Paylocity vs. QuickBooks Desktop Pro

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Paylocity
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Paylocity provides 24/7 access to your online payroll and human resource data management. Paylocity offers highly customizable payroll functionality, as well as HR, benefits administration, and time and talent management programs.N/A
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Quickbooks Desktop Pro is accounting software from Intuit, Inc. It includes core accounting features, plus analytics and exportable reports. It is offered in on-premise and SaaS forms.N/A
Pricing
PaylocityQuickBooks Desktop Pro
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PaylocityQuickBooks Desktop Pro
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PaylocityQuickBooks Desktop Pro
Considered Both Products
Paylocity
Chose Paylocity
There is no comparison at all. Paychex just has not come up with the advancements that Paylocity has.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity just fits better with us. I think it's more user-friendly for our size of an organization.
Chose Paylocity
Advantage Payroll was going out of business and was being bought out by Paychex. After viewing several payroll companies and demoing each one, I chose Paylocity and haven't regretted my decision.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity was more cost effective and way easier to navigate. The additional modules provided us with opportunities to add in features to use or not. Reporting, Compensation and Onboarding were a all step up from what we were using. Access to Data Insights was something we …
Chose Paylocity
I have used all of the above in the past when working for other companies. While I didn't have issues with any of the others, Paylocity does well against the others. It has great functionality compared to the others, and I feel it has made the others step up and change their …
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is much more user friendly and has better reporting. The Service Team at Paylocity is really what makes the most difference. They Service Team is very quick to repsond and that is vital when processing payroll. ADP is best suited for larger companies and QuickBooks …
Chose Paylocity
Gusto was my favorite overall, but would have been too pricey with the growth that we had projected.
Paychex was great, but the customer service was terrible.
ADP was meh. More trouble than it was worth.
Chose Paylocity
We have used CenterPoint Payroll & Quickbooks here in the past. We considered Paycom and CBiz when we decided to go with Paylocity. We loved how user friendly Paylocity was and how it was a "one stop shop" for our employees. We have multiple locations under the one company …
Chose Paylocity
Ceridian Dayforce is impossibly difficult, and overkill for any employer of less than 500. Support is not always in the US. Assistance with troubleshooting is 3-48 hours, which is useless when you have a payroll deadline. Training and education of the product is months of …
Chose Paylocity
Employees did not have any visibility into their profiles and we also experienced issues giving them access to their paystubs. The reporting was very basic and we spent a lot of time putting together the detailed journal entry. We are saving on the cost, as well.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity can handle more detail and compliance than Quickbooks can. Quickbooks was great for our small business with only 5 or so employees.
Chose Paylocity
We used QuickBooks which was not an integrated HRIS. This involved a lot of manual entry, employees could not update and time tracking\PTO, etc was not available, resulting in multiple systems. This has been a great time saver and resulted in more efficient and accurate data …
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity has, hands down, the best customer service out of anyone I've used in the past. I've also noticed that there aren't any technical difficulties I've experienced since using Paylocity, which is a little over a year now. Several of the other software programs I used in …
Chose Paylocity
We moved to Paylocity from Optimum Solutions HRIS. We loved the personalized customer service we got with Optimum. That has been the biggest thing we've missed. While Paylocity has a good customer service set up, it's not personalized. I rarely, if ever, get ahold of our …
QuickBooks Desktop Pro

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
PaylocityQuickBooks Desktop Pro
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.8
847 Ratings
0% below category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
-
Ratings
Employee demographic data8.5798 Ratings00 Ratings
Employment history8.2779 Ratings00 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.8716 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.6727 Ratings00 Ratings
Organizational charting7.1668 Ratings00 Ratings
Organization and location management7.8650 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.5556 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.1
835 Ratings
1% above category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
9.3
65 Ratings
22% above category average
Pay calculation8.6811 Ratings9.961 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors7.3381 Ratings00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment8.5581 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.2554 Ratings9.835 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.9810 Ratings9.853 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.2641 Ratings9.949 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.9395 Ratings7.350 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.6
698 Ratings
6% below category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
-
Ratings
Approval workflow7.9619 Ratings00 Ratings
Balance details7.4668 Ratings00 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment7.4518 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.3
847 Ratings
2% above category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
-
Ratings
View and generate pay and benefit information8.5824 Ratings00 Ratings
Update personal information8.6838 Ratings00 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.0665 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee recognition8.3581 Ratings00 Ratings
View job history8.3703 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.5
238 Ratings
3% below category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
-
Ratings
Tracking of all physical assets7.5238 Ratings00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.0
773 Ratings
8% below category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
-
Ratings
Report builder7.0739 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.4753 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data6.5449 Ratings00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.2
721 Ratings
2% above category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
-
Ratings
New hire portal8.3717 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools8.0559 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.4
374 Ratings
10% below category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
-
Ratings
Corporate goal setting7.4283 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.4345 Ratings00 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility7.3244 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance tracking7.4348 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.4
480 Ratings
7% below category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
-
Ratings
Performance plans7.2429 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.2355 Ratings00 Ratings
