Square Payroll is an advanced payroll processing software for small businesses. It helps business owners run payroll easily, by either partially or fully automating the process. Business owners can import employee and contractor hours with just one click and have Square Payroll do the rest. They can also have payroll run itself completely: automatically importing hours, calculating salaries, sending confirmation emails to employees, and notifying them when it’s complete.
We compiled Square Payroll reviews from our website and around the web and found that it has mainly positive ratings. We also share its available subscription options, starting at $0 month. Click here to get set up for free.
Summary of Square Payroll User Reviews
What Square Payroll does well:
Users who gave positive reviews said that Square Payroll is intuitive and user-friendly. They like that they can easily manage and pay their employees using the software. Users also like its efficiency in helping them organize their accounts during tax time.
What Square Payroll does not do well:
Users who gave negative reviews said that Square Payroll’s customer service is not good and response times are generally slow. Others dislike the inflexible pay periods, especially during holidays. They also cited occasional miscalculations committed by Square Payroll.
Most Helpful Positive User Review:
“Square does an amazing job at making it simple to manage and pay employees — easy to stay organized, and makes it painless when it comes to tax time.”
– Danielle Pingitore
Most Helpful Negative User Review:
“Inflexible pay periods and over-calculates employer taxes for 501 (c) 3 nonprofits. This would have cost a client a lot of money in payroll taxes they legally do not owe. Support isn’t great. Square is new to the payroll business and it shows.”
– Loretta Callahan
Square Payroll Pricing
Square Payroll offers two plans: Contractors Only ($0/subscription + $5/contractor/month) and Employees and Contractors ($29/subscription/month + $5/employee or contractor/month.) The main difference between the plans is the inclusion of additional features such as automatic payroll tax payments and filing, pretax deductions and reimbursements, automatic payroll processing, and more. Click here to get set up for free.
| Plans | ($/subscription/month) | |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor Only | ||
| Employees and Contractors |
Square Payroll Features
Check out the list below of some of Square Payroll’s features.
- Pay 1099 contractors
- Pay W-2 employees
- Direct deposit
- Online accounts for your team
- Custom reporting and QuickBooks Online integration
- Time tracking and overtime calculations
- Federal Form 1099-MISC automatically filed
- U.S.-based phone support
- Payroll tax payments and filings automatically filed
- New-hire reporting for employees
- And More
Useful Square Payroll Resources
How To Do Payroll: The Ultimate Guide – Do you want to know how to do payroll for your employees? Are you interested in learning about the specific details of payroll processing? Check out our ultimate guide to learn how to do your own payroll management.
How to Do Payroll Accounting: A Step-by-Step Guide – Need to know the difference between regular payroll and payroll accounting? Interested in learning how to perform your own payroll accounting? Here is our step by step guide on how to do it.
Other Payroll Resources – Want to learn more about payroll services? Wondering how to do it on your own using the latest software? Find out more using our in-depth guides, resources, and articles here.
Square Payroll FAQ
Can I sync my Square Payroll data and reports with Quickbooks online?
Yes. You can sync your Square Payroll data and reports with Quickbooks online using the export feature or you can also choose to manually export your reports.
What are the employee exclusions of Square Payroll?
At present, Square Payroll does not support household or agricultural employees. They only handle businesses with file Form 941 or 944.
Square Payroll Overview Video
This video provides an overview of Square Payroll and how you can use the software to help improve your payroll management requirements.
Top Square Payroll Alternatives
Not sure if Square Payroll is the right fit for you? Read our reviews of the top payroll software for comparison or check out one of these three Square Payroll competitors.
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Lucy Ciko
I can operate as a fully functioning traveling company now. Not only is the mobile app great for on the go credit card payments, but I can also issues electronic receipts for cash and checks. I have all of my sales now logged into one place.
I can’t itemize fees for charging to a card. I would like to be able to be completely transparent with my customers about what I’m charging them for, but I don’t want to add the convenience fee as an “item” in my shop.
