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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Patriot Payroll

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/APatriot Software headquartered in Canton, Ohio offers Patriot PAY, their benefits administration and payroll software.

    $17

    per month

    QuickBooks Online

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AQuickBooks Online is a SaaS version of the QuickBooks product. It contains all of the features found in the local version. Higher-priced plans include greater automation, payment management, inventory and time tracking, and analytics features.

    $38

    per month

    Pricing
    Patriot PayrollQuickBooks Online
    Editions & Modules
    Basic Payroll
    $17/mo + $4 per employee/contractor
    Accounting Basic
    $20/mo (unlimited use)
    Accounting Premium
    $30/mo (unlimited use)
    Full Service Payroll
    $37/mo + $4 per employee/contractor
    Simple Start
    $38
    per month
    Essentials
    $75
    per month
    Plus
    $115
    per month
    Advanced
    $275
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Patriot PayrollQuickBooks Online
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPatriot Software has two payroll options to choose from: Basic Payroll, and Full Service payroll software. Both start with a simple three-step payroll process. With the Full Service Payroll, Patriot will collect, deposit, and file federal, state, and local payroll taxes on the customer's behalf; end-of-the-year payroll tax filing is included at no extra charge. Print W2s on 8 x 1/2 x 11 plain white office paper to hand to employees, or post to the free employee portal. Also, Patriot Software offers free direct deposit.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Patriot PayrollQuickBooks Online
    Considered Both Products
    Patriot Software
    Chose Patriot Payroll
    QuickBooks Online Payroll is literally the devil. They make things unclear, very difficult to tell what has been filed and what has been missed, hard to adjust owner salary whenever you want. I hate it! Gusto is more robust than Patriot and so for bigger companies with more …
    Incentivized
    Chose Patriot Payroll
    Quickbooks is more expensive and not as easy
    Incentivized
    Chose Patriot Payroll
    Overall a much easier to use interface, a more competitive price point, excellent customer service—just what we needed for our small nonprofit.
    Incentivized
    Chose Patriot Payroll
    My early experience with Gusto was exceptional...then the wheels started falling off. I won't go into the details but I lost a couple payroll clients due to their errors and was on the verge of losing more. That coupled with massive fee increases made it necessary to find …
    Incentivized
    Chose Patriot Payroll
    I don't think that Patriot PAY is more powerful than QuickBooks. However, it is way cheaper and so much easier to use.
    Incentivized
    Intuit
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    10 Answers
    83%
    Would buy again
    129 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    10 Answers
    87%
    Delivers good value for the price
    124 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    10 Answers
    83%
    Happy with the feature set
    129 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    9 Answers
    82%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    117 Answers
    Features
    Patriot PayrollQuickBooks Online
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Patriot Payroll and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Patriot Payroll
    8.3
    15 Ratings
    0% above category average
    QuickBooks Online
    7.7
    125 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Pay calculation9.515 Ratings8.0114 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Off-cycle/On-Demand payment8.75 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration6.03 Ratings6.962 Ratings
    Direct deposit files9.211 Ratings8.1105 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management8.213 Ratings7.778 Ratings
    Reimbursement management6.36 Ratings7.784 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of Patriot Payroll and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Patriot Payroll
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    7.0
    116 Ratings
    8% below category average
    API for custom integration00 Ratings6.996 Ratings
    Plug-ins00 Ratings7.198 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Patriot Payroll and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Patriot Payroll
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    8.2
