Employee Navigator is a benefits-focused HR system from the company of the same name in Maryland.
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Paychex
Score 6.5 out of 10
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Paychex Flex, of Paychex' Online Payroll Services, is a cloud-based human resource management and payroll platform. Paychex offers core and specialized services, and scales to meet the needs of small businesses, SMBs, and large enterprises.
I was not part of the decision to purchase Paychex Flex. It was good for the company's needs at the time, but when I joined the company we needed software that was more robust for our needs.
We are very pleased with the change to [Employee Navigator] as it offers more what we needed. It's very customizable and has many features that can be added or taken away depending on business needs. I'd only say it would be less appropriate for a business quite smaller than ours who needed very little in comparison.
For the most part, Paychex Flex is a very good payroll system and is well suited for a small business. Most basic features are simple and user friendly. For businesses that have hourly employees, its timeclock system is a good feature. For businesses that have a large number of employees and more complicated rules and policies, it might not be as appropriate because of the difficulty to set up for these rules and policies
Time off requests. These are easy to perform and track as an employee and user.
Time off approvals. Couldn't be easier. Time of approvals or denials are sent via email and are one-click tasks. Also can be performed in the web UI, but it's so easy.
Manager reporting. Managers can easily see reports on employee time off and make decisions based on that.
It is a great stand alone product. We would like it to tie into a more robust HR solution and communicate with payroll.
Initially there are a lot of features that are turned off, I like to know what a program is capable of so I can be more strategic in implementing a solution.
Having a broker in the middle is both good and bad.
When it comes to audit reports, Paychex Flex could improve on helping clients locate the correct reports for audit purposes more easily
When a client receives a discount, it would be helpful if the discount were automatically provided each year, or if the Paychex rep proactively reached out to the client first, versus the client having to call and request that the discount continue.
It would be helpful if the invoice was emailed to the client versus the client logging in to access invoices.
Overall I like the features that Paychex Flex offers. I am sure that there are other features that I am unaware of, so I am excited to see if there is more that Flex is capable of to make my job easier. The basic features are really user friendly and easy to access. If there ever is an issue customer service is great
Some things could be streamlined. For example, we could do custom options for the "add items" tab which has so many options that we never use. "Medical Pay" could be something that the system remembers for the applicable employees. Salaried employees' salaries should definitely be auto-filled. Overall the system works well but I think it could be improved to be easier to use and read.
We have not experienced any difficulties with unplanned outages. Notifications are always made for outages, and they do not effect normal business operations.
Unless there is lag time within the internet, the Paychex Flex website loads exceptional fast, pages load quickly and reports that I need to print or download load quickly. If I need to create a specialized report, once I complete it I receive an e-mail telling me my report is ready to be downloaded. Changing between web pages is fast as well.
So far, we have had very little reason to call in to Employee Navigator support. Our team who works with them have found it easy and simple to work with them when needed. They aren't able to work on much or divulge how the system works internally, nor what's on the roadmap, but it is still helpful to have timely confirmation.
Our dedicated representative is one of the main reasons we are sticking with Paychex Flex. If it were not for this person, other platforms could provide the same/similar functionality. It is the ability to speak with someone that understands our business and is willing to get questions answered in a timely fashion that keeps us with Paychex Flex.
It was easy to understand and follow along. I do like the informational videos that we can utilize before we opt to call in for customer service support. It has made a difference since sometimes that resolves the issue I may have had and saved myself a phone call to Paychex support.
Implementation was very smooth. The most cumbersome task was entering the current employees into the system during initial set up, but Paychex staff handled most of that and verified against prior system reports as well as internal reports provided to ensure 100% accuracy.
Most of the systems I've used for HRIS systems have been part of the payroll system. What stands out with Employee Navigator is the ability to key your benefit changes into one place, and all vendors are notified of the updates -- no more logging on to three or more sites to make an address change to an employee.
We still use QB Desktop Pro to maintain a Check Register / Overall Balance for the company, but once having tried QB Payroll Online for about 3 months prior to finding Paychex Flex I can tell you that there's just no comparison. QB online is VERY EXPENSIVE and not so user-friendly. I hated every minute of those 6 payrolls we ran through QB online.
I generally do payroll at the office, however I have had to go remote due to internet issues and also had to take payroll on vacation with me. Very easy to log in wherever you are and manage your TAA and payroll
We spent about half the time on open enrollment than we did in the last two years. Employee Navigator was much easier for staff to navigate and be able to complete their open enrollment independently
We've saved several thousand dollars in setup fees to link with insurance carriers since moving to Employee Navigator
I do not believe we have saved anything additionally. The time we've had to spend to get things to hopefully work is sad. This is the reason we've had to turn off all extra "products" of Paychex Flex. Time and Attendance is horrible. Benefits management is horrible. The user experience is horrible.
One thing I do not understand is why are updates for states, cities, counties, school districts, etc. not automatically updated? Should we not get a big red flag if we have an employee living/working, being paid in CA, but they aren't set up for CA sick time? If it is required to be on the paycheck stub to show the balance of the sick time, why would we not be notified that we are out of compliance?
