Online Payroll Software

  • Over 60,000 customers
  • Every industry imaginable
  • All 50 states of the USA
  • 1 to 500 employees
See a Demo Create Account 30 Days Free!
We love Patriot! ...It gives me more time to spend building the store and spending time with customers. Ashley LaBarre, Tropical Envy Boutique

Online Payroll Features

Basic Payroll

Easily run your own payroll and handle payroll taxes yourself.
$17/month
+ $4 per employee (or 1099 contractor)
Chosen by 84% of customers

Full Service Payroll

Quickly run your own payroll, then we'll handle your payroll taxes.
$37/month
+ $4 per employee (or 1099 contractor)
+ $4 per employee (or 1099 contractor) on both basic and full service plans

With Patriot Payroll, you can pay your employees as often as you want without being charged for extra payroll runs.

We offer free 4-day and 2-day direct deposit (for qualifying customers), so you can pay your employees with no extra fuss. Have an employee who wants to be paid by check instead? No problem! Handwrite or print checks right from the software.

Add up to five pay rates for each hourly employee. You can differentiate pay rates for employees by adding a description to each rate.

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Give your employees secure access to their pay stubs, pay history, time off balances, and electronic W-2s.

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Post electronic W-2 forms for employees in their portal, or print paper W-2 forms. The choice is yours!

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Pay your independent contractors with your employees in the same payroll. If you have direct deposit, you can pay contractors with direct deposit, too.

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Empower your 1099 contractors with their own portal! Let them take control of their contact details and effortlessly view payments and direct deposit info.

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Patriot Payroll supports all pay frequencies, so you can pay different groups of employees weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly as needed.

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Change employee hourly pay rates during payroll without needing to cancel the payroll or leave the page. How's that for time-saving workflows?

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Use our standard hours and money types or add your own, plus add your own employee deductions and company-paid contributions.

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Have a PTO policy you want to automate? You can easily set up and customize time-off accrual rules. Time-off hours will automatically be added to each employee's payroll.

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Sick of paper 1099s? If you opt into 1099 e-Filing, you can file your forms in our software with just a few clicks (nominal fees apply for Basic Payroll customers). We'll shoot the 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC over to the IRS and send the 1099-MISC to states that participate in the combined federal/state e-Filing program for you!

Need to see how much you paid employees by date, location, or department? How about payroll tax liablities? With Patriot’s robust payroll reports, you can filter the data you need!

When it comes to your business, it's good to know where your payroll budget is being spent. With departments, you will be able to use reports to find payroll costs for each of your teams.

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If your business has more than one physical location, assign the employee's primary work location (including working from home). The proper payroll taxes will be calculated based on where the employee works.

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Add as many users as you need. Want to control access to sensitive payroll data and limit who can run payroll too? Of course, you do! Assign permissions to your users to view only reports or run payroll and see sensitive information. You’ve got control.

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So, you want to give your employees a bonus. What you don't want is to A) give a random take-home amount after taxes or B) do gross-up calculations yourself. With our Net to Gross Payroll tool, simply enter the amount you want employees to take home, and we'll gross it up for taxes.

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Our software is 100% mobile friendly. You can run your accounting or payroll directly from your smartphone or tablet. There is no need to download an app onto your mobile device or waste precious storage space.

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Payroll information is imported seamlessly to Patriot's accounting software. We also integrate with QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online.

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Automate your payroll even more by integrating with Patriot's Time and Attendance software to import employees hours to payroll effortlessly.

Having employees doesn't stop with payroll. Add Patriot HR for more employee status, position history & managers, notes, files and more.

Get personalized federal, state, and local compliance notifications and actionable steps tailored to your business. Stay informed with timely alerts and emails about important legal updates, and also check your company's strengths and potential risks with an HR assessment.

Payroll can be tricky, but we simplify it by offering free, USA-based support via phone, email, or chat. Contact us 9a.m. - 7p.m., Monday - Friday. Our support is the best! (And we aren't biased at all).