Review status tracking7.4441 Ratings00 Ratings
Review reminders7.5443 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.6362 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.1
220 Ratings
10% below category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools6.7147 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking7.1180 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search7.4200 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development7.4161 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.7
453 Ratings
1% below category average
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
-
Ratings
Job Requisition Management7.8372 Ratings00 Ratings
Company Website Posting8.1396 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to Social Media7.7304 Ratings00 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.7371 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.0310 Ratings00 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.0416 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts7.9414 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
7.9
39 Ratings
11% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings8.032 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings7.836 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
8.5
93 Ratings
6% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.975 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.188 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
8.4
108 Ratings
10% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings9.693 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings7.5108 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings8.2106 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
8.0
112 Ratings
8% above category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings9.7107 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings7.5109 Ratings
Cash management00 Ratings2.497 Ratings
Bank reconciliation00 Ratings9.7108 Ratings
Expense management00 Ratings8.899 Ratings
Time tracking00 Ratings8.747 Ratings
Fixed asset management00 Ratings6.064 Ratings
Multi-currency support00 Ratings7.927 Ratings
Multi-division support00 Ratings5.752 Ratings
Regulations compliance00 Ratings7.239 Ratings
Electronic tax filing00 Ratings8.050 Ratings
Self-service portal00 Ratings9.738 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings7.015 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings8.837 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings7.438 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings8.517 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings9.665 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings9.733 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings8.141 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings7.824 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings9.748 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
6.7
56 Ratings
5% below category average
Inventory tracking00 Ratings6.553 Ratings
Automatic reordering00 Ratings6.132 Ratings
Location management00 Ratings6.229 Ratings
Manufacturing module00 Ratings8.216 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Desktop Pro
7.3
70 Ratings
1% below category average
Pricing00 Ratings6.650 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings7.449 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings7.148 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings9.058 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings9.018 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings9.021 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings3.216 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PaylocityQuickBooks Desktop Pro
Small Businesses
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.0 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed
QuickBooks Self-Employed
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.3 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 8.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PaylocityQuickBooks Desktop Pro
Likelihood to Recommend
7.7
(882 ratings)
5.6
(124 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(82 ratings)
10.0
(18 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(58 ratings)
8.2
(31 ratings)
Availability
8.8
(9 ratings)
8.3
(2 ratings)
Performance
9.4
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.2
(79 ratings)
2.3
(29 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(33 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Configurability
8.3
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.6
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.8
(8 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.3
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PaylocityQuickBooks Desktop Pro
Likelihood to Recommend
Paylocity
Paylocity works well for our organization. Ease of use for our managers and employees is very important. Makes it easier for us in HR to manage. Time and attendance works very well. Efficient and effective. Payroll runs very smoothly. We appreciate the performance and compensation module for tracking employees performance, journals and getting feedback and annual compensation.
Read full review
Intuit
I am only going to recommend it because it is currently ubiquitous, and most accountants prefer it at the moment. I do not stand by the company, and will not use the product any longer than I have to. [I believe] the support is lousy, the product is overpriced, but it does the basics of what we need. I'm very happy for all those outside Intuit who make their living supporting QuickBooks Desktop Pro; third-party support is desperately needed. They also doubled their prices for software upgrades this year, and require those who don't pay double what the last upgrade cost, to subscribe every year for $200. If one does not subscribe beyond the first year, one will not be able to use the software beyond the first year. They are moving to a rental model even for those who refuse to use the LOUSY QuickBooks online. They were good company once. Now they just turn out bloatware that everyone uses, so the rest of us have to. I look forward to the day that an honest, better-priced competitor wipes the floor with Intuit.
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Pros
Paylocity
  • Customer Service is always helpful with little wait time.
  • Always improving; for example, the recent change to processing payroll. So much easier.
  • Onboarding makes it simple and the fact that the company can personalize the messaging to new hires allows us to make it more personalized.
  • Having an assigned account manager regardless of company size is definitely a plus.
Read full review
Intuit
  • It is easy to manage and adjust inventory on hand.
  • It is easy to make reports and customize them to your needs.
  • We also use it to pay our employees directly.
  • It is easy to make year-to-year comparisons to see where we can make improvements and the current financial situation.
Read full review
Cons
Paylocity
  • Recruiting piece/ATS could be improved.
  • A candidate being able to save progress on their application is really a must as they can't leave and come back to their application without having to restart, i.e. if they need to get a phone number for a reference for example.
  • Could use more room in entering the job for internal notes.
  • Quirky when doing cut and paste of job details that leaves spaces that aren't in the document being pasted.
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Intuit
  • QuickBooks Desktop Pro has been around for a few years and after an update[,] they force you to look at the changes/updates before you can use [them] after updating.
  • QuickBooks Desktop Pro does not have 2FA.