    191 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.3156 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.1181 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Patriot Payroll and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Patriot Payroll
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    8.0
    217 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings8.1204 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings8.3211 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings7.7195 Ratings
    General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
    Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Patriot Payroll and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Patriot Payroll
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    7.8
    234 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Accounts payable00 Ratings8.6200 Ratings
    Accounts receivable00 Ratings8.6217 Ratings
    Cash management00 Ratings7.9198 Ratings
    Bank reconciliation00 Ratings9.0223 Ratings
    Expense management00 Ratings8.2206 Ratings
    Time tracking00 Ratings6.998 Ratings
    Fixed asset management00 Ratings7.798 Ratings
    Multi-currency support00 Ratings7.549 Ratings
    Multi-division support00 Ratings7.180 Ratings
    Regulations compliance00 Ratings7.979 Ratings
    Electronic tax filing00 Ratings8.0118 Ratings
    Self-service portal00 Ratings7.3126 Ratings
    Global Financial Support00 Ratings6.541 Ratings
    Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings7.972 Ratings
    Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings7.672 Ratings
    Localizations00 Ratings7.855 Ratings
    Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings8.5146 Ratings
    Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings7.062 Ratings
    Configurable Accounting00 Ratings7.789 Ratings
    Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings7.560 Ratings
    Standardized Processes00 Ratings8.6108 Ratings
    Inventory Management
    Comparison of Inventory Management features of Patriot Payroll and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Patriot Payroll
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    6.8
    90 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Inventory tracking00 Ratings6.685 Ratings
    Automatic reordering00 Ratings6.947 Ratings
    Location management00 Ratings7.254 Ratings
    Manufacturing module00 Ratings6.537 Ratings
    Order Management
    Comparison of Order Management features of Patriot Payroll and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Patriot Payroll
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    7.7
    144 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Pricing00 Ratings7.991 Ratings
    Order entry00 Ratings7.787 Ratings
    Credit card processing00 Ratings8.3111 Ratings
    Cost of goods sold00 Ratings8.0110 Ratings
    Order Orchestration00 Ratings7.347 Ratings
    End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings7.750 Ratings
    Order exception Resolution00 Ratings7.443 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Patriot PayrollQuickBooks Online
    Small Businesses
    RUN Powered by ADP®
    Score9 out of 10
    QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
    Score4.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score5.7 out of 10
    MYOB
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.1 out of 10
    Microsoft Dynamics GP
    Score5.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Patriot PayrollQuickBooks Online
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.7
    (20 ratings)
    8.3
    (252 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.6
    (27 ratings)
    Usability
    9.3
    (10 ratings)
    8.2
    (167 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.7
    (10 ratings)
    9.9
    (70 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    CPA Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.4
    (18 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.3
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    2.0
    (3 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Patriot PayrollQuickBooks Online
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Patriot Software
    Patriot PAY is well-suited to a company that has a 10-day window between the end of the pay period and the payday. The company size makes very little difference and it is easy to use for any company. It is also very progressive in development and improvement. If a company has a small window for turn-around, but fairly consistent payroll amounts (such as a lot of salary workers), Patriot PAY might also be a good fit for them.

