Mediaboss Marketing

To decide which providers made the cut for this guide, we assessed the available free payroll software to determine which would best meet freelancer, startup and small business needs. This assessment was based on the softwares free plan features and functionality, free plan limitations, add-ons and extra fees (if any), upgrade options and customer reviews. Below is a deeper look at our assessment process.

In putting together this guide, we aimed to include software with feature sets that went beyond the expected. Such added features included HR functions and capabilities, reporting, employee portals, multiple payment format optionscheck and direct depositdeduction management and unexpected security features, such as biometric face recognition.

Additionally, as we assessed the free plans features and functionality, we paid close attention to the limitations the free plans imposed on small businesses. The limitations assessed included the number of employees the software would allow businesses to pay or even maximum and minimum amounts businesses could pay each employee to qualify for free software usage. We weighted pricing at 20% of our total score.

We worked to uncover plans that were truly free without extra fees for essential features. We also looked for plans with nice-to-have add-ons that users could take advantage of as their budgets permit. The essential general features we looked for included having a self-service employee portal and offering contractor payments. Other good-to-have features included new hire onboarding. third-party integrations, ledger reports and other reporting and analytics offerings.

In ranking the top free payroll software, we prioritized the providers that offered paid, more full-featured plans so freelancers, startups and small businesses can start with the free plan, then advance to plans that fit their needs as they grow. Features accounted for 30% of our final score.

As we chose providers for this guide, we listened attentively to what customers who have and are using the software had to say about it. Namely, we looked at what software features, capabilities or services met their needsor, better yet, delighted themand which inherent bottlenecks kept customers from meeting business goals. These accounted for 15% of the total score.

Using our market research and close scrutiny of the categories listed above, we also ranked additional criteria from customer reviews, such as any detailed or stand-out features, popularity, ease of use and value for the money. Altogether, these criteria made up 35% of the total score.

Featured Partners

Benefits administration

Yes

Base monthly price

$40 per month plus $6

Benefits administration

Yes

Base monthly price

$40 per month + $6 per user

Benefits administration

No

Base monthly price

$39-plus per month, depending on company size and needs

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Best Free Payroll Software (2023) Forbes Advisor - Forbes

Most invoicing software includes base software features, such as the ability to send invoices and receive payments. There are many other features that the top invoicing software offers to make it easier for you to track payments, contact clients and manage inventory and finances.

Though keeping accurate stock counts is more vital for businesses that sell physical products, it can still be a viable feature for service-based businesses. Most businesses that use invoicing software track inventory in a separate application. If you choose invoicing software that includes inventory tracking, you can consolidate a bit.

Although most invoicing software gives you the ability to send invoices to your clients, a portal for your clients can be even more helpful than an email. A client portal makes it possible for your clients to log into the software to see the progress youre making on projects and estimates, along with past, current or upcoming invoices.

Service-based businesses rely on time tracking tools to keep a running tab on billable and nonbillable hours to use for invoicing. When time tracking is included as a feature in your invoicing software, it can be a huge help. You can instantly turn billable hours into the amount your client owes and send the invoice. Otherwise, youre stuck doing work in separate software.

Having a mobile app for invoicing can be a convenient tool if you often work away from your desk. You can easily send invoices and payment reminders from your phone or tablet anywhere you are as long as you have an internet connection. If you prefer using push notifications, some invoicing mobile apps will let you know when a payment goes through so that you dont have to keep checking your payment apps or email.

Invoicing software that includes reports, prebuilt or custom, can be an eye-opening feature for businesses. With analytics, you can collect data that will help you make future business decisions. You may discover most of your clients pay invoices from their mobile phones or that your customers rarely check payment reminders.

Perhaps one of the most important invoicing software features is the ability to integrate with other platforms. If you choose basic invoicing software, you want to make sure it will work with the software you use regularly. At the very least, you want your invoicing software to integrate with accounting software and payment processors. Its helpful if it also integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) software, marketing tools and time tracking tools.

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Best Free Invoice And Billing Software (March 2023) - Forbes

Java, the most widespread technology in current enterprises, provides complete toolkits to support the implementation of a well-designed architecture.

Hands-On Software Architecture with Java starts with the fundamentals of architecture and takes you through the basic components of application architecture. You'll cover the different types of software architectural patterns and application integration patterns and learn about their most widespread implementation in Java.

You'll then explore cloud-native architectures and best practices for enhancing existing applications to better suit a cloud-enabled world.

Later, the book highlights some cross-cutting concerns and the importance of monitoring and tracing for planning the evolution of the software, foreseeing predictable maintenance, and troubleshooting.

The book concludes with an analysis of the current status of software architectures in Java programming and offers insights into transforming your architecture to reduce technical debt.

By the end of this software architecture book, you'll have acquired some of the most valuable and in-demand software architect skills to progress in your career.

Hands-On Software Architecture with Java, from Packt, usually retails for $41.99, but BetaNews readers can get it entirely free for a limited time.

All you have to do to get your copy for free is go here, enter the required details, and click the Download button.

The offer expires on April 5, so act fast.

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Get 'Hands-On Software Architecture with Java' (worth $41.99) for ... - BetaNews

By Dina Bass

Neo, the startup accelerator founded by Silicon Valley investor Ali Partovi, is forging a partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft Corp. to give free software and advice to companies in a new track focused on artificial intelligence.

Companies accepted to Neos AI cohort will receive credits to use Microsofts Azure cloud as well as OpenAIs GPT language generation tool, Dall-E image creation program and Codex, a product that helps write and understand programming code, the companies announced Tuesday. The startups also will get access to researchers and mentors at Microsoft and OpenAI.

