Payroll Apps: A Win-Win-Win for Your Firm, Your Clients and Their Employees
As advanced and streamlined online payroll systems have allowed accountants to bring payroll back as a profitable service in their firms, many of the leading providers of those payroll programs have started offering mobile apps for smart phones that allow...
Execupay has also developed a mobile interface that is optimized for iPad and Android tablet users, for either clients or firm payroll staff overseeing multiple clients, which offers full payroll management capabilities, including processing runs, entering data, viewing reports, updating client and employee information and updating deductions, withholding and vacation accruals. An iPhone app is also available for employers and employees, allowing them to receive reports, paystubs, W-2s, year-to-date totals, request time off and other features automatically when a payroll run is finalized. Additionally, employers with multiple work groups can have department-specific reporting delivered to appropriate managers.
Devices Supported: iPhone, iPad and Android Tablets.
Price: Free.
Intuit Online Payroll
Payroll.Intuit.com/product/apps.jsp
Features: Intuit has recently been adding several apps for users of many of the company’s web-based programs, including payroll, payment processing, website services and QuickBooks Online. The primary payroll app, Intuit Online Payroll, is now in version 3.0, and offers several enhancements, including the ability to completely manage payrolls from any location, including contractor payments, integrated support tools for users of Intuit’s Full Service Payroll, help functions, other tools, such as making payments by paper check or managing direct deposit accounts.
The app also offers support for the Accounting Professionals version of Intuit Online Payroll, enabling multi-client management, while reporting functions allow users to examine runs prior to final posting. One of the unique tools in the system is that it allows pay stubs to be automatically emailed to workers using a secure delivery system. The app works with Intuit Online Payroll, QuickBooks Online Payroll, QuickBooks Payroll for Mac, Intuit Full Service Payroll, and Intuit Online Payroll for Accounting Professionals.
Devices Supported: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android Phones and Tablets.
Price: Free.
Thomson Reuters Mobile CS
cs.ThomsonReuters.com/mobilecs
Features: Thomson Reuters has long been among the leaders in the movement toward online tools and utilities, debuting their client portals more than 10 years ago, as well as the various tax and accounting applications in the years since then. The company launched Mobile CS in 2010, offering integration with the Accounting CS Suite. The app is not specifically dedicated to payroll, but does offer professionals the ability to quickly access client and staff data, including client employee payroll information, as well as real-time data and reports. Client employees can download and use the myPay Solutions Mobile App, which offers access to common payroll functions, such as checking pay stubs, YTD totals and other information.
Additional features in Mobile CS include quick access to client contact information, and drill-down into a specific client’s details for account activity, projects, WIPs and AR. It includes time and expense management tools, GPS-enabled mileage tracking, digital receipt management and timing of client phone calls. Thomson Reuters also offers an app for its ARNE online support community.
Devices Supported: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android Phones and Tablets.
Price: Free.
AccountantsWorld Payroll Relief Mobile
www.accountantsworld.com
Features: The mobile functionality offered by AccountantsWorld’s Payroll Relief system is not built on an app, but instead through a special web interface that is optimized for mobile devices and can work on any phones or tablets with a web browser. The mobile interface offers full access to the online payroll system’s functionality, including managing multiple clients, running payrolls, entering employee hours, earnings and deductions, viewing payroll histories, and running payrolls of different frequencies.
The system can be used to generate direct deposits or paper-based checks for employees and contractors, with the ability to review summaries prior to finalizing a run. At any time, the user can view PDFs of paychecks and stubs, access all historical reports, email reports or PDFs to clients, and even access and archive documents in the AccountantsWorld CyberCabinet document management system. The system also includes client portal access, so that the firm can easily share reports with clients and even send digital versions of checks that the client can print at their own location.
After a payroll run is finalized, the system automatically manages tax payments, direct deposits and electronic filing of forms. AccountantsWorld also has a mobile time tracking function, as well as many other remote access functions built into its suite of accounting and practice management programs.
