ADP Workforce Now vs. Dayforce vs. Xero

My great experiences with ADP are largely due to the experience I have within the system and the service level we receive through Kelly and Brian. On the technical side, we have immense support from Abhayjyot Mann who heavily supports the payroll team with any request or problem. All in all, my team is satisfied with ADP and are excited for our continued partnership.

Incentivized

Dayforce has great customer support, and you can always count on them to get you the professional help you need. It is a great place to store all your personal data in a very secure manner by assigning different user roles. The only thing where I wouldn't see it appropriate is for very small-scale companies, less than 50 people.

Incentivized

I am a massage and physical therapist. We are not a fancy business but business admin can take a lot of time and effort. Xero came recommended to me by colleagues in the sector. You raise invoices, you get paid. and you pay your bills. These are all daily scenarios for most businesses and Xero does this particularly well. Since my accountant can query my records directly, this greatly saves on bookkeeping time when it is time to do the company returns.

Incentivized

• HRIS that is personalized for the employee and addresses DE&I needs.
• Payroll, of course! The system addresses all needs, such as deductions, additional pay, premium OT, and shift differentials.
• Onboarding is an excellent way to stay in compliance and have all documents completed.
• Tax and Banking and resolution to any issues.

Incentivized

• Payroll - it shows everything in real time and it runs quickly.
• People - Having all employee details from the offer letter to W2 information in the same spot.
• Dayforce Wallet: The on-demand feature is fully integrated with Timesheets and Payroll. What shows in one will be in the other.

• Repeating invoices (most of my business is monthly recurring invoices) - it does these very well.
• Reporting - particularly being able to dig into the different lines of the P&L statement.
• Tracking categories - I assign a category to every line of every invoice so it's easy to see how much has been sold of each type of service every month and year, and compare them to previous periods.

Incentivized

• Customized pre-process payroll reports (Limited on pre-process payroll reports)
• Labor Allocation (Allocations make payroll reporting very hard to review and find any errors )
• Recruiting (ATS is very basic)
• Geofencing (should be able to change shape rather than a circle)
• Pay Classes (should be able to change at Practitioner level rather than reach out to support)
• Cookies and Cache have to be cleared on a regular basis
• Only able to see employee documents/acknowledgements one at a time in the employee file
• Timecards can only be managed/viewed by 1 person
• Timeoff emails do not have a link
• Cost per payroll - not just monthly fee so cost with off cycle payrolls
• Separate I9 step not needed - during onboarding - 2nd Everify step
• ADP Workforce Now does not pull in allowances for Houly employees into payroll ONLY Salaried employees

Incentivized

• In payroll, there are sometimes issues with calculating pay when people’s rates change mid-pay period
• Would love to see an option to assist with building SQL or XML statements in the future (maybe co-pilot AI?)
• Would love an easy way to store pre-hire documents with candidates that syncs over to their HR profile when hired

Incentivized

• Multiple addresses for singular contacts.
• Limit unit price decimals to 2 digits, currently shows 3 or more after the decimal on invoices.
• Discounted rates for multiple entities within the same group e.g. if you have a group of 3 or more companies looking to move to Xero, incentivize those clients with discounted monthly rates.
• Easier way to reconcile loan accounts across multiple entities.

We are happy with the service and options offered by ADP. Although the cost is a bit high for a not-for-profit organization, it is essential that we have multi-jurisdictional support for the 20 plus states where employees work and reside. As our company is diminishing in size, we may need to look at making a change to conserve costs. At this time, that would be the only reason we would not renew our WFN contract.

Incentivized

We are highly invested in Ceridian's Dayforce product. It give us the flexibility and scaling that our growing company needs. Its potential reaches beyond the basic HR functions to the decision making that our Management Team needs. Ceridian is always innovating the employee and employee experiences to offer cutting edge options.

Incentivized

In addition to the matters covered in this review, my reason for renewing this product is that Xero's functionality and the constant updates that the company provides, makes the software even more business friendly. The software therefore builds a brand loyalty among customers.

