Compare Deluxe Online Payroll Services

Updated Dec 21, 2021


Why Use Deluxe Service?

When choosing the right payroll service for your small to medium business, you need to know exactly what you are getting, down to the smallest feature. There are hundreds of them out there, and it can be difficult to wade through a sea of product integrations and industry specializations before finding the right one for you. To know if a service is a good fit, you need to know the service's history, the companies who use it today, and if it's competitively priced.

This is where Deluxe Payroll shines. Deluxe does a good job of balancing price and features, placing them heads above their competitors. While they may not have the same name recognition as ADP Payroll, Gusto, or Paychex, their quality features and budget-friendly value makes them worth a second look.

The Deluxe Corporation has been helping businesses since 1967. In their early years, their clientele was mostly small to medium businesses in Canada, but as they refined and added more features to their products, they expanded into the U.S. as well.

In 2016, they made their foray into America with the acquisition of Payce Payroll Services, a company based in Maryland, to enhance their growing list of services with a full-service payroll provider. Payce Payroll had over 36 years of industry experience.

Today, Deluxe is among the largest Fortune 400 companies, covering over 4.5 million accounts with a growing number of financial institutions among them. They're at the forefront of innovating payroll solutions for both small businesses and multinational corporations. Their reliability and all-inclusive packages have made them one of the leading payroll software providers across North America.

If you're going to choose Deluxe, here are some of the things you'll look forward to:

  • Dedicated customer care teams that are available 24/7
  • Easy submissions of payroll by fax
  • Over-the-phone and online portals for tax filing
  • Effective HR management through proprietary software
  • Easy tax and compliance filings that can be done online
  • Customizable automated payroll functions
  • Easy-to-read dashboards, complete with reminders
  • Personalized pay grid

Deluxe also offers integrations with providers of 401(k) plans, general ledger systems, point of sale providers, and workers' compensation solutions to make sure you never miss a payment. These features have been honed by decades of experience in the payroll industry and can be stretched, consolidated, and personalized to meet your needs. They also have a pricing structure that you can pay weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or per month, depending on your payroll cycle.

Deluxe Plans

Whether you're looking to become an LLC or an S-Corp so you can save on self-employment taxes, the programs offered by Deluxe are comprehensive and cost-effective. They help you to save time and resources that you can put to better use within your business.

If you're not a big operation, you don't want to commit $500 to $1000 a month to a bookkeeper or a tax man. Deluxe offers its complete suite of features for one of the most affordable prices in the industry.

Their pricing structure depends on how big your employee base is. They have a cap of 1000 employees, and they charge in increments of 40 - 50 employees for medium-sized enterprises.

For small businesses, they charge $30 for the all-inclusive package and that covers one to five employees. If you grow your team to 6 -10 employees, you'll pay:

  • $30 for weekly payments,
  • $40 for bi-weekly payments
  • $45 for semi-monthly payments
  • $50 for monthly payments

    • If your number of employees grows to 11 - 20, then you will pay:
  • $40 for weekly payments
  • $50 for bi-weekly payments
  • $55 for semi-monthly and monthly payments.

    • Finally, if you have more than 20 employees, you're going to pay:
  • $60 for weekly payments
  • $70 for bi-weekly payments
  • $80 for semi-monthly payments
  • $120 for monthly payments

When your employee base grows even larger, you're going to enter their price range for medium enterprises. Costs for medium-sized businesses with 51-100 employees are $1.75 per employee, which would add up to a total amount between $89.25 - $175.

If you have more than 100 employees in total, you would get a wholesale discounted price of $1.57 per employee and can choose how often you pay.

It's worth noting that the features of the plan you pick might cause your quote to vary, so it's a good idea to reach out to them directly or get a free quote from their website. They offer some advanced integrations for retirement plans and workers' comp, among others.

Compare Deluxe Prices

Deluxe Payroll has developed one of the most advanced software options available to fulfill the requirements of every user. Their plans are all-inclusive, meaning that all features are packed into all price categories. The difference in costs only accommodates different numbers of employees, rather than allowing different levels of access to certain features.

There are over 30 million businesses in the United States today, and over 88% of them have 20 or fewer employees. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, but manually doing payroll has left them vulnerable to compliance issues. Payroll can be complicated and exhausting, which is why Deluxe has automatic features to make sure everything is done just right.