We know that starting payroll or switching providers can be time consuming, so we offer free payroll setup. No tricks or gimmicks. Provide us with your information, and we'll take care of the rest. Or, just use our payroll startup wizard and do it yourself.

Patriot offers free 401(k) integration through our partner Vestwell. With more savings for you and your employees, offering a retirement plan is a win-win!

Automatically pay your workers' comp insurance premium with each payroll through our partner, NEXT Insurance. All of the compliance and none of the fuss.

Patriot will begin collecting, depositing, and filing your federal payroll taxes based on the start date you select.

Patriot is compliant in all 50 states and will keep you up-to-date on your state payroll tax filing obligations. (Each additional state filing is $12 per month, per state.)

Have local payroll taxes? Patriot will deposit and file all of your local and city taxes, too!

Patriot will submit your 940, 941, W-2, and W-3 data to the proper tax agencies each quarter or at year-end, for no additional fee.

Rest assured that Patriot will deposit and file your tax obligations on-time and accurately. If we make a mistake, then we'll cover all the penalties and interest.

It's Easy For a First Time User to Use Our Online Payroll Software

What’s not to love about Patriot Payroll?

"It’s easy to learn. It's very user-friendly. It's fast, even for a first time user. It’s perfect for our business. It’s affordable. And, it’s been a great experience so far. We have no plans of changing!"

— Vivian, Ninja Window Washing

Lots of Online Payroll Reports ...

with filtering, sorting, and exporting capabilities.

Patriot's Tax Filings report in the Full Service payroll software.
Full Service Report

Payroll Tax Filing Report

All of the tax returns Patriot has filed for you in a neat little package. Choose the tax year and view tax filings by quarter. You can download forms and see when we filed them on your behalf.

Patriot's Tax Deposits Report in the Full Service payroll software.
Full Service Report

Payroll Tax Deposit Report

Shows all the payroll taxes that we deposited with tax agencies on your behalf (e.g., the date of filing, dollar amounts, and payroll period). Select a year to view both processed and scheduled tax payments.

Patriot's Current Pay Rates report in the payroll software product.

Current Pay Rates

Who’s getting paid what? How often? In what department? Our handy Current Pay Rates report is the perfect snapshot of what your employees are being paid right now. And if you add our HR software, we’ll display the effective dates of the current pay rates, so you’ll have all of your questions answered at a glance.

Patriot's Departments in Payroll report in the payroll software product.

Departments in Payroll

Need help with decision-making for cost allocation, resource planning, or answering the ever-burning question: "What are the payroll costs for each department?" You'll love our Departments in Payroll Report!

Patriot's Payroll Register Report in the payroll software.

Payroll Register

This shows all of the payroll you have run for all employees in the software, broken down easily by pay date. View details like employee hours, earnings, taxes withheld, and deductions, as well as employer taxes owed and contributions.

Patriot's Individual Paycheck History report in the payroll software.

Individual Paycheck History

The payroll details you need for individual paychecks processed in our software. View an employee’s payroll details like hours, earnings, employee taxes withheld, employer taxes owed, deductions, and contributions.

Patriot's Payroll Details Report in the payroll software.

Payroll Details

Your go-to report for breaking down year-to-date details by employee, location, totals, or checks. Plus, we give you easy ways to download the report either with a PDF or CSV file.

Patriot's Check Payment Detail Report in the payroll software.

Check/Deposit Payment Detail

See all payments made to all employees with this report. Select one or all employees for a specific payday range to see payment type (whether you paid them with check or direct deposit), amount, and account type.

Patriot's Manage Time Off report in the payroll software.

Manage Time Off

Managing time off has never been easier. View time off balances for vacation, sick, or personal time. To get started tracking employees’ used and available time off, set up the hour codes you want to use.

Patriot's W-2 and W-3 Summary Reports in the payroll software.

W-2 Summary Report

Preview Form W-2 details to ensure information is accurate before printing. Use the W-2 Preview report at the end of the year (or throughout the year) to confirm reported income is correct.

Patriot's Preview W-2 Form Report in the payroll software.

