Which billing model the partner program supports, per client. Gusto Pro lets you pick firm-billed at a partner discount, client-billed at a partner discount, or client-billed with revenue share of up to 20 percent, and you can choose differently for each client. Intuit makes you choose between ProAdvisor Preferred Pricing (30 percent off base, 15 percent off per-employee fees) and revenue share for a given client, not both. Firm-billed is the only model where you set the price and keep the spread.
Accounting Tools · Payroll & PEO
Payroll & PEO software for accounting firms
Software that calculates employee pay, withholds and remits payroll taxes, and produces the quarterly and year-end filings, sold either as a platform your firm runs on behalf of clients or as a service the client buys in their own name.
19 tools compared
5 rated Top Pick
12 with a SOC 2 report
7 publish a price
The landscape
Who buys payroll and PEO software, and when
The owner or managing partner picks the platform, usually after the third or fourth client asks the firm to just handle payroll and the firm has to decide whether that becomes a service line or a referral. Firms of 2 to 50 staff typically standardize on one or two platforms once they pass roughly ten payroll clients, because reconciling five vendors at year-end costs more than the payroll revenue is worth.
At 19 products this is the 4th largest of 12 categories, 9.8% of the directory.
Across the 19: 5 Top Pick, 9 Strong Option, 5 Dated.
Buyer's guide
What actually separates payroll and PEO tools
Who owns the client after the handoff. Pure referral programs such as ADP Refer and Earn or the Paychex referral route through CPA.com pay you once and move the client onto the vendor's service rep. Ask what the vendor is allowed to cross-sell into that client (401k, benefits, workers comp, HR consulting) and whether you get told when they do.
Where the payroll tax liability sits. If your firm impounds client funds or authorizes deposits, IRC section 6672 responsible-person exposure is a real risk, and courts have applied it to outside accountants and bookkeepers. Confirm that the service agreement and the debiting relationship run between the vendor and the client, not through your trust account.
Whether it batch-processes. A firm with 30 or more payroll clients needs to run many payrolls in one pass and to enter after-the-fact payroll for write-up clients. Payroll Relief and Accounting CS Payroll are built around that. Gusto, QuickBooks Payroll and OnPay assume the client logs in and runs it themselves, which is a different service model and a different price point.
Coverage at the edges, which is where the cheap platforms break. Multi-state withholding, Ohio and Pennsylvania local taxes, certified payroll for construction clients, tipped wages and FICA tip credit, S-corp shareholder health insurance on the W-2, and agricultural payroll. Test the two or three edge cases your actual book has before you migrate anyone.
Whether you want a PEO in the mix at all. A PEO such as Justworks PEO, Rippling PEO or Paychex HR (formerly Oasis) co-employs the client's staff and runs wages under the PEO's federal EIN. That removes the client's 941s from your desk and gives small employers large-group benefits, but it complicates R and D credit work, obscures the wage detail you need, and is painful to unwind.
Our picks
Where we would start
Gusto
Firms of 2-50 building a payroll or CAS line who want to price payroll themselves
price on request
Justworks PEO
Firms whose clients need group medical and HR cover they could not buy at their own headcount
price on request
OnPay
Firms of 2-30 staff running payroll for 5 to 100 small business clients who want one price and no per-state fees
from $49/month plus $6 per worker
Rippling
Firms whose clients have 20 to 500 employees, multi-state staff, or device and app provisioning to manage
price on request
Rippling PEO
Clients of 10 to 150 staff that need pooled medical rates now but expect to outgrow co-employment
price on request
Side by side
Payroll & PEO compared
| Tool | Rating | From | SOC 2 | MFA | Ledgers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto | Top Pick | On request | Yes | Yes | QuickBooks Online, Xero |
| Justworks PEO | Top Pick | On request | Yes | Yes | QuickBooks Online, Xero |
| OnPay | Top Pick | $49/month plus $6 per worker | Type 2 | Yes | QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero |
| Rippling | Top Pick | On request | Type 2 | — | QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite |
| Rippling PEO | Top Pick | On request | Type 2 | — | QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite |
| ADP Refer & Earn | Strong Option | On request | Type II | — | QuickBooks, Xero, Sage |
| ADP RUN for Partners | Strong Option | On request | Type II | — | QuickBooks, Xero, Sage |
| Justworks Payroll | Strong Option | $8/employee/month | Yes | Yes | QuickBooks Online, Xero |
| myPay Solutions | Strong Option | On request | — | — | — |
| Patriot Payroll | Strong Option | $17/month plus $4 per worker paid | Yes | Yes | QuickBooks Online, Patriot Accounting |
| Paychex Flex | Strong Option | On request | Type II | — | — |
| QuickBooks Payroll Core | Strong Option | $35/month plus $5.95 per employee | — | — | QuickBooks Online |
| QuickBooks Payroll Elite | Strong Option | $134/month, plus $17 per employee | — | Yes | QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop |
| QuickBooks Payroll Premium | Strong Option | $88/month, plus $13 per employee | — | Yes | QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop |
| Accounting CS Payroll | Dated | On request | — | — | — |
| Paychex Oasis | Dated | On request | Type II | — | — |
| Paychex Flex Pro | Dated | On request | Type II | — | — |
| Payroll Relief | Dated | On request | — | — | QuickBooks, Sage, Creative Solutions |
| SurePayroll | Dated | $29/month, plus $7 per worker | — | — | QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, FreshBooks, Zoho Books, AccountEdge |
A dash means we could not confirm it from public sources, not that the answer is no. Captured September 8, 2026.
