• Sq.’s Contractor’s Solely plan permits you to use their software to pay 1099 contractors for $5/month. There’s no month-to-month charge for enterprise homeowners who haven’t employed W2 workers.

Patriot: Finest for CPAs and Bookkeepers

Patriot is an accounting and payroll software program with features for accounting, payroll, time and attendance, and self-service HR administration.

Distinctive options

• A associate program for accountants: Patriot affords particular discounted pricing for bookkeepers, CPAs, and accountants, ought to that be relevant to you.
• Add on time, attendance, or HR software program instruments to your payroll plan: ​Patriot’s time and attendance software permits you to observe your hourly or salaried staff manually or with time punch entry. Patriot’s HR software program additionally lets you run customary HR studies for brand spanking new hires, demographics, retirement, and worker census. 

Pricing

Patriot’s pricing plans embody:

• A Fundamental Payroll plan for $17/month plus $4 PEPM (per worker monthly)
• A Full-Service Payroll plan for $37/month and $4 PEPM

You may as well add Time and Attendance or HR Software program to any plan for an additional $6 a month and $2 per contractor.

Distant: Finest for world funds

Distant is an HR software program for world and distant groups that gives options for hiring, working payroll, organizing advantages, and providing inventory choices to workers and contractors.

Distinctive options

• World infrastructure: Distant companions with native authorized entities and HR specialists in each nation to assist corporations keep compliant regardless of the place their workers and contractors work.
• IP (mental property) safety: Distant’s IP Guard works to verify corporations with distant worldwide groups can declare correct possession of their mental property. 

Pricing

Distant’s plans are as follows:

• A Contractor Administration plan that permits you to handle your 1099 contractors for $29/contractor/month.
• An Employer of Report plan that permits you to rent workers in international locations the place you don’t have a enterprise arrange. That begins at $299/month. 

You may as well get a customized quote so as to add World Payroll onto any plan to run payroll in international locations the place you do have your online business arrange.

Rippling: A lot of integration choices

Rippling affords options for IT and HR, and their HR platform contains payroll, time and attendance, advantages, studying and compliance administration, expertise administration, and PEO (skilled employer group) companies.

Distinctive options

• Tons of integration choices: Rippling’s App Store offers you entry to dozens of integrations for each type of software — from buyer assist to design to workforce communication to finance and authorized. And for those who discover they don’t have an integration you want, you’ll be able to request it.
• Coaching and compliance options: Rippling’s studying administration catalog lets rising corporations maintain massive groups on observe with improvement and compliance coaching.

Pricing

Rippling’s plans embody:

• An Worker Administration platform for $8 PEPM 
• Entry to full-service payroll for $35/month plus $8 PEPM

You may as well discuss to their customer support workforce to get customized quotes.

Gusto: Finest for accounting companies

Gusto is a payroll, advantages, and HR administration software program that gives companies instruments for full-service payroll, worker advantages, time and attendance, hiring and onboarding, expertise administration, and insights and reporting. Additionally they provide Gusto Professional for accountants who want extra devoted instruments to assist their shoppers. 

Distinctive options

• A downloadable app for worker funds: When employers use Gusto, Gusto Pockets lets workers and contractors obtain and observe their paychecks, banking, and financial savings accounts multi functional app. The platform additionally comes with a Gusto Pockets debit card.
• Pay contractors internationally: Just like Distant, Gusto permits you to pay contractors in 80 international locations worldwide, so you’ll be able to simply handle a worldwide workforce.

Pricing

Listed below are Gusto’s paid plan choices:

• A Contractor Solely plan for companies who haven’t employed W-2 workers for $6 PEPM
• A Core plan for $39/month plus $6 PEPM
• A Full plan for $39/month plus $6 PEPM
• A Concierge plan for $149/month plus $12 PEPM 

Companies that want premium instruments and have greater than 25 workers can contact Gusto’s gross sales workforce for a customized Choose plan quote. 

