Heartland Payroll+ vs. Justworks

We changed payroll companies from Paycom to Heartland this year at the recommendation of our insurance agent who insisted they would integrate with the EASE system, which tracks employee benefits and deductions. However, 8 weeks into it, I regret my decision, since the setup hasn't been completed yet. The lack of responsiveness in some cases is astounding and often we have to ask 3, 4, and 5 times for something to be done. I hate to think what will happen after we are "handed off" from the payroll implementation team to the regular schmucks. We still are not able to track PTO and time off and we have been begging for the self-service feature to be turned on for employees so they can change addresses, bank account info, etc. Their training is NONEXISTENT and their manual is abysmal. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!! I wish I could go back to Paycom!

Justworks is a competitively priced product for small businesses and start-ups and, in my opinion, offers a better product and better customer service than larger PEOs competing in the same small-buisiness space (ex. ADP). I believe Justworks would work well for companies up to 200 employees; after that, I believe a bigger PEO may provide an enterprise solution better suited for a larger company (and their HR reporting needs)

Incentivized

• White-glove customer support. All employees are in the United States and they must pay them well, because they don't seem to have turnover there.
• Technology is awesome. We have Payroll, HR, T&A, ATS, and onboarding with them.
• Their Tax Credit tech is amazing. I received more money in tax credits last year than payroll cost me. That's a net positive!
• Compliance with their HR team is great, and they don't hit you over the head on the price for it.
• Pricing is fantastic with a 3-year price lock. No BS discounting that jumps back up a year later.

• Onboarding employees on their first day. We use Justworks to set up the employee calculate the first payroll, and perform the I9 employment verification. The process is seamless and all can be done electronically and automated which makes it very simple
• Payroll processing. Justworks automatically calculates the payroll earnings, related taxes and withholdings and will automatically withdraw and deposit the funds. This is a seamless experience
• Customer Service. Justworks is incredibly responsive and helpful. HR related issues can be a nightmare but Justworks make it easier and more efficient since they are always on call to answer your questions and make life easier.

Incentivized

• Sometimes the system (geocode) will not allow me to process address changes by asking for help from our specialist.
• Response for assistance is usually a lot slower when our dedicated specialist is not available.

Incentivized

• JustWorks couldn't accurately track our PTO. We use an accrual system that maxes out at 88 hours. We incentivise our employees with additional PTO hours based off of goals met. The JustWorks platform allowed our employees to accrue far more PTO than what was offered. They didn't have a feature that offered a Cap and accrual.
• When using the JustWorks reports for 401K, if not using their integrated 401K provider, the reports give you every employee regardless of whether or not they contribute. This makes it difficult when adding the contributions in separately.
• JustWorks tracks historical data for employees. Whenever there is a salary change made, it keeps track. However, it shows a salary adjustment made on the day they are entered into JustWorks which can be very confusing. We switched from another PEO mid year and it looked like I made salary changes on the beginning date. This made it difficult to differentiate an actual salary adjustment.

Incentivized

I never have trouble reaching customer support. They always are able to assist with fixing any problems that arise. There honestly haven't been many issues at all. Only ones I've created :)

Incentivized

Justworks offers many different options for customer service. You can contact them via email, phone or Slack. They are quick to resolve issues and if your Account Manager is out of office, they have other Managers covering your account who are knowledgable and ready to support. They also have an office in New York, which makes their support even more localized.

Incentivized

The Heartland team could care less about how difficult your experience is. In fact, I think they delight in seeing you struggle!

I've considered moving payroll over to QuickBooks Online so that everything is in one place, but it would probably take too much work considering that our current system works really well. I think QuickBooks would confuse me, honestly. There are other systems that offer different user interfaces that are neat looking, but I haven't done too much research because Heartland Payroll offered me a really good deal for processing since we are a small company.

Incentivized

Justworks is a much simpler platform with better pricing. I remember ADP's cost was tied to a certain percentage of the total payroll, which is not ideal if you have highly compensated employees. Though ADP offered more ancillary benefit options and group employee discounts, we feel Justworks suffices and meets our daily HR needs.

Incentivized

• We have a net positive using Heartland. We actually bring more money in from their tax credits than the payroll service actually costs.
• I used to have a part-time person handing our payroll/HR needs. Now this is done by me because it's so easy.

• We're still new to Justworks, but for nearly everyone on our team, this is the dealmaker. Benefits plans are worth more than salaries to the best hires.In fact, part of the process we used to choose Justworks was to send their offering, in advance, to our team to approve of, first.
• Dealmaker for great hires!
• Financial security for their families!
• Compliance management.

Incentivized