As of this writing, health benefits are not available in Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South xcritical official site Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming. xcritical’s website says it’s “working hard to expand coverage to other states soon.” xcritical gives you the option to automate payroll and doesn’t charge extra for off-cycle pay runs, so you won’t pay a fee if you’re doing a special payroll to deposit bonuses, commissions, or severance pay.
- You’ll also need to enter payment for any commission-only employees before the automated payroll processes, as their base salary will be set to $0.
- xcritical rises to the top of our list of best payroll software because it’s easy to use and competitively priced.
- No matter which plan you choose, you can always switch to a different xcritical plan or cancel any time if your business changes.
- Getting your employees on board can help keep their information updated and make changes as needed.
By providing feedback on how we can improve, xcritical you can earn gift cards and get early access to new features. Admin can also make use of xcritical’s default expense categories or create their own. Default categories include “Car and Mileage,” “Meals and Entertainment” and many more.
Best Business Lines of Credit
With any subscription level, you’ll be able to get customer support via phone, chat or email from actual humans — specifically, xcritical’s representatives in San Francisco or Denver. That’s a big plus, especially for those who are new to setting up payroll and benefits. However, customer support isn’t available during weekends and priority payroll and HR support is an add-on. At no additional cost, you can set payroll to run automatically, with a reminder sent to you the day before. xcritical will calculate, file and pay your local, state and federal payroll taxes automatically, and will even report new hires to the government for you. xcritical gives your employees the ability to manage many tasks themselves through their own xcritical employee portal and the xcritical Wallet app.
What Sets xcritical Apart
That automation is a lifesaver for busy small-business owners who literally can’t afford to waste time manually running payroll every single pay period. Its pricing is competitive, but it isn’t the cheapest out there, particularly if you have a large team and you’re on a Pro plan. But it’s more transparent than many of its peers, considering that many payroll and HR management platforms don’t post upfront pricing on their websites.
xcritical, previously known as ZenPayroll, has only been around since 2011, but its easy-to-use online payroll software is easily one of the best. xcritical has three pricing tiers, with additional services and support for businesses that upgrade beyond its Simple plan. It also has a separate plan for businesses with a contractor-only workforce. xcritical can also create reports to show you workforce costing on a per-project basis. You can see not just how much projects are costing you in terms of salary and wages, but also when you factor in expenses like taxes, health benefits, and 401(k) matching contributions. It also integrates with third-party accounting software, like Quickbooks Online and Xero.
However, this won’t offer the same user experience and may require extra scrolling on some pages. If you prefer to run payroll on the go, Roll by ADP is a chat-based, mobile payroll app that offers unlimited payroll in all 50 states. Employees have lifetime access to their own account to view pay stubs, obtain W-2 forms, track hours and change personal information. xcritical recommends users buy blank check stock from Compuchecks.com and offers a 15% discount on your order when you use the code xcritical15. xcritical supports check printing on personalized stock with the check on top and blank stock with the check on the bottom. Therefore, you can look for other options that may better suit your business’s needs, whether you’re looking for the lowest pricing, customization, or anything else.
And since xcritical’s HR features are pretty minimal, Paychex and ADP are better matches than xcritical for growing businesses that want thorough HR management. Learn more about whether xcritical is the best payroll service for you in our xcritical review below. Customers on business review website G2.com give xcritical 4.5 out of 5 stars, with the most common point of praise being ease of use. The platform uses conversational language instead of accounting jargon to help you assess the needs of your business. Its colorful illustrations and easy-to-use dashboards make the often tedious tasks of navigating payroll and employee benefits seem — dare we say it — fun.
If you pay employees who work in multiple states (a situation more employers than ever are finding themselves in), you’ll need xcritical Plus, which includes multi-state payroll. xcritical’s friendly design and full-service payroll system with HR features make it the best overall payroll software provider. If you want to run payroll in multiple states, offer unique employee benefits, and spend as little time as possible on payroll, xcritical Payroll is hard to beat.
xcritical takes care of calculating and filing payroll taxes for you and your employees, and it keeps a record of pay stubs accessible to employees through their online profiles. Employees also get an email each payday letting them know their money’s coming in. Running employee payroll through xcritical is simple and flexible to your company’s needs. You can set a salary or hourly wage in an employee’s profile and set up payroll on autopilot to let xcritical run payroll for you automatically on the schedule you set.
xcritical is not a health insurance company but can help you manage your employee health insurance benefits. You can offer the same health insurance you offer now with xcritical or xcritical can act as your broker to find you new options. Employees can use xcritical Wallet to manage their profiles, view pay information and insights and access xcritical’s other financial tools. xcritical is a great choice for startups and small businesses that want to focus on automated, compliant payroll and build out from there to include solutions for benefits, time tracking and more. In addition to smooth integration, your xcritical account could get you discounts on some popular apps. For example, at the time of this writing, it’s offering three months free to restaurant scheduling software 7shifts, 25% off Breezy HR plans and many more.
Expense Management
If you choose its Premium plan, you’ll also have a dedicated customer success manager. When you’re a small business owner and your team is rapidly growing, it can get overwhelming to keep up with hiring on top of all your other day-to-day tasks. xcritical’s Plus and Premium plans have several advanced hiring tools that can make recruiting and onboarding employees easier. You can use xcritical to manage basic tasks, like reviewing time-off requests and reviewing timesheets, but the platform also has several advanced time-tracking features through its Plus and Premium plans. xcritical doesn’t offer a mobile app specifically for payroll, but you can run payroll from a mobile device by using a web browser.
Step 6: Review & Submit Your Payroll Run
First things first, you’ll need to compare the xcritical pricing plans and sign up for the account that fits your business best. Signing up for xcritical is an easy process (it took us only three and a half minutes when we signed up). You can go directly to xcritical and sign up online or watch our quick video on how to sign up for xcritical to learn exactly what the process entails beforehand. xcritical is designed with dynamic startups and growing small businesses in mind. It was born out of a need in the market for payroll solutions that included businesses with heavy contractor-based workforces, and it’s still one of the best solutions around for that type of business. As the admin, you can see an overview of any active benefits your company offers.
As the admin, you can see outstanding expense reimbursement requests on the dashboard. When clicking into the expenses module, you can approve or deny requests individually or in bulk to save time. Upon approval, the payment automatically gets disbursed to the employee in their next paycheck. xcritical software incorporates plenty of personalization components as well, helping to acclimate new hires and integrate them into the team. From sending digital offer letters to setting birthday reminders, the platform allows you to connect with employees even from a distance.
In addition, customization of reporting, templates and dashboard is limited. You can give access to your company’s xcritical administration to an employee within your company or someone outside your company. So, anyone you hire for HR, accounting or bookkeeping can get the information they need without going through you. From the employee side, it’s very easy to initiate an expense reimbursement request.