Payroll Automation Software Providers: How to Shortlist Three

Score each provider from 0 to 5 on six weighted criteria: tax filing, pension handling, integrations, support, month-seven price per employee and exit terms. Drop any that fail a knockout question, keep the top three, then run one real pay run through each in a trial before you sign anything.

Headline prices mislead, which is why the price criterion uses month seven. On the pages I read in November 2026, one provider's pricing page showed 50% off the first three months, and two others advertised up to six free months for new clients, one of them tying the offer to a one-year agreement, and both offers carried end dates later that month. A plan that looks cheapest in January can be the dearest by July, and a promotion tells you nothing about whether the software gets a part-timer's pay right.

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Eight knockout questions that cut a long list to six

Start with eight to ten names. Names worth putting on a long list include ADP, Paychex, QuickBooks, OnPay, Square Payroll, Rippling, Gusto and Patriot Software. Do not score them yet. First ask eight yes or no questions, using each provider's own pages and, where the answer is unclear, a written reply from sales. A provider that fails two questions is out; one that fails a single question stays only if the provider confirms a fix in writing.

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Question 7 is where quote-based providers get tested. On the pages I read, ADP and Paychex ask visitors to request a quote and show no dollar figures, and Rippling's pricing page says pricing is by custom quote. A quote-based provider can pass, but only once it has put a number in writing. For a longer vendor-interrogation list, eight questions to ask before you buy payroll automation goes further, and which payroll AI features are real helps you read the marketing.

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A weighted scorecard whose weights add up to 100

With six providers left, score each one from 0 to 5 on the six criteria below, then convert to weighted points: weight × score ÷ 5. Write the weights down before you open any vendor page, or you will tune them towards whichever provider you already like.

Weights are a judgement. A business with seasonal staff might move 10 points from support to integrations; one with staff in several tax jurisdictions might give tax filing 35 points. Keep the total at 100 and keep the knockout questions separate, because a knockout is a veto and a weight is only a preference.

Price per employee at your headcount, and the month-seven check

Two providers publish list prices on pages I could read. OnPay's pricing page lists its Payroll Essentials plan at a $49 base plus $6 per worker each month, with payroll tax filings and year-end forms included. Square Payroll's page lists full-service payroll at $35 a month plus $6 per person paid, with tax filings and payments at no extra charge, and contractor-only payroll at $6 a month per person paid. Divide the monthly total by headcount and the base fee matters far less as you grow.

The other providers hide the number behind a sales form. ADP's payroll page offers "Get pricing" buttons and shows small-business tiers (Essential Payroll, Enhanced Payroll, Complete Payroll & HR+ and HR Pro Payroll & HR). Paychex's page asks for a quote. Rippling's pricing page says plans start at $8 per employee a month plus a monthly base fee, with payroll priced by custom quote according to headcount and the products you choose. None of that is a price until it arrives in writing for your headcount.

Promotions are the other trap. QuickBooks' pricing page showed 50% off for the first three months. ADP's page advertised up to six free months, and Paychex's footnote describes up to six free months for eligible new clients who sign a one-year agreement, covering the payroll component only and not set-up, delivery or retirement-plan fees. Ask every provider for the month-seven price, meaning the monthly cost after promotions end.

A quick sum shows why. Plan X lists at $120 a month with 50% off for three months. Plan Y costs a flat $105. In year one, X costs 3 × $60 + 9 × $120 = $1,260, and Y costs 12 × $105 = $1,260, so they look identical. In year two, X costs $1,440 and Y costs $1,260. The price criterion uses month seven so that year two does not surprise you.

Add-ons belong in the all-in figure. OnPay's page lists health insurance, workers' compensation and retirement plans as integrated benefits with free integration, where you pay the plans' own premiums, and prices time tracking separately at a $15 base plus $4 a worker. Square charges $3 a year per employee or contractor if you opt in to mailed paper copies of year-end forms. Paychex lists retirement plans as a separate service and Time & Attendance as a separate solution. ADP shows retirement plans under its separate benefits offering. Ask what a pension or retirement integration costs per month, whether year-end forms are included, and whether off-cycle runs carry a fee. A worked cost example for a ten-person business shows the same sums with more add-on lines.

Scoring three finalists for a seven-person mortgage broker

A mortgage broker has seven people on payroll: three salaried (a processor, an office manager and a compliance lead), two part-time hourly assistants, and two advisers on a base salary plus monthly commission. A freelance marketer is paid as a contractor. The owner has cut a long list to three finalists and wants a number for each. The provider names and prices below are invented for the illustration; they are not the vendors discussed above.

