12 Best Payroll Software & Platforms for Remote Teams

Ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, not only have many companies and businesses closed temporarily or permanently, but many businesses have encountered drastic changes in their work processes.

As remote work is becoming a norm, payroll processing has become more complex.

Small businesses that relied on Excel sheets have been facing a lot many issues with their payroll operations – delays, miscalculations, data mismanagement, and more.

Luckily, payroll software can help you efficiently tackle all issues in your payroll management.

What is payroll software?

A payroll software is an accounting platform specifically designed to manage employee payroll, taxation, as well as time management. Human resource departments and payroll administrators all over the world use these tools.

These apps automate the payroll process to reduce administrative burden and make sure that everyone is correctly paid on time.

The benefits of payroll software include the following:

Improved compliance: As we all know; tax rules and regulations keep changing at a regular interval. It can be challenging to calculate taxes, and missing deadlines can only result in significant fines and penalties for employers.

A payroll system helps you remain updated with the current state and federal laws by providing information regarding compliance needs.

No outsourcing required: Using your own payroll tool gives you complete control over your financial data and avoids the risk of releasing or outsourcing sensitive employee information to a third party.

Providing employees with self-service features and transparency: Payroll software allows employers to grant limited access to payroll information to their employees. Individual accounts on an employee self-service site enable employees to access their payroll information.

Efficiency: Using the automated features of the payroll software, businesses and employers can speed up and decrease errors in every aspect of the payroll process.

Here we list the top twelve payroll software and platforms for remote teams.

1. Deel

Deel is a global payroll and compliance hiring platform designed specifically for remote teams.

Using Deel, businesses can hire and pay full-time employees or independent contractors legally anywhere in the world in minutes.

It allows businesses to manage payroll and develop localized legal contracts in more than 150 countries. Employees and Business teams can even choose how they want to withdraw their funds, which includes direct bank payouts in their local currency.

Currently, Deel has over 4,500 customers, ranging from small and midsize businesses (SMBs) to publicly traded companies like Shopify, Sezzle, Andela, Notion, etc.

Key Features

• With the help of its one-click payroll feature, you can easily make bill payments in bulk for the entire team. Each member can then withdraw their earning profits via bank transfers, Coinbase, Revolut, and Wise.
• Additionally, it has the worldwide payments and document collection feature.
• It integrates well with NetSuite, Okta, QuickBooks, Xero, and many similar tools.

Pros

• It offers month-to-month service.
• You have the option to cancel at any time.
• Deel keeps everything in one system of record, including localized contracts, compliance document collection, invoice generation, and tax forms.
• It creates legal documents and tax forms for U.S. clients, such as W8, W9, 1099, etc.

Cons

• No free version available.
• Does not offer a free trial.

Pricing

• The Contractors plan handles payroll and compliance for contracts in 150 countries for $49 a month per contractor.
• The full-time plan starts at $500. It allows you to hire full-time personnel in a new nation without having to establish a legal business there. Deel takes on the role of Employer of Record and hires the employee on your behalf.

2. Remote

Remote is a free payroll software that owns and runs a full-stack global infrastructure in every nation, which can manage your budget with just one low flat charge, allowing you to focus on building your business.

It empowers companies and businesses of all sizes to pay and manage full-time and contract employees worldwide.

It helps you cope with international payroll, taxes, benefits, stock options, as well as compliance in a few countries as well.

Key Features

• This global HR solution can provide medical, dental, vision, paid holidays, pension planning, a 401(k), life insurance, and various other benefits to your employees.
• The self-onboarding feature allows workers to connect to the platform through a remote and add themselves in minutes.
• Tax compliance, as well as career and skill tracking, are also available in Remote.
• ERP, HRIS, cost management software, and time and attendance systems are just a few of the tools that this global HR solution can integrate with.

Pros

• While others charge $35 and above for international contractor payments and administration, this software does it for free.
• Even without having your own legal entity, you can hire full-time employees all around the world.
• Onboarding, paying, and delighting your remote employees and contractors is simple, no matter where they are in the world.
• Built-in local legal compliance. Your team will be employed by Remote’s local legal entities in each nation as part of the Global Employer of Record service.
• Payroll management and automated payments.
• There are no additional costs or fees based on the quantity of payroll processed.

Cons

• While contractor services are available everywhere, full employment services are only available in selected countries at the moment.

