Best Payroll Software for Hospitality in 2025

Running payroll in hospitality isn’t your average back-office task. Between tipped servers, hourly workers, salaried managers, and seasonal staff (and the turnover that comes with it), this payroll puzzle can be confusing and time-consuming. 

The best payroll software for hospitality doesn’t just prevent errors—it frees managers from time-clock chaos and chasing spreadsheets.

This guide breaks down the unique challenges of hospitality payroll, what tools you need to simplify it, and which software is worth your time and money in 2025.

TL;DR: Best payroll software for hospitality

Choosing the right payroll software for your hospitality business isn’t just about cutting checks—it’s about saving time, staying compliant, and making life easier for your team. This guide walks you through everything you need to know about payroll software for hospitality in 2025.

• Hospitality businesses need specialized payroll support for challenges like tipped wages, split shifts, constant hiring, labor law compliance, and scheduling integrated with payroll.
• Look for hospitality payroll software with key features like tip tracking, overtime calculations, tax filing, scheduling integration, and self-service options.

Top 9 payroll software for hospitality (we researched popular payroll systems so you don’t have to): 

• Homebase is best for restaurants and small hospitality teams
• Gusto is best for small to mid-sized hospitality teams that need benefits management and HR tools
• ADP is best for enterprise hotel chains with complex payroll and HR needs
• Paychex Flex is best for mid-sized teams needing strong payroll with built-in HR tools
• QuickBooks Payroll is best for hospitality businesses already using QuickBooks
• 7shifts and Gusto are best for restaurants needing tightly integrated scheduling and payroll
• Sage HR is best for hotels needing a complete HR and payroll package
• Square Payroll is best for small restaurants or cafes with straightforward payroll needs
• Toast Payroll is best for restaurants using the Toast POS system

If you need hotel payroll software, look for a tool with: Centralized payroll for multiple departments, shift differentials and overtime calculations, department-based reporting, time tracking, and flexible HR support for seasonal employees.

With payroll comes team management, so look for hospitality HR software that includes: Onboarding and document storage, benefits admin and time-off tracking, performance management tools, and an applicant tracking system (ATS).

Affordable payroll software for hospitality to start with: Homebase and Square Payroll are free or low-cost tools to help small teams run payroll, save time, and stay compliant. (At Homebase, we offer a free plan you can play around with right now.) 

How to choose the right staffing payroll software: Whether you’re managing a seasonal team or a growing multi-location business, the right software should grow with you.

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What makes payroll software for hospitality different?

Payroll software for hospitality helps you deal with unique challenges like:

• A mix of hourly and salaried employees: Combine different pay structures in one payroll run
• Multiple pay rates: Let the payroll system track different rates, like tipped and non-tipped roles, and calculate everything for you
• Labor law compliance: Track hours, breaks, overtime limits, and minimum wage changes so you’re always following federal, state, and local rules
• Scheduling integration: Sync your team’s schedules with payroll, so hours and wages are added up automatically
• Frequent hiring and turnover: With staff changing often, fast onboarding will help your team hit the ground running

Generic payroll software doesn’t always cover everything you need. When the software has gaps, managers have to pick up the slack and do more admin work to keep up. If you’re unsure about all the ins and outs of payroll, check out this blog post.

But payroll for hospitality is designed with your everyday challenges in mind. It helps teams stay compliant, avoid errors, and save time. And payroll software for hospitality lets your team focus less on admin and more on guests and their experiences.

Key features to look for in hospitality payroll software

Payroll software for hospitality should include these key features to help you run things more smoothly:

• Tip and gratuity tracking: Calculate, allocate, and report tip income and tip pools accurately and compliantly
• Labor law compliance: Built-in safeguards to help ensure you’re following local, state, and federal rules for wages and hours
• Scheduling integration: Sync payroll with your team scheduling tools to ensure accurate pay based on actual worked shifts
• Automated tax filing and W-2s/1099s: Avoid tax season stress with automatic filings and document delivery
• Employee self-service portals: Let employees check pay stubs, update info, and view schedules on their own
• Support for seasonal and part-time staff: Easily add and remove team members during busy periods without extra admin
• Departmental payroll cost reporting: View labor costs by department (like kitchen, bar, housekeeping) for better budgeting and planning

With these key features on your “perfect payroll for hospitality” checklist, you’ll know what to look for when comparing different hospitality payroll software.

Top 9 payroll software for hospitality businesses in 2025

We researched popular payroll systems and compared their benefits to make this list of top hospitality payroll software. Not every payroll software is built the same, so keep your specific needs in mind when going through them.

