Square Payroll vs APS Payroll

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Our analysts compared Square Payroll vs APS Payroll based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Payroll Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Based in the cloud, Square Payroll is suited for businesses of all sizes. Integrating with the well-known POS solution from the same company offers features that assist with processing pay, filing taxes, employee self-service and more. The support staff helps users with implementation, whether they need help with their first implementation or simply just assistance migrating data from an old interface. Its capabilities also provide time tracking, invoice creation, appointment scheduling, direct deposit and more.
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Designed to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, APS Payroll is a cloud-based solution for managing human resources. It provides features to help automate and streamline a variety of core HR tasks including processing payroll, tracking time and attendance, hiring the best talent, managing employee benefits, and creating analytic reports based on user data.

Users can access their account from any internet-connected device to conveniently complete tasks. Built with scalability in mind, it’s able to grow with businesses. Additionally, each organization has access to a dedicated support team and account lead that can assist with tech support and field general assistance inquiries.
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$35 Monthly
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$250 Monthly
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Synchronized Systems: Fully synchronize the payroll solution with other Square systems, including partners that offer timecard solutions. Automatically calculate employee hours to run payroll.
  • Payroll On-The-Go: Run payroll directly from any internet-connected device with the mobile app. Creates a quick and seamless process that gets employees paid expediently, while administers don’t have to spend time tediously inputting data.
  • Affordable Small Businesses Payroll: Offers two pricing models, one of which is specifically designed to meet the needs of businesses that rely on contractors. The monthly subscription fee starts as low as $34 monthly for companies with standard employees. Hire contractors and spend only $5 monthly per contractor or employee.
  • Manageable Processes: Run payroll with only necessary employee information. Customize pay periods while employees can create their accounts, making the setup process quick and straightforward.
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  • Multiple Pay Options: Direct deposit and pay card options available. Partners with major banks, including US Bank, which offers a pay card and allows employees to use a bank card without an account. 
  • Training: Offers recurring and one-time training courses for individuals and groups. Managers receive notifications when users enroll and complete courses to help ensure that all employees are up to date on all training. 
  • Information Filtering: Offers employee search through filters by sorting according to employee name, number, social security number or description. 
  • Consistent Branding: Branded career pages guarantee consistent branding messages to clearly convey company values to potential new employees. Post on popular job boards including LinkedIn, Indeed and Glassdoor. 
  • Interactive Employee Performance Management: Allows managers to set goals for employees and measure them against specific job-related competencies. Employees can access information, complete self-assessments and electronically sign off on reviews. 
  • Easy-to-Use Templates: Prebuilt templates and customizable reporting options help build schedules and provide insight into the workforce. Create electronic versions of any existing forms for easy record-keeping using a PDF builder. 
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  • Automatic Payroll: Import employee hours and overtime and calculate salaries to process each pay period automatically. Handles multiple pay rates and does all off-cycle and unlimited bonus runs for no extra charge. Customizes scheduling for payment. Process payroll by 8:00 p.m. PT, so employees get their direct deposit on payday.
  • Employee Self-Service: Have employees create their account, set up direct deposit, fill out necessary forms and even clock in for their shifts. Provide them with 24/7 access to these features to make changes as needed through the mobile app.
  • Tax Filing: Ensure compliance with Square Payroll’s tax functions. Manage W2s and automatically calculates and files tax withholdings, payments, and filings at the local, state and federal level. Supports post-tax deductions and reimbursements. Files federal and state taxes quarterly and files and sends out W-2s and 1099-MISC forms at the end of the year. Includes forms such as form 940, form 941, form 944 and W-3s.
  • Reporting: Provides new hire reports, quarterly reports and sales reports to provide real-time analysis and make more informed decisions about the business. Send reports to key stakeholders.
  • Team Management: Set schedules, track hours, customize access for different groups and provide employee onboarding. Comes in one of two versions, team management and team plus. Team management includes reporting for time cards, time clocks, scheduling for shifts, break tracking and overtime reporting. Team plus has broader functionality such as early break prevention, report for break violations, preventing early clock-ins from break, notes on timecards, many wage rates, unlimited permissions and more.
  • Compliance: Updates automatically to ensure users stay abreast of changes to tax laws and stay in compliance with payment best practices. Save time and money by obeying regulations.
  • Benefits Management: Customize and manage benefits packages while the integrated benefits management functionality enables the system to calculate and make deductions automatically when running payroll. Provides workers’ comp through AP Intego.
  • Integrations: Integrates with QuickBooks Online for users who want to include accounting and can function with any other Square product.
  • Time Tracking: Synchronize Square Payroll with the vendor’s Point of Sale app at no additional cost to allow employees to clock in for their shift directly at the register. Employees can then import timecards, or synchronize with a variety of other popular time tracking systems. Managers can also enter employee hours manually. Tracks sick leave, PTO and overtime. Use customizable user permissions to manage it effectively.
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  • Payroll: Simplifies payroll by reducing errors, avoiding penalties, calculating summary audits and providing a dedicated support team. It also assists in: 
    • Analytics: Creates data-driven decisions about important assets and offers better visualization of payroll metrics. It also offers solutions to questions such as overtime trends on payroll, cost of payroll expense and employee compensation trends. 
    • Compliance: Offers guided tax compliance with a defined process for tax management, payroll tax filings and payments. Also assists payroll process and tax compliance in 411 jurisdictions, in all 50 states. 
  • Self-Service: Provides separate portals for employees and system administrators, with different levels of access and dashboard capabilities based on designation. 
  • Benefits Administration: Tracks and manages all benefits plan types, including medical, dental, life insurance and disability plans. Automatically assigns deduction amounts via mass update during open enrollment. 
  • Multiple Carrier Compatibility: Compatible with all types of benefits providers and ensures coverage under any plan. Automatically sends relevant paperwork and ensures compliance with organizational requirements to guarantee coverage. 
  • Integration: Integrates with more than 100 third-party applications to create a more robust suite for businesses with additional needs that aren’t met by the system. Noteworthy integrations include Xero and Sage Intacct. 
  • Schedule Creation: Allows seamless creation of schedules based on a variety of factors including department, break times, length of time and much more. Employees can be added directly to the template and schedules without the need for recreation again in the future. 
  • Reporting: Organizes data metrics and provides insights into workforce efficiency via more than 80 prebuilt reports. Build reports based on factors such as income, employee demographics, custom options or a combination, and specify whether the reports are public or private. 
  • Affordable Care Act (ACA) Reports: Create and file 1094-C and 1095-C forms with a guided interface. The system automatically checks for discrepancies before filing the forms with the IRS. 
  • Time Management: Efficiently records and tracks HR and payroll processes. Calculates labor expenses, minimizes compliance risks and reports time through various channels such as mobile, kiosk, biometric and online. 
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Product Ranking

