Wagepoint vs QuickBooks Payroll in Canada (2026)

Wagepoint and QuickBooks Payroll are two payroll options small Canadian employers often compare. Wagepoint is a Canadian company that sells payroll only. QuickBooks Payroll comes from Intuit and is built to sit inside QuickBooks Online, Intuit's accounting software. This comparison is for owners choosing between the two, whether you are making your first hire or moving off a spreadsheet.

This is a research-based comparison. We did not run payroll in either product. We compared them using each vendor's Canadian pricing page, product pages, and help documentation, and checked the underlying rules against canada.ca. All prices are regular list prices in CAD with monthly billing, checked September 2026. For the wider field, including Payworks, Knit, and Wave, see our best payroll software in Canada review.

The quick answer

Pick QuickBooks Payroll if your books are already in QuickBooks Online and you pay staff biweekly or weekly. Pick Wagepoint if you pay once a month, use Xero or FreshBooks, or want payroll kept separate from your accounting software.

On price, the deciding factor is pay frequency. Wagepoint's Solo plan is the cheapest option here, and it covers one pay run a month. Once you need more runs, you move to Wagepoint Unlimited, and QuickBooks Payroll Core becomes the cheaper of the two at every headcount we checked. On features, both tools remit source deductions, produce T4s, handle ROEs, and support Quebec. The differences are in the details below.

Feature	Wagepoint	QuickBooks Payroll
Entry plan (CAD/month)	$20 + $4 per person (Solo)	$30 + $5 per employee (Core)
Unlimited pay runs from (CAD/month)	$40 + $6 per person (Unlimited)	$30 + $5 per employee (Core)
Higher tiers (CAD/month)	None	Premium $55 + $8, Elite $80 + $15
Billing currency	CAD	CAD
CRA remittances made for you
T4 and T4A slips
Records of Employment
Quebec (Revenu Québec, RL-1)	Yes, announced Sept. 22, 2026	Yes, RL-1 uploaded manually
Time tracking	Timesheets included	Premium and Elite
Accounting sync	QuickBooks Online, Xero, FreshBooks	QuickBooks Online (built in)
Needs an accounting subscription
Free trial	14 days	30 days

How much do Wagepoint and QuickBooks Payroll cost?

Wagepoint starts at CAD $20/month plus $4 per person, and QuickBooks Payroll starts at CAD $30/month plus $5 per employee. Both publish their prices and bill in Canadian dollars.

Wagepoint has two plans. Solo is $20/month plus $4 per employee or contractor, with one payroll run per month. Unlimited is $40/month plus $6 per employee or contractor, with unlimited pay runs. Both plans include the same features; the only difference is how often you can run payroll. Wagepoint's September 2026 Quebec announcement states there are no extra fees for accounting integrations, reporting, timesheets, or multi-province support.

QuickBooks Payroll has three tiers. Core is $30/month plus $5 per employee, Premium is $55/month plus $8 per employee, and Elite is $80/month plus $15 per employee. QuickBooks does not list a pay-run limit on any tier. At the time of checking, QuickBooks was advertising 90% off the base fee for 6 months. That is a promotion for new subscribers, not the ongoing price, and it applies to the base fee only, not the per-employee fee.

Here is the regular monthly cost at four headcounts. The arithmetic is base fee plus per-person fee times headcount.

Employees	Wagepoint Solo	Wagepoint Unlimited	QuickBooks Core	QuickBooks Premium	QuickBooks Elite
1	$24	$46	$35	$63	$95
5	$40	$70	$55	$95	$155
10	$60	$100	$80	$135	$230
20	$100	$160	$130	$215	$380

All figures are CAD per month at regular list prices, before sales tax, checked September 2026.

Three things stand out. First, if you pay once a month, Wagepoint Solo is the lowest price in the table at every headcount. Second, if you pay biweekly (26 runs a year), the fair comparison is Wagepoint Unlimited against QuickBooks Core, and Core is cheaper by $11 at 1 employee, $15 at 5, $20 at 10, and $30 at 20. For 5 employees paid biweekly, that is $180 a year in QuickBooks' favour. Third, Wagepoint counts contractors you pay through it in the per-person fee, so a business that also pays a few contractors through payroll should include them in the count.

