Review of QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll for Accountants - 2010

Intuit, Inc. - QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll for Accountants
800-365-9618
www.accountant.intuit.com/payroll

From the Sept. 2010 Review of Professional Payroll Systems

Intuit offers several payroll processing systems and services, with some designed for direct use by small businesses and others designed with the accountant in mind. With QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll for Accountants, the vendor provides professional firms that use QuickBooks in-house for client write-up and other services, with an integrated and fairly comprehensive multi-client payroll solution capable of handling a broad array of processing, compliance and benefits management functions. Data is shared between the GL and other components of the accounting program. For this review, QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll for Accountants fits into the “Professional Prepared, with Assistance” category of payroll applications, providing a system in which the accounting firm manages all data-entry functions, but has vendor services available for functions such as direct deposit, compliance reporting and electronic payroll tax payments to state and federal agencies.

BASIC SYSTEM FUNCTIONS

QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll for Accountants is an add-in to a firm’s QuickBooks Premier accounting system, offering direct integration between all related components, including GL and AP. It also works with the checkwriting functions available in QuickBooks to provide payroll check printing. The program is based on the Enhanced Payroll program that Intuit markets directly to small businesses, but the professional accounting version includes additional practice-specific tools, such as multi-client management, payroll overviews, after-the-fact payroll, client-deliverable reporting and workflow functions. The system can support the same number of concurrent users for which the QuickBooks version is licensed (generally best at about three to five users).

The program is designed with a specific cap of 50 client EINs for processing payroll, but users can obtain additional licenses of the program for larger client bases. Pricing is flat fee plus the cost of direct deposit ($1.25 per employee check). It uses the client management screens and general interface and command centers of QuickBooks (adding a new center for payroll activities), which adds greatly to the ease-of-use for those with staff already familiar with QuickBooks. Additionally, several wizards aid in initial setup of employer and employee rates, deductions, payroll items, and frequencies and other defaults. Employees can be full or part-time, salaried, commissioned, tipped, piece work or contract labor, and the system can manage advances and reimbursements. QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll for Accountants includes streamlined compliance functions and payroll tax tables for federal and all states, but not local jurisdictions, although it does provide manual forms for some municipal entities. The system can also handle employees with multiple state compliance requirements.

The system allows unlimited standard and custom deductions, unemployment reporting, and offers accruals and benefits management and insurance functions, along with basic employee management and human resources tools. An optional add-in feature for “pay as you go” workers’ comp insurance is available through a partnership between Intuit and The Hartford. Batch payroll functions are not available for processing runs for multiple companies at the same time, but employee time and information data-entry screen options include a multi-employee view that helps speed entry. 4.25

REPORTING & MONITORING