Believe it or not, Intuit's historical experiences have uncovered that nearly half of all small businesses start with 'payroll' and then graduate to using accounting software. Apparently small businesses see the necessity for having a way to do payroll long before they see a reason to do their own accounting.
Many of these small businesses rely on Excel spreadsheets or paper ledgers when they start-up their business, but as soon as they have one employee, they know they must have a way to prepare payroll, calculate withholding taxes, and pay those taxes. As a result of this discovery, Intuit has created a new QBO Payroll Stand Alone product.
So, I was absolutely certain that you would want to know ahead of time about this new offering in case some totally new client calls you up asking "hey, can you help me set-up and learn this new QBO Payroll Stand Alone thing?"
Intuit's goal was to give these small business employers an online payroll product which looks and feels similar to QBO so when they are ready to turn on QBO accounting it’s an easy transition.
Knowing What’s Available
Because most Insightful Accountant readers are accountants and bookkeepers, our instinct is to strongly recommend that every business use an accounting program like QBO. Alright, I realize that at this very minute your eyeballs might be rolling, or your toes are curling, but remember information is important. Knowing what’s available allows us to respond correctly, especially when these products are designed to easily grow with a flip of a switch (coming soon).
The Intuit Payroll Plan & Pricing page (shown below) lists the payroll features to compare when choosing QBO Payroll only. QBO Payroll Stand Alone has both a Self-Service (which feels like Essentials) and a Full-Service option.
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QBO Payroll Stand Alone is Not a Replacement for Intuit Online Payroll (IOP)
Now that we are past the curled toes and floating eyes, I want to clearly address the fact that this offering does NOT replace Intuit Online Payroll. The IOP platform is still the best option for more complex payroll or firms who process payroll on behalf of clients. Based upon all current information Intuit Online Payroll doesn't appear to be going anywhere.
What Is QBO Payroll Stand Alone and What Does It Look Like?
QBO Payroll Stand Alone looks and functions exactly like the traditional QBO Accounting System when comparing Workers, Payroll Reports and Payroll Taxes. Let's take a brief look at each of these. By the way I will be writing more on QBO Payroll Stand Alone in a future article of QBO Monday Minute, and I will also be presenting this product during the QB Talks Quarterly QBO Update on September 12.
Workers
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Looks like QBO doesn't it? Paying Contractors (shown below) also feels the same as in the full version of QBO, including $4.00 Direct Deposits.
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Payroll Reports
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It's almost confusing, is this QBO Payroll Stand Alone or QBO? It's 'Payroll only'!
Payroll Taxes
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By now you can see that this new QBO Payroll Stand Alone will make for easy transition to QBO, at least in terms of Payroll and related functionality.
Run Payroll on Your Mobile Device
That's right folks, you can process payroll on your mobile device as well as submit payroll payments and reports with the new QBO Payroll Stand Alone offering.
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More Information and How to get started
What’s good about this feature is familiarity to cloud Payroll which makes the addition of Accounting easier. The QBO Payroll Stand Alone is available now and the ability to add accounting is coming soon. To check out QBO Payroll Stand Alone or to sign up follow the official Intuit website.
Acknowledgement: All screenshots provided in this article are courtesy of Intuit's QBO In the Know webinar.