Top 6 Patriot Competitors and Alternatives for 2023

QuickBooks: Best for scalability

QuickBooks provides payroll and accounting software that automates tasks involved in managing businesses’ cash flow, tax records, payments and more. Businesses can apply the software by choosing QuickBooks Online plans and payroll support based on their needs.

QuickBooks’ solutions are scalable, as users can purchase plans with more or less accounting features as necessary for their operations. For growing businesses especially, QuickBooks can be a helpful tool for organizing tasks and information across each area of the accounting processes.

Intuit QuickBooks offers four pricing plans:

• Simple Start: $30 per month.
• Essentials: $55 per month.
• Plus: $85 per month.
• Advanced: $200 per month.

In addition, buyers can choose between three main pricing plans for Payroll features:

• Core: $45 per month plus $5 per employee per month.
• Premium: $75 per month plus $8 per employee per month.
• Elite: $125 per month plus $10 per employee per month.

Key features

• Bill management.
• Expense tracking.
• Tax deduction calculation.
• Inventory management.
• Invoicing and payments.
• Professional estimates.
• Mileage tracking.
• 1099s for contractors.

Payroll add-on key features:

• Full-service payroll for calculating, filing and paying payroll taxes.
• Automated taxes and forms.
• Auto Payroll.
• Health benefits for employees.
• 401(k) plans.
• 1099 e-file and pay.
• Next-day direct deposit with Core plan, same-day direct deposit with Premium and Elite plans.

Use cases

Run custom reports: Businesses can tag and organize their information within the QuickBooks system. They can then track their expenses and run custom reports based on their tags to gain insights into their financial data. By choosing to purchase the payroll add-on, businesses can also create and download reports about their payroll data, including their payroll history, bank transactions, contractor payments and other useful information.

Track business expenses: QuickBooks makes it easy to track expenses by tracking mileage through their mobile app and snapping photos of store receipts, so they get the most deductions when tax time rolls around.

Scale up business operations: Users can gain more accounting features with QuickBooks by switching to the QuickBooks Online Advanced accounting plan. This plan contains advanced features to aid growing businesses with complex workflows, like collaborative features, charts of accounts entries and QuickBooks online training courses.

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Gusto: Best for employee support

Gusto is an all-in-one solution that offers tools for multiple business processes in one centralized platform. But while Gusto’s software contains a wide range of capabilities for payroll, benefits, HR and time tracking, it may not provide as many fine-tuned features for accounting and bookkeeping.

Gusto’s software is more geared to support HR processes, although Gusto and Patriot’s offerings overlap in payroll, reporting and tax processes. However, Gusto’s employee benefits, self-service capabilities and HR features make it an optimal choice for businesses that want to provide extra support for their staff.

Gusto offers three plans starting at $40 per month plus $6 per month per employee for the Simple plan. Pricing for the Plus plan is $80 per month plus $12 per month per employee. The Premium plan’s pricing information is available upon request.

Key features

• Full-service single-state payroll including W-2s and 1099s.
• Employee profiles and self-service.
• Basic hiring and onboarding tools.
• Gusto-brokered health insurance administration.
• Employee financial benefits.
• Payroll and time-off reporting.
• Custom admin permissions.
• Integrations for processes like accounting, time tracking and expense management.
• Basic support.

Use cases

File payroll taxes: With integrated payroll, Gusto’s solution can perform unlimited payrolls, automatically file a business’ payroll taxes and ensure accuracy with auto-calculations.

Employee self-service tools: Gusto provides self-service capabilities to employees, with easy self-setup support and access to view their pay stubs and W-2s.

Automated taxes, filings and payroll: The software processes all local, state and federal payroll tax forms. It also reports new hires and automatically calculates, files and pays all local, state and federal payroll taxes.

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Zoho Payroll with Zoho Books: Best for bookkeeping

Zoho Books is an online accounting software solution for business owners to streamline and manage their financial information. By connecting Zoho Books with Zoho Payroll, businesses can access features and capabilities for both accounting and payroll that are comparable to the tools offered by Patriot’s software. In addition, Zoho’s cloud-based software provides a range of features for businesses to manage their finances while automating and simplifying their payroll processes.

The software can be purchased through multiple pricing plan options, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes. Zoho Books and Zoho Payroll can also integrate with other Zoho apps, such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Inventory, to provide a seamless bookkeeping experience across different business functions.

Zoho Payroll is priced at $19 per month plus $3 per employee per month. Zoho Books can be accessed for free. Alternatively, Zoho Books also offers five priced plans for its services:

• Standard Plan for $20 per organization/month.
• Professional Plan for $50 per organization/month.
• Premium Plan for $70 per organization/month.
• Elite Plan for $150 per organization/month.
• Ultimate Plan for $275 per organization/month.

