You can use many payroll options to pay your nanny, but a handful stand out the most. Here are the best nanny payroll services that are leading in important categories:
Rippling – Best Overall
Rippling is a workforce management software company that offers an all-in-one platform to bring HR, IT and finance together. The platform has an HR Cloud, IT Cloud and Finance Cloud—each with multiple features. Rippling’s HR Cloud, for example, lets you handle automatic payroll, benefits, recruiting, performance management, time and attendance, employee training, employee feedback and more.
When you’re thinking about a nanny as a household employee who might need features like direct deposit and pay stubs, Rippling can make payroll much easier for you. Rippling will also help you comply with local tax laws and automatically calculate and file your payroll taxes so that year-end nanny tax preparation is easy. Equally unique is the HR cloud’s ability to onboard employees in 90 seconds. You can also integrate Rippling with almost any app if you and your child’s caregiver want to use innovative tools. Ripple’s app shop includes integration categories full of options like Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom and more.
Rippling starts at $8/month per user, which isn’t too expensive if you only have one or two nannies. However, you’ll need to call Rippling for a personalized monthly fee. The company offers multiple plans, but they’re all customizable. You can tell Rippling what services you want, and they’ll determine your price.
Pros
- Provides U.S. and global payroll processing
- Offers customizable plans
- Onboards employees in 90 seconds
Cons
- Can get expensive, depending on what you want
- Doesn’t offer a free trial
Paycor – Most Affordable
Paycor is a publicly traded company that provides a full suite of human capital management solutions to over 2 million users. The company’s bread and butter is its payroll software, which automates tedious and routine administrative tasks to make business payroll—including for household employers—easier. Some of payroll software’s features include on-demand pay, general ledger integration and employee self-service. You can also access new hire reporting tools, law alerts, templates and how-to guides.
You don’t have to be an expert to use Paycor’s payroll software. The tool will guide you through the payroll process and perform real-time calculations so you don’t make mistakes. Also worth mentioning is the software’s unique AutoRun feature, which lets you automatically process payroll—without being on a computer—for a specific day and time. Additionally, the payroll software is constantly updated to comply with local, state and federal tax laws so that your payroll environment complies with regulations. Paycor will also automatically file your taxes for you to make year-end tax preparation simpler.
There are four different plans available if you want to use Paycor. Some plans are specifically for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, which is great for household employers. Each plan offers important payroll and tax services, but advanced features aren’t accessible in the basic plan, which costs $99 plus $6/employees per month. You’ll need to contact them to learn about prices, setup fees and any other additional costs to consider.
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- Provides many payroll features
- Has multiple plans
- Offers payroll and tax services in each plan
Cons:
- Doesn’t provide prices on its website
- No free trial
Workday – Best for Taxes
Workday is another cloud-based human capital management company. You can buy multiple products from their team, including HR, finance, planning and industry operations solutions. One of the company’s HR tools is its payroll solution called Workday Payroll. This tool can handle local or global payroll—its online payroll services are available in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Australia.
Other key features of Workday Payroll include continuous automatic payroll processing, flexible, anytime audits, reporting and analytics, a mobile-first employee experience and real-time visibility into your general ledger. Even better, Workday Payroll’s tax services are great. Their team monitors upcoming regulatory changes affecting you and provides a compliance dashboard where these updates exist. The compliance updates will include high-impact changes, detailed insights and even a view of past and future changes to get a historical perspective of how your state tax and federal tax environment have changed over the years.
Workday doesn’t include its prices or plans on its website. You’ll need to contact a sales agent for more information about Workday Payroll and any other feature you want to use.
Pros
- Offers a compliance dashboard with various tax insights
- Has a mobile-first approach for employees
- Provides global payroll services
Cons
- Lacks transparency around its prices and plans on its website
- Doesn’t offer a free trial
Zenefits – Easiest to Use
Zenefits helps entrepreneurs and small businesses manage HR tasks by offering a platform that simplifies and streamlines online payroll, hiring, benefits, onboarding and more.
