Likelihood to Recommend I think that APS Online is scalable to any organization. It's a wonderful product and I have had so many managers that work with me that feel the same way. We haven't been with them quite a year yet but since we've started it has made a world of difference for us. Things to ask about- 1- Do they specialize in or can they accommodate states that you are working in and their various rules? 2- What type of customer service? Do they have a call center or do they have a designated person like APS? 3- How long do your reports stay in the system? (ADP "archived" theirs after a year so we couldn't reach them)
Read full review I would love to use Gusto for companies of all staff sizes but I understand that larger businesses will opt for a PEO and willingly give up flexibility and features to do that. However, I love that Gusto can be customized on so many levels – offer letter, adding documents for new hires, document verification, deploying documents to existing staff, tracking who has signed, helping staff select health benefits (love that this is an entirely paperless process!), screen share support (love this!), a host of integrations with other apps are easy to link up. The interface is delightful (love the piglet!), HR support for Master Admins is very professional. There are templates, forms, rules and updates provided for all States. And the reports are so easy to read, customize and understand. Amazing!
Read full review Pros It's fast and intuitive. Our previous contractors were ADP and Paychex and neither were intuitive. Our payroll runs have less errors now than with previous vendors. Payroll prep time is down from 5 hours with ADP to 2 hours with APS for the HR Manager. The limiters are great. I'm always afraid of that error that no one caught. Let's assume that you add a $200 limiter to overtime. Any time that a staff member is about to receive more than $200 in overtime for that pay period, a red flag goes up for the HR manager to double check. We have 3 programs in public schools that block certain ports. APS has a 2nd feature using GPS so that staff can only check in for their shift while they are in the designated GPS range. Great for someone who has to report to a remote location. Just add the GPS coordinates and they can't check until they get to the project. Read full review The self-service aspect of the software is very nice. We rarely need to get customer service involved. For the first 2 years of our subscription to Gusto, customer service has been good when we needed it. We have also had good experience with third parties recommended by Gusto including a 401(k) administrator, R&D tax credit analyst, and background check software. Read full review Cons Reporting - We have six different business units and the reporting is separate for all three. Most reporting I do requires information from all business units so am running six reports and then copying and pasting to get the report I need. Multi-state taxes - We have a number of employees who live in New York and work in New Jersey. APS OnLine is designed to accommodate one state withholding so ability to have "worked in" state and "lived in" state taxes withheld went away. This was a shortfall. The Carrier connection setup took much longer than expected. After a year, we are still having some issues with some items transferring over to the GL. The CA overtime calculation does not calculate after 8 hours per day, only on the 40 per week so we override each week. Reporting - when running Benefit reports, it recognizes employees who formerly carried the plan but may have dropped it. To get around this, we have to delete off the employee's record so the history is not readily available. Read full review The support isn't very impressive, although it's rare that we even need their help. I would like to see a better scheduling tool for the staff. Currently I have to use Homebase for this feature alone because Gusto's offering is lacking in this area. Read full review Likelihood to Renew I have been using the system for over a year now and feel more comfortable with the functionality of it. I have just recently implemented the benefit administration portion.
Read full review Unless they break it, I'm never leaving. It's just too easy. Gusto is also really affordable, and for what I pay, it's worth having the historical record within the system. I like that I can go back and pull up W2's for year's past. This sort of easy access reporting, has been helpful especially when getting reports for PPP loans.
Read full review Usability In general, it's a great system to use. We were looking for simplicity and ease of use and have received raves from our employees in their ability to access and make use of the system. There is still so much more that we have yet to gain as we continue working through each of the modules.
Read full review The UI is clean and simple. It's incredibly easy to find what you need to find, and if you can't, a quick search of their help files will direct you where you need to go about 90% of the time. For that last 10%, a support e-mail will result in a quick answer. Almost any time I try to do something new I haven't done before with Gusto, I can do it in a few minutes.
Read full review Reliability and Availability I haven't had any outages
Read full review Performance Very quick
Read full review Support Rating I had to learn APS on my own, and the support team held my hand. They are still there when I have an occasional question. Anytime I need support, I can call my rep or send an email and help is on the way, without failure. The support team is awesome
Read full review Gusto's customer service has really deteriorated lately and they seem to have really changed their focus. It used to be when you called you were routed to an individual who knew about payroll, benefits, reporting, etc. but now you get someone who seems to have not received the correct training. My last call about a dismissal payroll took me over an hour of my time and the person still could not help me and finally transferred me to someone else.
Read full review In-Person Training Even if it wasn't in-person on location, we felt like we had our trainer in the room with us.
Read full review Online Training We had great webinars.
Read full review Implementation Rating It would have been helpful to understand the phases of the implementation up front so I could have prepared differently for enrollments, billing, and transfer of information to payroll. At the end of the day, I'm happy with the selection and the system and anticipate I will like it better as we go along. We have done a number of other system implementations in the past few years, and this has been pretty painless, however, I've had a few surprises.
Read full review Super easy to implement and use!
Read full review Alternatives Considered I have used ADP for many years and always found the system to be restrictive in ADP's resistance to building rules that matched the organization's needs rather than asking the organization to modify its policies to match 'canned' rules already built within ADP. Bamboo and several other newer systems really cannot support the many separate EINs under the corporate umbrella. And, finally, the other products are simply too costly for this organization.
Read full review Gusto was the only payroll provider we used for our business. Before Gusto we were running payroll manually, which was cumbersome and didn’t account for our tax liability. Gusto is heads and shoulders above running payroll manually. It takes the load of payroll management off your shoulders and gives employees and easy to use portal to manage their personal payroll information.
Read full review Scalability I've never had a problem with the system nor in finding the right information.
Read full review Return on Investment APS OnLine has helped us streamline the payroll process by freeing up our time of not having to personally cut and sign weekly paychecks. We don't have to rely on check signers to be present which has helped our timeliness as well. Read full review Saves me time and time is money so I've definitely saved money using Gusto over other payroll providers 401k integration was not a good fit for my size company unfortunately, which I was disappointed about initially, but if you are a larger company it could be an excellent asset to your benefits structure for your team Has increased employee retention because of its ease of use Read full review ScreenShots