Eddy vs. QuickBooks Payroll
By Eddy Team — Updated June 2024
How do you decide which HR + Payroll software is right for your business? We’ll help you compare Eddy with Quickbooks so you can decide which platform works best for your HR and payroll needs.
Eddy Overview
Eddy is the ideal all-in-one HR and payroll platform for small businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets. It offers the key features you need without the complexity and overhead of larger systems, giving you the opportunity to simplify your life by combining multiple tools into one that makes sense for your business. Save time and money with Eddy. Hire, onboard, manage, and pay employees—all in a single and simple system.
What’s Similar
Both Eddy and Quickbooks offer full-service payroll processing, and many of the payroll features are very comparable. Both systems will help you:
- Payroll in all 50 states (currently only available in the US)
- Unlimited payroll processing (run as many payrolls as you need in a month)
- Automatic tax filing and remittance
- Employees can access paystubs, W-2s and other pay details
- Employees can update direct deposit and withholding info
- Employees can clock in and out via a mobile app
In addition, both Eddy and Quickbooks allow you to integrate with payroll additional benefits such as health, 401(k), workers comp, etc.
Where Eddy Shines
Quickbooks is great as an accounting tool, and while both Eddy and Quickbooks have many similarities when it comes to running payroll, Eddy really shines in ways that make it a much better fit for small businesses when it comes to key HR tools that improve your efficiency and compliance.
Compliance & Document Management
Eddy helps bring compliance in a few key areas that can be tricky for a new business and that are not supported by QuickBooks payroll. For hiring, Eddy helps keep you on the right side of EEO and FCRA rules by providing a framework so that job postings and hiring practices comply with EEO laws, (which prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information) and also Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulations (which deal with obtaining written consent for background checks from candidates and providing proper notifications if adverse actions are taken based on the reports.) During onboarding, Eddy streamlines the collection and verification of necessary documentation, such as I-9 forms and employee agreements, to keep things properly documented and compliant with employment laws. In addition Eddy keeps track of licenses, permits, certifications, and helps document what trainings are completed, expiring soon, or missing.
Hiring
QuickBooks does not help with hiring, but Eddy’s comprehensive Hiring tool is built into Eddy and does it all: Job distribution and promotion. Automated messaging and scheduling. Hiring team communication and collaboration. Digital offer letters and background checks. you can design Eddy to match your hiring process and use automated stage action to communicate with the team. Eddy also allows candidates to self-schedule interviews on your calendar.
Onboarding
Eddy’s onboarding allows you to document everything and create a great welcome experience for new hires. No one likes paperwork, so why have your new hire start their first day staring down a stack of forms? Instead, your new hires can self-onboard before even showing up. Eddy’s paperless processes make onboarding easy and fast—for the new hire and for you. New hires can fill out and sign all necessary forms, including W-4s and I-9s, and any custom forms you create. New hire packets help you create an onboarding checklist, and then let you automate that list in your onboarding process. Create custom packet templates for different jobs or types of hires to make sure they get off to a great start.
Payroll Entry
Quickbooks is optimized for a handful of employees, so payroll entry gets tedious when you have more than a few dozen employees. Eddy’s payroll entry is fully automated so hours worked and time off entries flow directly to payroll. Customers report that manager approval of timesheets is simpler and better in Eddy. For payroll admins it’s quick and easy to add any other reimbursements, tips, bonuses, corrections or additions.
Eddy’s better for growing companies
Quickbooks is designed for smaller businesses, which has a lot of benefits if you are only paying a few employees, but customers comment on the limited flexibility, lack of customization, and the extra time it takes when more employees are added. Eddy offers more flexibility and control across its features—for example Eddy supports custom employee info and allows admins to create custom signable documents from within the platform.
Easy setup and implementation
Eddy users note that the overall setup process in Eddy is straightforward, with clear instructions and fewer steps to get started. Eddy’s team of payroll experts repeatedly catch potential problems during implementation that can be easily missed using Quickbooks. This helps clients stay compliant and avoid penalties.
