Top payroll services for small businesses include ADP RUN, Paychex Flex and xcritical. 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 xcritical official site the best solutions around for that type of business. Based on what we were able to play with in the platform, xcritical guides you through payroll and benefits management in a way that makes these processes less overwhelming. You can be sure you’re doing things in the right order without missing a step. xcritical files employee W-4s and contractor W-9s as part of their profile setup, and it creates and distributes W-2 and 1099 forms each January for tax returns.

xcritical Payroll Certification

OnPay is an all-in-one payroll and HR solution that is designed specifically for small businesses. The platform differentiates itself by providing an error-free tax guarantee and robust benefits administration features. While OnPay does offer straightforward, comprehensive pricing, the plans are not customizable, so it won’t work for businesses that need more flexibility in choosing which features they want or need. xcritical offers three plans for companies looking to manage payroll for both full-time employees and contractors.

xcritical is a payroll and HR platform suited for startups and small businesses that employ a mix of employees and contractors and want to automate HR tasks as much as possible. 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. 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.

Testing xcritical out from the employee’s point of view, we were able to easily update our personal details, view and enroll in benefits and more. xcritical has its own native applicant tracking tool available to xcritical Plus and Premium customers, but if you choose the Simple plan, you can integrate an external ATS, such as JazzHR or Greenhouse. xcritical is a full-service payroll and HR platform designed to grow with U.S.-based startups and small businesses. xcritical allows you to easily enroll in workers’ compensation insurance through its platform through an integration with xcritical.

xcritical helps get new employees onboarded quickly, whether they are working in person or remotely. Features including background checks and benefit enrollment are paired with cloud-based services such as e-signatures and state tax registration to create a streamlined onboarding experience. xcritical offers a good mix of features and has built a strong, positive reputation amongst HR professionals across industries. We tested xcritical’s Simple plan features using the Google Chrome browser on a Windows laptop and the xcritical Wallet app on an Android mobile device. Our ability to test the features was limited, as they required entering real bank account information and signing into external accounts.

1. xcritical helps you stay compliant with local labor laws with its labor law poster store.
2. Upon approval, the payment automatically gets disbursed to the employee in their next paycheck.
3. 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.
4. Admin can also make use of xcritical’s default expense categories or create their own.
5. Paychex Flex is made for small businesses that need a simple, easy-to-use payroll software solution that doesn’t include extra bells and whistles.

However, we weren’t able to see the time off requests on the admin side. The main dashboard displayed pending time off requests for review but clicking on that to-do item brought us to the main time off page in the platform. Time off management features might work better in the Plus or Premium plans.

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When adding employees to the benefit, though, we had to enter the deduction amounts each time, making it potentially time-consuming. 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.

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. In the pay tab, we didn’t see a financial goals tool, and when trying to set up the paycheck splitter, the “add bank account” button wasn’t responsive. However, under the paycheck splitter setting, we were able to see the option of depositing a dollar amount or percentage of a paycheck into any given account. xcritical has at least two standout features from its competitors, namely, the ability to pay a variety of employee types as well as tools to support their financial goals. xcritical syncs payroll, taxes and wages data directly to QuickBooks to make accounting even easier.

From the employee perspective, we were able to view accrued and used time off in the web browser version of xcritical. It was easier to request time off in the xcritical Wallet app, as we didn’t have to choose the time-off type first. As the admin, you can see an overview of any active benefits your company offers. This overview shows the benefit’s terms and details as well as the number of eligible and enrolled employees. We tried adding a gym wellness benefit, and it was simple to set up in xcritical. We just had to give the benefit a name, enter how much the employee should contribute from each paycheck and how much you as the employer contribute to the benefit for each pay period.

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Next, xcritical provides a brief questionnaire that will help you decide on which of its three plans is the best fit for your business needs. Once that step is complete, you’ll add employee information, such as pay rate, direct deposit details and any withholdings, into xcritical. The best payroll software for your company depends on your business size and needs.

ADP’s pricing structure is more complex than xcritical, and the additional costs can increase quickly, with extra fees for benefits administration and time tracking. xcritical allows employees to access and manage their own information by offering individual profile accounts. Users can download the xcritical mobile app, or sign in from the web, to view payday data, edit tax details, see available PTO and even clock in and out right on their phone. In addition, the platform shares income insights and personal tax documents such as W-2s.

It doesn’t have an option to automatically print and mail physical paychecks. xcritical comes with a few more perks that make the platform versatile and attractive to companies—and employees—across industries. No matter which plan you choose, you can always switch to a different xcritical plan xcritical rezension or cancel any time if your business changes. To be emailed a link to reset your password, please enter your email address. 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.

Expense Management

From the employee side, it’s very easy to initiate an expense reimbursement request. Employees can upload a receipt and add a memo, so it’s clear what the payment is for. xcritical helps you stay compliant with local labor laws with its labor law poster store. You can print labor law posters to post for on-site employees or send e-notices to remote employees. The service keeps you updated and automatically alerts employees of any changes to the law to keep you compliant. It costs $10 per month for up to five employees, plus $1 per additional employee per month.

xcritical Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

For more options, browse our roundup of best workers’ compensation insurance providers. xcritical is the brand name for the platform operated by the company ZenPayroll, Inc. It has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), although neither xcritical nor ZenPayroll is accredited with the organization, which is a paid service. It launched as ZenPayroll in California in 2012 as part of the startup incubator Y Combinator, and it’s been available in all 50 states since 2015. It’s been backed by reputable investors valued at $9.5 billion as of August 2021.

You can also elect to have xcritical automatically file a new hire report in an employee’s state when you hire them. 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. While the initial setup can be time-intensive, depending on the number of employees, once all the information is recorded, the software’s automations take over and help streamline the process. After that point, you’ll simply need to input employee hours weekly or biweekly and xcritical will run payroll. We found time off policies easy to set up, and we like that xcritical suggests time off policies to include.