W-2 Preview Report

Want to get ahead of the end-of-the-year rush? Preview W-2 Form report allows you to view each employee’s W-2 with all data entered to date and ensure it is accurate. After that, year-end will be a piece of cake.

Patriot's Assigned Deductions Report in the payroll software.

Assigned Deductions

Look ahead to see future payroll deductions you have scheduled. This report groups employees under specific deductions (e.g., medical). And, you can filter by deductions or status (e.g., active). Again, this report shows future—not historical—deductions.

Patriot's Deduction History Report in the payroll software.

Deduction History

Access all of your deductions from previous payrolls. Choose a time period to view employee payroll deductions that have already been deducted. Use this report to show individual and total deductions.

Patriot's Assigned Contributions Report in the payroll software.

Assigned Contributions

View a summary of all future employer contributions scheduled. This report groups employees under specific employer contributions (e.g., 401(k) match). And, you can filter by contributions or status. This report shows future—not historical—contributions.

Patriot's Contribution History Report in the payroll software.

Contribution History

Your go-to report when reconciling benefit invoices or preparing to send your 401(k) contributions. This report gives a breakdown of all of the employer contributions you have made for your employees.

Patriot's Payroll Tax Liabilities report in the payroll software.

Payroll Tax Liabilities

How much do you owe to the state or on your FUTA taxes? With this report, you see your payroll tax liabilities for federal, state and local taxes. Basic Payroll software customers can use this report to handle their payroll tax obligations.

Patriot's Employee Census Report in the payroll software.

Employee Census

Need an employee’s status, title, and other demographic info? We’ve got your back with this Employee Census report. View an employee’s status to see if they’re active, inactive, on a leave of absence, or no longer at your business (terminated).

Optional Add-ons to Our Online Payroll Software

Guaranteed to make your life a little simpler...

Time & Attendance

  • Easy timekeeping for your hourly or salary employees
  • Employees securely clock-in with their employee portal
  • Create custom overtime rules
  • Easily view used and unused employee time-off

HR Software

  • Maintain paperless employee files
  • Manage documents online
  • Easy reporting
  • HR Compliance Center
  • Employee information tracking
  • Designate managers
  • Assign direct reports

Payroll Software FAQs

You got questions? We got answers!

Because Patriot Payroll is online, you only need access to a web browser and the Internet. There’s no software to download.

The software is designed for small to large businesses, from 1–500 employees, in all industries. Whether you are a seasoned business or just starting out, our software will help you keep your time and money.

Yes. You may run a payroll whenever you need to in the payroll software.

Yes. You may begin using the payroll application at any time during the year. You will want to make sure you enter all of your employee payroll history in the software so end-of-the-year W-2s are accurate. (We can help! We offer free payroll setup to help you get your account set up and can enter all payroll history for you.)

No–our software is only available to companies with employees working in the USA. It’s our passion to help American businesses by providing streamlined, easy, and affordable payroll management solutions.

Patriot will e-File 1099s for Full Service Payroll customers who are paying contractors through payroll at no additional cost for 2020 1099s and later years.  If you have Accounting Premium, Accounting Basic, or Basic Payroll, here are the filing fees:

Number of 1099sFee
1 to 5$20.00
6 to 35Additional $2.00 per 1099
36+No additional charge
Annual e-Filing Fees

For more information, check out our help article, Electronically Filing Your 1099s.

Run Payroll in 3 Easy Steps

Patriot Payroll customers average less than 3 minutes.

Enter hours in Patriot payroll software Run a Payroll screen.

1. Enter Hours

Plug in employee hours or use our Time and Attendance Software to automatically import the hours to payroll. Easy-peasy...

Approve payroll in Patriot payroll software Run a Payroll screen.

2. Approve Payroll

After you see our instant payroll calculations, it’s one click to approve.

Pay employees in Patriot payroll software Run a Payroll screen.

3. Print Paychecks

Print checks, use free direct deposit, or a combination of both. You decide how to pay your employees. The ball’s in your court.