Likelihood to Recommend In my experience, Paychex Flex is well suited for small to medium sized businesses. It has been helpful in streamlining the onboarding process and it is easy to update and maintain employee profiles and records. It has worked will in a non-profit environment where there is clergy pay and housing, which can get quite complicated. I cannot think of a scenario where it would be less appropriate.
Read full review If you are handling a large client list, and are selling services, it is dead easy. If you are managing/selling a physical inventory, it seems like it has great options to do that quite well (disclaimer, I do not use those functions, but I have paid attention as that functionality was built into the software). If you want to link your bank account to a bookkeeping platform, this is not the software for you (at least so far).
Read full review Pros I like I can enter payroll and if I need to leave the program, I can resume at a later time and my information is saved. I like the analytics & reports features. I like how all my employees have easy access to their portal. Read full review AccountEdge has a robust report menu that allows a user to slice and dice data for analysis. Report on projects for the life of the project across fiscal years. Report on different departments with segregated income statements. For users who want to run payroll in house that is easily done through the payroll module. Print physical checks or direct deposit to employee's account, process payroll taxes and file year end W2s. My personal favorites are time billing and retainers. As a service based business I can at my fingertips review how much money a client has on deposit with me and how much of that will be billed out at the end of the month. The integration with AccountEdge Mobile rounds it all out with being able to log my time on-site. Last but not least AccountEdge Mobile in general, as the companion app for the desktop software is invaluable. My heaviest use is the spend money feature. Excellent for logging travel receipts & cash expenses while they are fresh on the brain. Really cuts back the data entry at the end of a trip and trying to recall what something may have been for. Read full review Cons Reporting writing is difficult to figure out Employee turnover inside Paychex was a problem, until we were assigned to Neil Williams - since that time it has settled down Pressure to convert personal connection with payroll advisor to using automated service Read full review My biggest frustration, and one that I've mentioned to Acclivity for many years, is that it only permits opening nine windows at a time (plus the home window). I hit that limit almost daily, and then I have to decide what do I close so I can complete the transaction that needed the "9th" window. The Accounts section includes two quick reports, "Analyze Profit and Loss" and "Analyze Balance Sheet. These can be filtered for the current month or any prior month in the current fiscal year. And that's fine most of the year, but at the beginning of the next year, when I haven't yet started the new fiscal year, these only go to December of the prior year. The regular reports for these can select "next year;" why can't these? It would be helpful if the journal entry number would have one or two additional digits available. For example, when I am entering journal entries for a client, I would like to use a number such as CPA2014001, CPA2014002, etc. to distinguish what I enter from the "automatic" entries that AccountEdge does. But that's one more digit than AccountEdge allows, so if I had over 100 adjustments, I would run out of entry numbers. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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
Read full review Without a doubt, when you need to do accounting use the program that will get the job done in the least amount of time with the least amount of errors. Once you are using a program that works you stay with it year after year and you will find yourself even excited about the updates
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review The intuitive interface does all the tasks we need our accounting software to do. Some tasks are slower to process than I would like but overall very usable. Customizable forms let us choose to either go with the easy ready-made out-of-the-box options or retool them to better fit our specific needs.
Read full review Reliability and Availability We have not experienced any difficulties with unplanned outages. Notifications are always made for outages, and they do not effect normal business operations.
Read full review One of the finer advantages of desktop software, it's always available. AccountEdge doesn't suffer from outages or sluggish internet like web based applications do. It's always there when you power on your device!
Read full review Performance 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.
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review On the few occasions we have needed tech support over the years, they were responsive and worked to get to the root of the issues. However, even though Checkout POS is a separate application, it was pitched to us as a natural extension of the functionality of our AE software that would integrate seamlessly. The company's support for Checkout has been minimal at best, and now totally abandoned. That colors our view of Priority's support unfortunately. And to be honest, that's why it's a 9 instead of a 10. So to be fair, AccountEdge's support itself has been very good over the years.
Read full review In-Person Training We did online training only
Read full review Online Training 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.
Read full review Implementation Rating 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.
Read full review unfortunately no.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review For Mac enthusiasts, AccountEdge is the complete installed software solution for small to medium-sized businesses, as it has so many capabilities that QuickBooks for Mac lacks. However, it holds your hand less than QuickBooks for Mac does, so you ought to know what your are doing in keeping business books properly. If your needs are simple, QuickBooks for Mac may be a better solution. QuickBooks Online and Xero are excellent cloud accounting solutions that can be used on the Mac equally well as on Windows. QuickBooks Online offers a similar set of features as QuickBooks for Mac, with the addition of anywhere, anytime access. Xero is a great basic accounting solution in the cloud that can also be used equally well on Macs and WIndows, and offers endless customization and flexibility through its extensive third-party app integration for almost any need.
Read full review Scalability Employees can log in at home and get up to date information on their FSA balance and any medical bill reimbursements they may have uploaded. At renewal time they have the ability to make changes to their FSA or for new employees star the enrollment.
Read full review Return on Investment 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? Read full review Increased employee efficiency - Time is no longer spent switching between programs because all of the information can be found in one place. Customer service has also improved because employees find the program much easier to use, even at the point of sale. Better record keeping - AccountEdge has a very simple invoicing application that allows us to keep track of and balance our accounts. Read full review ScreenShots Priority AccountEdge Screenshots