QuickBooks Payroll vs Sage Payroll

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Our analysts compared QuickBooks Payroll vs Sage Payroll based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Payroll Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Sage Payroll Software Tool

Product Basics

Quickbooks is an Intuit payroll and accounting solution designed to meet the needs of both small and medium-sized, growing businesses. There are a variety of plans, starting with small packages built for independent contractors and self-employed individuals. It handles payment, calculating and filing taxes, benefits management, direct deposits and more.

The variety of products and packages enables users to find a solution that fits a company’s unique needs. Quickbooks offers specialized features for organizations in a variety of fields, including manufacturing and retail. Overall, it serves 1.4 million businesses.
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Sage HRMS Payroll is an HR system used by businesses of all sizes across all industries. It enables organizations to process pay in-house. It streamlines tasks such as tallying hours worked, calculating tax and managing data. The single platform approach lets users streamline their pay processes and ensure employees receive accurate paychecks at the end of each pay period. If you integrate with a full suite, users can automate various tasks concerning processing payments, including time and attendance tracking, benefits management and recruitment.
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$37.50 Monthly
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$595 Annually
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Insights

  • Save Time: Connects with bank accounts and syncs with various apps to help streamline payroll processing. Saves users more than 40 hours monthly on average and spares them from tedious manual data entry.
  • Save Money: Saves the average users more than $3,500 annually through its assistance with tax filing and other processes.
  • Easy-to-Use: Provides a simple interface so HR managers and others can store and access relevant accounting information easily. Centralizes and organizes data, making it simple to access.
  • Simplified Administration: Manages benefits, payments, time tracking, workers’ compensation, inventory, compliance and other essential business functions from one location. Simplifies processes and handles all of them through one solution.
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  • Tax Assistance: Electronically generate and complete tax forms such as I-9s and file them automatically. In addition to guiding users through these forms, the web-based system can check forms against current regulations to ensure compliance.
  • Ensure Compliance Provide compliance with all local, state and federal tax, payroll and reporting regulations. Receive peace of mind about not getting penalized for inaccurate tax calculations or failure to submit accurate reports when necessary.
  • Automated Labor Data: Track information about employee worked hours and pay rates to make it easy to generate reports and minimize instances of overtime or improper pay.
  • Automated Deductions: Save time and energy by allowing the system to calculate employee deductions automatically. Account for factors like benefits plans or wage garnishments.
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  • Payroll Processing: Operate 24-hour direct deposit. Pay employees, access integration services for employees, calculate taxes automatically and file taxes directly through the system. Automate payments to save time.
  • Benefits Management: Administrate workers’ compensation, health insurance, retirement plans and more. Covers workers’ compensation through AP Intego. Offers medical, dental and vision insurance through SimplyInsured. Compare different plans to judge the coverage, value and deductibles and make informed decisions. Calculates deductions for health, medical and dental automatically. Deducts and calculates contributions for 401(k)s from each employee paycheck.
  • Mobile Capabilities: Create, track and send invoices via smartphone as well as payment reminders.
  • Workers’ Compensation: Manage workers’ comp, understand state requirements and laws and pick a policy through AP Intego. Provides a free quote and automates premiums.
  • Inventory: Import information from Excel and sync with Amazon, Etsy and other similar websites to track products, cost of goods, create purchase orders and manage vendors.
  • HR Management and Compliance: Provides HR resources and consultation to help with compliance through Mammoth Inc. Creates forms from templates for onboarding checklists, employee handbooks and job descriptions. Aids in creating policies, obeying HR laws, hiring and conflict management.
  • Time Tracking: Track and add billable hours to invoices. Review and put a stamp of approval on employee timesheets. Provides tracking through TSheets. Link hours to specific jobs, save time during payment processing and see real-time insights into employee work hours. Approve and enter employee time cards.
  • Reporting: Run and export a variety of reports. Create customizable reports for balance sheets, expenses and tracking profit and loss. Create, export, print and customize reports to share with accountants or critical stakeholders. Covers deductions, tax liability, contributions, more than one worksite, summary for taxes and wages, vacation, workers’ compensation and sick leave.
  • Taxes: Helps users find tax deductions. Store photos of receipts, share books with accountants and sort business expenses by tax categories to help streamline tax filing.
  • Penalty Payments: Covers payments of up to $25,000 if errors in local, state or federal taxes result in a penalty. Communicates with the IRS. Reviews taxes with experts before sending them to the IRS to cut off issues before they start. Doesn’t cover specific penalties in some situations such as fraud, insufficient funds, healthcare administration, employee classification and several others.
  • Project Tracking: Track project details such as labor costs, expenses and profits.
  • Payroll Plans: Offers three separate plans for payroll needs.
    • Core: Provides core functionality such as payment and calculating payroll taxes.
    • Premium: Covers team management and provides more powerful tools and services for payroll.
    • Elite: Gives access to experts on-demand to answer payroll questions. Gives access to tax penalty protection.
  • Implementation: Aids in transferring current payroll information to the new system. Provides expert support to help users with initial setup and compliance.
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  • Tax Filing: Deposit, file and pay all payroll taxes directly through Sage Payroll. For additional peace of mind, Sage pledges to pay all fines and penalties for any errors if they are the party at fault.
  • Benefits Management: Administer and manage benefits, including flexible spending accounts and retirement plans such as 401k and simple IRAs.
  • Time and Attendance Management: Allow employees to clock-in and clock-out directly through the system. Timeclock information can then be used to calculate employee hours for payroll processing.
  • Employee Self-Service: Log into the system to view essential documents like pay stubs and year-end tax documents (including W-2s).
  • Integration: Compatible with a variety of third-party vendors. For users with additional payroll needs, the system also offers various add-on products, including HR compliance, recruiting and data management.
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Product Ranking

