The Best Payroll Software For Restaurants

As you might expect, Square Payroll’s pricing structure is simple and cost-effective for what it includes. There are two tiers, one for just paying contractors, which starts at $6 per contractor. The other is for employees and contractors and runs $35/month + $6 per employee.

Square’s features are somewhat basic, but as long as you don’t have overly complicated payroll requirements, they should cover everything you need. They are also incredibly simple to understand and run, even if you’re brand new to payroll software. Here are some of the highlights:

• Full-Service Payroll: Make unlimited payroll runs, tip calculation, pay employees and contractors, make payroll reports, multiple payment methods, and more.
• Employee Mobile App: Employees can clock-in and out using the Square Team App; they can also view hours and earnings in the app.
• Payroll Tax Support: Square will handle your business’s federal and state payroll calculations and filing; Square will also file and mail out employee tax forms.
• Time Management: Square can handle PTO tracking, time tracking, and more.
• Benefits Administration: Square offers several options for employee benefits, including health insurance, vision and dental insurance, retirement accounts, on-demand pay, health savings accounts, and more.
• Employee Onboarding: New-hires can onboard themselves using Square’s employee self-service portal.

Square Payroll Dashboard

• Square’s Pricing: Although it’s the best way to take advantage of Square’s integrated system, combining multiple Square products can run expensive.
• Square’s Customer Service: Unfortunately, Square’s reviews suggest that customer support may be slow to resolve customer issues.
• Square’s Integrations: Square offers a limited selection of HR and time tracking integrations compared to other payroll software services.

Gusto’s pricing ranges from $40/month + $6 per employee to $80/month + $12 per employee. The software’s Premium plan offers custom pricing for growing businesses. And if you only have contractors, you can use the service for $6/month per contractor.

Gusto’s features set is also tiered, but its Simple plan is very generous for the price. The Plus plan, which is not much more expensive, gives you access to time tracking and PTO. Here are a few features that Gusto payroll does well.

• Full Service Payroll: Gusto offers unlimited payroll runs across all 50 states, automated payroll runs, deductions, garnishments, support for multiple pay rates and schedules, multiple payment methods, the Gusto Wallet app, and more.
• Full Payroll Tax Support: Gusto will calculate and file your federal, state, and local payroll taxes; Gusto also supports new business registration across all 50 states.
• Gusto Wallet App: Mobile employee self-service portal with a view of earnings, time tracking capabilities, geolocation, budgeting, and Gusto checking account management.
• HR Tools: Gusto’s HR features include online document storage, assigning, background checks, new hire reporting, applicant tracking, employee surveys, and much more.
• Benefits Administration: Gusto offers tons of benefits options, including health, vision, and dental insurance, health savings accounts, retirement accounts, disability insurance, life insurance, and more.

Gusto Payroll Dashboard

• Gusto’s Lack Of Schedule Management Features: Gusto lacks built-in scheduling features that would be very useful for restaurants. However, the software offers several integration options with scheduling software.
• Gusto’s Pricing: Gusto’s base plan is relatively affordable compared to other payroll software solutions, but users needing Gusto’s time tracking features, next-day direct deposit, and other features must pay for the software’s higher tier, more expensive plan.
• Gusto’s Benefits Administration: Gusto does not support benefits administration in 12 states, including Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

ADP’s quote-based pricing model means that you won’t know how much the software costs until you speak with a sales rep. There are also plenty of add-ons that you can purchase, but again, those prices will vary.

What you get out of ADP will depend on what plan you choose, but ADP offers just about anything you could possibly want from your payroll software. Here are a few features where ADP stands out.

• Full-Service Payroll: Direct deposit and other payment options, payroll across all 50 states, supports multiple pay rates and schedules, and tip payout management.
• Payroll Tax Support: ADP handles minimum wage compliance, tip recording and reporting; ADP will also calculate, file, and remit federal, state, and local payroll taxes on behalf of your business.
• Time Tracking: ADP Time Tracking can handle time tracking for your restaurant: ADP also integrates with third-party POS and time tracking solutions to keep everything synced.
• New-Hire Onboarding: Self-service onboarding via its online employee portal.
• HR Tools: ADP boasts a large library of HR documents, forms, and templates: Employee training, background checks, and additional HR tools are also available.

ADP Run Home Dashboard

• ADP’s Pricing: To get pricing for ADP’s services, you’ll need to speak with a sales representative, detail your needs, and are then provided with a custom quote. Compared to other payroll service providers, ADP’s pricing is expensive based on the amount we were quoted.
• ADP’s Customer Service: ADP’s live customer support options are limited to weekdays, but other solutions, such as Paychex and Rippling offer 24/7 live support.
• Roll by ADP: Roll by ADP may be a good solution for businesses looking for a different ADP payroll product with transparent pricing. However, the software only scored a 2.5/5 star rating in our Roll by ADP review, as its feature set is very limited compared to other software solutions on the market.

For expanded features, Toast pricing is custom, so you will need to contact them directly to see what your quote will be. However, Toast is currently running a special, offering its POS service plus its Payroll Lite plan for $69/month + $9/month per employee.

Toast has some excellent payroll features specifically for restaurants along with other basic functions that are well-designed and intended to be up and functional in a very short amount of time. Here are a few areas where Toast Payroll stands out:

• Employee Onboarding: New hires can self-onboard online; employee documents can be filled out and managed online.
• Full-Service Payroll: Payroll processing across 50 states, payroll tax filing, tip management, multiple pay options, including direct deposit, and more.
• Time Management: Through Toast’s POS, Toast Payroll offers timesheet integration.
• Toast POS Integration:  Toast Payroll integrates with Toast POS to keep employee tips synced and up-to-date when you run payroll.
• Payroll Tax Support: Toast Payroll is capable of calculating, filing, and remitting your restaurant’s federal, state, and local taxes.