Homebase: Best for restaurants and small hospitality teams

Homebase is the best for small businesses needing payroll, scheduling, time tracking, and team messaging in one place.

• Key features: Drag-and-drop scheduling, built-in payroll, digital time clocks, tip pooling, and labor compliance alerts
• Pricing: Starts free; paid plans begin at $24/month per location
• Free trial: Yes, free plan available (not just a trial!)
• The catch: Not ideal for large businesses

If you want to learn more about how to properly set up payroll for your small team, check out this article.

Gusto: Great for growing teams with benefits

Gusto is best for small to mid-sized hospitality teams that need benefits management and HR tools.

• Key features: Employee onboarding, benefits administration, payroll automation, and compliance support
• Pricing: Starts at $49/month + $6/month per user
• Free trial: 6-month free trial for contractor-only businesses with no W-2 employees
• The catch: Not built specifically for hospitality; no native scheduling or tip pooling tools

ADP: Popular payroll system for large hotel groups

ADP is best for enterprise hotel chains with complex payroll and HR needs.

• Key features: Multi-state compliance, advanced reporting, and global payroll
• Pricing: Custom; request a quote
• Free trial: No free trial
• The catch: Cost and complexity may be too much and not worth it for small businesses

Paychex Flex: Scalable, with HR integration

Paychex Flex is best for mid-sized teams needing strong payroll with built-in HR tools.

• Key features: Payroll processing, benefits admin, hiring tools, and time tracking
• Pricing: Custom; request a quote
• Free trial: No free trial
• The catch: Interface can feel outdated compared to newer tools

QuickBooks Payroll: Best for accounting-heavy needs

QuickBooks Payroll is best for hospitality businesses already using QuickBooks.

• Key features: Seamless accounting integration, automated tax filing, and time tracking
• Pricing: Starts at $50/month + $6/ month per user in the U.S. and $25/month + $4/month per user in Canada
• Free trial: Yes, 30-day free trial
• The catch: No built-in scheduling or hospitality-specific features

7shifts and Gusto: Powerful restaurant payroll and scheduling combo

7shifts and Gusto together are best for restaurants needing tightly integrated scheduling and payroll.

• Key features: Shift scheduling, time clock, tip management, and payroll syncs with Gusto
• Pricing: Free plan available with paid plans starting at $29.99/month per location; Gusto subscription is separate
• Free trial: Yes, 14-day free trial
• The catch: Requires managing two separate subscriptions and platforms

Sage HR: For hotels needing HR + payroll in one

Sage HR is best for hotels needing a complete HR and payroll package.

• Key features: Performance management, onboarding, time tracking, and payroll
• Pricing: Custom with additional cost for each add-on module, including payroll
• Free trial: Yes, 30-day free trial or get 3 months free when you subscribe
• The catch: With each feature as an add-on cost, the final price can balloon quickly.

Square Payroll: Simple solution for hourly, tipped staff

Square Payroll is best for small restaurants or cafes with straightforward payroll needs.

• Key features: Integrates with your POS, tax and compliance, import time cards and tips, and mobile access
• Pricing: Contractor-only payroll is $6/month per person paid; full service payroll is $35/month + $6/month per person paid
• Free trial: Yes, a free trial is available after you complete their interactive demo
• The catch: The monthly fee per person can add up and be costly for bigger teams.

Toast Payroll: Purpose-built for restaurant payroll

Toast Payroll is best for restaurants using the Toast POS system.

• Key features: Integrated POS, scheduling, tip management, and employee onboarding
• Pricing: Free plan available for POS with paid plans starting at $69/month; bundling POS with payroll is $69/month + $9/month per employee
• Free trial: Available as part of Toast POS demo
• The catch: Best when used with Toast’s broader ecosystem

Hotel payroll software: Tailored features for hotel management

If you’re managing hotels, then you’ll want a hotel payroll software catered to your kind of work. 

Here are the features to look out for:

• Centralized payroll for multiple departments: Manage payroll for the front desk, housekeeping, kitchen, and admin from one dashboard—no need to toggle between systems.
• Shift differentials and overtime calculations: Accurately compensate night shifts, weekend staff, or overtime hours without manual tracking.
• Department-based labor cost reporting: Understand labor costs by department so you can optimize staffing budgets based on demand and guest volume.
• Time tracking integration: Ensure accuracy with tools that record actual check-ins and check-outs across locations and departments.
• Seasonal employee support: Quickly onboard and offboard staff for peak seasons, with the ability to re-hire and reassign roles without starting from scratch.