Lack of documentation and test environment make it extremely difficult to deploy work processes through the system. While there are a handful of things throughout the system that work well, particularly from an employee's perspective, many tasks, which would be simple for practitioner users in other systems, require these users to ask for administrator support. Additionally, the ghosts in the ADP machine cause established process (e.g. automated report delivery) to stop working with no notice and no error report.

I give Dayforce a 10 because it was easy to integrate into our network since it was cloud-based. It is also user friendly and easy to maneuver around the web site. We were able to integrate three separate applications into just one site which made it easier for employees to access the tools they need

Incentivized

As a standalone software, it allows users to fulfill most of the basic functions (e.g. transaction input and report generation) simply and conveniently. It also allows for multiple APIs to help augment various tasks that accounting-adjacent (e.g. claims processing). The cloud based model and portability to mobile devices allows tasks to be carried out in a more convenient way.

ADP outages are very rare

Incentivized

Dayforce's high availability ensures that our HR processes are supported around the clock, which is critical for a global organization like ours. The platform is cloud-based, offering reliable access from any location at any time, allowing our employees, managers, and HR teams to stay connected regardless of time zones or geographic locations. This level of availability ensures that payroll processing, employee self-service, and real-time data access continue uninterrupted, even during peak periods or unforeseen disruptions. The system’s robust infrastructure minimizes downtime, which is vital for operations that span multiple regions. Additionally, having a centralized platform that’s always available helps keep our teams aligned, ensures compliance, and facilitates timely decision-making across all our locations.

Incentivized

We have been actively using and 100% Xero based for our ecommerce accounting practice for over 4 years. There has on been one real outage for more than 5 minutes. Xero was open and transparent about the outage, what they were doing to resolve the issue, and provided 15 minute updates. Showing how they care about their customers and partners. Plus, showing that their customers care too, were understanding, and went surfing or in our case took a nap. Couldn't run our business without Xero as a partner.

Overall, I think the functionality of the program works pretty well. Sometimes, certain browsers do not work well for the policy function of ADP, but that is the only issue thus far

Incentivized

We haven't noticed any slow-down due to the integration of Dayforce WFM with our Ceridian HPL products (HRIS and Payroll). The new HTML view of the timesheets don't load as quickly as the old Silverlight view - however, we have gotten used to the change.

On a good day, things worked but after upgrades, things began to slow and or not work at all at times. I coined the moving circle while I waited as the "Xero Wheel of Death". Sometimes it never stopped and force quitting was necessary.

Incentivized

The Bridge is great for self-service. The ticketing system is effective and people are responsive. I really like the chat feature which is available for many sections of ADP. Those agents are top notch and quick to get you an easy and correct answer

Incentivized

This is dependent on what type of support that is needed. Ceridian has opportunities to make improvements relating to support on the global/UK side. I find it challenging to get problems solved quickly with our UK Native payroll. The US side is different. We tend to get our issues resolved quickly when we encouter issues on the US side.

Incentivized

Always respond and keep issues open until you are satisfied with the result. Generally good responses, in the past, I had some support responses that were really basic and really annoying. They type where "have your tried restarting your computer" style of answers. Well, of course, I went through all the basics before contacting them. Duh, but I suppose not everyone does. Otherwise, it would be a 10. The last year has shown a marked improvement in the support responses however.

In-person training was pretty good - I think this significantly depends on the trainer. Our trainer was really good and showed what ADP can do - but I know that all trainers are not the same - and this truly makes such as difference. Overall, our training went pretty well.

Incentivized

This training was at insights, it was great once we have been on the system for a while so it makes sense.

The format was great; someone was there to ask questions or help if you were stuck.

Incentivized

At the time training was not as expansive as it is now. If it could go wrong it did for me so the process was difficult and lengthy. I needed to have more in person walkthroughs of things to ensure the transition was done correctly. Not sure what else I can say, we were part of the initial move to Workforce Now when it was introduced.

Incentivized

The courses are very interactive and informative. There are classes for every topic, which allows you to make the most of the system. There are also some "go at your own pace" course which is a great option for a busy schedule.