The finalists quote these month-seven prices for seven employees. Provider A charges a $45 base plus $7 per employee, which is $94. Provider B charges $30 plus $8 per employee, which is $86. Provider C quotes a flat $110 after a half-price first quarter. Price scores come from the formula: B is cheapest and scores 5, A scores 5 × 86 ÷ 94 = 4.6, which the owner rounds to 4.5, and C scores 5 × 86 ÷ 110 = 3.9, rounded to 4.

Four points separate first from third, which is within the noise of scoring by hand. That is the scorecard doing its job: it has produced three viable names and shown where each is weak (A on pension handling and support, B on the tax-filing guarantee and integrations, C on integrations and exit terms). It cannot say which one pays a part-timer correctly. Only the trial can.

Running one real pay run through each finalist

Pick one closed pay period, ideally the month with the most variety, and rebuild it in each finalist's trial or demo account. You already know the right answer, because your current system or your accountant produced it. Mask names, bank details and tax identifiers in anything you hand to a vendor at this stage; staff numbers and pay inputs are enough to test the arithmetic. Then work through these cases and note the result for each provider.

1. A salaried employee with no changes. Net pay should match last month to the cent.
2. An hourly part-timer with a part-hour total such as 86.5 hours, and any overtime rule you apply.
3. A commission line, added as its own pay type so it shows separately on the payslip.
4. A mid-month starter, pro-rated by the same rule you use now (calendar days or working days).
5. A leaver with accrued leave paid out.
6. An unpaid leave day.
7. A back-dated pay rise that creates arrears.
8. A pension or retirement contribution on qualifying pay, including any threshold or cap.
9. An off-cycle bonus run between pay days.
10. A contractor payment, with a check that the year-end form for contractors would pick it up.

Then reconcile three totals against your known-good run: net pay per person, total tax withheld and total employer cost. Differences of a cent or two usually mean a rounding rule; anything larger is a configuration or logic difference to explain before you sign. Post the journal to a test ledger or compare it by eye against what your bookkeeper normally posts.

The mortgage broker's trial gave these results. The figures are illustrative.

Provider B, the cheapest, fails two tests that matter to a business with commission-paid advisers, so it drops out despite a strong paper score. Provider C's pension difference might be fixable, but it needs a written answer about the rounding rule. Provider A matched every pay pattern, so the owner picks A even though it was 4 points behind C on paper. The trial overruled the scorecard, which is exactly its job.

A support test you can run in one afternoon

A feature list says nothing about how a provider behaves when a pay run is open and the clock is running. Send each finalist the same question at the same time on a working afternoon, and record how long the first useful reply takes. A good question is one with a real answer but a bit of subtlety: "Our approved run has a wrong pay rate for one employee and pay day is tomorrow. What exactly do we do, and who files any correction?"

Score three things: speed of the first reply, whether the answer was specific to your case or generic, and whether a person with authority to fix things was reachable by phone or chat. Repeat once more with a pre-sales question, because pre-sales speed can flatter. The gap between the two answers is the gap you will meet after you have signed.

Building the scorecard with ChatGPT or Claude, without pay data

AI is good at the dull part of this job: pulling facts from several vendor pages into one table and drafting the written quote request. It is poor at deciding, and it must never see real pay data. Paste the public text of each provider's plan and pricing pages, not your payroll records, and tell the model not to guess. The tutorial on safe ChatGPT prompts for payroll teams covers what to keep out of any chat tool.

I am comparing three payroll providers for a seven-person business.
Below is text I copied from each provider's public pricing and features
page. Build a table with one row per provider and these columns: who files
payroll taxes; how pension or retirement contributions are handled;
accounting integrations named; support channels named; price stated for
7 employees; the exact phrase you relied on.

Rules: use only the text I pasted. Write "not stated" where the text is
silent. Do not estimate prices. Do not merge promotional prices into the
monthly price.

PROVIDER A TEXT: [paste]
PROVIDER B TEXT: [paste]
PROVIDER C TEXT: [paste]

A typical reply, shown here as an illustration, looks like this.

| Provider | Taxes | Pension | Integrations | Support | Price (7) | Phrase relied on |
| A | Files and pays | Partner add-on | Accounting package named | Phone, chat | $94 | "calculates, files and pays" |
| B | Calculates; filing not stated | Sync, no fee stated | not stated | Chat, email | $86 | "tax calculations included" |
| C | not stated | not stated | not stated | not stated | Quote only | "contact us for pricing" |

What you would fix: the cells marked "not stated" are the valuable ones, because each is a question for the provider's sales team. Do not let the model fill them with what is typical. Check every populated cell against the phrase in the last column, because models sometimes assume phone support exists or fold a promotional price into the monthly figure. Any cell without a quoted phrase is unverified.