Since OpenAI released its ChatGPT chatbot in November, as well as its latest language model GPT-4 last week, interest has soared among startups and established companies seeking to build the technologies into their own products. Microsoft, which recently boosted its investment in OpenAI by a reported $10 billion, is widely testing a new Bing search engine that uses GPT-4 and is overhauling its Office software. Startups working in generative artificial intelligence so called because the tools are used to create new content saw funding hit $2.65 billion in 2022, a 71% increase from the prior year, according to CB Insights.

Partovi, Neos chief executive officer, was an early investor in companies including Facebook and Dropbox Inc., and in 1998 sold his startup LinkExchange to Microsoft, where he got his first taste of the technology industry as an intern in the early years of Windows. Partovi sees these new AI tools as having similar importance as the jumping-off point for other applications and companies.

As impressive as these innovations are, their greatest potential lies in how theyll enable the next generation of startups the things that other people will build on top of them that we havent seen yet, he said.

Neo, which is also a venture firm, has invested 46% of of its capital to back CEOs who are women or members of underrepresented groups, Partovi said. That focus on diverse companies and founders will be critical for the development of AI.

This is not just about an industry or about money its about in many ways the future of humanity, and including diverse voices in that conversation is necessary for getting it right, he said.

Partovi expects about 10 or 12 AI startups among the 20 companies that Neo will accept for the new track of its accelerator program.

One of them is run by Justin Fineberg, a co-founder whos built a 250,000-person following on social media by talking about how businesses can use AI. Finebergs company, which is about a month old, is called CassidyAI. Its working on software tools that let customers build AI assistants for their specific company without having to know how to write programming code.

When youre an early stage startup in the AI space and youre able to work directly with the biggest names Microsoft and OpenAI that really gives you a pretty competitive advantage, Fineberg said.

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Neo to partner with OpenAI, Microsoft to give free software, advice to cos - Business Standard

A hair care line, a company using recycled glass to replace lost coastal areas and a business that makes it easier to train employees are facing off against each other at theNew Orleans Entrepreneur Week pitch competition.

This year's event, which has been restyled "NOEW Fest," starts on Monday and continues through April 1, with the addition of a closing "fun day" of food and music at The Broadside in Mid-City. While most of the educational events will remain free.some of the fest events that take place through the week now require tickets, including the March 31 pitch final at Generations Hall in the Warehouse District.

Sydni Raymond will be there making the investment case for Bomb Ass Fro, the company she founded two year ago, inspired by her own quest for a way to deal with the bad hair days she has struggled through in the oppressive humidity of her native New Orleans.

Raymond, a Xavier University graduate, was fed up with having to buy so many products and decided she needed to create her own all-in-one solution. She recruited a chemist and together they began experimenting. In early 2021, Bomb Ass Fro was born.

If we win, the first thing I will do is get my inventory back up, said Raymond, who manufactures in Tampa and fulfills online orders from a local warehouse facility. I also plan to hire employees and expand my product line. Eventually, wed like to get into salons and retail outlets like Whole Foods.

Her competitors include Glass Half Full, a company founded in 2020 by then-Tulane University students Franziska Trautmann and Max Steitz who were looking for ways to make glass recycling both useful and profitable.

"We're innovating in a traditional space (and) our business model is to have revenue at both the front end and the back end," Trautmann said.

Glass Half Full has a roster of residential and business clients who pay them to pick up glass and take it to their facility in the Desire area, where it is crushed into sand and gravel. The results are used in coastal restoration projects, or sold to landscapers, jewelry-makers and flooring manufacturers.

The company has done three coastal restoration projects so far: one on land owned by the Pointe-au-Chien Indian tribe; one at the Big Branch National Wildlife Refuge on the north shore; and another at the Bayou Bienvenue Wetlands Triangle.

Glass Half Full has gotten by so far on grants and "free money" from GoFundMe campaigns. Trautmann said a win would give them money to expand their pick-up program to Mississippi and eventually to open hubs in other Gulf states.

David Decuir said his company, iCan, came about while he was working for Danos. The Terrebonne Parish energy company wanted Decuir to run training and figure out a way to get employees new skills and monitor their progress. He started to use cloud services to put together comprehensive programs that make it easier to plot how employees are acquiring the skills they need for specific jobs.

Not only have the current owners of Danos invested in iCan, but that led them to start Danos Ventures and start backing other start-ups.

This year's winners will not be holding up big prize money checks, as in previous years, according to Jon Atkinson, CEO of the Idea Village, which produces NOEW. The checks have always been a bit misleading, as it is an "investment prize" that comes with strings attached: the winners have to meet certain investment goals and then the prize money is invested.

Last year's exceptionally large prize fund of $750,000 was made possible because of the largesse from companies like Levelset and Lucid, local startups that had been sold the previous year.

This year, the winners won't immediately know how much they will get as Idea Village is still finalizing a new investment platform that it hopes will provide a more predictable and sustainable source of prize money that can be spread more widely.

"NOEW 2022 was a special moment for IDEApitch," said Atkinson. The prize money pot was the largest of any start-up pitch competition in the country.

While this year's competition won't have big checks on stage, the Idea Village is working on implementing a more expansive funding strategy, with the support of last year's investors and the state's new State Small Business Credit Initiative program, Atkinson said.

He has promised competitors the prize money will be "comparable" to last year's.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify that admittance to Ideapitch will no longer be free.

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"Bomb Ass Fro" up against glass recycling and skills software for this year's pitch prize - NOLA.com