The RUN Powered by ADP® cloud-based solution is used to pay employees. It also includes HR and hiring tools, as well as benefits, helping small businesses grow and manage their teams.
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Intuit Online Payroll (discontinued)
Score 8.4 out of 10
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Intuit Online Payroll was a small business payroll option available as a standalone SaaS solution, that Intuit announced it was discontinuing in favor of Quickbooks Online Payroll, available via Quickbooks.
I've used Intuit, Gusto & Paychex. Whenever I can, I refer clients to use RUN Powered by ADP payroll because of their easy payroll processing and the 24hrs service they provide.
When I was an office manager we were using Intuit to pay and be paid! When I came to a new company we started using ADP, and I now use RUN Powered by ADP for both jobs I work at. I think both services are good, but RUN gets the job done here because we do not need to submit our …
I prefer Run to QuickBooks in all aspects except price. However, the quality of the ADP product is worth the premium if the customer can afford it. Run is very comparable to Workforce Now in its core function but is obviously less robust in terms of functionality.
It is unfortunate to be stuck with only one solution and to be paying for each client. The two-day (and in some cases, one day) turn around time really sealed the deal for me. And that is without pre-funding an account. It reduces complexity, so I'm not paying for a bunch of …
It is a very simple payroll processing platform. I would recommend the platform to any small business looking to outsource the process. Its pay-per-person policy also makes it adaptable to businesses with minimal employee counts. I think it may not be as useful for employers who have consistent hourly employees that do not fluctuate as often.
I believe the ideal scenario is when you are already using the Intuit family of products and the payroll bolts on to your existing QuickBooks infrastructure. Payroll software products have been around a long time, and this is a very competitive niche. Most of the companies do a good job of filing taxes promptly, reporting W-2 items properly, providing good reports, etc. Where you might really get some extra efficiency and benefit is the fact that the payroll is woven into the accounting system, creating one seamless enterprise solution. Also, where it might be less appropriate is in a really simple use case such as a one person company where there aren't complex fringe benefits to deal with. In that scenario, you can set up the ACH debits directly with the state agency and the IRS and possibly file your own 941, 940, W-2/W-3 and state equivalent forms. Of course, if you're willing to do this and are good with details, you can save yourself some money.
Payroll runs are consistent, timely, and error‑free, even when handling multiple pay rates, deductions, or changes. Direct deposits process smoothly and predictably.
RUN Powered by ADP® manages federal, state, and local tax withholding, filings, and payments without requiring manual oversight. This significantly reduces compliance risk and administrative workload.
Common actions—running payroll, adding new employees, updating pay rates—are straightforward and guided, which helps prevent mistakes.
Integration with QuickBooks Desktop. This is the key strength of IP... it is a complete, native integration and let's you maintain all employee records and time keeping in QuickBooks
Job Costing. Another key differentiation -- some payroll outsources say they do true job costing (by work or item code). Don't believe them. If its' not integrated with your accounting system, you will not get "TRUE" job costing. You can get costs ASSIGNED to jobs (which may be fine), but you won't get item level detail in QuickBooks from anyone but Intuit.
Variety of Payment options. Use Direct Deposit or manual checks... or whatever you want. Since its in QB, you can make payments any way you want.
Cash Flow. This is both good and bad, but IP will not take taxes out of your bank account until they are due. That's different than some other providers that want assurance that you have the tax payments available at the moment you push "SUBMIT."
When processing bonuses, it would be nice to have a NET pay selection, in addition to the GROSS pay selection.
I receive WAY too many emails asking me to purchase additional services, including some that we already have through ADP.
I receive(d) daily requests for our Section 125 Compliance documentation, which I sent over four times to each different individual who requested them. ADP "mentioned" they'd charge us $350 for this compliance plan, even though we have it and proved it by submitting the "required submission" of the policy multiple times. It's very frustrating, and it causes me to worry about (A), the validity of the request and (B) ADP's recordkeeping, since they can't keep up with the document I've sent multiple times.
My biggest issue is that they do continue to raise their prices on a regular basis and it makes people feel stuck when there are so many clients already using the system.
They do not support roaming employees, so employees that cross over into various tax jurisdictions in one pay period pose a challenge for calculating taxes and pay.
The setup can be a bit daunting still if you are not familiar with the system or the various taxes and requirements for reporting.
It is much better than the payroll system I used previously. The integrations that RUN has for on-boarding new hires are very convenient when they work properly. It saves a tremendous amount of time being able to email a link to new employees that allows them to enter much of their own demographic information. Payroll feature alerts me when someone's pay is significantly less or more than usual.
I have been using this system for years and they have actually made it easier and easier. The system is always making great upgrades that don't necessarily require any additional information or training. I love when I log in and see a new feature or button that I get to use to make my life easier!
I would rate it a 0. It gets worse and worse all the time. It seems like every time I go into IOP to run a payroll for one of my clients, I have one more problem.
We've had very little issue with RUN availability, only a couple times there were outages when least expected which occurred on our actual payroll due date
ADP Run loads a bit slowly at times, once I put in my credentials. However, that said, I think my perception of the time it takes is impacted by our "instant gratification" expectation of being able to get into everything quickly.
I appreciated having that issue finally take care of. it was extremely disheartening to see the issue had not been resolved. I also had my employees looking to me and thinking I was not trying to resolve the issue so it reflected poorly on my character. I do not know if i was because of a miscommunication, but nonetheless I was happy it was taken care of
The customer support personnel have always walked me through the steps they need to take to assist me. Never rushed through anything. Always exceptionally thorough, answering all my questions and even sharing my screen visually (I have control, not them). It actually helps me to resolve future issues and questions, if they should arise.
RUN Powered by ADP® is stronger than QuickBooks Online for payroll and HR because it offers advanced HR tools (job postings, compliance support, employee handbooks), friendly, extended hours live support, and integration with numerous platforms. QuickBooks focuses mainly on payroll/accounting, while ADP provides broader HR capabilities, scalability, and compliance expertise along with extensive training.
It's a payroll software with decent customer support readily available and direct integration with my accounting tools. This made it a prime fit for me, and made payment and tax reporting relatively simple, and errors readily correctable. It does not have time tracking, and I still believe that this software is overpriced, but it's the best fit for me right now.
Every summer, we hire three new college interns who have to be entered into the system. They can enter their information themselves, which takes a load off me. The onboarding is quite straightforward, and today's college kids are techy enough to be able to understand it.
Positive: Less of a learning curve to train payroll accountants, as they are already familiar with using Intuit. Also, in general there are a larger pool of candidates who know this system than many of the other "niche" lesser known payroll products.
Positive: More options to choose from depending on the level of service needed. For example, there is a Full Service offering if needed. This might apply to an organization that doesn't have the resources available or an internal person who has the time/bandwidth to handle the entire company's payroll. Thus, it is possible to cherry pick the level of service needed depending on the type of company/situation.
Positive: Good audit trail. This can be extremely important and cost efficient when a business is going through an external audit by an outside CPA firm and the payroll accounting function is undergoing testing (ie. less time required by the external auditor would likely lower their bill for their services).
