PayCycle Payroll Plus 2008 is an online payroll preparation service for fairly small businesses.
Because of its integration with many accounting and personal finance programs--including QuickBooks, Peachtree, NetBooks, Quicken, and Microsoft Money--PayCycle can export data directly to your accounting application, saving time and improving your accounting records' accuracy. The service also provides tax forms for all 50 states and lets you file forms and payments electronically in some states.
PayCycle lets you choose from among four pay intervals--weekly, biweekly, twice per month, or monthly--and offers a flexible menu of pay types. For example, PayCycle supports two hourly pay rates for the same individual, which is useful if an employee performs two different types of work. The service can handle commissions and tips, too, but it doesn't directly support piecework pay calculations.
Like Intuit's competing Online Payroll, PayCycle's Payroll Plus 2008 lets you print paper paychecks and pay stubs, and deposit net pay electronically into employees' bank accounts. Both services also maintain current tax tables, calculate gross pay and deductions, compile your pay and tax records, and can help you prepare your payroll tax forms at filing time.
At $43 per month (for five or fewer employees) PayCycle Payroll Plus 2008 is pricier than Intuit's offering. And because the company charges $1.50 per month for each employee beyond the first five, a larger small business may pay considerably more for it than for Intuit's flat-fee service.
But the higher price of PayCycle is well worth paying if you want to export payroll details directly into your accounting app, or save time filing tax forms in a state that Online Payroll doesn't directly support.