Hospitality HR software: Managing more than just pay

While having the right hospitality payroll is important, so is the right hospitality HR software. When you’re comparing different payroll software for hospitality, make sure your new payroll for hospitality also has features to help you manage your team in other ways, like:

• Employee onboarding and document storage: Collect and store W-4s, I-9s, certifications, and emergency contact info digitally.
• Benefits admin and time-off tracking: Let employees request PTO and view benefit details without needing to ask a manager.
• Performance management tools: Run reviews, document feedback, and track progress toward goals for a stronger team culture.
• Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): Speed up hiring by posting to job boards and tracking candidates in one place.

The more these HR functions connect to payroll, the more time your managers save, and the more consistent your processes become. Plus, with everything in one place, you won’t have to learn to use multiple apps. 

Free and affordable payroll options for hospitality

There are quality payroll software for hospitality out there that won’t break the bank. Even if you’re not ready for a premium plan, you can still improve your payroll with free software like:

• Homebase: Our free plan includes scheduling, time tracking, team communication, and payroll prep tools. You can upgrade to full-service payroll for an affordable price.
• Square Payroll: Free for sole proprietors and affordable for teams.

When free isn’t enough: What to consider as your team grows

As your hospitality business grows, free plans may hit their limits. You might need:

• Automated tax filing to stay compliant as your team expands across cities or states.
• Tip pooling and overtime alerts to reduce compliance risks and labor costs.
• Deeper HR tools like onboarding workflows, document storage, or PTO tracking.
• Departmental cost reporting to manage kitchen, front-of-house, and admin budgets separately.
• Customer support with fast answers when payroll issues come up.

If your team is growing quickly or your payroll needs are getting more complex, it’s worth investing in an all-in-one payroll software for hospitality, like Homebase, that’s affordable and flexible enough to scale with you.

Choosing the right staffing payroll software

When you’re working in hospitality, things are always on the move, so you need the right staffing payroll software to help ease the workload and let you focus on your guests. 

• Frequent hiring and turnover means you need payroll software with quick onboarding tools, digital paperwork collection, and the ability to re-hire staff easily
• If you rely on seasonal workers, your tool should let you onboard new staff and reactivate past employees without hassle, and scale up payroll without extra admin work
• Managing tip pools, split shifts, and dual roles? Choose software that tracks multi-job pay rates and automates pooled earnings
• Concerned about compliance and labor costs? Use software with overtime alerts, break tracking, and labor forecasting to help you avoid penalties

The right tool will adapt as your business grows and make life easier for your whole team.

Simplify payroll, build a better hospitality team

With hospitality payroll tools like Homebase, you can ditch the spreadsheets, avoid compliance headaches, and run payroll in just a few clicks.

• Small team or local restaurant? Try Homebase for simple scheduling, time tracking, and full-service payroll in one easy app.
• Rapidly growing team with complex HR needs? Gusto or Paychex are great options with benefits and HR tools built in.
• Multi-location hotel group or franchise? ADP offers robust payroll systems with strong analytics and compliance features. Looking for other options? Check out our top 5 franchise software.
• Tipped team or front-of-house focus? Use Toast Payroll or Square Payroll to speed up tip management and mobile access while integrating with your POS.

With the right payroll software for hospitality, you’ll save time, reduce stress, and build a team that’s supported from day one, like the thousands of restaurants, hotels, and local service businesses that trust Homebase to:

• Sync time tracking with payroll
• Handle tips and overtime
• Automate tax filings
• Onboard employees fast

All in one app.

“Homebase helps us keep track of all our hours and staffing, helps us get our labor under control and keep our team in contact with each other, we couldn’t imagine life without them.” — Connor Ward, Owner, Altona Hotel

Try Homebase for free today and see how much easier payroll can be when it was made for teams in hospitality like yours.

FAQs about hospitality payroll software

Which software is mostly used in the hospitality industry?

The software mostly used in the hospitality industry is ADP, Gusto, Homebase, and Toast. ADP and Toast are popular with larger hotel and restaurant chains, while Homebase and Gusto are trusted by smaller teams. Homebase is especially helpful for hourly teams.

Which software is mostly used for payroll?

The software mostly used for payroll is ADP, Paychex, QuickBooks Payroll. These popular payroll systems help with general payroll management but may lack hospitality-specific features.

Is there free payroll software?

Yes, Square Payroll and Homebase are both free payroll software. But Square Payroll has limited features and isn’t free for teams. Meanwhile, Homebase’s free plan has all the features you need to run a small business in hospitality, like team scheduling, time tracking, and team messaging.

What is the best accounting software for the hospitality industry?

The best accounting software for the hospitality industry is QuickBooks and Xero integrated with a payroll and HR tool. While these tools specialize in accounting, they may not have all the features you need in payroll software for hospitality—this is where a tool like Homebase can help you.

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