QuickBooks Payroll

The payroll service is really easy overall. All the tasks that I use are quite simple to navigate around, including adding new employees, paying employees, and sending out payroll liability payments. These are what I do most often and they've been really simplified by Quickbooks.

Other functions that I use are payroll deductions (401k, etc), tracking sick/vacation time, and managing direct deposit.

Another feature I like (part of QB Online, not sure about Desktop), is that employees are emailed a link to join their payroll management website, where they can access payroll stubs, W2's etc. It has made managing a lot of the HR parts of hiring employees much more streamlined.

Not really a con, but I don't have any experience with any of the direct competitors, e.g. Freshbooks, Sage, Xero, etc., so I can't say if Quickbooks does anything better or worse than those others.

But what I can say is that I did switch from Quickbooks Desktop to Quickbooks Online, which is a much better experience overall (although more expensive).

When everything is good, things are great. But, when you have problem, (and you will sometime) they make it so difficult to get answers and issues resolved. When you a problem it will be a big issue and no one is around to help. You try chat, most of the time that doesn't resolve the issue, or question you may have. Have them call you back, that may or may not happen, but it won't happen in the time they indicate.

Its been a great run with Quickbooks Pro (paid more for better Full service) but it looks as if that is coming to an end. The icing on the cake for me was, not getting my employees paid on the date they were supposed to be, though receiving correspondence they would be paid. Trying to get answers to what the issue is, and you can't get a hold of anyone. That creates a game changer.

Software is great, but if you don't have customer service to support the software, the software become worthless. Because you will have issues and will need help.

Ease of implementation and constant guidance available from customer service to resolve any issue. Also the ability to access and run payroll from any device that can reach the internet provides so much productivity.

The Elite payroll service seems so restrictive. I cannot access many of the settings or execute many of the functions that I could through the Core payroll service. To change these settings I need to go through customer service, which was very confusing and frustrating during the implementation of the payroll service.