QuickBooks: Finest for direct deposits

Enterprise homeowners is perhaps accustomed to QuickBooks as well-established accounting software program, however QuickBooks Payroll lets enterprise homeowners handle payroll, schedule direct deposits, file payroll taxes, create timesheets, and obtain tax penalty safety if an error happens whereas utilizing their software program.

Distinctive options

• Direct deposits: As an alternative of handing contractors a test, QuickBooks permits you to arrange direct deposits in order that they’ll at all times get funds on the identical day.
• Tax penalty safety: Should you incur a federal, state, or native tax penalty whereas utilizing QuickBooks On-line Payroll Elite to file your taxes, they’ll allow you to resolve the problem and reimburse you for the penalty and curiosity value of as much as $25,000.

Pricing

QuickBooks plans embody:

• A 30-day free trial
• A Core plan for $22.50/month plus $4 PEPM 
• A Premium plan for $37.50/month plus $8 PEPM
• An Elite plan for $62.50/month plus $10 PEPM 

Clever: Finest for enterprises

Clever — initially TransferWise — is a banking software program that lets enterprise homeowners pay contractors, distributors, and workers, in addition to handle worldwide invoices in 80 international locations around the globe. 

Distinctive options

• Funds for worldwide groups: Identical to Distant and Gusto, Clever lets massive enterprises and firms with worldwide groups pay their contractors and workers in 80 international locations.
• Clever open API (utility programming interface) for companies: For bigger companies that need extra technological management of their interface for funds and instruments, Clever affords an open API you could check, program, and construct earlier than you’re able to implement it.

Pricing

It’s free to open an account with Clever, and right here’s how their pricing works after that:

• A 0.41% charge for the cash you ship
• A 2% charge plus $1.50 for ATM charges over $100
• A $5 to get a Clever debit card
• A 0.41% charge to transform cash into one other forex
• A $31 charge to obtain funds in 10 currencies
• A $4.14 charge to obtain US greenback wire funds

What to search for in contractor payroll software program

Because the proprietor of a rising small enterprise, you should discover a software program for contractor payroll administration that permits you to: 

• Observe your funds
• Keep compliant together with your native, state, and federal legal guidelines
• Customise your processes to fit your wants
• Combine together with your favourite instruments
• Talk with a workforce that’s not at all times collectively in a single bodily location

Let’s dig into the options we predict you shouldn’t go with out.

HR options

It pays to verify the software you utilize has HR features, even for 1099 contractors. Why? As a result of groups with contractors are normally unfold out, and payroll software program with HR options permits you to merge every little thing into one place for obligatory worker certifications, info, and paperwork. 

A payroll software with HR options may also give you guidebooks and assets that will help you keep compliant with native, state, and federal legal guidelines and even offer you entry to an actual HR knowledgeable who can assessment your paperwork and insurance policies and reply your HR and compliance questions.

Tax administration

1099 contractors do include some tax obligations for small enterprise homeowners, and if that issues your small enterprise particularly, payroll software program with tax administration is perhaps a worthy funding.

To start out, a devoted tax administration function ought to allow you to mechanically concern each W2s and 1099s for brand spanking new hires.

For instance, for those who’re a house restore firm that employs each full-time workers and 1099 staff, payroll software program ought to allow you to mechanically calculate your wages and taxes for each sorts of staff. It also needs to allow you to submit the suitable funds to staff, the state, and the IRS, so that you don’t need to. 

Reporting and analytics

For small enterprise homeowners who need additional assurance that they’re staying on high of their contractor payroll obligations, a payroll analytics and reporting software can assist you handle and maintain observe of the payroll studies you want to your 1099 contractors and common workers — together with payroll registers, particular person paycheck histories, and tax submitting studies.

Customization choices

The proprietor of a small spa doesn’t want the identical issues out of a payroll service as a small accounting agency. That’s why customization issues in your payroll software, even for those who solely rent contractors, salaried workers, or a mixture of each.