The full list
All 19 payroll & peo tools
Grouped by how we would shortlist them for a US accounting or bookkeeping firm. How these ratings are decided.
Top Pick (5)
What we would shortlist first in this category: proven with real firms, actively developed, and priced and integrated in a way that suits a US accounting or bookkeeping practice.
Gusto
Small-business payroll with a partner program that lets firms choose how they bill
Gusto
Justworks PEO
Certified PEO for small employers, bundling benefits pooling with co-employment risk
Justworks
OnPay
Flat-rate full-service payroll with a partner program that lets the firm bill and keep a share
OnPay
Rippling
Employee system of record with payroll, benefits, IT and spend built on the same record
Rippling
Rippling PEO
Co-employment layer on the Rippling platform that can be switched off without replatforming
Rippling
Strong Option (9)
A credible choice that wins on a specific fit rather than across the board — a price point, a niche, a workflow, or an integration the top picks do not cover as well.
ADP Refer & Earn
ADP's referral track for accountants, paying revenue share instead of a wholesale margin
ADP
ADP RUN for Partners
Partner edition of RUN, where the firm processes client payroll instead of referring it
ADP
Justworks Payroll
Standalone payroll from Justworks, priced flat and sold without the co-employment contract
Justworks
myPay Solutions
Outsourced payroll bureau sold through accounting firms rather than direct to employers
IRIS Software Group
Patriot Payroll
Low-cost US payroll sold to firms at a volume discount they bill on at their own rate
Patriot Software
Paychex Flex
National payroll bureau platform a firm refers clients to rather than resells
Paychex
QuickBooks Payroll Core
Entry payroll tier inside QuickBooks Online, resold by ProAdvisors at a 30% ongoing discount
Intuit
QuickBooks Payroll Elite
Top tier of Intuit's payroll line, adding done-for-you setup and $25,000 penalty cover
Intuit
QuickBooks Payroll Premium
Middle payroll tier for QuickBooks Online clients, adding time tracking and same-day deposit
Intuit
Dated (5)
Still sold and still working, but no longer keeping pace — thin investment, an aging interface, or a roadmap that has visibly stalled. Fine to stay on, hard to recommend adopting.
Accounting CS Payroll
Multi-client batch payroll engine sold to firms that run payroll as a service line
Thomson Reuters
Paychex Oasis
Legacy PEO brand Paychex acquired in 2018 and has since folded into Paychex HR
Paychex
Paychex Flex Pro
Mid bundle of Paychex Flex whose main addition is an optionally assigned payroll specialist
Paychex
Payroll Relief
Batch payroll processing platform licensed to the firm, which bills clients at its own rates
AccountantsWorld
SurePayroll
White-label small business and household payroll a firm resells under its own brand
Paychex
Reading this list
What the category does and does not tell you
Categories here follow how firms buy, not how vendors market themselves, and the boundaries are genuinely soft: practice management overlaps close automation, tax workflow overlaps document automation, and several products are sold into two of these at once. Where that happens the tool keeps one page and appears on both category pages. Treat the grouping as a way to navigate, not as a market segmentation.
Prices, certifications, and integrations are researched from vendor sources and dated on each profile. The ratings and the comparisons built on them are Node8's.
FAQ
Payroll & PEO questions, answered
Should my firm resell payroll or refer it out?
Resell if payroll is close enough to your bookkeeping work that you are already touching the data, and if you are willing to own the support calls, the missed deposit, and the angry employee whose direct deposit failed. Refer if payroll is a favor you do for a handful of clients and the revenue does not cover the staff time. A middle path most 2 to 20 staff firms land on is firm-billed on a single platform for clients already on your bookkeeping service, and referral for everyone else.
What is the difference between a PEO and a payroll provider?
A payroll provider processes pay and files taxes under your client's own EIN, and the client stays the sole employer. A PEO enters a co-employment arrangement, leases the workforce, and files payroll taxes under the PEO's EIN, which is what lets a 12-person company buy health insurance at large-group rates. For your firm the practical consequences are that PEO wages do not show up in the client's own 941 history, credits and incentives tied to wages get more complicated, and exiting a PEO mid-year means splitting the wage base.
What does wholesale or firm-billed payroll actually mean?
The vendor invoices your firm at a discounted partner rate and you invoice the client at whatever price you set, so the margin is yours and the client's contractual relationship is with you. The tradeoff is that you carry the collection risk, the first-line support, and more of the reputational exposure when a filing is late. Referral and revenue share are the opposite: less margin, less work, and the vendor owns the customer.
Can my firm be held liable for a client's unpaid payroll taxes?
It is possible. Under IRC section 6672 the trust fund recovery penalty reaches anyone who is a responsible person and willfully fails to remit withheld taxes, and the IRS has pursued outside accountants, bookkeepers and third-party administrators who had signature authority or control over which bills got paid. The practical protections are keeping client funds out of your accounts, keeping the payroll service agreement between the vendor and the client, documenting in the engagement letter that the client is responsible for funding deposits, and telling your professional liability carrier that you do payroll work.
Keep browsing
Other categories
Practice Management (49)General Ledger & Bookkeeping (26)Tax Workflow & Document Automation (26)Tax Preparation (18)Tax Planning & Advisory (13)Tax Research (13)Month-End Close Automation (11)Proposals & Engagement Letters (9)Spreadsheet Reporting & Ledger Sync (6)Tax Resolution & IRS Representation (6)AI Meeting Assistants (5)
The tools are only half of it
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