Intuit Online Payroll (discontinued) vs. Proliant

I believe the ideal scenario is when you are already using the Intuit family of products and the payroll bolts on to your existing QuickBooks infrastructure. Payroll software products have been around a long time, and this is a very competitive niche. Most of the companies do a good job of filing taxes promptly, reporting W-2 items properly, providing good reports, etc. Where you might really get some extra efficiency and benefit is the fact that the payroll is woven into the accounting system, creating one seamless enterprise solution. Also, where it might be less appropriate is in a really simple use case such as a one person company where there aren't complex fringe benefits to deal with. In that scenario, you can set up the ACH debits directly with the state agency and the IRS and possibly file your own 941, 940, W-2/W-3 and state equivalent forms. Of course, if you're willing to do this and are good with details, you can save yourself some money.

Incentivized

This is solely based on two things: the fact that we have been unable to have issues fixed after more than a year of dealing with them AND since a key contact for us left we are unable to get a fast turnaround on many questions unless we contact the person who handles our payroll. I like the platform and it's easy to use, but when it's not functioning how we need it to, that's a problem. I still cannot see what my actual PTO balance is on my dashboard (the same for three other employees). This is an issue.

Incentivized

• Integration with QuickBooks Desktop. This is the key strength of IP... it is a complete, native integration and let's you maintain all employee records and time keeping in QuickBooks
• Job Costing. Another key differentiation -- some payroll outsources say they do true job costing (by work or item code). Don't believe them. If its' not integrated with your accounting system, you will not get "TRUE" job costing. You can get costs ASSIGNED to jobs (which may be fine), but you won't get item level detail in QuickBooks from anyone but Intuit.
• Variety of Payment options. Use Direct Deposit or manual checks... or whatever you want. Since its in QB, you can make payments any way you want.
• Cash Flow. This is both good and bad, but IP will not take taxes out of your bank account until they are due. That's different than some other providers that want assurance that you have the tax payments available at the moment you push "SUBMIT."

Incentivized

• Fantastic customer service!!
• Well implemented products.
• Well rounded choices for all HR needs.

Incentivized

• My biggest issue is that they do continue to raise their prices on a regular basis and it makes people feel stuck when there are so many clients already using the system.
• They do not support roaming employees, so employees that cross over into various tax jurisdictions in one pay period pose a challenge for calculating taxes and pay.
• The setup can be a bit daunting still if you are not familiar with the system or the various taxes and requirements for reporting.

Incentivized

• I cannot get RPO to be changed to how it needs to be for our business needs (when T&L employees move to salaried, for example). I have had several meetings regarding this and it still is not fixed -- more than a year later
• Slow response from employee.helpdesk@proliant.com often leads me to send messages to payroll administrator for response
• I believe we are paying for some added services; I do not know what these services are and I've asked on several occasions to have someone contact me about this.

Incentivized

Works perfectly as advertised. Our simple needs are well taken care of.

Incentivized

I would rate it a 0. It gets worse and worse all the time. It seems like every time I go into IOP to run a payroll for one of my clients, I have one more problem.

Super user friendly!

Incentivized

The customer support personnel have always walked me through the steps they need to take to assist me. Never rushed through anything. Always exceptionally thorough, answering all my questions and even sharing my screen visually (I have control, not them). It actually helps me to resolve future issues and questions, if they should arise.

Incentivized

It's a payroll software with decent customer support readily available and direct integration with my accounting tools. This made it a prime fit for me, and made payment and tax reporting relatively simple, and errors readily correctable. It does not have time tracking, and I still believe that this software is overpriced, but it's the best fit for me right now.

Incentivized

Proliant is the only payroll software I have used, and I don't plan on changing that anytime soon. It gives me everything I need in simple, easy-to-use software. If I have questions they have quality customer service. I get calls weekly to change to other payroll services, and I don't consider changing because there is no need to change - I have everything I need here. Proliant does exactly the job I am looking for it to do.

Incentivized

• Positive: Less of a learning curve to train payroll accountants, as they are already familiar with using Intuit. Also, in general there are a larger pool of candidates who know this system than many of the other "niche" lesser known payroll products.
• Positive: More options to choose from depending on the level of service needed. For example, there is a Full Service offering if needed. This might apply to an organization that doesn't have the resources available or an internal person who has the time/bandwidth to handle the entire company's payroll. Thus, it is possible to cherry pick the level of service needed depending on the type of company/situation.
• Positive: Good audit trail. This can be extremely important and cost efficient when a business is going through an external audit by an outside CPA firm and the payroll accounting function is undergoing testing (ie. less time required by the external auditor would likely lower their bill for their services).

Incentivized

• All of my employees use the app on a regular basis and love it.
• Proliant has helped us solve tax issues our last payroll company could not

Incentivized