Technically speaking, payroll software is defined as a computer program that manages a company’s payroll necessities. For small and medium businesses, we know it’s a formidable task to sit at the end of every month and pour in many hours to summing up the salary details for each employee. Often, in such companies, the owner has to perform multiple duties and it’s difficult to spare time for calculating overtime and employees taxes.

Here comes the usefulness of this simple yet effective software that takes care of all the necessary calculations and takes care that the salaries are paid on time.

Best Payroll Software For Small Businesses and Startups

Here is a list of top payroll software specifically curated for small business that would take care of all your employee accounting woes.

1. ADP Payroll

ADP payroll on cloud solution is designed to handle complexities of all types of business. Once the solution is customized to your business requirements, you can process payroll and the associated compliances such as TDS, PF and ESI deductions with a single click.  ADP has been in the payroll business for the last 60 years with 80% of Fortune 500 companies using their solutions.

Payroll isn’t just about paying your people. ADP’s payroll outsourcing services can give you new business insights and help you adhere to compliance easily.

Features

• Streamlined processes & faster turnaround time
• Support through entire employee life-cycle, from  date of joining to exit
• Consolidated, error-free documents & reports with sharper business intelligence
• Lower risk related to compliance and penalties
• Better resource deployment
• Decreased IT infrastructure investment
• Speedy resolution of employee issues

Pricing

Quote on request. They offer a free trial.

2. Tally.ERP 9

Tally.ERP 9 delivers comprehensive payroll software for small business with necessary payroll compliances built in it. It provides the facility from simple pay-slip generation up to complex allied processes, which include salary revision, loans and advances, and ad-hoc payments. It also manages the salary of the employees according to statutory norms and processes.

Features

• Create and maintain employee database
• Multiple salary structure for different employees.
• Tracking of loans and advances paid to employees and defining multiple criteria for recovery of such advances (single or multiple installments from the employee’s salary)
• Supports gratuity as per the specified criteria
• All payroll related reports can be generated with a click of the button

Pricing

• Free trial for 7 days.

3. Keka

Keka is a modern Payroll and HR software recently launched and quickly gaining popularity for its simplicity and usability. With an intuitive UI and innovative functionality, Keka is quite easy to adopt for organizations of all sizes. Payroll functionality is quite extensive with all statutory compliance functionality available on click of a button. Keka support team is their great asset and they are quite passionate about helping their customers.

Features

• Most innovative Attendance Management with GPS and biometric sync
• One-Click Payroll processing.
• Loans, Expense Management, and Appraisal tracking
• Extensive Leave Management and best in industry.
• Robust Timesheet Software

Pricing

• Foundation: ₹4999 / mo
• Strength: ₹6999 / mo
• Growth: ₹9999 / mo

4. Paysquare

Paysquare is one of the most comprehensive payroll software for small businesses having all modern features. Paysquare looks after the entire payroll management right from consolidating HR/Finance, processing of payroll and managing statutory filings.

Features

• It provides the feature of leave management for the company and let it focus on its goals rather than bothering about day to day HR operations
• Assures comprehensive solutions for payroll and compliance needs
• Offers complete automation and customizable back end payroll engine
• Has different sections for different functions such as leave management, statutory and compliance management

Pricing

• Quote on request. A free trial is available.

5. MARG ERP 9+ Payroll Software

Marg Payroll software is fully equipped in managing the entire system of employee payroll management, employee compliance management, etc. It is simple, easy to use and can be fully customized according to the requirement of the user. It is the most comprehensive payroll software for small businesses.

Features

• SMS intimation of attendance and salary is provided which information about attendance detail, processing of salary, missing punches, etc.
• It has bonus management and TDS returns feature. In bonus, it focuses on three main sections: – Bonus setup, Bonus payment, and bonus report.
• Marg payroll software provides statutory compliance which helps in calculating P.F., ESIC, T.D.S and Professional taxes.
• Moreover, user-level access is provided which helps the system administrator to set up a hierarchy for users. Thus low-level users can access the only limited set of information.

Pricing

• Silver Edition: ₹ 12600
• Gold Edition: ₹ 25200

6. HRMTHREAD

HRMTHREAD is a web-based payroll software for small businesses. It looks after all the requirements related to the management of employee’s payroll. Moreover, it is versatile, user-friendly and generates all the outputs and statutory reports required in a payroll application.

Features

• Provides the flexibility to add or modify any number of Salary components- earnings and deductions.
• It has the feature of managing multiple reimbursement components like medical, LTA, etc. Moreover, upper limits can be specified related- Employee wise or Grade wise.
• Moreover, it also has integration of its Payroll software with Tally and a cheque printing module.
• Has a complete Web-based architecture which is designed by using ASP.Net 3.5+MS SQL.

Pricing

• Base: ₹ 1,500 per month
• Standard: ₹ 2,000 per month
• Enterprise: ₹ 3,000 per month
• Ultimate: ₹ 4,000 per month

7. Greythr

This payroll and HR management software 500 companies and is daily used by around 500,000 users. It can be operated from anywhere due to the web support that is offered and helps the company integrate its payroll processes so that they do not have to waste time on payroll calculations.