For example a Quickbooks reviewer recently recommended: “Make sure you have someone that knows payroll double check what you are doing.”
Ability to scale and grow with your business
With Eddy it is easy to scale and support you as your business grows from 5 to 500 employees across multiple locations. With QuickBooks the experience becomes more difficult to use after about a dozen employees. For example a Quickbooks reviewer recently wrote: “Their payroll is difficult to use at scale and when I got past ten employees and ten contractors it made it too hard for me to manage anniversaries and other important milestones and did not really offer the types and permission levels associated with employees to the level I required which necessitated my move…”
Connect your General Ledger
An advantage of Quickbooks Payroll is its simple connection to Quickbooks Online for accounting and general ledger. Eddy has also an integration with QuickBooks Online so your payroll data can be mapped to your accounts and then automatically sent to QuickBooks Online.
Pricing
Eddy’s pricing offers more flexibility because you can purchase Eddy’s HR platform without hiring or payroll. This allows you to get started in Eddy at a very affordable price, and add on additional services as you need them.
QuickBooks pricing
Quickbooks Payroll is an add-on component to any accounting plan. Their payroll pricing is transparent and is structured into three tiers:
- Core: $45 per month plus $6 per person per month. This plan includes payroll in all 50 states, and basic payroll features
- Premium Plan: $80 per month plus $8 per person per month. This includes everything in the Core plan plus some additional HR tools like the HR Support Center and time tracking.
- Elite Plan: $125 per month plus $10 per person per month.The Elite plan adds tax penalty insurance and a personal HR advisor
Eddy pricing
Eddy offers three product tiers for the core HR functionality. Payroll and Hiring can be added to any plan. Pricing info is transparent and is all listed on the Eddy website.
- Starter: $50 per month plus $4 per person per monthStarter includes all the core HR platform features for record tracking, document storage, benefits tracking, onboarding, time tracking, PTO, basic reporting, and more (see the full list).
- Growth: $75 per month plus $8 per person per monthGrowth offers everything in Starter, plus: Training tracking, Custom signature documents, Onboarding templates, Custom data fields, Org chart, and Manager approval flows.
Eddy Payroll can be added to either of the above core HR products. The price is $50/month plus $6/person per month.
Eddy Hiring can be added to either of the above core HR products. The price is $199/month.
Why customers love Eddy
Customers appreciate how easy it is to use Eddy—especially those who do not have a background in HR. One example is how Eddy helped a small 5 employee plumbing company get started from scratch. Eddy brought reliable processes for hiring, onboarding, performance management and payroll, which allowed the team to focus on building their business, not on HR.
Trebeca from Bighorn Plumbing told us this: “Eddy has made this simple for me. I'm not an HR person. There's enough hard things about building a new business. Having Eddy just really is a godsend because it is so easy. So like, you know, if only everything else would be this easy!”
Customers Love Eddy
“Eddy has made this simple for me. I'm not an HR person. There's enough hard things about building a new business. Having Eddy just really is a godsend because it is so easy. So like, you know, if only everything else would be this easy!”
Customers Love Eddy
“Eddy has made this simple for me. I'm not an HR person. There's enough hard things about building a new business. Having Eddy just really is a godsend because it is so easy. So like, you know, if only everything else would be this easy!”
Final Thoughts
Quickbooks can be a good fit for small companies who already have HR expertise and don’t need assistance in staying compliant. It is affordable and fairly well-liked by users. But once you have more than about 10 employees you start to feel the system’s limitations. Eddy is an excellent graduation path for businesses who need more power and flexibility but who still want a modern well-designed product. Eddy’s pricing is competitive with Quickbooks so small companies can start from the beginning on Eddy without sacrificing their budget.
*Competitive data on this page was collected as of June 2024 and is subject to change or update. Eddy does not make any representations as to the completeness or accuracy of the information on this page.