    Companies with tight turn-around times or payrolls that vary significantly in direct deposit amounts might have difficulty using Patriot PAY.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Intuit
    QBO is a great solution for small and midsize companies. If the goal is to record all transactions and pull reliable financial reports, QBO is a great option. QBO is also a great solution if most operations are run in a system like Ramp. It syncs well with systems like that and turns the data into something management can use to make decisions. QBO is great because so many people use it. It is easy to find training online, and many people have experience with it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Patriot Software
    • It is simple, intuitive and straightforward in its design. Someone with little experience with roles in human resources roles, bookkeeping or payroll can quickly learn how to set-up the software and run payroll regularly by reading through the support portion of the site, or by contacting the helpful staff at Patriot. Patriot staff have walked me through issues or guided me on the phone as I learned how to use a function of the software.
    • Patriot provides comprehensive quarterly tax filing records, including 941s, state unemployment compensation tax payments, state employer's tax and local employer's tax filings. You can also generate payroll or tax deposit reports over a specific time period or per employee.
    • The support and FAQ pages available on Patriot are very practical and written in an easy to understand manner. Using the information provided there, I was able to properly set up new employees according to local and state filing requirements.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Intuit
    • Workflows for accounts payable invoice review are terrific.
    • Bill payment allows you to pay vendors online via ACH or check without having to write a physical check, which reduces admin time.
    • The cloud based login lends well to a remote or hybrid work environment for staff.
    • QuickBooks Online allows you to pre-configure vendors' general ledger expense accounts. This helps with general ledger coding accuracy and consistency.
    • QuickBooks Online integrates with Rippling HRIS, Coast, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, etc., which lends well to an efficient month-end closing and reduced administrative time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Patriot Software
    • Connecting with outside software - we have an issue of Patriot not recognizing donors when connected to other websites when all the information is the same minus a middle initial
    • Giving an error page when something small is off. Instead of giving an easy to fix error notification, Patriot brings the user to an error page and they have to reenter everything.
    • Fixing dates easily. If a date is entered incorrectly, 8/13/21 instead of 2021, an error pop up appears but the user has to click enter/okay many times or refresh the page in order to fix this issue.
    • Enter vs Tab key - Patriot loves the tab key but if the user clicks enter instead, many times it brings them to the home page.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Intuit
    • I dislike that the online bill pay option through QuickBooks is required for their invoicing.
    • The auto-fill portion of the customer setup, specifically the company name, is listed, but it also auto-fills in the name portion, which is inconvenient and time-consuming to remove.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Patriot Software
    It works well because it is cheap for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Intuit
    It like the product 'right out of the box' and I trust Intuit will continually improve it over the years based on my experience with their desktop products. The large providers of Apps makes customizing the entire package relatively easy and seamless for a wide variety of business types.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Patriot Software
    I think it is great once things are setup as for general user looking to look for simple things like a copy of a paystub or a current pay rate for an employee. However, to find specialized things like a state withholding number or payroll integration settings those do require a bit more digging to find or possibly a call to customer service for help.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Intuit
    Beyond being overkill for a small org's needs, QBO is constantly stealing screen real estate and attention by hammering users for account upgrades, connecting to one of their approved consultants or buying add-ons. The idea of using a simple configurable bookeeping and light accounting interface is completely missing. At the very least, we should be able to hide functions like inventory that we will never use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Patriot Software
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    We have rarely had outages in the last 10 years. I can only recall 2 times in the last 10 years where we were not able to access our client files.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Patriot Software
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    Everything process has its bugs lately with the new interface. Nothing has worked smoothly since this all began last month.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Patriot Software
    Generally speaking it is pretty good that when I need to call somebody up for a payroll question I can generally within five minutes get somebody on the phone and they can help me resolve the problem or specify where specifically I need to go or contact to find my answers. However, that being said, for my specific situation as a partner my assigned contact has not always been very responsive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Intuit
    In my experience, most representatives keep me on the phone for hours, literally, for a single issue and then usually cannot resolve it satisfactorily. I have 10 open cases that need resolution and, in my experience, there has been NO follow-up communication on any of them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Patriot Software
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    The person in charge of QB needs to be very accurate with record keeping and is recommended to stay on top of tasks. The biggest issue we have is reconciliation, and those issues occur only when too much time has occurred between reconciliations
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Patriot Software
    I briefly used Intuit Online Payroll, and it was expensive, had no support, and was very frustrating to use. I also used 3 local tax companies for payroll - they were extremely expensive and messed up all of the time. Their employee turnover was very annoying (and it seemed to happen every other month) and each employee did things differently. When I let one of my employees go, the last company paid them after termination (2 weeks of salary), and had to get into a legal battle because the employee would not give the money back.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Intuit
    As a freelance bookkeeper, the Desktop version of QuickBooks Online doesn't allow for ease of access from any device. Having to be on a computer with the software downloaded creates additional work to gain access to all required filings etc. Also, I personally find the linking functionality on the Online version to be much more streamlined and user friendly.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Patriot Software
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    As we have grown along our professional path, we have also expanded our use of QB. The scalability is easy and features seem to be waiting for you until you need them. We have increased profits by over 10x from our first year in business to the current and have yet to find a reason to look elsewhere
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Patriot Software
    • It boosts my time available for client-facing activities by not having to spend as much time processing payroll.
    • It helps me deliver accurate reports to my CPA at tax time regarding employee wages and employer taxes.
    • Through the online portal, I can easily track year-to-date taxes my company has paid.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Intuit
    • QuickBooks has given us a useful portal by which to get an overview of our financials.
    • QuickBooks has given us a relatively easy way to send out invoices quickly and efficiently.
    • Due to the customization limitations on QuickBooks, we've had to get creative in third-party implementations to better represent our brand and to track financials.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Patriot Payroll Screenshots

    Screenshot of the 3-step process to carry out payrollScreenshot of the Payroll interface, which can be used run payroll on any device with internet or data connection. There is no need to download and maintain a separate payroll app.Screenshot of a payroll report, to sort by work location, employee, and date range.

    QuickBooks Online Screenshots

    Screenshot of the accounting and bank transactions interfaceScreenshot of an overview of the accounting inventoryScreenshot of book marksScreenshot of the business tax overviewScreenshot of the customer hubScreenshot of the dashboard