Accounting with payroll
Small business accounting software with payroll built in, not bolted on
Most accounting programs sell payroll as a second subscription with a fee for every employee. In AcboBooks, payroll is in the same program and the same price: paycheques post to the books as you run them, and the tax liabilities wait in Pay Liabilities until you pay them.
US federal payroll with W-2s and 1099-NEC, or Canadian payroll with CPP, EI, provincial tax and T4 slips. $399.99 once, with no per-employee charge.
No card, no account. Windows 10 and 11. United States and Canada.
What it means
In practice
One program, one set of books
Wages, employer taxes and deductions post to your expense and liability accounts with each pay run. The profit and loss shows the real cost of staff without a journal entry from a payroll service.
What the total really costs
A separate payroll plan typically charges a monthly base plus a per-employee fee, every month. AcboBooks includes payroll in the $399.99 licence. Payroll users renew updates each year for the new tax tables.
You stay in control of filing
AcboBooks calculates, posts and prepares the forms. You make the deposits and file, or your accountant does. It does not hold your tax money or file on your behalf.
Each employee's gross, deductions, taxes and net pay.
Payday and the books, done in the same sitting
Enter the hours, check overtime and vacation, and save the pay run. The cheques print or the direct deposit file is ready, and the wages, taxes and liabilities are already in the ledger.
When the remittance or deposit is due, Pay Liabilities lists what is owed to each agency. At year-end the slips come from the pay runs you already made.
What is in the licence
The whole job, in one price
Sales and money in
Purchases and money out
Banking and books
Payroll and people
Stock and jobs
Reports and sharing
Payroll costs land in the profit and loss as you pay.
What it does not do
· Windows 10 and 11 for now (a Mac version is coming soon); no phone app.
· No automatic bank feed for most banks: it imports the statement file your bank provides, and downloads directly from banks that offer OFX Direct Connect.
· Card payments go through a Stripe payment link rather than a built-in processor.
· One company per file; open as many files as you have businesses.
· Payroll taxes are not filed or paid for you; you deposit and file from the figures it prepares.
· US state income tax withholding is entered from your state's tables, not calculated automatically.
Questions people ask
Before you download
Is payroll really included?
Yes. Running payroll, pay stubs, direct deposit files, liabilities, W-2 or T4 slips and the year-end worksheets are part of the $399.99 licence. There is no payroll add-on to buy.
Do I need to renew to keep running payroll?
To get each year's new tax tables, yes: payroll users should keep updates current. The rest of the program keeps working whether you renew or not.
Does it do direct deposit?
It creates the direct deposit file your bank accepts (NACHA in the US, CPA-005 in Canada) for you to upload in online banking. Your bank's business banking service does the transfer.
What about contractors?
Pay them as vendors. In the US, the 1099-NEC wizard totals the year's payments; in Canada, T4A and T5018 slips come from the same vendor payments.
Can I see a paycheque before I buy?
Yes. The trial runs payroll in preview with every figure calculated, and the free paycheck and Canadian payroll calculators on this site use the same rates.
Coming from something else?
How it compares to what you use now
Get started
Accounting and payroll for one price.
Add an employee in the trial and run a pay in preview.
No card. No account. Nothing to cancel.