Toast Payroll Dashboard

• Toast’s Pricing: Toast’s pricing structure isn’t transparent, so you’ll be required to request a quote for pricing if you want to build a custom package that best suits your restaurant’s needs.
• Toast’s Reviews: Toast Payroll’s user reviews have been lukewarm with users describing the software as overly complex.
• Toast’s Customer Service: Some users have complained that Toast’s support representatives don’t know enough about the payroll product, leading to long resolution wait times.

One downside to SurePayroll is that you’ll have to speak to a representative to get a payroll quote. They do offer two pricing platforms, one for self-service and one for full-service.

The full-service option has full tax support and a faster processing speed. There are also add-ons for things like time-tracking, benefits, and integrations.

SurePayroll’s basic feature set before add-ons is somewhat limited but likely functional for a smaller food-service establishment. And if you’re happy with the product’s ease of use and find yourself needing additional features, the product is highly scaleable (although the fees can add up). Here are some of SurePayroll’s top features.

• Payroll Processing: Unlimited payroll runs, multiple pay rates, supplemental payments, same-day direct deposit, flexible processing times, and auto-scheduled payroll.
• Payroll Tax Support: FICA tip credit report, minimum wage alerts, pay-out makeup tips, and full-service tax support options.
• HR Support: SurePayroll offers businesses access to an HR Advisor.
• SurePayroll Mobile App: Employee app offers employee self-service and paystub access: Employer mobile app allows employers to view reports, payroll runs, and more.

SurePayroll Home Dashboard

• SurePayroll’s Time Tracking: SurePayroll does not support built-in time tracking and instead relies on third-party integrations to sync time and attendance data with payroll.
• SurePayroll’s Features: Compared to other payroll software solutions, SurePayroll boasts fewer features. So, SurePayroll may not be the best option for restaurant owners in need of more advanced payroll processing software that’s able to handle more complex requests.

OnPay’s pricing is refreshingly simple and competitive. You get your first month free along with free set-up. After that, your software fee is $40/month +$6 per employee.

OnPay’s feature set is impressive and contains everything you would expect from strong payroll software. A few users reported that, with so much going on in OnPay’s dashboard, it could be difficult to find what you’re looking for at times. But overall, OnPay has very few gaps. Here are a few areas where it stands out.

• Full-Service Payroll: OnPay supports unlimited payroll runs across the US, multiple pay rates and schedules, garnishments, deductions, multi-state payroll runs, contractor and employee payments, and much more.
• Payroll Tax Support: Tip reporting and tax support (including Form 8846 filing and payment); Automatic tax withholding, tax form esigning, and more.
• Employee Management: Employee self-onboarding, hiring tools, document storage, customizable org charts, HR resource library, PTO tracking, and much more.
• Accounting Integrations: QuickBooks and Xero integrations allow restaurants to sync their payroll and accounting data.
• Benefits Administration: Health, dental, life, vision, disability, and workers’ compensation insurance; OnPay also offers retirement plan options and the option to bring your own broker.

• OnPay’s Pricing: OnPay’s pricing is affordable, but inflexible. With just a single pricing plan, OnPay isn’t a good option for those that are serious about not paying for things they won’t use. Better alternatives include Patriot Payroll and SurePayroll.
• OnPay’s Direct Deposit Processing Time: Not all customers will be able to access OnPay’s two-day payroll processing time, those who don’t meet OnPay’s risk assessment standards may be relegated to its four-day processing plan or may not be able to use direct deposit.
• OnPay’s Time Tracking: OnPay lacks built-in time tracking, so restaurants will need to use QuickBooks Time, When I Work, or Deputy to sync payroll and time and attendance data.

Homebase’s payroll add-on costs $39/month + $6/employee paid per month. Payroll can be added on to any of Homebase’s plan tiers, which range from free to $80/location/month.

Homebase offers all essential payroll features, plus excellent scheduling and attendance solutions. Here are the features you can expect from Homebase:

• Full-Service Payroll: Unlimited payroll runs, two-day direct deposit, pay employees and contractors, deductions, garnishments, supplemental earnings management, overtime pay, sync with Homebase time clocks, and more.
• Payroll Tax Support: Minimum wage compliance and alerts, set custom tip makeup calculations, payroll tax processing, including issuing W-2s and 1099s.
• Employee Scheduling: Schedule templates, auto-scheduling, schedule alerts, time tracking, time-off request management, and more.
• Employee Mobile App: Homebase’s employee mobile app allows employees to chat with one another, check their shifts, and trade shifts. Employers can use the app to manage employee shifts, track labor costs, hire new employees, and much more.
• HR & Hiring: New hire onboarding, applicant tracking, job postings, team roster, library of job description templates, screener questions, and more.

Homebase Home Dashboard

• Homebase’s Pricing: Although Homebase’s free plan is generous, it’s only available for businesses with a single location and fewer than 20 employees. If your business grows, you’ll need to pay for a higher plan tier.
• Homebase’s Benefits Administration: Homebase does not support benefits administration, your management options are limited to setting custom benefits deductions.
• Homebase’s Integrations: Homebase doesn’t integrate with any other time tracking or scheduling software, so you’ll need to stay within the software’s ecosystem if you want synced time and payroll data.