Free Payroll Services vs. Cost-Effective Software Solutions

You can find a free payroll service, but there’s almost always a catch. Many will offer a system that calculates your payroll throughout the year, but then make you pay at the end of the year when it comes time to transfer the data to your w-2 and 1099 filing forms. Many advertise “free” services that come with a pay-for membership subscription.

Other services are untested startups that offer you a year or two of free payroll services. Only at that point do you find out what the actual price is going to be moving forward. And if it’s overpriced or underperforms, you then have to go out and find, choose, and learn a new payroll system.

Time, Money, and Opportunity Costs with a Free Payroll Service

For many small business owners, their time is every bit as valuable as small business expenditures like low-cost payroll software. Before you invest your time, know that a free payroll service is likely to cost you more in time than you’ll ever save in your operating budget. If you’ve already invested this time and are only now discovering that you can’t actually complete your payroll filing forms, don’t worry. We have the solution.

AMS Payroll and After-the-Fact Bookkeeping

AMS Payroll offers both Live and After-the-Fact payroll processing. In other words, if you’ve been using a free service up until now, we can take that existing data and import it into our payroll and form filing solution. Check out these featured capabilities from our payroll software solution:

Payroll Processing and Paychecks

  • Supports all 50 states plus the District of Columbia
  • Support for up to 1,999 payers and up to 9,999 employees per payer.
  • Easy payer and employee setup. Network and multiple PC installation.
  • Excellent for meeting all small business payroll software needs.
  • Automatically calculate federal, state and local payroll taxes.
  • State and Federal tax tables are included and updated as needed.
  • Up to 40 User Defined Fields can be set up for deductions/additions such as 401K or Health Insurance.
  • Processes Employee Direct Deposit payroll information.
  • Prints MICR checks – Software Generated Forms required.
  • Over 30 different Check Types are supported.

Payroll Reporting

  • Supports Federal payroll forms such as the 941, 940, 943, 944 and 1040 Sch H. See complete forms list.
  • Includes SUI forms for all 50 states, the District of Columbia See complete forms list.
  • Electronically file employer forms.
  • Exports data to the W-2/1099 Forms Filer for year-end processing.
  • Includes the ability to magnetically/electronically file 941, 944, and 940 forms as well as nearly 30 state quarterly returns.
  • State and Federal Tax deposit information, as well as disbursements, can be recorded.

AMS Software Products and Prices

How much does all this cost? Between our Forms Filer platform and AMS Payroll , you can get what you need for just over $200. This software solution includes all the features you need to process your payroll and file your w-2 and 1099 forms.

Our intuitive, menu-driven platform also serves as the foundation for other form filing software features. Print MICR checks and generate your own blank tax forms, e-file all your forms with the IRS/SSA, and manage your supplemental filing needs with the following products:

Software Solutions from AMS

Our W-2 and 1099 Forms Filer is our only required platform. From there, users pick the services they need. Choose from the tools below to build out your customized accounting software.