3 months free with signup
24/7 assistance
Tax compliance tools
40.00
Average Bill/Month
@ 10 Employees
4.00
per employee/mo
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Deluxe Payroll Features

It is true that most of the payroll solutions nowadays offer great setup help and support features. But what happens when it comes to other functionalities, and how extensive is their list?

Deluxe service is a serious contender for the "best online payroll service" award. One solid proof for that is the fact that the platform offers numerous features and benefits.

Let's take a look at some of the most attractive benefits for small business owners. Easy-To-Configure Easy-To-Configure Online Payroll Solutions

Making mistakes in paying employees, making deductions, or filing taxes can result in serious fines and penalties. Even doing right will probably put you at risk of unpleasant headaches! Instead of spending all your time on payroll, the Deluxe service gives you an automated system that lets you spend your time and energy on building your business and doing what you are best at.

All the Bells and Whistles

Deluxe Payroll can manage payroll, compute payroll taxes with figures updated in real-time, and then remit and file the appropriate tax forms with your state government, the IRS, and the CRA. It covers everything you might expect from standard payroll software. Its main advantage over its competitors is the scope and breadth of its different reports.

The software will update and help you manage your employee's profiles, reports of your workers' compensation board, and show you how many vacation days your workers have accrued. These reports are available with just a few clicks from the dashboard and downloaded in either an Excel Spreadsheet or PDF format. All in all, you'll have access to over 50 kinds of payroll reports, which is more than what the majority of payroll software providers out there offer.

Deluxe also offers extensive features, including automated calculations of your workers' holiday pay, up to three direct deposit accounts per employee, and an automated email of your workers' pay stubs every payday. This is especially useful for small businesses that have begun franchising across America.

Modern Connectivity

Deluxe can fully automate your payroll processes and make them 100% virtual. You can submit your payroll and tax reports via fax, phone, or online. It features an all-inclusive online hub called MyPayCenter, which has of Deluxe's features regardless of price tier.

You can access all the information relevant to your payroll:

  • Payroll summaries
  • Payroll register
  • Department expense summaries
  • Advice from tax professionals
  • Payroll exception reports
  • Reports of miscellaneous adjustments to payroll information
  • New hire expense reports and onboarding costs
  • Assorted worksheets
  • Employee checks

All you need to do is login and modify your employee's wages, hours worked, and other relevant information, and you're done. Deluxe will automatically compute the exact payment per worker and make relevant deductions like taxes, 401(k) plans, and stock-based compensations. Members of your management team and employees will have access to as much or as little payment information as you prefer.

Tax Law Compliance and Filing

Tax laws may change and Deluxe will automatically modify values within its system so you can rest assured that you will not incur any penalty, fines, or lawsuits that could come from non-compliance. Deluxe has a live team of tax professionals who will make sure that the appropriate taxes are paid according to the laws of the jurisdictions where your business is set up. Incentives and savings are automatically applied and deductions are withdrawn as liabilities are incurred.

Deluxe will notify you and compose a report of all the federal taxes required by the IRS for every payroll cycle. It will also create electronic receipts to confirm that you've made your obligatory 942 payments.

Real-Time Customer Service and Automation

Unlike services like Gusto Payroll, where dedicated customer care teams are only available at the higher price tiers, Deluxe has a dedicated customer service department that you can reach 24/7 by phone or email. If you need to double-check if payroll information is correct, let them take note of all the relevant figures, and your payroll will be corrected or set up in the next 24 hours.

You can set up the automatic generation of all payroll reports by signing up for MyPayCenter, which you can access online no matter where you are. You can tailor what various employees can see on Deluxe to maintain employee privacy and make sure only relevant people can see sensitive information.

More In-Depth Reporting

Reports from Deluxe will show the tax contributions and payroll records by the week, month, and year, for all your workers. You can also choose to view specific departments or paygrades within your organization. You can also access expense reports for each employee and department, which you will need to keep updated with overtime pay, paid vacation, and other factors that might be affecting your operating expenses.

Deluxe also features expense allocation reports. It's a useful tool that gives users a complete reading of how much a particular employee costs, the business they generate for the company, and how they are improving or holding back your business. It keeps track of payment by the hour, and the value of the paid vacation that each employee can take from your company.

Expense allocation reports are especially useful if your workers have deferred compensation arrangements in service of a 401(k) or other retirement plans. For coffee shops, restaurants, and cafeterias, Deluxe will generate reports of employee wages that are not covered by taxes, complete with overtime hours, and reported tips.