Incentivized

All of Xero's training is online and available for anyone (business owner or accountants) to learn and become experts in their system. There is a range of content from product training to real world webinars from their partners. Xero is beautiful accounting software and their training is the same.

Either assign more than one specialist to the implementation process, or assign less clients to the implementation specialist. The process requires attention to detail and the ability to test and re-test as well as verify the information. It also requires a lot of back and forth between the client ant the implementation specialist, so they need to be readily available during the whole implementation process.

Have a strong internal team. Communicate with your implementation team - they are there to make it work for you. Take the time to really think about how you want the system to work for you - in some cases, you may need to rethink your own business practices to see if you are working harder when the system could do it for you

Incentivized

If it can be done, time the implementation near a new fiscal year so you can start clean. Otherwise, you have to go back and do historical data from the beginning of the fiscal year, which can be brain draining.

Incentivized

ADP Workforce Now has greater integration possibilities, scheduling and data management capabilities than Payworks. ADP Workforce Now is better designed for businesses with more complex needs. I have found ADP's customer service more responsive and better informed to help customize the product, reports, and/or just clarify instructions to complete payroll. Payworks may be better suited for small businesses with simply payroll needs, however ADP does offer the On The Go platform which stacks up well them, so I would advise someone to explore this option as well.

Incentivized

Having Payroll, HR, Time, and Benefits all in a single application with Dayforce has significantly improved efficiency and accuracy. Unlike other solutions with third-party integrations, Dayforce eliminates data silos, reduces errors, and saves time by streamlining processes, providing a more cohesive and user-friendly experience. Dayforce also had a competitive price point versus competitors

Incentivized

MYOB has always seemed well behind in the functionality. We recently discontinued our DEAR subscription due to astronomical increase in subscription fees. While Xero doesn't do as much in terms of inventory management we can manage without that function for the lower price.

Incentivized

We have several departments that utilize the reporting, utilize the timecards and the system. We also have self service that is nice for all of our employees. This system allows us to designate what each group can see, and what employees can change, or who can clock in and out offsite

Incentivized

Overall, we are extremely happy with the Dayforce WFM module. Our biggest pain point is concerning the twice annual software upgrades - which is the only reason I haven't rated them as a '10'. Because every customer is configured differently, the upgrades can sometimes have adverse effects on our current configured policies/rules. And although they roll-out the upgraded version in a test environment several weeks before go-live, not all testing is accurate in that environment. Some issues do not present themselves until you are working with live punches.

I have yet to fully stress test the product given the size of the company where I am using it. I am sure as we scale to more customers, more vendors and more reporting requirements, I will have a better understanding of what it is capable of in terms of bandwidth and processing

Incentivized

• ADP Workforce Now handles all of our tax filing which frees up our time to do other things. They keep us compliant communicating updates on a timely basis.
• Calculates payrolls accurately. Our management and employees have built a level of confidence due to the ease of pulling statements, year end documents etc.
• A really nice feature is the follow up email what a change has been made to banking information. There were a couple of times the employee did not make changes to their account information. This kept their funds from getting routed into the wrong hands.

Incentivized

• Easy to integrate to SAP Fiori an BlueWorx
• The efficiency within Ceridian DayForce has allowed our payroll department of only 2.5 FTE handle paying ~3,000 employees.
• Easily handles the differences and nuances in our multiple bargaining agreements. Everything from different pay schedules and unique rates/bonuses for some of the most detailed/granular CBA details.

Incentivized

• Xero is a basic accounting system that performs basic accounting tasks easily and accurately. For that, it provides a positive impact on our day to day accounting operations.
• Because of Xero's basic structure, I feel it lacks some of the sophistication that some users want and need. The ability to create unique custom reports would enhance the impact Xero would have on meeting business objectives by providing current and useful accounting information.
• In my opinion, Xero's lack of focus on their customers - their users - is a real issue with me. In my opinion, those of us that are in the trenches that work with the system on a daily basis have to deal with the shortcomings of the system with the knowledge that Xero support refuses to address the operational issues that make their user's lives difficult. I feel if Xero would focus on truly making their software better from a users point of view, it has the potential to be a great system.