If you are unsure what pay frequency to use, remember that more frequent pay periods also mean more frequent Records of Employment deadlines and more pay runs to approve. Check your province's employment standards before choosing monthly pay.

Do you need a QuickBooks Online subscription to use QuickBooks Payroll?

No. QuickBooks states that you can use QuickBooks Payroll as a standalone product if you do not use QuickBooks Online for accounting. Its pricing page lets you choose a payroll plan and then add an accounting plan as an optional step.

Pairing it with QuickBooks Online adds an automatic link to your books. QuickBooks lists automatic posting of wages and employer contributions to your ledger, and no need to create journal entries between two systems, as the benefits of pairing the two.

If you want both, QuickBooks sells bundles. On its payroll page in September 2026, it listed Payroll Core plus QuickBooks Online EasyStart at $60/month plus $5 per employee, Core plus Essentials at $100/month plus $5 per employee, and Premium plus Plus at $165/month plus $8 per employee. The EasyStart and Plus bundles equal the payroll and accounting list prices added together, so there is no ongoing bundle discount.

For a fair total, compare the same accounting setup on both sides. If you already pay for QuickBooks Online EasyStart, adding QuickBooks Payroll Core for 5 employees costs $55 more a month, while adding Wagepoint Unlimited costs $70 more. If you use Xero or FreshBooks, QuickBooks Payroll would run as a separate standalone system, and Wagepoint has a direct integration with both. Our best accounting software in Canada and FreshBooks vs QuickBooks articles cover that choice.

Does Wagepoint integrate with QuickBooks Online?

Yes. Wagepoint lists integrations with QuickBooks Online, Xero, and FreshBooks, at no extra fee.

According to Wagepoint's description of the QuickBooks Online integration, it maps payroll expenses and liabilities (wages, benefits, payroll taxes, remittances, and deductions) to your QuickBooks chart of accounts, including subaccounts. You choose whether each payroll lands in QuickBooks as a journal entry or as payroll bills.

The practical difference from QuickBooks Payroll is where the data lives. With QuickBooks Payroll, payroll is part of the same QuickBooks company file, so there is no connection to set up or maintain. With Wagepoint, payroll runs in Wagepoint and summary entries are sent to QuickBooks. That is usually enough for bookkeeping and year-end, but you manage two logins and one integration. That separation can suit you if you may switch accounting software later.

How do CRA remittances and year-end filing compare?

Both tools calculate CPP, EI, and income tax and remit source deductions for you. Both also prepare T4 slips at year-end.

Wagepoint states that every time you run payroll, it calculates and submits your CRA remittances on your behalf, and that it generates T4 and T4A slips and files them electronically with the CRA. QuickBooks states that you can e-file and remit payroll taxes with the CRA or Revenu Québec from inside QuickBooks, and that it calculates and fills out T4 and RL-1 forms. Every QuickBooks tier includes auto payroll and tax forms.

Whichever you choose, the deadlines are the CRA's, not the software's. Regular remitters pay by the 15th of the month after the pay date. New small employers who qualify as quarterly remitters pay by April 15, July 15, October 15, and January 15. T4 slips and the T4 Summary are due by the last day of February for the previous calendar year, moving to the next business day if that falls on a weekend or public holiday. You remain responsible if a remittance or filing is late, so check that your remitter type is set correctly during setup. Payroll rules here are general information, not advice; an accountant can confirm the setup for your business. For the definitions, see our glossary entries for CPP, EI, and T4.

How do they handle Records of Employment?

Both include Records of Employment (ROEs) at no extra cost. Wagepoint states that ROEs are submitted to Service Canada on your behalf, and QuickBooks lists Record of Employment on every payroll tier.

The deadline matters more than the tool. For weekly, biweekly, or semi-monthly pay periods, Service Canada requires an electronic ROE no later than 5 calendar days after the end of the pay period in which the interruption of earnings happened. For monthly pay periods, it is the earlier of 5 calendar days after the pay period ends or 15 calendar days after the interruption began. An ROE is triggered when an employee quits, is laid off, or goes on leave, so plan to issue it in your next pay cycle. See our glossary for ROE.

Which is better for Quebec employees?

