QuickBooks Payroll vs Toast Payroll

Last Updated:

Our analysts compared QuickBooks Payroll vs Toast 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.

Toast 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.
read more...
Toast Payroll is a cloud-based solution that helps businesses streamline payroll operations and facilitate efficient workforce management. It offers dynamic functionalities like tax compliant updates, employee profiles, time tracking, wage calculations, digital onboarding, automated tip distribution and more.

The product helps users manage workload with the help of timesheets, calculation tools, computation options, regulatory compliance and other business-specific benefits. It offers prompt customer support channels, a self-service platform that helps employees enroll for programs and benefits and real-time information syncs to the company POS to reduce manual operations.
read more...
$37.50 Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
$110 Monthly
Free Trial is unavailable →
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

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.
read more...
  • Time Savings: Automate payroll calculations and tax filings, freeing up valuable hours for your HR team.
  • Accuracy: Minimize errors with precise, automated calculations, reducing the risk of costly mistakes.
  • Compliance: Stay up-to-date with ever-changing labor laws and tax regulations, ensuring your business remains compliant.
  • Employee Self-Service: Empower employees to access their pay stubs, tax forms, and personal information through a user-friendly portal.
  • Integration: Seamlessly connect with other Toast products and third-party applications, creating a unified system for your business operations.
  • Scalability: Easily manage payroll for a growing workforce, whether you have a small team or multiple locations.
  • Cost Efficiency: Reduce administrative overhead and potential penalties from payroll errors, leading to significant cost savings.
  • Data Security: Protect sensitive employee information with robust security measures and encryption protocols.
  • Real-Time Reporting: Access detailed payroll reports and analytics to make informed business decisions quickly.
  • Employee Satisfaction: Improve employee morale by ensuring timely and accurate paychecks, fostering a positive workplace environment.
  • Customizability: Tailor payroll settings to fit the unique needs of your business, from pay schedules to benefit deductions.
  • Support: Benefit from dedicated customer support to resolve any payroll issues promptly and efficiently.
read more...
  • 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.
read more...
  • POS integration: Sync employee data to the POS system and automate data entry. Check employee timesheets, track employee hours, record tips, monitor wages, onboard new employees and more without manual hassles. 
  • Law-Compliant Operations: Manage job rates, conform to new labor laws, handle payroll taxes and comply with state and federal laws. Meet minimum wage requirements using business protection tools to minimize non-compliance risks. Comply with state and national labor laws using robust tools and HR modules. 
  • Labor Management: Track work hours and add new time entries to manage employee activity. Review breaks, approve timesheets, calculate overtime and record paid leaves with the help of accurate time tracking tools. View open shifts and make accurate payments on a coherent platform. 
  • Online Functionalities: Create employee schedules, access in-depth reports for crucial business insights, manage enrolments and offer plans, simplify HR operations and more on a centralized, time-efficient payroll system. 
  • Self-Service: Allow employees to view and manage benefit plans, make changes, report payroll deductions and more with self-service options. 
  • Reporting: Review team performance, see top-performing employees, identify loopholes, optimize business operations and more using informative reports based on real-time data. Create customized reports and analyze employee performance, HR processes and business finances. 
read more...

Product Ranking

#47

among all
Payroll Software

#135

among all
Payroll Software

Find out who the leaders are

Analyst Rating Summary

84
we're gathering data
38
we're gathering data
92
we're gathering data
74
we're gathering data
Show More Show More

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

QuickBooks Payroll
Toast Payroll
+ Add Product + Add Product
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
0%
0%
100%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
80%
20%
0%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
40%
40%
20%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
90%
0%
10%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
87%
3%
10%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
78%
0%
22%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
80%
0%
20%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
88%
0%
12%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

64%
0%
36%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 626 reviews
we're gathering data
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.

we're gathering data
4.7 (17)
n/a
4.0 (25)
n/a
4.5 (550)
n/a
3.5 (34)
n/a

Awards

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

Mobile Capabilities Award

we're gathering data

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.
Show more
Seamless Integration: Toast Payroll is tightly integrated with the Toast POS system, as well as scheduling software and tip management tools. This is particularly beneficial for restaurants already using the Toast ecosystem, as it streamlines operations and reduces the need for separate systems.
Automated Payroll: The software offers automation features that save time and reduce errors. For example, employee punches from the POS system can be synced directly to payroll, automating the process of calculating hours worked.
User-Friendly Design: Toast Payroll is designed with a user-friendly interface that is generally easy to navigate. The platform also offers ample training resources, making it easier for new users to get up to speed.
Restaurant-Specific Tools: Toast Payroll includes features specifically designed for the restaurant industry, such as tip management and scheduling tools. These features cater to the unique needs of restaurants, simplifying processes like tip allocation and shift management.
Show more
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.
Show more
High Cost: Toast Payroll's subscription fees are higher than many other payroll software options, and the lack of a free trial makes it difficult to assess its value before committing.
Customer Service Issues: Users frequently report long wait times and unhelpful interactions with Toast Payroll's customer support team, making it difficult to resolve issues promptly.
Compliance Concerns: Some users have reported that Toast Payroll's software does not comply with specific state payroll regulations, potentially leading to legal and financial headaches.
Technical Glitches: Users have encountered technical problems with Toast Payroll, including issues with tip management, payroll syncing, and inaccurate reports, which can disrupt operations and create extra work.
Show more

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.

Show more

Is Toast Payroll the best thing since sliced bread, or does it leave a bad taste in your mouth? User reviews over the last year present a mixed bag. While Toast Payroll shines in its seamless integration with Toast POS, simplifying tasks like syncing employee punches and managing time off, it's not without its pitfalls. Users praise its user-friendly interface and efficiency, particularly those already familiar with Toast POS. This integration is a key differentiator, as one user notes, "I love that in this one app I can do everything that I need to do for human resources." However, several users report compliance issues, especially with California law, and hiccups with W2 processing. Customer service, unfortunately, emerges as a sore point. Unlike the integrated experience with Toast POS, support for Toast Payroll is handled separately, often leading to confusion and delays. One user laments, "Our service hasn't been great from their side....we wait longer than expected on items to happen or to even hear back from team members on certain things." Additionally, discrepancies between Toast POS and Toast Payroll, while seemingly counterintuitive given their close relationship, require meticulous attention to detail. Overall, Toast Payroll is a good fit for businesses already entrenched in the Toast ecosystem, especially those prioritizing ease of use and streamlined operations. However, businesses with intricate payroll needs or those operating in regions with stringent compliance regulations might find Toast Payroll's shortcomings difficult to swallow. For those businesses, exploring alternative solutions might be the best recipe for success.

Show more

Screenshots

Top Alternatives in Payroll Software


ADP Workforce Now

APS Payroll

Gusto

Namely

OnPay

Patriot Payroll

Paychex

Paycom

Paycor

Paylocity

Payroll4Free

Rippling

TriNet

Workday HCM

Related Categories

Head-to-Head Comparison

WE DISTILL IT INTO REAL REQUIREMENTS, COMPARISON REPORTS, PRICE GUIDES and more...

Compare products
Comparison Report
Just drag this link to the bookmark bar.
?
Table settings