Interesting thread . . . when members of this community have asked for recommendations on other do-it-yourself options (e.g., packages for basic legal forms and contracts, website development, income tax preparation, etc.), the responses leaned heavily toward, "Don't do it yourself -- hire a professional!" Yet, the consequences of payroll mistakes seem more severe, and the opportunities to make them seem to abound (miss a deadline, key-in data incorrectly, mishandle child support or a garnishment, miscalculate overtime, disclose something illegally, or misplace anything from the last six years and there's a problem.).
According to Michael Savage, a tax veteran who is often featured in
Entrepreneur and
Fortune Small Business, three of the five most common mistakes that get small business owners into "very serious legal, tax, and financial trouble" are payroll related. Payroll is also one of the few administrative functions that has to be done on time no matter what -- if the payroll clerk is ill, the computer crashes, the database is corrupted, or (as one of my firms experienced last spring) a tornado takes the roof off the building -- you still have to run payroll.
I'm a strong advocate of the DIY approach for small business owners, and have taken some criticism in other threads for not outsourcing certain functions. Payroll is one for which I would use a service rather than do myself until the business grows to the point of being able to use an enterprise management suite (software that integrates everything -- payroll, timekeeping, accounting, purchasing, inventory management, work management, order processing, billing, collections, document management, etc.). In my view, a couple of the services mentioned in this thread (i.e, Paychex, BoA) really ARE the "easy ways to do payroll and taxes" -- as opposed to doing it yourself. Best wishes.