Key features

Zoho Payroll key features:

Automatic payroll.

Taxes and compliance.

Ready-to-share payroll reports.

Calculate federal tax withholdings.

Automatic reminders when a filing is due.

Accurate tax deductions with auto-updated tax tables year-on-year.

Payroll administration.

Personalized employee pre-tax and post-tax benefits.

Notifications for upcoming pay runs and tax filing deadlines.

Payroll processing.

Weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly pay schedules.

Pay run history.

Reports on demand.

Zoho Books key features:

• Invoicing.
• Estimates.
• Customer portal.
• Expense tracking.
• Bill generation.
• Project tracking and management.
• Inventory tracking.
• Sales orders.
• Purchase orders.
• Tax processing.
• Online payments.
• Workflow automation.
• Document storage.
• Vendor portal.
• Mobile app for iOS, Android and Windows.
• Customizable invoice templates.
• Online payments.
• Transaction approval.
• Recurring expenses.
• Inventory tracking.
• Automated bank feeds.
• Customized reporting.
• Multiple project management.

Use cases

Unified invoicing and accounting: Zoho Books allows businesses to create and send customized invoices to global clients and receive payment in multiple currencies. With recurring billing, automated follow-ups and payment reminders for clients, users can ensure that their business is appropriately paid.

Save time on payroll accounting: Through Zoho Payroll’s integration with Zoho Books, users can enjoy the automatic recording of their payroll expenses within the right journals, making it possible to stay on top of their payroll records.

Collaborate with vendors: Zoho Books makes collaboration with vendors easier through the vendor AP and invoice management portal. This portal allows vendors to self-manage their transactions and stay notified with alerts, reducing unnecessary emails and calls.

Accounting and inventory tracking: Users are able to monitor their inventory levels and ensure that they are well-stocked with the Zoho Books software. The inventory tracking software can store important product information like images, vendor details, customized prices and costs for easy organization.

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FreshBooks: Best for customization

FreshBooks is a helpful cloud-based solution that is ideal for businesses seeking a product to support their financial operations as well as their teams. FreshBooks offers invoicing and accounting software for small and large organizations, from freelancers to businesses with employees. Furthermore, FreshBooks has partnered with Gusto’s payroll solution to provide features for unlimited payrolls, direct deposit, tax filings and payments.

A perk of FreshBooks is that it offers a range of customization features to help businesses tailor their financial management processes to their specific needs. Through the software’s features, businesses can customize their invoices with their branding, add custom fields to capture additional information from clients, and save custom reports to track the performance of their business. This flexibility and customization makes FreshBooks a valuable tool for businesses that want to streamline their financial management processes.

FreshBooks provides its software through four plans. Pricing starts at $17 per month for FreshBooks Lite, then increases to $30 per month for the Plus Plan and $55 per month for the Premium Plan. Businesses can also contact FreshBooks for Custom Pricing. To access payroll features, customers must purchase one of Gusto’s plans, which start at $40 per month plus $6 per person per month.

Key features

• Professional invoicing.
• Expense tracking.
• Time tracking.
• Project management.
• Automated payments.
• Dashboards and financial reporting.
• Accounting tools and reports.
• Mobile accounting.
• Client retainers.
• Recurring billable clients.

Gusto integration key features:

• Direct deposit.
• Quick and easy integration setup with step-by-step support.
• Access to unlimited payrolls, automatic tax payments and filings, W-2s and 1099s.
• FreshBooks automatically syncs payroll transactions as expenses.
• Automatic payroll tax filing with the right government agencies.

Use cases

Connect FreshBooks’ accounting software with other useful apps: FreshBooks integrates with over 100 apps, including popular solutions like Indeed, Slack and Zoom. It also integrates with multiple payroll providers in addition to Gusto, such as BrightPay, Payment Revolution and SurePayroll, allowing businesses to streamline their processes.

Manage mileage tracking: Users can adjust their mileage tracking and reporting based on their custom trip details. By manually editing their trips, they can avoid discrepancies and ensure that their reports contain accurate information and helpful insights.

Organize information with the Chart of Accounts: Higher-cost plans contain advanced accounting features, including a customizable Chart of Accounts, customizable expense categories and journal entry reporting. This way, users can gain insights and reduce confusion by adding all the details and information necessary come tax season.

Keep track of payroll: Once users run their team’s payroll on Gusto, the transactions are automatically imported and categorized directly in FreshBooks.

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Wave: Best inexpensive solution

Although less well-known than some other Patriot competitors, Wave provides helpful tools for small businesses through its software solutions. Users can choose to adopt one or more of Waves tools to use separately or together. The software offers features for invoicing, accounting, payments, payroll and advisors.