#21

among all
Payroll Software

#14

among all
Payroll Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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Benefits Management Dashboard And Reporting Expense Management Mobile Capabilities Payroll And Tax Management Platform Capabilities Security And Compliance Time And Attendance Management 52 100 50 56 81 91 92 95 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 1069 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 1249 reviews
93%
of users recommend this product

Square Payroll has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 93% when considering 1069 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

92%
of users recommend this product

APS Payroll has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 1249 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

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5.0 (11)
4.4 (23)
4.6 (577)
4.66 (571)
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4.6 (471)
4.6 (610)
4.5 (4)
4.4 (51)

Awards

Square Payroll stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

APS Payroll stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Simple UI: Over 90% of users who discussed the ease-of-use were impressed by the system.
Affordable: Reviewers felt the pricing was appropriate and affordable in more than 90% of comments that discussed it.
Efficient Payroll Processing: More than 90% of users who discussed payroll processing felt it worked well.
Highly Recommended: In reviews that discussed recommending the service, over 80% said they’d advise other businesses to use it.
Filing Taxes and Reports: More than 80% of comments that discussed filing taxes and year-end reporting were happy with its capabilities.
Adequate Functionality: Users liked the features and felt they worked well in over 80% of reviews that talked about it.
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Ease of Use: Of users who mentioned the platform’s usability, 85% suggested it’s user-friendly and has an intuitive interface.
Payroll Tracking: The software offers seamless workday tracking and updates irrespective of employee location, according to 84% of reviews on this feature.
Support Team: Customer service is helpful and informative in resolving technical issues, as reviewed by 76% of users mentioning it.
Workflow Automation: Of reviews about workflows, 88% suggested it reduces the need for manual entries by organizing and automating tasks.
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Limited Customization Options: Over 70% of reviews that talked about customization said the options were inadequate.
No Employee Discounts: Businesses had trouble giving employees discounts in over 70% of comments that discussed it.
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Not Cost-Effective: The platform is a bit on the pricey side, according to 76% of users who reviewed cost.
Restricted Reporting: The system has limited report usage and exporting, as noted by 60% of users referencing this feature.
Unstable Mobile App: The mobile app’s functionality isn’t user-friendly and creates problems when processing payroll, according to 80% of users who reviewed it.
Limited Customization: Of users who mention customization, 60% stated that some commonly used features such as performance review aren’t customizable.
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Square Payroll is an online payment, time and attendance and POS system. Users like it best because it’s easy to use with an intuitive design that can be adopted quickly. They felt the pricing was fair and were especially pleased with its efficient processing of payment. Many users said they’d recommend it to other businesses similar to their own and were happy with its ability to create and file sales, quarterly and new hire reports. Lastly, they were pleased with its features, specifically its easy sign-in, reporting, time tracking and tax calculating. On the con side, customization options were minimal as it’s a reasonably straightforward system. Many companies that use the solution are restaurants that either want to give employees discounts on food or pay with money from their upcoming paycheck. They were displeased with its inability to allow this. Overall, this solution is excellent for small businesses, especially retail and food service. Larger companies should look elsewhere.

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APS Payroll provides easy-to-use HR management tools and exceptional payroll tracking. Other notable features include workflow management to ease manual tasks, intuitive technology and stellar customer support. Users dislike its restricted mobile app functionality, lack of customization and reporting options, however. The system is a good fit for SMBs that are trying to organize and create workflows, as well as looking for core HR functionality in a unified platform.

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