Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review The level of benefits and cost is very attractive for smaller companies, who normally would not be able to offer "big company benefits" if they had to manage each of these benefits directly with a broker or other. Has been a very position employee acquisition and retention feature for our small company of 50 employees. TriNet is not for you if you prefer to customize all of your employee benefits programs and other offerings. TriNet is one approach, and either you can make it work, or it may not be for you.
Read full review Pros 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." Read full review state final pay compliance - we have employees in every state and it is nice to be able to rely on the fact that we are always compliant when people leave Leave administration - I love not having to manage employees leaves VOE - I love that we could give away VOE's. Simply scan and send to TriNet Read full review Cons 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. Read full review System can be challenging to navigate for employees with multiple nav options on left and upper areas or subjects are not easily related to what is in their mind; multiple handbooks and similar Customer service has improved in the last year but there is still room for improvement. Some tickets/cases simply take way too long with little communication while open. Best improvement is putting more power in the hands of the front line. Managing unusual circumstances with payroll Read full review Likelihood to Renew Works perfectly as advertised. Our simple needs are well taken care of.
Read full review This is one stop shopping perse. They provide tools for Benefits and 401k. There reports are easy to read and the support given from Trinet support is awesome. Having everything in one place is best then having multiple places for things. Why change if things are working well? All the information is all there when needed.
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review Compared to other PEOs we have used, the TriNet platform is both powerful and user friendly. Both the employee and admin views are extremely easy to navigate and, with the exception of time off tracking, we only hear positive feedback from employees. Overall, it is a solid and versatile platform.
Read full review Reliability and Availability They used to be really good at this when I had a dedicated person. Now that it's a general customer service account, it's really gone downhill and I don't get responses at all sometimes
Read full review Performance Pages load at a speed that isn't too fast or too slow. I never have to wait long, but it's not instantaneous
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Paula Byrd IRS Registered e-File Provider / Tax Preparer & Consultant
Read full review We don't need to use the Customer Service features often, but when we do, the team is quick to respond and very knowledgeable about our needs. Once again, making our time in the system minimal allows us to focus on growing our business.
Read full review In-Person Training it's been awhile, but I recall them being helpful. I got through a lot of it and when I needed help, they can walk me through it over the phone. It's also pretty user friendly in general at a platform. I don't really know what else to type, but they came and helped me in person and also when there was something new, they came and talked to me. They have not done that since with the new model that I hate
Read full review Online Training Since this was already implemented. I have another employee briefly train me. Then Trinet rep gave me some training as needed for things that came up. For one payroll preview report I figured it could be done, but I had asked the rep to be sure. One important training was when there was an employee leaving the company.
Read full review Implementation Rating not applicable as I implementation was done 5 years ago and have no recollection of the details of the process. Above it says to skip question if not involved in the process but it will not allow me to skip it as it states explanation requitred thus making this process extremely frustrating.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review TriNet worked with our smaller employee headcount and offered coverage for both the US and Canada. And we switched from Insperity because of the cost savings which were significant. I liked Insperity but TriNet has been an excellent firm to work with as well.
Read full review Contract Terms and Pricing Model I was not part of the process
Read full review Scalability Cause it can be used as mentioned for sites and departments. Or even if employees work out of state and not at the HQ the the employer. Trinet makes is easy to do for payroll in other states as well.
Read full review Professional Services Not sure it was used or not as the implementation was completed before I started working for the company
Read full review Return on Investment 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). Read full review I mainly used the ATS and I had to do a lot of extra work than other ATS's I have used in the past. When hiring a candidate, transferring the information from the ATS to the HRIS is nil, there is a lot you have to manually put in, which can be very frustrating. I like the way how I can upload a candidates resume seamlessly. Read full review ScreenShots