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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Guideline

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AGuideline headquartered in San Mateo offers a cloud-based 401k management software for businesses priced on a per employee basis.N/A

    SurePayroll By Paychex

    Score2.1 out of 10
    N/ASurePayroll offers an online payroll service that lets small business owners run payroll anywhere, anytime. The vendor automatically pays and files federal, state and local payroll taxes.

    $29

    per month

    Pricing
    GuidelineSurePayroll By Paychex
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GuidelineSurePayroll By Paychex
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GuidelineSurePayroll By Paychex
    Considered Both Products
    Guideline
    No answer on this topic
    Paychex Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    73%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    38%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    44%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    73%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    44%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    78%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    38%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    56%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    Features
    GuidelineSurePayroll By Paychex
    401(k)
    Comparison of 401(k) features of Guideline and SurePayroll By Paychex
    Feature
    Guideline
    6.3
    3 Ratings
    19% below category average
    SurePayroll By Paychex
    -
    Ratings
    Payroll Integration5.62 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance Maintenance6.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Plan Flexibility7.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Filings and Disclosures5.12 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ease of Enrollment7.53 Ratings00 Ratings
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Guideline and SurePayroll By Paychex
    Feature
    Guideline
    -
    Ratings
    SurePayroll By Paychex
    1.4
    16 Ratings
    142% below category average
    Pay calculation00 Ratings2.516 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings1.012 Ratings
    Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings1.09 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration00 Ratings1.27 Ratings
    Direct deposit files00 Ratings1.213 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings1.212 Ratings
    Reimbursement management00 Ratings1.210 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GuidelineSurePayroll By Paychex
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    APS
    Score5.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GuidelineSurePayroll By Paychex
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.5
    (11 ratings)
    1.0
    (27 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    1.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (3 ratings)
    9.2
    (5 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GuidelineSurePayroll By Paychex
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Guideline
    I believe that the only thing more broken than Guideline's product is their customer support. From initial contribution dates to the disastrous account closure that cost us personally thousands of dollars, this has been by far the worst SaaS and customer experience I've ever had in my career. If only 1) Guideline's product or 2) customer support had individually been broken, we would not have ended up in this state. I sent dozens and dozens of emails inquiring about oddities I was seeing in the product, but Guideline's reps only gave more conflicting and what ended up being grossly inaccurate feedback and status updates. I hope this review reaches anyone who is thinking of closing their Guideline account. Be extremely wary of what Guideline says and does in the account closure process and exact for detailed and exact timelines (you'll have to follow up many times...). For those of you who haven't yet selected a 401k provider, I'd recommend staying as far away from Guideline as possible.
    Incentivized
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    Paychex Inc.
    We use SurePayroll to make monthly payrolls in our company, as well as to close the month and year with all the income and expenses and most importantly to make tax payments. The application is perfect for making payrolls when the personnel adapted for it is not in the head office, SurePayroll has an application for mobiles that allows to make these operations remotely. The application is perfect when you want to make immediate payments, at the time of loading the payroll to the system, it proceeds to automatically perform transactions for each employee entered without any error.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Guideline
    • Administrate individual 401(k)
    • Understand the contributions accumulated in total and per year
    • Understand the percentage of salary being contributed per pay period.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Paychex Inc.
    • Super easy interface - honestly running payroll couldn't be easier on their site.
    • Incredible customer service - VERY knowledgeable, professional and friendly. They will walk you through anything you need to do on the site and understand payroll, tax and benefit issues.
    • Tax filing and payments and year-end paperwork for 1099 contractors and W-2s. They make it so easy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Guideline
    • I feel that the customer support was abysmal - In my experience, we were consistently given conflicting advice and statuses as we closed our account with Guideline. Despite many, many follow-ups attempting to clarify our current status and remaining steps to close the account, Guideline's reps continued to provide, I believe, misleading and inaccurate steps. This cost us thousands and thousands of dollars given Guideline was not able to appropriately pull the funds before closing the account.
