Last year Intuit introduced a new app to their suite of free tools for small business owners. Just today, it became available in Utah.
Snap! Payroll is a free payroll calculator for the iOS market. It allows iPhone users to quickly create and calculate paychecks for their employees right from their phones. The app is based on the already popular QuickBooks Payroll platform that ensures up-to-date tax tables and reliable calculations.
I’ve been anxiously waiting for Snap! to be available in Utah. So tonight, I took it for a quick spin.
App Review
The app itself is very easy to use. A novice at payroll could go from initial install to a completed payroll in only a matter of minutes. Users start by adding employee’s names and basic W4 information in a simple form.
Once employees are set up, you can process their payroll check by adding hours worked, whether it’s a bi-weekly or weekly payroll, and any bonuses or salaries that were paid. The app then calculates the applicable social security, Medicare, and federal and state income tax withholdings and tells the user what the net check should be.
Any Unusual Paychecks?
The app is designed for basic users and unusual features such as monthly payroll or 15 day payrolls aren’t available from what I could see. Another thing I noticed was that the app doesn’t automatically calculate overtime, and where to calculate it isn’t extremely obvious. In the prior example, Sam Sample worked 43 hours that week, but on the Gross Pay line of the check, all 43 hours were paid at his regular rate. To change this, the user goes to the “additional” section and includes overtime hours.
Other than this hang up, I thought the process was smooth. Snap! will save the paychecks and tax information and the user can email a CSV file of the net checks and tax breakouts to himself or his accountant.
It is important to note that Snap! does not fill out the applicable tax forms for you like QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll will, nor does it import transactions into QuickBooks automatically. Users of Snap! Payroll should still rely on a trusted accountant or bookkeeping service to help file their mandatory payroll reports correctly. Many local accounting firms like Squire & Company specialize in these kinds of services and offer them at an affordable rate, particularly if you are calculating the payroll checks yourself.
Conclusion
For those using QuickBooks payroll services, this app will likely not be a replacement product. But for those keeping their payroll in notebooks and Excel spreadsheets, this is a simple and convenient tool that is worth your time to look into.
Snap! is currently available in over 19 states and more are being added all the time. You can find out if your state is available and request a state to be added from within the app. States are added by popular demand, so if your state isn’t on the list yet, be sure to download the app and vote it in. The app is available on the App Store or you can learn more about it at
http://snappayroll.intuit.com/.