QuickBooks Offers Direct Deposit for B2B Independent Contractors

A product launch from QuickBooks seeks to profit from one of the main ongoing trends in payments now: getting wages to independent contractors as quickly as possible.

QuickBooks on Thursday (May 31) said it is now offering “Contractor Direct Deposit” as a new feature in QuickBooks Payroll. The tool supports businesses “who want to pay their independent contractors the same convenient way they pay their employees – via direct deposit,” the company said in a press release.

These are heady times for the gig economy, independent contractors and the legal and payment issues attached to those areas.

Uber and Lyft, for instance, face subpoenas in California that seek more information about their employees — the legal move follows a court decision in that state that makes is harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors. Additionally, some companies are seeking profit in offering spend management and payment tools designed to better serve firms that rely on gig and freelance workers.

The new QuickBooks tool gives “small business owners confidence in their finances,” according to the press release. “With each payment, a record is kept up to date in QuickBooks, so when tax time rolls around preparing and filing is lot easier for employers.”

Intuit, which owns the QuickBooks accounting software, estimated that “43 percent of the U.S. workforce will be made up of self-employed contractors by 2020,” according to the company’s statement. “In fact, 30 percent of U.S. small businesses pay at least one self-employed contractor annually.

Earlier this year, in roughly related news, StaffKeep announced that QuickBooks users can access its services through the App Store to streamline payroll onboarding. The company facilitates online completion of new hire paperwork, supporting electronic signatures of key documents like IRS W4 forms.