Deluxe will save you time by providing tip signature sheets, assistance in filling up your form 8027, reporting assistance for FICA Tip Credits, and allowing you to manage the allocation of your employees' tips.

Automatic Deposits

Deluxe is a total package. It packs in HR resources, automated payroll functions, and anything else that's needed to take payroll problems out of your mind whenever payday's coming up. However, perhaps the most celebrated of payroll software features is the automatic and accurate deposits to your and your employees' bank accounts.

Deluxe will allow you to customize the channels by which your payments are made. If you want to pay by direct deposits to your debit payroll accounts, your employee's accounts or simply issue checks every payday, the software has you covered.

You can also opt for bank reconciliation. In this arrangement, Deluxe will withdraw the net pay required for a payroll period from your account and then it will handle the subsequent reconciliation with the bank from which your checks are issued.

The margin for clerical and accounting errors is dramatically reduced by having everything automated, and Deluxe has a storied reputation of keeping everything spotless.

Deluxe Integrations and Ad Ons

Because Deluxe Payroll is a comprehensive, all-inclusive software, they very seldom use integrations with other products to fill a service they can't offer. The only offer integrations with some of their other services that will culminate into a holistic solution for whatever problems you may be facing.

In business tax credit, they offer a Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which is a federal tax credit available for businesses that choose to employ people from groups that have significant hurdles for employment. These groups can include:

  • People with disabilities
  • Qualified veterans
  • Summer youth employees
  • Ex-felons
  • Residents who live in an empowerment zone, enterprise community, or renewal communities
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Recipients
  • Supplemental Security Income Recipient
  • Long-Term Family Assistant Recipient
  • Qualified Long-Term Unemployment Recipient

This credit is offered in partnership with Walton Management Services who will perform state tax incentive negotiations and workforce training incentive programs.

Deluxe Screen Shots

Deluxe Video Demo

Top 5 Deluxe Complaints

Overall, Deluxe customers are satisfied with their payroll services. Most complaints found on the internet are for their marketing services, like logo design, web hosting, and web design.

According to a few users on Yelp who have been on the Deluxe for Business platform, some website functions can be left broken for months even with numerous tickets created to address their problems.

A commonly reported problem with Deluxe Payroll is the difficulty customers experience when switching banks and seeking payment for their virtual checks. They report that Deluxe failed to change the digits on their e-checks after having switched banks for a few months. They say that Deluxe has charged them $0.45 per hard copy of a check and a separate payment for the virtual checks that have been wrongly issued.

Many people warn against ordering their checks altogether. They are commonly sold to people by banks but it has been reported by users that no other bank would accept them because they don't have the common security features of a standard check. Without features like magnetic ink, it would be easy to commit fraud with a photocopier, and nearly every business will reject them if you attempt to use them for payment.

The final two most prevalent complaints are about their technical support team and delayed deliveries. Many customers have been promised delivery of their e-checks within seven days, but those deadlines later shifted to 14 days, and even after that time, they claimed those checks have been lost in the mail. Customers have also complained that even after extensive discussions with their customer service teams, nothing was resolved, so they took to online platforms like the Better Business Bureau to be heard.

Top 5 Deluxe Pros

Despite some of these negative experiences that were just mentioned, Deluxe is one of the names that come up when people ask "Who are the largest online payroll companies?" Among these payroll giants, Deluxe is potentially the cheapest online payroll service for the full set of features that they offer.

A winning feature of Deluxe is the easy integration with data from general ledger programs, allowing you to sync up or use them simultaneously. Deluxe is compatible with:

  • MAS90
  • Peachtree
  • QuickBooks
  • Great Plains
  • Solomon
  • SAGE
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Founder

If you're using another virtual ledger, their team can make a custom interface that will work with it seamlessly.

Another top feature is their flexibility to provide you with much-needed access to sales, tips, and timekeeping information from various point of sale systems. It can work with Aloha, Fisher, PAR, Touch, Remanco, and much more.

They also offer a complete solution for your workers' retirement needs. Retirement solutions like American Funds, John Hancock, Legg Mason, and others, will integrate with your payroll software seamlessly to provide management for 401(k) plans and other retirement programs. They're also in partnership with Legg Mason to provide EZ IRA, a program that enables businesses to offer retirement benefits no matter their size.

Another one of our favorite features is their advanced time and attendance management system. They have an easy-to-navigate clock that can be turned on and managed from any iPad equipped with facial recognition. Tardy employees won't be able to clock in unless they are actually there because of its photo audit trail and capture of their facial profile in real-time.