Features

• Management of employee details database
• Leave and attendance management
• Administrative management
• Complete information and calculation of payrolls

Pricing

• Bantam: ₹ 995 per month
• Welter: ₹ 1495 per month
• Super: ₹ 2495 per month
• Cruiser: ₹ 4995 per month

8. EazePay

EazePay is the web-based payroll software solution on a SaaS-based model by Mobius solutions Pvt. Ltd. Since 2010, it has shared a vision to increase productivity and efficiency in managing the human resources of SMEs and midsized ventures. The software consists of base payroll, employee management, reporting, employee self-service, and supporting processes as top modules.

Features

• Fully flexible and easy to use and understand software
• Saves processing time and efforts
• High auditability and control
• Easy data capture
• Role-based access control

Pricing

• Starter: ₹ 75 User/Month
• Professional: ₹ 127.50 User/Month
• Enterprise: ₹ 200 User/Month

9. HRStop

As a value-added software solution, HRStop is specially created for startups, micro, small and medium level business enterprises. The benefits that it offers are: cloud support making it accessible from anywhere, affordable, no extra hardware, hosting, maintenance or licensing cost, requires no extra technical understanding, ease of use and support is offered via phone, mail and online conferencing.

Features

• Employee dashboard: Maintains the complete profile of the employee
• Leave management: Leave filters to keep a track of leave categories
• Attendance management: Special buttons mark the in time and out the time of all employees
• Expense manager and tracker: Enables viewing of the expenses spent
• Timesheet manager: The admin can create a daily or weekly work schedule and updates and hours taken for completion can be checked
• Training management: Employees can register for training that is created and managed by this software
• Payslips: All employees can view their payslips and compensation details.
• Personal information like Personal data – phone numbers and addresses can be regularly updated, company details, employee qualification, history of previous jobs, documents, bank details and tracking all the HR activities is viewed here.
• Other features include management of recruitment activities, company details, and administration.

Pricing

• Basic: ₹ 2500 per month
• Premium: ₹ 5400 per month
• Elite: ₹ 10000 per month

10. Saral PayPack

Saral PayPack is a comprehensive product that automates payroll. This payroll software for small business simultaneously takes into account the statutory details.

 

Features

• Analysis of complete payroll management beginning right from the employee joining to the exit of an employee
• Manages all statutory requirements like PF, ESI, PT, TDS, FORM T, etc.
• Provides employee self-service so that employees can update their leave information, reimbursement information, etc. without going to a concerned person.
• It has an integrated tracking system of payroll with time and attendance of the employees

Pricing

On Cloud

• Bronze: ₹ 825 per month
• Silver: ₹ 1295 per month
• Gold: ₹ 1950 per month
• Platinum: ₹ 2408 per month

On-Premise

• Professional: ₹ 25800-33000
• Standard: ₹ 36600-54600
• Premium: ₹ 123000-150000 

11. Accupay

The Human Resource Management software Accupay manages functionalities like tracking appraisal performance, benefits management, payroll training, and employee self-service.

Features

• Leave/attendance record
• Employee’ personal information database
• Knowledge management
• Salary history
• Position: Promotion /demotion history
• Maintaining a resume database and recruitment information
• Customizing the report as per individual requirements

Pricing

• Basic: ₹ 14900

12. Paywings

Being in this industry for more than a decade, Paywings – recognized by National Academy of Indian Payroll – has more than 100 clients both national and international. It comes in two versions desktop-based and web-access based.

 

Features

• Biometric feature: To track the employee in and out time
• Promotion and events like birthday alerts: Automatic reminders about promotions
• Automatic overtime calculations
• Information on voluntary retirement: The number of years the employee has to work after which he can take voluntary retirement
• Legal body account details
• Keeping the record of employee suspension and termination
• Maintaining employee salary release/hold dates
• Employee history and promotion/demotion
• Shift mapping

Pricing

• Free

13. Webpay

Webpay boosts the productivity of small and medium-sized businesses by generating and maintaining employee details and payroll progression. This payroll software for small businesses manages to keep the record of attendance, calculate salaries and generate payslips, and also create PF, ESI and Tax report.

Features

• No need for extra hardware
• Data and updates are managed easily
• Multiple users can log on
• Data to Excel can easily be imported
• Automatically generates statutory forms and reports

Pricing

• Quote on request

14. Payedge

Payedge is a completely integrated software that is user-friendly, easy to use, and malleable. Day-to-day processes like leave management and setting up your payroll calculating formula are taken care of.

 

Features

• Completely secure
• Hosted on the web – so you can have access to all information at any time
• A cost-effective platform that lets you control all payroll details
• Generates management reports that are easy to read and comprehend

Pricing

• Quote on request

15. Pact Payroll

The stand-alone or integrated Pact Payroll can handle the simplest to the most complex payroll HR tasks. It helps in managing budgets meritoriously by allowing organizations to manage diverse payment requirements in-lieu with the enterprise’s regulations.

 

Features

• Pretax deductions are maintained
• Calculates totals and prints them on checks along with the presentation of the net balance
• Daily payroll entry is made
• Keeps leave records
• Appraisal analysis
• Analysis of salary
• Loans and advance record keeping
• Employee history: transfer, promotion, and increments

Pricing

• Quote on request. Free demo available

Conclusion

Above all, the payroll feature is completely integrated with the company’s account. With the payroll software gaining popularity, the manual accounting and HR management activities related to employee’s salary would be a ritual of the past. Most of them are affordable and some are specially designed for small and medium level enterprises. By automating the management section, the output can be increased and the tedious and important sections would not take time.

This content represents the best guideline to choose payroll management software according to the organization’s usage and necessity. Choosing good software can be a daunting task but this article will help you and your organization in the proper manner.