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With Quickbooks, you don’t have to manually pay your business’s employees each and every payday. You can take advantage of the accounting software’s payroll services. Quickbooks offers several payroll services that you can use to pay your business’s employees, including Core, Premium and Elite. What’s the difference between these three payroll services exactly?

#1) Core

In Quickbooks Online, Core is the lowest-tier payroll service. The Core payroll service comes with automated forms, automated taxed, automated payments to employees, support for employee health benefits and next-day direct deposits.

#2) Premium

A step up from Core is the Premium payroll service. It has all the same features as the Core payroll service but with a few extras. Rather than next-day direct deposits, for example, the Premium payroll service comes with same-day direct deposits. Other added featured in Quickbooks’s Premium payroll service include workers’ compensation administration, human resources (HR) support center, expert setup review and on-the-go time tracking.

#3) Elite

At the top of the payroll totem pole is Elite. It’s the most expensive payroll service available in Quickbooks Online. It has all the features of both the Core and Premium payroll services but with some added features that are particularly useful for large businesses. The Elite payroll service comes with a white-glove setup. This means Intuit’s customer service will help your business set up the Elite payroll service by walking you through the steps. The Elite payroll service also comes with tax penalty protection. This added feature lives up to its namesake by checking your business’s financial records for issues that could otherwise lead to a tax penalty.

What About Payroll for Quickbooks Desktop?

Core, Premium and Elite payroll services are only available in Quickbooks Online. Fortunately, there are similar payroll services available in Quickbooks Desktop. In Quickbooks Desktop, you can choose from Basic, Enhanced or Assisted payroll.

Basic payroll, of course, is the lowest-tier payroll service for Quickbooks Desktop. It comes with automated payments to employees, time-tracking integration, W-2 and 1099 setup and free direct deposits. The Enhanced payroll comes with about a half-dozen extra features, some of which include a workforce portal, free support, state and federal tax forms, electronic W-2 submissions and more. Finally, the Assisted payroll service comes includes job cost tracking, class tracking and support for up to 250 employees. You can learn more about the payroll services available in Quickbooks Desktop by clicking here.

Have anything else that you’d like to add? Let us know in the comments section below!