    • Guideline's integrations - I believe there is clearly a broken pipeline between Guideline and Rippling. In my experience, contributions were not funded as expected when we first opened the account, and when we closed our account, there was no communication between Guideline and Rippling. Guideline continued to expect contributions into perpetuity despite closure of the account
    • I feel that Guideline's product itself is just broken in critical places - most importantly, statuses of contributions were reflected incorrectly in the software (Guideline thought funds were transferred, but they were not and Guideline never attempted to pull the funds from our bank). This, combined with the terrible customer support, cost us thousands and thousands of dollars after we closed our account. There are many absolutely critical features that are broken -> to give just one of many examples, it was not possible to update the bank account information and no error message was thrown. I was told that our account ended up in an exceptional state given our last payroll contribution date and account closure, but these seem like very basic things a 401k provider has to get right if there are going to manage people's money.
    Incentivized
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    Paychex Inc.
    • My chief complaint is the software sometimes requires me to have a code sent to my phone before I can continue with some process. That in itself is fine. The problem is the check box that lets SurePayroll remember the computer doesn't actually do that. I select that check box every time, but the software doesn't remember me or my computer.
    • Fees have creeped higher every year over the last two or three years. I feel like I'm nitpicking here, though. What I spend for the service is reasonably priced for the amount of headaches it prevents.
    • I have a case where an employee is sometimes salaried and sometimes contract. There's not a way to handle that without terminating him when he needs to switch.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Guideline
    No answers on this topic
    Paychex Inc.
    Very likely, easy to use, support system in place.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Guideline
    Well thought out and intuitive user experience for employees and administrators. Educational documentation has been a plus
    Incentivized
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    Paychex Inc.
    It's a poor user interface. It feels like the interface is twenty years old. If you make a mistake with payroll in their terrible UI, and try to correct it 15 seconds later, they want to charge you $39 to correct your mistake. Overall, a very poor experience in terms of user interface.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Guideline
    The few questions that we've had have been answered quickly and helpfully. The implementation was a breeze and the onboarding contacts were really helpful. There was some stuff I had to learn about 401(k)s in making the decision to implement Guideline, but the Guideline team was helpful in pointing me in the right direction.
    Incentivized
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    Paychex Inc.
    SurePayroll was great when we had questions or needed support, ie. if we messed up with a payroll, needed to submit tax documents or get documents. The ease of communication between us and the organization was great and they made it easy for users to call in with support requests.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Guideline
    No answers on this topic
    Paychex Inc.
    They were awesome. They knew the system very well and could help me very much.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Guideline
    No answers on this topic
    Paychex Inc.
    No, I can't think of any.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Guideline
    We selected Guideline due to their relationship with Gusto, our payroll service. However, we did review alternative options for our 401k program and found them very competitive as to price and quality. We were thinking about going with one of the bigger companies like Schwab, E*TRADE, Ally, etc., but found Guideline to be the best choice for us based on price and ease of use.
    Incentivized
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    Paychex Inc.
    SurePayroll offers a comparable service at a better rate. They are better designed for small companies who need to save money any way they can. Their fees are more appropriate than ADP but the service offerings are just as good.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Guideline
    No answers on this topic
    Paychex Inc.
    In retrospect, I wouldn't change anything.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    Guideline
    No answers on this topic
    Paychex Inc.
    We were able to calculate different hourly numbers when we completed Certified Payroll for professional services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Guideline
    • Allow small employees to enhance benefit package
    • Great recruitment tool for new employees
    • Connection with payroll vendor allowed for less manual work
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Paychex Inc.
    • SurePayroll helps us process payroll quickly and effortlessly 97% of the time.
    • On the rare occasion when there is an issue SurePayroll needs to address, it can take hours and hours of time over many months to get that issue resolved. Through the process, SurePayroll employees have always been professional and courteous in their communication.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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