New Per Employee Fee

I just got that same email. I was wondering, does this $5/month fee apply to the 1 included employee as well, or is it an increase in the $2 per additional employee fee. The email is not really clear.

Secondly, I have an annual subscription that started in March - how can they go and change the terms in the middle of the subscription period? It would seem that they shouldn't be allowed to increase fees until the subscription is renewed.

And I agree this increase just seems greedy on their part - especially after they've nearly doubled the price to keep renewing the subscription to both Quickbooks Desktop and the Desktop Payroll Enhanced each year.

Hi @sdseagles and @rrankins,

We know that this payroll price increase has a big impact on your struggling business. 

We made these changes to simplify our payroll offerings and allow customers to compare our products/services across our ecosystems. And also ensure it aligns with industry standards for pricing on Direct Deposit, QuickBooks Workforce, and eFiling.

@rrankins, on the other hand, existing Enhanced and Basic Payroll subscribers who pay per employee will be impacted by the per-employee price change starting October 1, 2022. Invoices for October payroll usage will reflect the new pricing.

You may want to read this announcement to know more about the changes: Firm of the Future FAQs.

Thank you for being a valued partner, @sdseagles and @rrankins. If you need more information about this price increase, don't hesitate to reply below.

Okay, so i read the FAQ, and if I understand correctly, since I currently have "Intuit QuickBooks Payroll Annual Subscription One Employee Included Enhanced" and do not pay a monthly fee per employee, then I won't see the $5 per month charge on Oct 1.

However, when my current subscription/license exprires in March 2023, I'll need to subscribe to Enhanced Payroll Annual at $500 plue $5 per month for myself as the sole employee.

On top of that, the price on Quickbooks Desktop annual subscription is going up to $549 (with no discounts in any retail channel)?

So now, what cost me $600 for accounting and payroll for my 1 person company this year is going to cost me over $1,100 next year?

It was a bad enough sticket shock when the price increased $200 for the Desktop Pro Plus with Enhanced Payroll form 2021 to 2022.

I think Intuit has finally gone and priced me out of this product. $1100+ per year to manage my consulting income and expenses and generate my one employee payroll is just too much. Looks like I'm going to have to look into alternatives as well.

Anybody have any suggestions?

You can send Feedback to Intuit directly through the Help tab of your Quickbooks Desktop product.

Not to mention, they have zero customer service. This is just outrageous. We're already hurting if we aren't outsourcing our entire payroll services to a company. 

We've calculated that at some point it will be cheaper to go with QBD Enterprise than QBD Pro/Premier + Payroll. You can also enjoy perpetual renewal discounts of up to 20% when purchasing licenses through partners.

This is hard for us to justify.  We are a fairly small church with 10 people on our payroll.  I agree with the other comments regarding the increase in the payroll fees.  We have not been able to take advantage of direct deposit due to self-imposed restrictions on how money is handled and continue to use multiple check signers to ensure proper oversight.  These additional fees will cost us an additional $360 per year, on top of our subscription costs.  I'm not sure how we will respond overall, but at a time of inflation, giving is down in our congregation.  This is very disappointing.

Does this per employee fee still apply even if you don't use direct deposit thru the QuickBooks software?

Hello there, @JHelming1,

Yes. The monthly $5 per employee fee is still applicable regardless of whether using direct deposit or not. The latest price increase in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) Payroll has its accompanying value. It is to provide you with a greater experience in using the program.

This consists of a significant performance revamp (64-bit enhanced computing power), numerous time-saving automation features (Receipt/Bill entries), and security upgrades.

If you want to learn more about the changes, you might want to read this announcement: Firm of the Future FAQs.

Should you need further assistance with your QuickBooks account, feel free to hit the reply button. The Community team is here to help anytime. Keep safe.

We pay an annual fee of $500+  plus a $53 per month "per employee" fee.  I print the paystubs, and the checks are handwritten.  Also, we have to buy an updated program every three years and every few years a new computer to accomodate the new updated Quickbooks.  The price keeps going up.

...and now the Accountant Discount expired. Even Accountants get the same fee. Rip off to say the least. Intuit became very greedy with all types of fees. If customer service at least was good, I would not mind, but in this case it is an absolute rip off, because you get no help with customer service until you waste a week on a any smallest issues. Front line people are not trained past taking name down and generating case numbers. Nobody calls back ever and you are stuck. 

I dropped merchant service long ago. have a single payroll client left. Waiting until she will get fed up with rate hikes and move with me to another vendor I use already for my other clients. 

This is not sustainable. Intuit used to be superior product. Nope. 

Yeah...mine originally was $3 each >1 employee, then up to $5, and now today, it's $6. What perturbs me most is that I never received any prior notifications about any price increases. But the alternative is "ditch" being employee and go sole prop/Sch. C business. While I had other reasons for being incorporated, the reasons are getting closer to being outweighed by increasing costs of being a corporation with employee(s)...not just accounting-related costs. Since I'm approaching "twilight" years, I may just take the risk and ditch corporation and be a Sch. C business in the future.