Pricing

• Free Contractor Management plan requires only the payment processing fees.
• Global Employment (EOR Services) starts at $299 per employee per month.
• Payroll & Benefits and Global Employment Plus come under customized pricing plans.

3. Pilot

The pilot is a leading general ledger and enterprise accounting software program designed to help small businesses and start-ups.

With its help, administrators can file numerous income taxes, including the local, federal, and state, by receiving status updates concerning filings in real-time.

Pilot allows managers to research transactions and generate financial reports every month, including cash flow, balance sheet profit and loss.

Key Features

• HR/HCM, finance, and other integration features are available.
• Its processing features include multi-country, data consolidation, data quality, and rules.
• It offers certain compliance features as well, including governance and country-specific internal policies.
• Reporting features include dashboards and cost tracking.

Pros

• Help you manage bookkeeping, taxes, and various other financial processes.
• Allows teams to manage annual budgeting, investor reporting, pitch assessments, fundraising strategies, forecasting, and several other expert services.
• Let employees perceive R&D charges and gather the documents to claim tax credits.
• Helps to process bills, track expenses, build and distribute invoices with the concerned personnel, build budgets, and examine companies’ economic health.

Cons

• No free version is available.

Pricing

• Contractors plan starts at $29 per contractor per month.
• Employee plan starts at $299 per employee per month.
• Employee Plus plan starts at $459 per employee per month.

4. Bonsai

Bonsai is an all-in-one product suite with everything a freelancer needs to build a successful business. It removes all forms of paperwork, allowing clients to concentrate entirely on their jobs.

You can continue with their daily business operations with the help of the Bonsai’s integrated and automated architecture, which enables them to manage tasks like a pro.

You can also arrange their jobs and projects using it’s user-friendly interface.  It helps you neatly manage all proposals, contracts, invoices, tasks, projects, expenses, taxes, and accounting activities in one location.

Key Features

• All the paid subscribers of the Bonsai Tax add-on have access to profit and loss reports.
• You can choose from over 100 multiple currencies to edit your invoice settings.
• They provide six alternative templates for creating proposals for your clients.
• All the subscribers of the Plus plan have access to a branded client portal where they can download files and manage projects.

Pros

• All the relevant information regarding your job is kept in one place.
• Ability to create contracts for all of your essential projects quickly and easily.
• Clients can pay using Bonsai thanks to its invoicing capabilities.
• Excellent customer support service.
• Apps that work well on mobile
• Simple and easy to use.
• Has an available free plan.

Cons

• Limited features and integrations.
• Expensing features aren’t as robust as those found in dedicated accounting systems.

Pricing

• The Plus plan for $16 per month paid annually.
• The Premium plan for $24 per month paid annually.
• Additional users at $9 per user.

5. Omnipresent

Omnipresent is another excellent software to help start-up businesses overcome challenges and manage a remote team. It solely has an employee model (rather than contractors and workers).

It creates legally accurate payrolls, including taxes and benefits, using the currency that corresponds to the location of the employees. It also makes and administers custom benefit packages to make sure that each team member is well cared for.

Omnipresent gives employers from over 150 countries the freedom to hire the greatest global talent and empowers employees with the assistance they need to feel like part of the team. Its features include backup and recovery, real-time and two-way synchronization.

Key Features

• Backup and recovery.
• Real-time and two-way synchronization.
• Multi pay-cycle management.

Pros

• Enables document syncing across iOS devices.
• Can sync many different file types.
• Employ anywhere.
• Includes online support.
• Seamless and efficient onboarding of remote employees or teams.

Cons

• Exporting analytics reports from iPad can be difficult.
• Call scheduling is complicated.

Pricing

Omnipresent offers custom pricing plans. Get in touch with them to discuss your needs.

6. Lano

Lano allows you to manage incoming and outgoing invoices and payments. You can organize customers, freelancers, and projects in the database and classify them according to your preferences.

With integrated templates, freelancers, service providers, and other organizations may create invoices automatically. Payments are tracked, and payment reminders are available.

Lano also enables freelancers to send invoices to businesses directly, and bill payments may be made with a single click.

Lano keeps track of working hours, which are used to generate invoices. It also uses to-do lists and timesheets to keep track of your job. An  is also included in the program.