NA
Maharshi Modi
Convenience! Square allows me to accept any type of payment when I’m out in the field, which is crucial to my small business since I am a photographer, and clients usually pay me on-location. There are no monthly fees, which is a deal breaker for me. Also, I no longer have to be connected to Wifi to accept payments.
I dislike that if I have to enter a credit card number manually (rather than swiping, because sometimes cards fail to read correctly when swiped), Square will charge me a higher percentage. This is sometimes unavoidable when a credit card, although present, may not be correctly read by the card reader.
Nathing
Beatrice Mukai
The simplicity and efficiency of Square is by far the best on the market today. The handy square reader that fits in your pocket connecting to your cell phone’s audio jack is beyond miraculous. The payments transferred to your bank account next day is reliable and wonderful as well as life saving for the nomadic business-person. Square allows festival booths, markets, and crafts-people to compete with the big guys letting them accept credit cards virtually anywhere with more affordable fees than the big banks.
I dislike the lack-of-ability that square possesses in automatic credit card acceptance for online transactions or when a customer is not present. It would be an amazing gift if Square could evolve to allowing processing of sales online through shopping carts.
NA
Amy Nichol Smith
Review SourceOrganic
Square Payroll offers more flexibility than I expected for such an affordable service. It’s even more useful if you’re using Square’s point-of-sale service. Like other payroll software, Square Payroll lets you pay your employees based on a payroll schedule. You can choose the date of payroll, or you can pay your employee whenever you want. Plus, you can pay workers as often as you’d like, which is helpful when you have contract workers and regular employees.
If you’re using the Square POS system, you can import employee hours to Square Payroll and there’s no need for you to use a separate time tracking app or enter hours manually (though you can). However, there are time tracking apps that Square integrates with, such as TSheets. You can also add tips, bonuses, and commissions. Square does direct deposit, too, and employees can create a profile and enter all their information on the app — yes, there’s a mobile app.
There are two choices when it comes to paying for Square Payroll. If you only have contract employees, you only pay $5 per worker, which is quite affordable. Square takes care of filing 1099s for you, as well. If you have regular employees, you pay $29 per month, plus $5 per employee, but everything is done automatically, such as tax filing. Also, if you lose, say, two employees one month, you’ll pay $10 less that month, as Square only charges you per worker (plus the monthly fee).
Square has made running payroll easy, but not everything is automatic. Reimbursements are one-time payments only, so you can’t set up recurring payments. Deductions can be set by an employee or by the boss.
The customer service rep I spoke with was friendly and helpful, for the most part (see below).
Square Payroll isn’t available in all states, but almost. You can use Square Payroll for Contractors regardless of which state you live in, but the full-service version leaves out Wyoming, Kentucky, West Virginia, Vermont, Alabama, and Delaware. So, it isn’t a complete solution for everyone.
If you’re running a nonprofit, you may be exempt from taxes, but Square Payroll hasn’t, from what I can tell, set up a way to waive taxes, which is a problem.
Customer support sometimes takes a shortcut to answer your questions with obviously copied and pasted responses.
It’s hard to find something that’s missing from Square Payroll, or any regrets. However, that could be because I’m not running a nonprofit or in a state that isn’t supported. The only thing I wish I knew going into Square Payroll is that customer support is on Pacific Standard Time (PST), so here on the east coast, I had to wait until 9 a.m. to talk to anyone.
Review SourceOrganic
Loretta Callahan
Review SourceOrganic
It’s cheap and it handles direct deposit for employees and contractors. We like the ability for people to enter their W9 and bank information.
Inflexible pay periods and over-calculates employer taxes for 501 (c) 3 non profits. Would have cost a client big $ in payroll taxes they legally do not owe. Support isn’t great. Square is new to the payroll business and it shows.
Inability to exempt charitable organizations from taxes they to not have to pay. Promised a manager customer support call back and never received it.
Review SourceOrganic