Top 10 Best Payroll Software For Small Business

In business, managing the payroll process is a task full of hassles. It needs to be accurate for calculating different deductions and additions to direct deposits and tax filing. Here, the role of payroll software comes into the picture.

Today, various open-source and free payroll software in India help expedite and ease the process of payment calculations and allocation. However, it is crucial to choose the payroll software that meets your requirements without breaking the bank.

What is Online Payroll Software?

Payroll software is a type of platform which helps employers in calculating compensation of the workforce in exchange for the services they have offered.

Payroll software solutions can be bought through an HR Payroll software vendor as a standalone or can be purchased as a software module in a comprehensive DBMS package for businesses. These include various other modules such as accounting and CRM solutions.

To sum up, payroll management software assists businesses in the calculation of individual salaries keeping several factors in mind, such as logged-in hours, taxes, and attendance. The software then automatically distributes salaries into each employee’s account.

Benefits of Free and Open Source Payroll Software

If payroll management is executed manually, it can be full of hassles, and there is a scope for error, which might lead to discrepancies. Automating systems with the help of a payroll software can help save money, eliminate mistakes, and avoid compliance issues.

If the secondary tasks can be automated, it would free employees for other primary business-related activities. Free and open source payroll management system also help in easing the expansion and transitionary period of a business as it grows.

Another benefit of choosing a good free and open source payroll software for Windows and mobile is that it ensures accuracy in calculations and is less expensive than hiring a payroll management agency.

With standard payroll software, businesses can streamline their processes and make them faster.

Features of Open Source Free Payroll Software for Small Businesses

Any standard payroll software, free or premium, comes with a set of features to ease the work of payroll managers. The software helps in the storage and monitoring of employee data while also assisting in generating various documents related to payroll and compliance.

Here are some of the salient features any free open source payroll software for small business must provide:

• Calculating Income and Deductions

The best free payroll management software India calculates various subtractions such as taxes, loss of pay due to leaves, and Provident Fund. With the help of free and open source payroll management system, these deductions can be automated, and the salary can be credited to specified bank accounts.

• Saves Tax Stress

Free open source payroll software India should automatically generate all tax forms that are needed by businesses as well as employees. Standard free and open source payroll management systems can create print and send compliance, and tax form with the push of a button. Hence, it also helps in saving the employees from stress and hassles during the tax return filing sessions.

• Determine Company Needs

Not all free payroll software India consists of the same features. Therefore, it is essential for a business to analyze their requirements and then look for the best free and open source payroll software for Mac & Windows which fulfills those.

For instance, the companies that are just starting their journey and do not expect a sudden growth don’t need to invest in enterprise-level software. For start-ups and SMEs, a starter pack with zero or minimal charges would be sufficient to manage basic Payroll and HR-related tasks.

• Employee Self-Service

With the help of a trusted free payroll software for Mac & Windows, the staff can easily access their dashboards for information regarding salary, work hours, attendance, and apply for leaves.

Employees can review their personal information and request changes without having to involve the HR department. Employees can also manage their daily work better, with the help of schedulers provided by the best free open source payroll software for small business.

• Cloud-Based Software

Cloud storage has become an indispensable part of the software systems today, and free payroll management software is no different. Today, managers and business owners need remote access to certain official data for tasks such as monitoring and analysis. Using cloud-based free open source payroll software for small business, they can work with the data from anywhere and at any time.

Payroll solution providers offer Software-as-a-service (SaaS) for monthly, half-yearly, or annual payments depending on the needs and plans of businesses. Another benefit of cloud-based software is that you don’t require an in-house maintenance team to look after the servers. The software can be automatically updated if a new version comes in the market.

List of 10 Best Payroll Software in India

Here is a list of top 10 best payroll software for small businesses. Each software platform offers unique features so that you can choose which software will suit the best to manage the payroll of your business.

• Spine Payroll

Spine Payroll HR suite is a holistic HR & payroll management software that provides flexible functions and is user-friendly. Like other payroll management software solutions, Spine Payroll too assists HR professionals in managing tasks from hiring to retiring/resigning.

Features of Spine Payroll

• The software helps in the address of various HR-related requirements, such as payroll management without hassles.
• It provid­es, flexible, and user-friendly solutions mainly for the businesses in India.
• Spine Payroll enables firms to take care of various HR, payroll, and accounting solutions.

Pricing: Get free demo with Spine Payroll and choose one the best plans for your business needs.

• Marg Payroll Software

Marg Payroll Software is a comprehensive payroll software solution for modern businesses and has a user-friendly interface. It can be combined with other software and devices such as biometric machines for more cohesive attendance and payroll compliance.

Features of Marg Payroll

• It enables the HR of a company to keep track of employee data, including gathering and managing salary-slip.
• This system provides expert solutions in the management of all tasks such as human resource management, payroll management, and compliance management, to name a few.

Pricing: It’s a free payroll management software, which provides trial. However, get advanced features for managing employees’ attendance, salary and payroll functions, at the starting price of just ₹5,000 for one owner.