For instance, the designers of Homebase created their payroll software with hourly staff in thoughts, however it additionally works nice for salaried workers. Better of all, workforce members can clock out and in of their shifts from cellular units and have Homebase mechanically sync these hours with payroll.

Integration choices

It’s exhausting to let go of instruments you’re connected to, so a payroll software with easy-to-use integrations ought to will let you maintain your starter system.

Let’s say you’re pleased with Sq. or QuickBooks’ enterprise administration instruments, however you’re on the lookout for a payroll answer that has extra workforce administration and communication options. You need to be capable of easily sync your information between each options and maintain utilizing them collectively.

Cellular utility

The extra handy you may make your time monitoring and timesheet system, the better it will likely be to have a legally compliant, error-free payroll expertise. 

We propose a payroll software with a cellular timesheet utility, which helps you to observe worker and contractor hours out of your cellphone or cellular system so that you’re not location dependent — you simply want an web connection. 

Advantages of utilizing contractor payroll software program

If you’re beginning out as a small enterprise proprietor, you may really feel that the one strategy to get actually hands-on with the payroll course of is to do it manually. However that may be a time-consuming course of that places you at a better threat of constructing errors or going through authorized points. Right here’s how payroll software program can assist you keep away from that:

Scale back error

Transferring every contractor’s hours to a guide payroll spreadsheet can simply result in errors. You’re solely human! A contractor payroll software program isn’t, although, and it needs to be designed to sync information mechanically in order that when your contractors clock in, their info immediately uploads to a timesheet for payroll.

Automate tedious processes

It’s not simply information entry that makes payroll tedious, is it? It’s additionally the onboarding and paperwork amassing that overwhelms small enterprise homeowners. However you’ll be able to automate that course of with a contractor payroll software that lets workers onboard themselves and even reminds them to signal any required paperwork earlier than they begin working.

Keep compliant

If staying compliant retains your small enterprise workforce awake at evening, a payroll software can maintain that for you by mechanically issuing tax paperwork and onboarding packets to new contractors, monitoring employee certifications, and notifying you of any modifications in native or state labor legal guidelines.

Typically new small enterprise homeowners want some additional peace of thoughts, although, which is why Homebase’s platform even permits you to entry direct one-on-one steering with HR professionals to be sure you’re staying above board together with your contractor companies.

Lower down on time and trouble with payroll software program

Attempting a brand new payroll software program to handle your impartial contractors shouldn’t contain an excessive amount of threat. You’ll be able to at all times return to your previous system if it feels too sophisticated. 

However we additionally need you to concentrate to how a lot time and trouble you keep away from when making an attempt a brand new software. Should you discover that you simply’re saving hours day by day, decreasing your spreadsheet muddle, and gaining extra peace of thoughts about staying compliant, then we predict the return on funding is price it.

Payroll software program for contractors FAQs

What’s a 1099 employee? 

A 1099 employee, or freelancer, is a contract employee who’s not technically thought-about an worker by the IRS the way in which a salaried W2 worker is. We discuss with them as 1099 staff due to the tax type — the 1099 — they’re required to fill out earlier than they work for somebody. They work in quite a lot of positions, from freelance writers to expert laborers to attorneys on retainer. 

How is an impartial contractor paid?

Enterprise homeowners will pay impartial contractors hourly or by undertaking through the contractor’s bill. For instance, freelance graphic designers or attorneys on retainer may favor a lump sum originally of every month, whereas freelance writers or expert laborers may favor to be paid on the finish of a undertaking based mostly on what number of hours they labored or their deliverables.

Do I would like a payroll system for impartial contractors?

Chances are you’ll want a payroll system for impartial contractors if you wish to replace your instruments or automate every little thing you do manually. 

So, whether or not you run your small enterprise payroll with a spreadsheet or with accounting software program, look right into a payroll answer that mechanically points 1099s to new contractors, syncs time monitoring with timesheets, and helps you keep compliant together with your native labor legal guidelines for contract work.