Payroll software market is a vast crowded market where the consumer is spoiled for choice and left confused too. A bare-bone payroll software is to simplify the process of making payments to the employees of an enterprise. However, the above is a simplistic definition. In practice, the requirements are far more complicated than that and depend on the size of the enterprises. An enterprise employing less than 50 persons is classified as small, one employing between 49 and 999 is medium and above that is large.

At the bottom of the ladder is an enterprise that is just being set up the needs of which is just to make the salary slip to help pay the employees to deduct their statutory savings and prepare the tax returns and not file. Payroll software is usually ideal for those who run small businesses or those who run on outsourced work. They, normally, have the capacity to scale up. No enterprise is started without the idea of growing. Therefore, the entrepreneur needs to think about his future requirement too and use software which in course of time can be scaled up. Companies have a choice to do the payroll in-house or outsource them. Big companies normally prefer to do it in-house as there are lots of functions that can be done with the higher end software. There are various software on the market under the “payroll for a small business” category. QuickBooks online payroll (QBOP), IntuitOnline payroll (IOP) are some popular packages on the market. OnPay is bare-bone payroll software operating on a monthly retainer, which covers 10 employees and thereafter on per employee per month charge basis.

QuickBooks online free software is very popular among the small business community. The financial software’s popularity indicates that it is used for more than just payroll like inventory management invoice generation and direct deposit of salary. The advantages of this package are integration with many systems is possible. It has a portal for employee self-service. It is versatile enough for use by various industries. It can be used in-house bookkeeping also. Besides, it is affordable to most small businesses. It can be used by those who serve many different industries.