#47

among all
Payroll Software

#24

among all
Payroll Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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Sage Payroll
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Benefits Management Dashboard And Reporting Expense Management Mobile Capabilities Payroll And Tax Management Platform Capabilities Security And Compliance Time And Attendance Management 38 92 74 94 91 75 80 91 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 626 reviews
Good User Sentiment 92 reviews
89%
of users recommend this product

QuickBooks Payroll has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 89% when considering 626 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

70%
of users recommend this product

Sage Payroll has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 70% when considering 92 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

4.7 (17)
5.0 (1)
4.0 (25)
3.3 (30)
4.5 (550)
3.6 (56)
3.5 (34)
3.0 (5)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated QuickBooks Payroll and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Mobile Capabilities.

Mobile Capabilities Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Excellent Functionality: Over 90% of users that discussed functionality were happy with the features, including the tax filing, automation and employee salaries and hours functions.
Simple to Use: Reviewers that talked about the ease of use felt it had a simple and intuitive interface over 80% of the time.
Manage Salary and Hours: More than 80% who discussed the employee time tracking and salary functions felt it worked well.
Affordable: Just under 70% of users who discussed price felt it was an affordable option.
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Excellent HR Functionality: Over 90% of reviewers discussing the HR functions said it worked well.
Useful Reporting: Commenters liked reporting in just under 90% of reviews that discussed it.
Successful Functionality: More than 80% of users who talked about the features were pleased with their functionality.
Great Price: Reviewers were pleased with the price in over 70% of reviews discussing the cost.
Helpful Customer Service: Over 70% of commenters that discussed support felt it was pleasant and useful.
User Friendly: Reviewers felt the system was easy to use in over 60% of comments about the platform’s usability.
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Bad for Large Organizations: Over 90% of reviewers that discussed using the system for big organizations felt the system wasn’t complex enough.
Mixed Customer Service: Users were split on customer support quality, with 52% approving and 48% disliking the service.
Issues with Price: While overall, reviewers that discussed price felt it affordable, over 30% were displeased and said they got overcharged or billed after they’d already canceled.
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Performance Issues: Over 80% of users who talked about the system’s performance said they ran into some bugs and crashes.
Bad Setup: Reviewers ran into issues and sharp learning curves during implementation in over 60% of comments about it.
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Quickbooks Payroll is part of the Intuit suite of programs. Commenters felt it was easy to use, train and adopt with a simple interface that worked well. They found it affordable and found the integrations of time tracking with employee salaries made running payroll a quick process. Commenters said it was reasonably priced and the features worked well. The most popular functionality included automation, tax calculations and filing, and its ability to centralize and organize data. The largest complaint by far was that this program isn’t complex enough for larger organizations. Reviewers recommended only using it for small organizations. Reactions to customer service were very mixed. Reviewers who were satisfied said the support workers got back to them quickly, were friendly, helpful and called back promptly. Other users had adverse reactions say the staff was incompetent, complaining that there was only chat support and complained of always getting different answers. While most were pleased with the price, some reported getting overcharged and said it was difficult to cancel with charges showing up well after they’d terminated the service. Quickbooks Payroll is a good choice for small and medium-sized businesses. Be sure to understand what functionality comes with which pricing plan before purchasing.

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Sage HRMS Payroll is a payment solution that’s part of the broader software suite. Users enjoyed its useful functionality, ease of use, intuitive layout and good HR features. The reporting features were prevalent because of the comprehensive breakdowns and different levels of permissions on the report. Many also liked that there was no hard close after closing the payroll. Users also felt that customer service was polite and was able to help many through challenges. Overall, reviewers also said it was well-priced and affordable. Its biggest drawback came in the form of performance issues. Users experienced instances of getting kicked out or running into programs that were buggy or crashed. Reviewers were also displeased with the setup process they felt was over-complicated and took far too long. Sage HRMS Payroll may be a good choice for medium and large enterprise organizations who are looking to integrate HR functions as well.

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