Both support Quebec, but in different ways: QuickBooks has one year-end step you do yourself, and Wagepoint's support is newly launched.

QuickBooks Payroll remits to Revenu Québec and prepares RL-1 slips. Its help documentation for RL-1 slips describes generating an XML file in QuickBooks and uploading it to the Revenu Québec website yourself, so Quebec year-end involves a manual step. QuickBooks also notes on its pricing page that some product features may be available in English only.

Wagepoint announced full Quebec payroll support on September 22, 2026. The announcement lists Revenu Québec remittances, QPP, QPP2, and QPIP calculations, CNESST and Health Services Fund handling, RL-1 reporting, Quebec statutory holiday pay, and a bilingual interface you can switch between French and English, at no added cost. Before that date, Wagepoint did not serve Quebec employers.

How do support and free trials compare?

Wagepoint offers a 14-day free trial and phone support Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, included on both plans. QuickBooks offers a 30-day free trial and lists free unlimited support, with prioritized support on Premium and Elite.

QuickBooks also lists free guided setup on all payroll tiers, and says there is no contract and you can cancel anytime. Wagepoint states that support from its payroll team is included at no extra cost. We did not contact either support team, so we cannot comment on response times or quality.

One practical point on trials: payroll setup takes real data (your CRA business number and payroll account, employee TD1 details, year-to-date figures if you are switching mid-year). A longer trial gives you more room to enter that and review a test pay run before going live. If you start mid-year, ask either vendor how they load year-to-date amounts so CPP and EI maximums stop at the right point.

What else differs: time tracking and extras

QuickBooks has more feature tiers; Wagepoint has one feature set at two pay-run limits.

QuickBooks Core covers payroll, tax forms, ROEs, workers' compensation, and a workforce portal and app, with 2-day direct deposit. Premium adds faster direct deposit, time tracking, and job and shift scheduling. Elite adds geofencing and project tracking. If your team clocks in by phone and you want hours to flow straight into payroll inside the same product, Premium is the tier to price, at $55/month plus $8 per employee.

Wagepoint documents vacation accruals, statutory holiday calculations, and employer contributions on both plans, and its Quebec announcement lists timesheets among the items with no extra fee. It is a payroll-only product, so it does not offer the scheduling or project tracking found in QuickBooks' upper tiers.

Who should pick which

The choice mostly comes down to your accounting software and how often you pay people.

Pick Wagepoint if:

• You pay once a month. Solo is $40/month for 5 people and $60 for 10, lower than any QuickBooks tier.
• Your books are in Xero or FreshBooks, or you might change accounting software later.
• You want one flat feature set with no tier upgrades for timesheets or reporting.
• You want ROEs submitted to Service Canada for you and prefer a payroll-only Canadian provider.

Pick QuickBooks Payroll if:

• You already use QuickBooks Online and want payroll in the same ledger, with no integration to manage.
• You pay biweekly or weekly. Core is $15 to $30 a month cheaper than Wagepoint Unlimited at 5 to 20 employees.
• You want time tracking and shift scheduling from the same vendor (Premium and up).
• You want a longer, 30-day trial before committing.

If you have Quebec staff, both are options now. QuickBooks has the longer Quebec history, and you do the RL-1 upload yourself. Wagepoint's Quebec support covers more on paper and is newly launched. Our payroll roundup also covers Payworks, which has a longer documented Quebec track record.

If you have not yet set up your business structure or registered for GST/HST, see our guides to sole proprietorship vs corporation and registering for GST/HST.

Sources

• Wagepoint pricing (checked September 2026)
• Wagepoint payroll features (checked September 2026)
• Wagepoint integrations and Wagepoint QuickBooks Online integration overview (checked September 2026)
• Wagepoint Quebec payroll launch announcement, September 22, 2026 (checked September 2026)
• QuickBooks Canada payroll pricing (checked September 2026)
• QuickBooks Canada payroll overview, bundles, and standalone FAQ (checked September 2026)
• QuickBooks help: prepare Relevé 1 slips and summary (checked September 2026)
• CRA: When to remit (pay) payroll deductions (checked September 2026)
• CRA: When to file information returns (checked September 2026)
• Service Canada: How to complete the Record of Employment form (checked September 2026)