Zenefits’s online payroll software is one of its biggest offerings—an easy-to-use system fully integrated and equipped with advanced features. It offers unlimited payruns, direct deposits, contractor payments, tips reporting, general ledger reporting, mobile paystubs and more. Also, it automatically integrates with other HR features like benefits changes, time off and tracked hours to ensure what you’re paying your nanny reflects how much they worked on the weekdays and weekends. Zenefits’s payroll software will even automatically calculate and file your payroll taxes so you don’t have to worry about it.
There are three plans that Zenefits offers: essentials, growth and zen. The Zen plan is the only one that provides the payroll software. That plan starts at $27/month per employee. However, you can choose a cheaper plan, but you’ll have to add the payroll software onto your package for $6/month per employee. Also, Zenefits wants you to have a minimum of five employees to use its platform. That may not be possible if you only have one household employee. Fortunately, you can still use Zenefits—but the company will charge as if you have five employees.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Provides many payroll features and tax filing services
- Offers mobile paystubs
Cons
- Payroll software is only included in the most expensive plan
- Charges as if you have a minimum of five employees (even if you don’t)
BambooHR – Greatest Add-On Features
BambooHR has been around since 2008 and offers a human resources information platform that helps small businesses and large organizations work better. The goal of the platform is to simplify complicated HR processes and streamline time-consuming administrative tasks—and the platform has many features to accomplish this objective. It can help with household payroll, hiring, onboarding, time tracking, benefits management and employee experience and performance.
The payroll feature, in particular, automatically takes into consideration employees’ time off, time worked and benefits to ensure payments are accurate. It also handles federal taxes and state taxes for all U.S.-based workers.
You can use BambooHR by signing up for one of its two plans: the essential or advantage plan. Pricing starts at $108/month per employee. You’ll need to contact their team for pricing details, setup costs and additional fees. Also, the payroll feature isn’t included in either of the packages. Instead, it’s an add-on service only available for U.S. employees. Other add-on services include benefits administration, time tracking and performance management.
Pros:
- Offers many add-on features
- Accurately calculates employee payment
- Automatically files taxes for U.S. workers
Cons
- Payroll feature is an add-on
- Lacks transparency around pricing
- Doesn’t offer phone support with the basic plan
UKG Pro – Best Customer Service
UKG Pro is one of the leading human capital management cloud companies. It helps over 80,000 small businesses and large organizations worldwide and across industries. One of its popular solutions is payroll software, which lets you run and automate business payroll to enhance efficiency and compliance while decreasing manual labor.
However, using this online payroll provider to compensate your household employees may be cumbersome since the software is robust and only has decent reviews about its ease of use. The good news is that UKG Pro has great customer support. Their team is available 24/7 and delivers rapid responses with different ways to get in touch–unique features you don’t see with every payroll provider. You can contact their customer support team via phone, email or live chat.
Keep in mind that UKG Pro doesn’t provide its prices on its website. You’ll need to speak with a sales agent to determine your monthly fee and learn about any setup fees or additional costs.
Pros
- Offers 24/7 customer support
- Provides various ways to contact their support team
- Offers multiple tools to manage a workforce
Cons
- May be hard to set up and use
- Doesn’t offer plans or prices on its website
ADP Workforce Now – Greatest Payroll Experts
ADP Workforce is a human capital management solutions company. It’s been around for over 70 years and offers a cloud-based platform that empowers small, mid-sized and large businesses to enhance HR, payroll, benefits administration and taxes. ADP Workforce supports over a million companies with HR solutions, so their team members are genuine payroll experts.
The company’s payroll software has a personal, customizable dashboard and other great benefits. You can, for example, run payroll in a few quick steps and access manager and employee self-service tools through its user-friendly mobile app. Great tax support is also available with the payroll solution. Additionally, certified payroll professionals are available 24/7 to answer any payroll or employment tax questions. The payroll software can also integrate with various business tools, HR systems and enterprise resource planning software.
The many features offered make ADP Workforce an attractive solution. However, its ease of use may not be great based on customer reviews. Also, their team offers four plans but doesn’t make its pricing public. You’ll need to contact a sales agent to get your monthly fee, setup fees or additional costs.
