ActiveCollab vs. Heartland Payroll+

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCollab
Score 5.3 out of 10
N/A
Active Collab is a project management solution built around features such as task management, collaboration, time tracking, and invoicing.
$8
per member/per month
Heartland Payroll+
Score 3.1 out of 10
N/A
Heartland Payroll+ is presented as a complete management solution, designed to serve as a single point of contact, making it easy to deal with any issue. Customers have online access to their payroll data and employee information, and Heartland’s tools are accessible on the go.N/A
Pricing
ActiveCollabHeartland Payroll+
Editions & Modules
ActiveCollab Project Management
$8
per member/per month
Self-Hosted Plan
$999.00
license
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCollabHeartland Payroll+
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup Fee$6.25 per member, per month, annual billingNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Features
ActiveCollabHeartland Payroll+
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
3.6
13 Ratings
71% below category average
Heartland Payroll+
-
Ratings
Task Management5.312 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts3.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling1.011 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration6.113 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology7.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management3.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration4.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access1.110 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking2.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management2.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
5.7
8 Ratings
27% below category average
Heartland Payroll+
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates6.97 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing6.96 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting1.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software7.94 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Heartland Payroll+
5.7
9 Ratings
36% below category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings1.35 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings1.33 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings9.72 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings1.47 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings9.35 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
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ActiveCollabHeartland Payroll+
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User Ratings
ActiveCollabHeartland Payroll+
Likelihood to Recommend
2.3
(13 ratings)
1.2
(9 ratings)
Support Rating
7.1
(3 ratings)
1.0
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCollabHeartland Payroll+
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCollab
Scenarios where ActiveCollab works well 1) ActiveCollab works well for small teams specifically T&M teams.Its invoicing feature is unique & can make your life easy. 2) It is very easy to use & posses good range of filters like on the task list, we can drag/drop tasks, Filter by assignee's,
tasks lists, due dates, or completed tasks. 3) It has some simple but awesome features like when you're in
the middle of writing something i.e a comment on story and get interrupted,
it retains what you wrote. 4) It allows you to tag team members in threads of comments to grab their attention, its really needed when teams are distributed. Thus helping team members to collaborate easily & stay on same page. 5) It integrates pretty well with other web apps like quickbooks , Slack, Trello, HubSpot, Zapier etc Scenarios where ActiveCollab did not work well 1) Tasks can not have multiple assignee's here so if two members are working on same task it did not allow you to reflect that. 2) Sorting capability is not their under invoicing 3) It did not work well for larger teams 4) Search option is not very detailed & you may end up wasting lot of time searching one particular bug or issue.












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Global Payments
We changed payroll companies from Paycom to Heartland this year at the recommendation of our insurance agent who insisted they would integrate with the EASE system, which tracks employee benefits and deductions. However, 8 weeks into it, I regret my decision, since the setup hasn't been completed yet. The lack of responsiveness in some cases is astounding and often we have to ask 3, 4, and 5 times for something to be done. I hate to think what will happen after we are "handed off" from the payroll implementation team to the regular schmucks. We still are not able to track PTO and time off and we have been begging for the self-service feature to be turned on for employees so they can change addresses, bank account info, etc. Their training is NONEXISTENT and their manual is abysmal. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!! I wish I could go back to Paycom!
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Pros
ActiveCollab
  • Great for project and task assignments, project workflow and communications.
  • Solid web-based platform that doesn't require software downloads, also includes great mobile platform.
  • Great reporting tools for managing billing, estimating, project workflow and other essential project details.
  • Allows for both the agency and its clients to interact on a single platform using role-specific permissions.
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Global Payments
  • White-glove customer support. All employees are in the United States and they must pay them well, because they don't seem to have turnover there.
  • Technology is awesome. We have Payroll, HR, T&A, ATS, and onboarding with them.
  • Their Tax Credit tech is amazing. I received more money in tax credits last year than payroll cost me. That's a net positive!
  • Compliance with their HR team is great, and they don't hit you over the head on the price for it.
  • Pricing is fantastic with a 3-year price lock. No BS discounting that jumps back up a year later.
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Cons
ActiveCollab
  • It isn't possible to set members of staff as part time, so if someone is unavailable on certain days you must manually enter them as OOO every single day that they are not in, that other teammates work. Hours also can't be edited individually - everyone is treated as working the same hours in a day, rendering capacity planner useless for flexi working teams
  • Subtasks cannot be assigned their own hours and deadlines, meaning the To Do list view can't be seen in actual date order and capacity planner does not reflect all time allocated to an individual's schedule unless every task is set up as a separate task rather than subtask
  • There is no way to see all tasks of a certain type across multiple campaigns (e.g all copywriting tasks vs all technical tasks) - support team suggested exporting data and making spreadsheets
  • Kanban view isn't available for people's own task lists ('board' view here shows a list)
  • Not possible to have one task be assigned to more than one person
  • Notifications are not sent when tasks are updated, so you have to leave comments and tag people each time
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Global Payments
  • Sometimes the system (geocode) will not allow me to process address changes by asking for help from our specialist.
  • Response for assistance is usually a lot slower when our dedicated specialist is not available.
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Support Rating
ActiveCollab
We have not required support for ActiveCollab as it works pretty seamlessly. We didn't have any issues with using the platform or with any billing issues. The self-service aspect of the platform is robust and easy to navigate so we have not encountered any errors that required assistance from the support team.
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Global Payments
I never have trouble reaching customer support. They always are able to assist with fixing any problems that arise. There honestly haven't been many issues at all. Only ones I've created :)
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Implementation Rating
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Global Payments
The Heartland team could care less about how difficult your experience is. In fact, I think they delight in seeing you struggle!
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Alternatives Considered
ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is easier to use and simpler in its setup. It has the right mix of features and simplicity. It's also project-oriented which is important for our workflow. Other tools are often too task-oriented, making it hard to track projects. Overall, ActiveCollab has a great mix of simplicity with good features.
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Global Payments
I've considered moving payroll over to QuickBooks Online so that everything is in one place, but it would probably take too much work considering that our current system works really well. I think QuickBooks would confuse me, honestly. There are other systems that offer different user interfaces that are neat looking, but I haven't done too much research because Heartland Payroll offered me a really good deal for processing since we are a small company.
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Return on Investment
ActiveCollab
  • Allows our team to stay organized and keep conversations on tasks.
  • The To-Do List email every morning helps me mentally prepare and know exactly what I should be doing as soon as I start work.
  • Powerful and useful integrations save lots of time (Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, Zapier and more!).
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Global Payments
  • We have a net positive using Heartland. We actually bring more money in from their tax credits than the payroll service actually costs.
  • I used to have a part-time person handing our payroll/HR needs. Now this is done by me because it's so easy.
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ScreenShots

ActiveCollab Screenshots

Screenshot of the dashboard with an overview of projects.Screenshot of multiple task views currently showing a Kanban view of the tasklists and tasks.Screenshot of Overview of all recent activity.Screenshot of Calendar view with task dependencies.Screenshot of Permission settings (owner, member, client, client+).Screenshot of List of available Add-ons.