  • QuickBooks Desktop Pro should offer a way to store backups to a personal cloud without having to map a local network drive.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Paylocity
We have had many issues with the way our platform was set up at implementation that still continue to plague us. In addition, our benefits, in particular our FSA, have been mis-managed causing a balance due from an employee (and also a lot of work for our accounting and HR team, as well as stress for the employee). Our service rep continues to answer incorrectly on many fronts (original response is usually check out this paylocity article, vs. helping) and recently our COBRA management was mishandled (not adding Dental to a person on Cobra who had requested it). So- all in all...we are not particularly happy w/ Paylocity
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Intuit
We've used the program for more than 20 years in our firm both with clients and as our software. For the cost and value of the program it works well for our firms needs and desires for an accounting software program. At this point to switch would not make sense.
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Usability
Paylocity
Overall, in my experience, Paylocity has been easy to use for both staff and administrators. First, the staff has an application and inputting Paid Time Off is easy to do. I then get an alert on my app and I am able to approve it on the spot from my app that gives me access as an employee and an administrator without having to use multiple apps or logins. As an administrator I think the portal is easy to use, Paylocity did a great job showing me tools and rolling out training classes before rollout.
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Intuit
It is a great software that does everything a small business needs it to do, but there are just a few bugs and quirks that make additional software necessary. The slowness of the software occasionally might eventually be overshadowed by the quickness of cloud-based software though.
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Reliability and Availability
Paylocity
Paylocity support is always available and I never have to wait endlessly on hold. If our dedicated account manage is not available, there is an entire team assigned to our account. Every one of them is knowledgeable about our organization and Paylocity's process.
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Intuit
I haven't experienced a time when QuickBooks Pro was unavailable when I needed it in the entire 20 years of using the software
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Performance
Paylocity
pages load in an acceptable amount of time, reports come back quickly, but integration is very complicated and hasn't been possible
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Intuit
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Paylocity
Everyone wants immediate assistance. Awaiting a response from an email only to ask 2-3 more questions is time consuming. Within the first six months of setup, I would rather respond back to the instructors who provided me the training in each category of my contract.
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Intuit
The support team is not always easy to use or able to understand the problems. There are some difficulties understanding [...] the issues the purchaser has and the solutions are sometimes hard to implement. A lot can be avoided if the users have adequate training and security is set up correctly at implementation.
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In-Person Training
Paylocity
No answers on this topic
Intuit
Best thing I ever did was to attend a two day training seminar on QuickBooks, I learned an immense amount in a short time with hands on training by experts. I strongly recommend such training for anyone using any part of the software. It will pay for itself in the first month.
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Online Training
Paylocity
The training was live online, but was with a group of other companies. We did not receive any personalized training with our team. Whenever we would ask for training, we would be sent a peak article link or a video. It felt like the reps we dealt with didn't know the answer to the questions.
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Intuit
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Paylocity
I had gone through an implementation process of another HR platform (Paycom) in my previous job and was traumatized, it was painful. I was surprised how easy and fast it was with Paylocity, the team was very helpful and set us up for success
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Intuit
We implemented the software ourselves. The training we received on the software was done by taking a community course teaching us how to use QuickBooks. It allowed me to get started with some basics of how to use the program and have not needed much assistance since completing the course work.
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Alternatives Considered
Paylocity
We honestly had a program that only kept track of our Demographics, salaries, etc. then all of our Payroll was done on paper with paper leave slips etc. When I saw Paylocity, I was very excited about how easy it is/would be to use. [...] Our Paylocity rep that I spoke to was super GREAT in the explanation of Paylocity and I didn't even shop around much.
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Intuit
Zoho had great end-user support and it was almost as simple to learn and was as easy to use. But its reports were not as [customizable] as QuickBooks Desktop Pro, and its job cost and department accounting [were] more cumbersome than QuickBooks Desktop Pro was. In addition, while I like an underdog (Zoho) the fact is that it is easier to find staff that [is] comfortable with QuickBooks Desktop Pro than anything else on the market.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Paylocity
I wasn't involved in the sales process. I joined the organization after Paylocity was implemented.
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Intuit
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Paylocity
You have an account manager assigned to you on a daily basis but that person is barely available to you
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Intuit
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Paylocity
Support is quick and proffessional
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Intuit
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Paylocity
  • Definitely more consistent processes. Everything is very user friendly and it reduces the amount of time it has taken us in the past before we started using Paylocity. Everything flows super smoothly.
  • We have an improved retention since we have used Paylocity. Before hand, many employees thought it was difficult to find anything like tax forms, pay stubs, benefit elections, etc. when we used other platforms before we implemented our data into Paylocity.
  • Costs have been reduced and the decision-making process has improved and got quicker. Before Paylocity, it would take at least a week to get a salary increase approved, or a job title change approved. Now, it take less than a day and is super easy.
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Intuit
  • QuickBooks Desktop Pro is a no hassle accounting solution that ticks a lot of boxes. It almost never disappoints and organizations will usually keep using it for many years. If anything, the only time I've seen an organization migrate away from it is if they have specific accounting needs, or if the organization has grown to the point that they need a more robust accounting solution. Even then, QuickBooks can usually be maintained within another accounting software system for specific functions, like A/R & A/P for example.
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