Suggested Read: Income Tax Filing Software

• Nitso Technologies

Nitso Technologies is one of the most convenient and modern payroll solutions specifically designed for Indian businesses. Nitso Payroll Software provides some state-of-the-art features to businesses for efficient payroll management.

Features Nitso Technologies

• It allows you to choose specific periods for salary such as monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
• The software automatically calculates the salaries of employees depending on the leaves along with other additions and deductions.
• The company can stop or modify wages for those employees who are serving their notice period with the help of this software.
• Nitso Technologies also help in the calculation and application of, Provident Fund and other payroll-related components.
• It also provides tools for report generation and convert them to files of various formats such as PDF, Word, and Excel. 
• Nitso also helps during the full-and-final settlements and reports.
• The addition of payments in the monthly salary can be seamlessly managed with the help of supplementary fees.

Pricing: You can request a free demo for Nitso payroll software and start using it with just Rs 1000 per month.

• Zoho Payroll

Zoho Payroll is a cloud-based payroll software system used to manage expense and remuneration functions  of any business seamlessly. The online solution is aimed to streamline payroll as well as automate and make it more accurate.

Features of Zoho Payroll

• Zoho Payroll allows businesses to centralize and store records of the employees securely.
• The software also provides an array of ways to schedule payroll. Zoho Payroll streamlines and makes the various processes of payroll operations hassle-free.
• Zoho paycheck calculator can automatically do payroll calculations, systemize pay schedules, and in a few steps process and approve pay runs.

Pricing: Zoho provides free payroll software trial. After the free trial, you can enjoy all key features of Zoho Payroll at just Rs 50 per employee per month.

• Paybooks

Paybooks is one of the leading web-based payroll solutions that enables the simplification of different processes pertaining to payroll for Indian businesses.

Features of Paybooks

• The salary software provides an easy-to-use dashboard along with a wizard for effortless payroll task management.
• It has been engineered keeping all the various business and HR-related policies in mind.
• Paybooks provides easy integration with several compliance reports, including Professional Tax, Provident Fund, ESI, Form 16, Income Tax, and various other compliance documents. 

Pricing: Get free software demo, and make the right choice between Regular & Premium plans.

• ezpayroll

ezpayroll is a web and cloud-based payroll software that offers a simple and automated payroll solution for businesses. It provides a stepwise breakdown for the efficient management of payroll and other tasks all without any additional investment in infrastructure.

Features of ezpayroll

• It is easy to install and promises precision with compliance. 
• ezpayroll has been designed keeping Indian businesses, especially SMEs and startups in mind. It caters to a plethora of concurrent payroll and HR-related requirements.
• It helps in simplifying employee-centric tasks for a company such as payroll processing, attendance management compliance. 
• Also, it promotes scaling up, as the requirements in a particular SME or startup increases. Being employee-centric, it also provides employees various ways to save their income taxes. 

Pricing: You can opt for free software demo.

• PACT Payroll

PACT HR Payroll Software provides all the tools required to keep the payroll management of an organization up-to-date and efficient. With its wide-ranging and flexible features, it assists an HR professional manage and look for the best result for all the critical issues.

Features of PACT Payroll

• The software assists with payroll management; beginning for from job recruitment to the final paycheck. 
• PACT’s specialized payroll infrastructure helps businesses develop and manage various payroll needs adhering to the organization’s policies and regulations.
• It provides complete freedom of defining earnings, deductions, loans, and leaves for every employee.
• The parameters to calculate each earning and deduction can be configured.
• Moreover, it offers a unique feature of programmable fields in customization.

Pricing: Get free software demo for PACT, and choose from their different payroll ERP solution options.

• JSM Payroll

JSM’s HRIS software has been in the market for almost two decades and has been a market player due to its flexible, easy-to-use and modernized modules.

Features of JSM Payroll

• Some of its popular modules are HRMS software, employee self-service software and time-sheet software for Indian as well as business across the globe. 
• JSM’s HRMS and payroll management software is designed in such a manner that it can be customized to meet the specific regulations and compliances of different countries.
• It provides all the necessary tools to maintain all the payroll requirements due to its well-designed implementation infrastructure and exceptional support system.

Pricing: You can opt for free payroll software demo.

• Poise Payroll

Poise Payroll empowers the human resources department in payroll management and HR functionalities of the organization. Web-Based software with workflow, and Indian payroll management features.

Features of Poise Payroll

• Poise Payroll enables HR department to calculate, streamline and deploy salary and related documents with the help of state-of-the-art tools.
• As an automated payroll management platform, Poise Payroll facilitates small, medium, and large-scale businesses in India.

Pricing: You can opt for free payroll software for its simple or advanced edition.

• Paywell

Paywell payroll software helps in the management of deductions, taxes, allowances, and other components. It is simple to use and easy to configure.

Once Paywell is configured according to the requirements of a company, most of the functions such as attendance and leave management, overtime calculations and other processes about payroll can be executed with just one click.

Features of Paywell

• Assists with multi-cost allocation by taking into account the direct cost

• The auto advance feature helps with the management of minimum net pay

Pricing: You can opt for the free payroll software demo.