A great benefit of Wave’s software is that users can access the accounting, invoicing and US-only banking software for free. Users can also choose to access paid features, which include online payment processing, payroll software, personalized bookkeeping services, and coaching through Wave Advisors. Still, depending on the business’ software needs and the optional add-ons that they choose to apply, Wave can be an inexpensive option.

Wave’s accounting and invoicing features are free. However, users must purchase the Payroll plan to access payroll and tax service features. The Payroll plan is priced at $40 per month in tax service states, plus $6 per active employee per month plus $6 per independent contractor paid per month. Payroll in self-service states is priced at $20 per month in tax service states, plus $6 per active employee per month, plus $6 per independent contractor paid per month.

Key features

Payroll software key features:

• Payroll for employees and contractors.
• Generate W2 and 1099 forms.
• Direct depositing.
• Automatic pay and filing of state and federal payroll taxes for businesses in the U.S. states of AZ, CA, FL, GA, IL, IN, MN, NY, NC, TN, TX, VA, WA and WI.
• Employee self-service portal to access pay stubs and tax forms.

• Easy access to important tax forms and documents.
• 100% guaranteed accuracy.
• Automatic payroll journal entries.
• Workers comp.
• Leave time and accruals tracking.
• Automatic integration with Wave Accounting, Invoicing and Payments.

Free invoicing and accounting key features:

• Cash flow management.
• Unlimited bank and credit card connections.
• Business health monitoring.
• Double-entry accounting software.
• Accounting reports like Overdue Invoices & Bills and Profit & Loss.
• Unlimited income and expense tracking.
• Support for unlimited partners, collaborators or accountants.
• Smart dashboard.
• Customized invoice creation.
• Automated invoice reminders.

Use cases

Organize financial data: Wave’s smart dashboard can organize business data and information about expenses, payments, income and invoices.

Securely perform accounting processes: Users can feel safe about their sensitive information, as bank data connections are read-only and are protected by 256-bit SSL encryption. In addition, Wave is a PCI-DSS Level 1 Service Provider certified for handling credit card and bank account information.

Manage cash flow: Wave generates accounting reports with monthly or yearly comparisons, making it simple for users to identify cash flow trends and reach insights about their expenditures.

Get payroll support: Payroll plan customers gain a priority connection to Wave’s customer support team through the live agent chat on Monday through Friday for fast assistance.

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Xero: Best for financial tracking

Xero’s accounting software provides features that support accountants, bookkeepers and small businesses in their day-to-day finance operations. Through clever integrations and automated capabilities, the solution links costs to projects and jobs and enables users to stay on top of their bank flows and other financial information.

With its streamlined payment processing features, this solution is beneficial for businesses looking for a quicker way to track and manage their financial operations.

Xero pricing starts at $13 per month for three months for the Early Plan. The Growing Plan is $37 per month for three months and the Established Plan is $70 per month for three months. Payroll with Gusto can be purchased as an optional add-on, starting from $40 per month.

Key features

• Bill tracking and payment.
• Expense management tools.
• Bank connections.
• Payment acceptance by connecting to Stripe, GoCardless and others.
• Project tracking and management.
• Payroll with Gusto.
• Bank reconciliation.
• Xero contacts management.
• Data capture.
• Online file storage and document management.
• Accounting reporting.
• Inventory tracking.
• Online invoicing.
• Multi-currency support with instant currency conversions.
• Purchase order creation, sending and tracking.
• Online quote creation.
• Sales tax calculations and reports.
• Business analytics.
• Accounting dashboard.
• Fixed asset management.
• Gusto payroll add-on from $40.

Gusto add-on key features:

• Calculate pay and deductions, pay staff and update the Xero accounts.
• Flexible payroll filing.
• Online payroll for all 50 U.S. states.
• Automated payroll and payroll taxes, deductions and filings.
• Employee self-service features.
• Pay stubs and W-2s online access.
• Next-day direct deposit.

Use cases

Analyze financial health: Xero’s dashboard for an overview of the business’ financial status. Users can check their short-term cash flow projections and access up-to-date info, granting them more clarity into their financial future. Furthermore, with the Gusto add-on, users can view and reconcile their Gusto payroll transactions in Xero.

Automatically reimburse expenses: Businesses can set up automated expense management features that alerts users when claims are submitted, so they can review and pay their claims quickly. This includes reimbursements synced with Xero from their Gusto payroll runs.

Track business project data: By tracking the location-based costs and profitability of projects with Xero’s job tracker software, businesses can determine quotes and process invoicing for specific jobs and monitor their project financial margins through the project’s dashboard.

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