Use the second prompt to turn those gaps into one email. Send the same message to all finalists so the replies compare.

Write a short, polite email from [your name] to a payroll provider's sales
team. We have 7 employees, paid monthly, including two on base plus
commission and two part-timers, plus one contractor. Ask for, in writing:
the all-in monthly price at month seven after any promotion; the full list
of add-on fees (year-end forms, off-cycle runs, retirement-plan
integration, contractor payments); whether the plan files and pays payroll
taxes; the wording and cap of any accuracy guarantee; the minimum term and
exit terms; and export formats if we leave. Address it to [first name].

What to confirm in writing before you sign

Once a finalist has passed the trial, put these points in an email and keep the reply with your records. Most providers will answer plainly; the ones who dodge have told you something.

• Term and renewal. The length of the first term, whether it auto-renews, and the notice you must give.
• Price changes. How much notice you get, and whether there is a cap on per-employee increases.
• Who counts as an employee. Whether contractors or leavers are billed, and until when.
• Add-ons. Year-end forms, off-cycle runs, amended filings, extra pay frequencies and the retirement-plan integration fee.
• Filing responsibility. Who files a rejected return, who pays a penalty caused by the provider's error, and the exact wording and cap of the accuracy guarantee.
• Leaving. Export formats and timing, who files the returns for the last filing period after you cancel, how long your data is kept and what migration help costs.
• Access. Whether your accountant gets a login, and whether preparing a run and approving it can be separate roles.

The last point matters for control. In a small firm, the person who prepares payroll should not also be the only person who approves it. Check that roles can be split even if you do not use the split on day one.

The entry plan that calculated the tax but left the filing to you

A four-person design studio chose the cheapest plan on a comparison site after two promotions made another provider look dearer. The plan comparison row said the software "calculates payroll taxes", and the owner read that as filing. After the first filing period the studio discovered it was responsible for submitting the returns itself, missed one deadline and paid a late fee. Once the late fee was counted, the cheaper plan cost more than the dearer one in its first year.

This is an illustration, but it shows why knockout question 1 comes first. The fix takes one line in writing: "The plan I am buying files and pays payroll taxes on my behalf." If the provider will not write that sentence for the exact plan, it fails the question. For a comparison of what well-known platforms include, AI tools for payroll and HR lists the features by product, and software for payroll process automation covers what to check before you buy.

Questions owners ask when shortlisting payroll providers

How many payroll providers should I put through a trial?

Three is enough. Two leaves you with no comparison if one fails a test, and four doubles the admin without changing the answer. Use the knockout questions to cut a long list to six, the scorecard to cut six to three, and the pay-run trial to choose between the final three.

Should I just follow my accountant's recommendation?

Ask for it and treat it as one of your three, not as the decision. An accountant usually knows which providers post cleanly to your ledger, which is worth a lot, but may not know your pay patterns such as commission lines or part-time starters. Run your accountant's pick through the same scorecard and trial.

Can ChatGPT or Claude run my payroll?

They can help you compare providers, draft questions and check a spreadsheet, but they should not calculate or submit real pay. Keep names, pay rates, bank details and tax identifiers out of consumer chat tools, and let a payroll provider with tax filing responsibilities do the live run.

What if the best-scoring provider fails the pay-run trial?

Believe the trial. A scorecard measures what vendors say and what their price pages show; a pay run measures what the software does with your pay patterns. If the top scorer gets a number wrong or cannot add a pay type you need, drop to the next finalist and note the failure in writing.

Further reads

• Payroll Year-End Checklist: Where AI Helps and Where It Misleads — What to prepare before the year-end filings and forms.
• Can AI Do Payroll? What a Small Employer Can Hand Over Safely — Which payroll tasks a small employer can safely hand to AI.
• Temp Staffing Payroll Software: Timesheets, Pay Runs and AI Features — What a small staffing agency should test in payroll software for temps, what six vendors publish about price and AI, and the pay-run checks AI can run.
• How to Use AI for Payroll: Query Answers, Checks and Reports — Three safe AI jobs for a payroll team, with the pay-data safeguard in each step: payslip query drafts, anonymised exception checks, a monthly summary.
• AI HR Software for Startups: Which Tool Fits Which Job — Which AI HR software suits your startup stage? Compare Rippling, Deel, and Gusto across onboarding, policies, scheduling, and payroll admin.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: pricing and product pages from OnPay, Square Payroll, QuickBooks, Paychex, ADP and Rippling, read in November 2026.