Key Features

• Compliance management.
• Contractor database.
• Reporting and analytics.
• Budgeting and forecasting.
• Intelligent financial planning.

Pros

• Free to use (with limited features).
• Build expert invoices quickly.
• All documents and contracts in one place.

Cons

• Users feel more features are required on the freelance or contractor management side.

Pricing

• Monthly billings start from 20 € and go up to 450€.
• Annual billings start from 15 € per month and go up to 400€ per month.

7. Gusto

Gusto is an advanced online payroll platform suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.

Like many other payroll software, Gusto also helps you pay your employees through direct deposits or checks. It also keeps an automated track of files for all sorts of taxes, including state, federal, state, and local taxes.

However, unlike other payroll systems, Gusto offers you a better plan based on the tier you choose. It means that instead of removing the direct deposit option from its cheapest plan, it makes direct deposit more favorable as you choose an expensive plan.

For instance, the direct deposit can take up to four days to clear for the lowest-tier plan, but the next-day direct deposit is available for the higher-tier plans.

Key Features

• Its error-proof payroll management feature calculates, reduces, and removes the chances of human errors.
• Gusto makes it easy to manage essential information along with the worker’s contact information, day off balances, I-9s, W-2s, etc.
• With the help of the benefits administration feature, it looks after budget plans, comp insurance, employment tax reporting and payment, and hire and leave reports.

Pros

• Unlimited payroll runs.
• Tracking of PTO (paid-time-off) is available.
• Full-service payroll is provided in all states.
• Basic reports are offered at all tiers.

Cons

• Only the Complete and Concierge plans offer next-day direct deposit.
• Only Concierge subscribers get dedicated support.

Pricing

• Contractor plan costs $6 per person per month.
• Core plan costs $39 per month.
• Complete plan costs $39 per month.
• Concierge plan costs $149 per month.

8. QuickBooks Payroll

QuickBooks Payroll is a cloud-based accounting software and application for small businesses with a large customer base. It provides clever business features that help you efficiently manage your business from anywhere, at any time.

It allows you to keep track of your finances, manage costs, send invoices, track inventory, and even administer payroll.

By adding payment alternatives to QuickBooks Payroll, you can remain organized, save time, and even get paid faster. The best part is that you can try it out for free for 30 days.

Key Features

• Advanced and accurate calculations and rates for supported payroll tax forms, federal and state tax tables, etc.
• You will be provided with the choice to either deposit your employee’s payroll directly into their checking or financial bank savings account.
• The Direct Deposit feature for 1099 contractors gives the users the power to ship all the direct deposits to the 1099 independent contractors.

Pros

• Simple setup with a user-friendly interface.
• Seamlessly integration.
• Offers fast and direct deposit options.
• 30-days free trial.

Cons

• The time-track-on-the-go feature is not available with the lowest subscription plan.

Pricing

• Simple Start plan costs $12.50 monthly for 1 user.
• Essentials plan costs $25 monthly for 1 t0 3 users.
• Plus plan costs $40 monthly for 1 to 5 users.
• Advanced plan costs $90 monthly for 1 to 25 users.

9. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a time-tracking software application designed for in-office and remote teams. It basically provides detailed analytics reports on where the time is spent in the working hours or days.

Web and app usage tracking, attendance tracking, and automated payroll are among its most notable features.

Property management companies use Time Doctor to measure and manage time spent away from the office, whether on-site visits, off-site meetings, or working from home or other locations.

Since most of the meetings with boards and communities take place in the evenings, it’s helpful to know how much time is spent on each community’s discussions.

Key Features

• Other than detailed time-tracking, it does payroll management, scheduling, work proof, and attendance monitoring.
• It can integrate well with Gusto, Wise, PayPal, Payoneer, etc. to let you pay your team members.
• Its employee monitoring features include automated screenshots, URL and app tracking, and mouse and keyboard tracking activity.

Pros

• Easy time tracking and employee productivity monitoring.
• Detailed and accurate reporting to identify the areas which require productivity improvement.
• Robust employee monitoring functionality.
• Ability to create invoices directly from the app.
• Monitors computer activity but can be set to pause while performing personal computer operations.
• Can be edited to account for non-computer tasks such as site visits and meetings.
• Automated timesheets.
• Automated payroll.

Cons

• The time alerts can be distracting.
• To use the stopwatch feature, you will need a desktop application or a Chrome extension.
• The amount of information that can be entered in the non-computer task description areas is limited.

