Square Payroll vs Toast Payroll

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Our analysts compared Square Payroll vs Toast 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.

Toast Payroll Software Tool

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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Toast Payroll is a cloud-based solution that helps businesses streamline payroll operations and facilitate efficient workforce management. It offers dynamic functionalities like tax compliant updates, employee profiles, time tracking, wage calculations, digital onboarding, automated tip distribution and more.

The product helps users manage workload with the help of timesheets, calculation tools, computation options, regulatory compliance and other business-specific benefits. It offers prompt customer support channels, a self-service platform that helps employees enroll for programs and benefits and real-time information syncs to the company POS to reduce manual operations.
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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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  • Time Savings: Automate payroll calculations and tax filings, freeing up valuable hours for your HR team.
  • Accuracy: Minimize errors with precise, automated calculations, reducing the risk of costly mistakes.
  • Compliance: Stay up-to-date with ever-changing labor laws and tax regulations, ensuring your business remains compliant.
  • Employee Self-Service: Empower employees to access their pay stubs, tax forms, and personal information through a user-friendly portal.
  • Integration: Seamlessly connect with other Toast products and third-party applications, creating a unified system for your business operations.
  • Scalability: Easily manage payroll for a growing workforce, whether you have a small team or multiple locations.
  • Cost Efficiency: Reduce administrative overhead and potential penalties from payroll errors, leading to significant cost savings.
  • Data Security: Protect sensitive employee information with robust security measures and encryption protocols.
  • Real-Time Reporting: Access detailed payroll reports and analytics to make informed business decisions quickly.
  • Employee Satisfaction: Improve employee morale by ensuring timely and accurate paychecks, fostering a positive workplace environment.
  • Customizability: Tailor payroll settings to fit the unique needs of your business, from pay schedules to benefit deductions.
  • Support: Benefit from dedicated customer support to resolve any payroll issues promptly and efficiently.
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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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  • POS integration: Sync employee data to the POS system and automate data entry. Check employee timesheets, track employee hours, record tips, monitor wages, onboard new employees and more without manual hassles. 
  • Law-Compliant Operations: Manage job rates, conform to new labor laws, handle payroll taxes and comply with state and federal laws. Meet minimum wage requirements using business protection tools to minimize non-compliance risks. Comply with state and national labor laws using robust tools and HR modules. 
  • Labor Management: Track work hours and add new time entries to manage employee activity. Review breaks, approve timesheets, calculate overtime and record paid leaves with the help of accurate time tracking tools. View open shifts and make accurate payments on a coherent platform. 
  • Online Functionalities: Create employee schedules, access in-depth reports for crucial business insights, manage enrolments and offer plans, simplify HR operations and more on a centralized, time-efficient payroll system. 
  • Self-Service: Allow employees to view and manage benefit plans, make changes, report payroll deductions and more with self-service options. 
  • Reporting: Review team performance, see top-performing employees, identify loopholes, optimize business operations and more using informative reports based on real-time data. Create customized reports and analyze employee performance, HR processes and business finances. 
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Product Ranking

#21

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#135

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Payroll Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 1069 reviews
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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.

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4.4 (23)
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4.66 (571)
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4.6 (471)
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4.5 (4)
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Awards

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

User Favorite Award

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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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Seamless Integration: Toast Payroll is tightly integrated with the Toast POS system, as well as scheduling software and tip management tools. This is particularly beneficial for restaurants already using the Toast ecosystem, as it streamlines operations and reduces the need for separate systems.
Automated Payroll: The software offers automation features that save time and reduce errors. For example, employee punches from the POS system can be synced directly to payroll, automating the process of calculating hours worked.
User-Friendly Design: Toast Payroll is designed with a user-friendly interface that is generally easy to navigate. The platform also offers ample training resources, making it easier for new users to get up to speed.
Restaurant-Specific Tools: Toast Payroll includes features specifically designed for the restaurant industry, such as tip management and scheduling tools. These features cater to the unique needs of restaurants, simplifying processes like tip allocation and shift management.
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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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High Cost: Toast Payroll's subscription fees are higher than many other payroll software options, and the lack of a free trial makes it difficult to assess its value before committing.
Customer Service Issues: Users frequently report long wait times and unhelpful interactions with Toast Payroll's customer support team, making it difficult to resolve issues promptly.
Compliance Concerns: Some users have reported that Toast Payroll's software does not comply with specific state payroll regulations, potentially leading to legal and financial headaches.
Technical Glitches: Users have encountered technical problems with Toast Payroll, including issues with tip management, payroll syncing, and inaccurate reports, which can disrupt operations and create extra work.
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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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Is Toast Payroll the best thing since sliced bread, or does it leave a bad taste in your mouth? User reviews over the last year present a mixed bag. While Toast Payroll shines in its seamless integration with Toast POS, simplifying tasks like syncing employee punches and managing time off, it's not without its pitfalls. Users praise its user-friendly interface and efficiency, particularly those already familiar with Toast POS. This integration is a key differentiator, as one user notes, "I love that in this one app I can do everything that I need to do for human resources." However, several users report compliance issues, especially with California law, and hiccups with W2 processing. Customer service, unfortunately, emerges as a sore point. Unlike the integrated experience with Toast POS, support for Toast Payroll is handled separately, often leading to confusion and delays. One user laments, "Our service hasn't been great from their side....we wait longer than expected on items to happen or to even hear back from team members on certain things." Additionally, discrepancies between Toast POS and Toast Payroll, while seemingly counterintuitive given their close relationship, require meticulous attention to detail. Overall, Toast Payroll is a good fit for businesses already entrenched in the Toast ecosystem, especially those prioritizing ease of use and streamlined operations. However, businesses with intricate payroll needs or those operating in regions with stringent compliance regulations might find Toast Payroll's shortcomings difficult to swallow. For those businesses, exploring alternative solutions might be the best recipe for success.

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