Pros
- Offers a personal, customizable dashboard
- Lets you run payroll in only a few steps
- Has certified payroll experts who answer questions
Cons
- Doesn’t offer prices on its website
- May not be the easiest to use
According to the IRS, your child’s caregiver is a household employee, which means you’ll have to pay them and file taxes with the IRS and state. Because you’ll be the household employer, your nanny or babysitter will look to you to handle the administrative tasks while they care for your kids. However, managing administrative tasks well requires getting the right tools.
Nanny payroll software manages household payroll and tax services for your household employees. The top options are full-service solutions that offer features beyond direct deposit during pay periods. The best payroll providers will also calculate employment taxes, file taxes, track time and help with employee scheduling. Additionally, they’ll come with a mobile app and self-service capabilities to make things easier for you and your household employees—and if you have any questions along the way, there will be payroll experts to guide you.
Ultimately, nanny payroll software will provide everything you need to be a great household employer. It’ll have industry-specific tools to ensure you tackle administrative tasks like payroll processing, taxes, scheduling and more with ease.
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Many payroll software providers don’t list their prices publically. However, based on the cost of services in this article, you could pay anywhere between $8/month to $108/month for one nanny’s payroll services.
Most nanny payroll services charge per month per employee but sometimes offer annual subscriptions. Also, they usually provide multiple customizable plans that have a mix of full-service and self-service solutions. The plan you pick and the number of household employees you have will determine your monthly fee or annual price. Buying add-on features will also make things more expensive.
There are many benefits of using a nanny payroll service. One of the major advantages is ensuring accurate withholding and employment tax payments. Managing state and federal taxes can be challenging, especially if it’s your first time being a household employer. Therefore, having payroll software handle tax payments can be a relief and ensure you comply with federal and local tax regulations.
Another benefit of nanny payroll services is that they automatically administer the right payment to your nanny each pay period. The tool, for example, will ensure the right payments go out by considering time off, benefits and hours worked. The best nanny payroll services will even offer global payroll processing and multiple payment methods so that you and your childcare provider have some flexibility.
Payroll experts are also a benefit that payroll providers offer—if you have questions about the software you’re using, you can always contact the customer support team for help. Other advantages of using nanny payroll software include access to a user-friendly mobile app, self-service capabilities and tax filing assistance.
Nanny payroll platforms are typically full-service solutions equipped with many features. These features are designed to make your life easier by handling household payroll, employment taxes and more. However, they’re also geared to help your child’s caregiver access any important payment details to ensure a high level of transparency.
The features offered may differ slightly across services. However, the best usually provide similar features as add-ons or already-included tools. Some of the most prized features that great nanny payroll services offer include the following:
- Global payroll processing
- Automatic payroll
- Automated tax calculations and filing
- Time tracking
- Integrations with other apps
- Online employee onboarding
- Payroll dashboard
- Benefits administration
- Scheduling calendar
- New hire reports and analytics
- Direct deposit and alternative payment methods
- Employee recruiting and hiring
- Mobile app access
- Self-service
- Year-end tax preparation
- Payroll experts
- 24/7 customer support
These various features are what separate the best nanny payroll services from other payroll services. Using software with these features will ensure your household payroll runs smoothly.
Many nanny payroll software solutions are on the market, but not all are created equal. Look for a service that helps with payroll and taxes and provides additional features like self-servicing, scheduling, time tracking and benefits administration, especially if it’s within your budget. These features can go a long way in simplifying administrative tasks and making childcare management easier.
Choosing human resources (HR) software for your organization is an important decision. To help you with it, we at the MarketWatch Guides team have researched and reviewed 50 leading HR software companies, including Paycor, ADP, Workday, Gusto, ZipRecruiter and Clockify. These providers help with some or all of the following HR disciplines:
- Payroll
- Time tracking and workforce management
- Recruiting and job posting
We conducted a survey in 2024 of 200 professionals who were currently using HR software or had used HR software within the past year. We analyzed the results of this survey to determine the following rating criteria:
- Features (25%)
- Value and Pricing (25%)
- User Experience (20%)
- Customer Support (15%)
- Reputation and Reviews (15%)
Visit the full HR methodology page for more details on our rating system.
