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Find out exactly how much Square Payroll costs and which of the two Square Payroll plans are right for your small business in our complete pricing breakdown.
Square Payroll Plans | Contractor Only | Employee & Contractor |
---|---|---|
Pricing | $5/month per person | $35/month + $5/month per person |
Unlimited Pay Runs | ||
Direct Deposit | ||
Full-Service Payroll | ||
Tax Reporting | ||
Time Tracking | ||
Employee App | ||
Reporting | ||
Customer Support | ||
Benefits Administration | Costs extra | Costs extra |
Here we’ll explain how Square Payroll’s pricing plans compare in costs and features and how it works. Square Payroll is an excellent software that pairs seamlessly with Square’s other small business solutions, such as Square Point of Sale and Square processing.
Read on and learn how Square pricing stacks up with your small business budget and needs.
Table of Contents
For contractors, Square Payroll costs $5/month per individual. If you are paying employees, Square Payroll costs $35/month plus $5/month per employee. The cost of Square payroll will also vary if you add services like health benefits, retirement plans, and team management.
Square has two plans for payroll services that are really simple to decide between. Option one, “Pay Contractors Only,” does exactly that: It handles payroll for businesses exclusively paying independent contractors employed via 1099 forms. This plan is billed monthly per employee, barring any extra add-on features. Since cost reflects the number of employees, payment will change accordingly as new hires or layoffs happen.
If you have W-2 employees on your small business payroll, then you’ll go with option two: “Paying Employees & Contractors.” This plan comes with a monthly subscription fee plus a separate monthly charge per employee or contractor. Like the contractors-only plan, the cost is influenced by the total number of employees each month and any extra features you spring for.
Square Payroll Contractors | Square Payroll Employees & Contractors | |
---|---|---|
Price | $5/month per contractor | $35/month + $5/month per paid individual |
When To Use | If your company is only paying individual contractors | If your company has both employees and contractors or just employees |
Square Payroll’s two plans come with different sets of tools and features and thus vary in price. Let’s look at how pricing plays out for each option.
This Square Payroll plan costs a flat rate of $5/month per contractor, and subscribers can cancel at any time for free. It’s hard to find pricing more straightforward than that. Here’s what’s included for small businesses:
This Square Payroll package costs $35/month + $5/month per employee or contractor. The increased cost of this plan affords a more comprehensive set of tools and features for employers and employees alike, including:
Your small business is unique, and you may not find the perfect prepackaged payroll solution for you and your employees’ needs. That doesn’t mean you’re out of luck, though. Square’s small business payroll software comes with optional tools that subscribers can add on à la carte.
To help make sense of it all, we’ve broken down the cost and usefulness of Square’s choices for extra features.
Small businesses offering benefits such as health care and dental insurance can integrate them with payroll when using Square. In partnership with SimplyInsured, Square customers can offer employees health benefits via Aetna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, and UnitedHealthcare.
Once the system is set up and employees have chosen their benefits packages, Square Payroll can automatically make deductions from their paychecks moving forward.
Offering a 401(k) retirement plan in a benefits package helps retain small business employees for the long run. With Square, users can integrate Guideline’s 401(k) services to make this a reality without breaking the bank. A Guideline subscription comes with a base monthly fee of $39 plus an additional $8 per participating employee.
Policies vary by state, but in many cases, small businesses need to provide worker’s compensation for their employees. In the unfortunate event that an employee is injured on the job, this type of insurance can offer a safety net for any medical expenses and lost wages.
Employers pay an insurance premium for coverage with Square’s partner, AP Intego. The number of employees as well as the risk associated with the type of business influence this cost.
This benefit allows employees to deposit pre-tax income into an account to be used for things such as medical costs, childcare, or commuter expenses.
Alice operates this service on Square’s behalf and provides a debit card to employees to utilize funds in their pre-tax spending account. Once integrated with Square, these deductions can be automated.
Although Square’s more robust employee and contractors plan lets users input payment, tax, and HR information, there may be additional tools worth ponying up for. For $35 more per month, Square Team Plus supports more advanced features, including the use of multiple wage rates, employee break violation reporting, and the ability to create different levels of access for HR staff and employees.
Square is known for much more than just payroll. If your small business is just getting started, you might want to consider some of Square’s other software offerings.
If you’re seriously considering a new payroll program, as our Square Payroll review explains, this software delivers a straightforward interface and great features at an excellent value for many small businesses. A wide range of complementary small business software (Square POS, etc.) and add-on features also make it easy to customize a payroll package that works for you.
Let’s rehash what factors will impact Square Payroll pricing for your small business.
Depending on the type of employees you have, the number of employees you have, and the number of Square add-ons you need (such as marketing, appointments, etc.), Square Payroll can cost anywhere from $5/month-$84/month+.
Whether you’re looking for a simple way to handle payroll arithmetic and cutting checks or are aiming to beef up your business with online sales and marketing, Square has something for you. It’s also very easy to learn how to use Square Payroll.
If you’re still weighing small business payroll software options, you can compare Square payroll to the best cheap payroll options for small businesses.
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Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
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