Payroll Software

[LisaAnn]

Hello Everyone.....are we breathing better these days?

Can anyone recommend payroll software that can handle several different government rates for each employee? One of my clients is doing alot of government contracting jobs and there are several rates involved for each employee within the payroll week depending on what the employee is doing.....labor, carpenter, roofing. It's getting a little cumbersome on my self-made excel payroll worksheets.

Any suggestions on payroll software?

And thank you everyone....this board is so helpful throughout tax-season and off-season as well!

[Lynn EA USTCP in Louisiana]

I suggest you contact Medlin software www.medlin.com and see if they can handle your requirements.

Very user friendly and most affordable.

Lynn Jacobs, EA, FNTPI, NP

Kenner, LA

[Lion EA]

If you use QB anyway for those clients, then check out the QB payroll.

[LisaAnn]

Thanks lynnjacobs. I just checked with Medlin and they do not handle multiple rates. Thanks for answering!

Lion, I'll check out quickbooks to see if their payroll handles mutliple rates.

Here's the scenerio:

Any one week an employee might have as many as 6 rates of pay........ie: labor rate, labor benefit rate, carpenter rate, carpenter benefit rate, roofing rate, and roofing benefit rate. Then, there is as many as 10 employees on the job with this scenerio. I do have it set up in excel, but it's becoming complicated and I'm afraid there is room for error.

[BulldogTom]

Lisa,

What you need is a contractor's software. They are not cheap, but that is really the only place you can find what you are looking for. Unfortunately, you can't just buy the payroll software. You have to buy the program to make the payroll work. Timberline is one of the industry standards. American Contractor is also very good. Intuit has a product called Master Builder that is geared towards smaller contractors but might work for you.

How do I know this, because my day job is Controller for a contractor and we do prevailing wage jobs. I have looked at several software packages over the years.

Tom

Lodi, CA

[LisaAnn]

Bulldog Tom,

Which one do you currently use?

[BulldogTom]

We use timberline. But that is not my choice. It is very old technology and cumbersome to use. The reporting leaves much to be desired. However, I must say that if you know what you are doing, it will do everything you ask of it. It just takes a long time to figure out how all the modules work together.

In fact, I am going to my 4th conference on how to use the software next month. I will be looking at setting up direct deposit using the software and getting our vacation and sick accruals to work properly.

Tom

Lodi, CA

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

For clarification, multiple rates per employee is not something we are even considering at present. Multiple rates would simply add complication for anyone who does not have multiple rates. By complication I mean some multiple of hour entry fields, WC classification fields, reporting complexity, OT calculation complexity, and so on.

We have found, over the years, those needing multiple rates have other requirements we simply cannot meet while keeping our software as simple as we manage to do. There are other software options for complex payrolls, although at a much different price point than ours...

For those who read this forum who are already my customers, if you wish to get an idea of what we are working on for our next version, send a message to our normal email address, mention this forum, and I will reply.

Dennis

[BulldogTom]

Dennis,

Please don't think I was putting your software down, because that is the last thing I would want to do. For those of us in the construction industry who have to deal with prevailing wage jobs, we understand what you mean by the complexity. It is highly specialized and not everyone is willing to do it. That takes nothing away from your excellent product.

Tom

Lodi, Ca

[BulldogTom]

Lisa Ann,

Try this company. I don't know if it is overkill for what you are looking for, but I have heard it is pretty good.

www.harrisbusinesssystems.com

The product is called Maxwell. Ask about Computer Ease. I think they are still selling that too.

Tom

Lodi, CA

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

No worries here Tom. One of our differences is we do draw a line as to how complicated we want to get versus trying to handle everything for everyone. I call it programming for the 90%.

One of my all time favorite inquiries is when asked about where can someone take a class on using Medlin. I say nowhere, because while you will find an entire semester class on using certain software, you will find Medlin is being used to teach accounting!

[mcb39]

I am one of your 90%. Would not know where to go without your software as my payroll clients are limited. Thanks for a great program.

[GeneInAlabama]

I too am one of your 90%. I really like the simplicity of your program. I used Quick Books years ago before switching to Medlin and if I made a mistake, I had to go around the world to correct it. Now, if I make a mistake, all I have to do is back up, correct it, and go on. My only wish is that it could be used on a network, but that is not a real problem.

[LisaAnn]

Dennis at Medlin,

Please know that I wasn't putting your software down either. I was just responding to a suggestion someone had. As a matter of fact, I reviewed your software info and was ready to jump on the chance to use it until your company responded and said it didn't handle multiple rates. The simplicity of your software, I'm sure, is very advantageous to many!

Thanks Bulldog Tom! I will do research on your many suggestions to see what might work best.

[pomminezer]

You may try Quickbooks and Sage payroll system. They are one of the most popular payroll systems. They are best for large company payrolls.

[estherjb]

ATX has a payroll software. You can get it with their write up program or you can get it stand alone. Then the renewals are half the cost.