Best payroll software for salons

GlossGenius Payroll

GlossGenius is an all-in-one booking, payments and marketing platform for salons, spas and medspas, and payroll is an add-on inside the same account rather than a separate service. Because the appointment book, the card terminal and the time clock all live in one place, tips, commissions and hours logged reach a pay run without any exporting. Its own pages pitch payroll squarely at the pay structures generic providers struggle with, naming tiered commissions and booth rentals. The catch is that the payroll fee sits on top of a GlossGenius subscription that starts at $24 a month, so the real monthly cost is both numbers together.

Vagaro Payroll

Vagaro is one of the most widely used booking platforms in beauty and fitness, and its payroll runs on the account a salon already uses for appointments, so hours from the built-in time clock post straight to a pay run. The payroll engine underneath is Gusto's, which is why tax filing and year-end forms behave like a mainstream payroll service rather than a bolt-on. Commission structures and pay rates can be set by role or by service, and W-2 staff and 1099 booth renters are paid from the same system. As with the other all-in-one platforms, the payroll fee is charged on top of the Vagaro subscription itself.

Mangomint Payroll

Mangomint is a higher-end salon and spa platform, and payroll is one of three paid add-ons to its single plan. It is the only product here that advertises paying workers the greater of their hourly or commission earnings, which is the calculation most commission salons actually run every pay period, and its payroll reports break out hours worked, service and product sales, commission and tips for each worker. Filing covers local, state and federal taxes, and each pay run can sync to QuickBooks Online. The reason to look elsewhere is cost: Mangomint's base plan starts at $120 a month plus $10 per user before payroll is added.

Square Payroll

Square Payroll is the cheapest way to get tips and timecards out of a point-of-sale system and into a pay run, as long as the salon already rings sales through Square. Direct tips import from the Square POS, commission rates are tracked automatically across the team, and staff can be paid on multiple pay rates. Square also sells a contractor-only version billed purely per person with no monthly base fee, which makes it the cheapest option in this table for a shop that is entirely booth renters. Its weak spot is the front desk: Square Appointments is general-purpose scheduling rather than salon-specific software.

Gusto

Gusto is the default recommendation for a small business that wants payroll and nothing else, and it is also the engine running underneath Vagaro's payroll. The entry Simple plan covers full-service payroll in all 50 states, multiple pay rates and schedules, and tip credits, which is most of what a commission-and-tips salon needs. The notable gap is time tracking, which only appears on the Plus plan at roughly double the base price, so an hourly salon either pays up or brings its own time clock. Gusto also sells a contractor-only plan, worth knowing about for a shop that is all booth renters.

OnPay

OnPay is a flat, no-tier payroll service: one price, every feature, unlimited pay runs, and federal, state and local tax filings included rather than sold as upgrades. It handles tipped wages properly, including minimum wage tip setup and preparing Form 8846, which most generic payroll tools leave to the owner to work out. W-2 employees and 1099 contractors are paid from the same dashboard at no extra cost. There is no built-in time clock, so hours arrive by integration or by hand, and OnPay's own site currently shows two different starting prices, so confirm the current rate before signing up.

Patriot Software Full Service Payroll

Patriot is the budget full-service choice: a low flat fee that still covers federal, state and local tax filings and deposits, with a 30-day free trial before any money changes hands. Contractors are paid in the same run as employees, 1099s and W-2s carry no extra fee, and up to 25 pay rates can be assigned to a single employee, which covers a stylist paid differently by service. Time and attendance is a separate paid add-on rather than part of the plan. There is no booking or point-of-sale side at all, so tips and commissions have to be brought over from whatever runs the front desk.

Homebase Payroll

Homebase began as a scheduling and time clock app for hourly teams, and payroll is an add-on that turns approved timesheets into paychecks. It is the only product here outside the salon platforms that documents tip pooling: it pulls tips from the point of sale, calculates the pool and adds it back to timesheets, which matters in a shop where assistants share tips. Bonus and commission payments, multiple wage rates, and 1099 and W-2 filing all come with the payroll add-on. Scheduling and basic time tracking are free on Homebase's entry plan, so for many salons the payroll fee is close to the whole bill.

SurePayroll by Paychex

SurePayroll is Paychex's self-serve product for very small employers, and it carries the lowest monthly base price in this table. Unlimited pay runs, multiple pay rates and bonuses, and federal and state payroll tax filing and deposits are all in the flat price, and W-2 and 1099-NEC forms are prepared and filed, though those are billed once a year rather than monthly. Time tracking is a paid integration and areas that require local taxes carry a separate fee, so the advertised price is not always the final one. Nothing about it is salon-specific: tips and commissions have to be entered rather than pulled from an appointment book.