto for novices, OnPay for larger SMBs, and ADP Run for growing businesses.
Pros
Exceptional setup process and guidance for new users
Intuitive, attractive user interface
Improved payroll flexibility
Excellent employee portals
Great mobile access
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Cons
Time & Attendance, HR incur extra fees
Some flexibility missing for pay runs
Doesn’t act as benefits broker
The Bottom Line
Patriot Software Payroll offers capable, flexible payroll processing and top-notch support for new and experienced users, and starting at a low price.
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