Pricing

• Basic plan costs $7 per user per month.
• Standard plans start at $10 per user per month.
• Premium plans start at $20 per user per month.

10. Eddy

Eddy is a simple-to-use, cloud-based human resource management tool that allows recruiters and professionals to track applications and conduct onboarding for new employees.

It offers different solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, including time tracking, onboarding, and most importantly, payroll software.

They are a full-service provider taking care of compliance, accuracy, taxes, W-2s, and all other aspects of payroll management.

Key Features

• Keeps track of PTOs as well, with automated accruals, manager approvals, and employee time-off requests, which are all part of the package.
• Handles quarterly, and annual tax returns; tax remittance; W-2 filing, and distribution.
• Dedicated customer support.

Pros

• Clean and intuitive interface.
• The documents can be digitally stored and secured.
• Easy set up and transition.
• Timely and accurate payrolls.
• Good customer support service.

Cons

• Lacks some features like notification and paystubs review.

Pricing

It starts at a monthly cost of $8 per employee plus a $49 base fee per month.

11. Payroll4Free

Payroll4Free is one of the best free payroll solutions you will find, provided you are ready to do some manual work.

This would be a step up from a pen-and-paper payroll system if your company has fewer than 25 employees. However, you have to pay a small fee if you want to pay your employees or file payroll taxes through direct deposits.

It allows you to input hours for payroll for your company or business while leaving many of the administrative tasks to you. It will, however, calculate things for you.

The setup is manual, although it contains a setup tool to help you in entering the correct data in the right places.

Key Features

• You can easily bill payments to contractors and pay their employees’ salaries.
• It enables bills to be paid to contractors and personnel through direct deposits or paper checks. Businesses can also choose to pay bills by combining both techniques as per their convenience.
• With the help of the “Track Employee Time-Offs” features, it organizations have several alternatives to managing workers’ sick leave, vacations, and PTO.

Pros

• It is entirely free to use.
• Tax preparation and payment via direct deposit are both inexpensive.
• Pay W-2 employees and 1099 contract workers.

Cons

• The features are limited.
• The setup is entirely manual.

Pricing

Payroll4Free is free to use. If you include more than 25 employees here to file your payroll taxes, you will have to bear the fixed cost of $15 per month, and you will be charged an extra $15 to pay your staff through direct deposit.

Otherwise, the money will be deposited in your account so that you can pay your employees by check. Even if you want to consider investing in services like check printing software, you will spend less than you would for most other services.

12. OnPay

OnPay is a popular payroll software since it is easy to use and has extensive features. Owing to the highly scalable solutions it provides, it is ideal for both small and medium businesses.

With OnPay, you can automate tax filing, and payment as well as streamline payroll processes. It makes it simple to enter payroll information such as hours, bonuses, tips, reimbursements, benefits, and compensation insurance.

For W-2 employees and 1099 contract workers, it can handle an unlimited number of monthly payroll runs. Payments can be made either by check or direct deposit as per the preferences of the users.

However, they must first apply for the functionality and successfully pass a risk assessment test before using it.

Key Features

• They have automated payroll processing, time table limitless pay runs, personalize pay runs to in shape enterprise functions, make corrections, and cancel pay runs while necessary.
• Their employee management feature provides self-services to employees so that they can undergo self-onboarding, input and change private details, and get right-of entry tax forms and pay stubs.
• The multiple pay rates features allow all sorts of payments, including via checks, direct deposit, and debit cards. It also allows payments based on varieties of employees, which includes contractors, salaried employees, and hourly employees.

Pros

• There are no hidden costs.
• Good value for money.
• Simple to use.

Cons

• There are no same-day or next-day direct deposits available.
• No automated payroll submission.

Pricing

OnPay’s pricing is $36 base fee per month and $4 per person per month.

Conclusion

Summing it up, using payroll software is almost a necessity if you have a remote team.

It can take away the hassle of timely payments, compliance, taxes, employee benefits, and many other things.

All the payroll software we discussed have a unique set of features, pros, and cons.

Some of them offer a few trails as well. Based on your team size and other requirements, pick the one that suits you the most.

Though Deel and Pilot do not offer a free trial, they are among the most reliable, user-friendly, and have robust features to ease your payroll and remote team management burden.