Paychex

Score6.9 out of 10

624 Reviews and Ratings

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Paychex

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What is Paychex?

Paychex Flex, of Paychex' Online Payroll Services, is a cloud-based human resource management and payroll platform. Paychex offers core and specialized services, and scales to meet the needs of small businesses, SMBs, and large enterprises.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Screenshot of Employee Background Checks

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Screenshot of Paychex Payroll Dashboard

Performance tracking
Performance tracking allows managers to track individual progress against goals as a component of overall performance.
Category average: 7.8
Individual goal setting
Individual goal setting is the ability to define individual goals that align to organizational and subordinate goals.
Category average: 7.7
Line-of sight-visibility
Line-of-sight visibility is the provision of line-of sight visibility for each goal to see how goals support overall corporate objectives.
Category average: 7.8

Ability to combine HR data with external data
Ability to bring data from external systems like CRM and combine with HR data.
Category average: 6.8
Applicant Tracking
Applicant tracking allows recruiters to assign applicants to various stages so others can see status at a glance
Category average: 8
Duplicate Candidate Prevention
Duplicate candidate prevention prevents candidates already in the system from being added
Category average: 7.6

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using Paychex.

Based on HG Insights installation data

View all Reviews

#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

14.3%

874 installations of 6,119

#2 most frequent

Manufacturing

13.2%

809 installations of 6,119

#3 most frequent

Health Care and Social Assistance

11.2%

687 installations of 6,119

Pros

Streamlined processing of core payroll functions
User-friendly interface for employee portals and general navigation
Effective integration of time-tracking data

Cons

Inconsistent customer support with perceived knowledge gaps among representatives
Difficulties with report generation, customization, and ease of access
User interface described as clunky or difficult to navigate

Adrian Andrade View profile

Payroll Manager in Human Resources at Motiva Associates (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use it for processing Payroll, creating Manual Checks, downloading and creating of types of reports, adding new staff, obtain W2 and 1095-Form, for compliance and establish records. This platform helps us organize and accomplish a secure an exact pay date for all staff as to keep them updated all the time with notifications, active balances and pay stubs. Any problem, we have an immediate agent that provide us an answer as also through their different departments they keep us in compliance with the requirements.

Pros

Uploading Payroll to their software.
Saving employee's information.
Protecting their direct services accounts and secure transactions.
Pay on time.
Processing Payroll.
Creating and sending Taxes documentations as W2 & 1095-F.

Cons

Should be more flexible on creating new reports.
Sometimes there are glitches creating manual check that you end up doing all over again.
Time Accrual needs more freedom to adjust to one's specific formula.

Return on Investment

We have 100 employees and only one or two times have we had an issue that ended up taking care.
Now that employees needs to validate their direct accounts, it became safer to do transfers.
Due to being with them for almost 1 years, they give us a special discount of almost 50%, therefore we save money while keeping their services.
Employees can download all their pay stubs, W2 or 1095s by themselves.
It is connected to Cal Savers, therefore they automatic applies their deductions as the same with medical insurances.
We save a lot of time on W2 Forms, Taxes and helps us with compliance.

Usability

Other Software Used

Rethink Behavioral Health, KPA EHS Software, B&P EASE ERP

Jamie Lopes

Chief Operations Officer at Senior Placement Services, LLC (1-10 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Paychex Flex for our payroll needs. We find that it keeps everything in one place for each of our employees and assists with tracking and submitting all necessary tax documents and filings throughout the year. We appreciate that we don't have to take time away from our day to day to monitor and track all of the necessary back-end tasks related to payroll and tax reporting. We also participate in a SimpleIRA plan which is separate from Paychex but we are still able to utilize the tracking and withholding to make it easy for everyone. The reports are useful and easy to manage. They offer support when needed. We have been a customer since 2014, and we appreciate the partnership. They have made that side of our business much smoother and streamlined. Ensuring employees pay is recorded accurately and timely is extremely important, as well as knowing it is all easily accessible for both employer and employee.

Pros

organization
tax documents
reporting
perks

Cons

Support when assigned a specialist, actually speaking directly to them
when self-reporting payroll, a free-text field to add notes
some HR options that don't require an entire package to manage

Return on Investment

Efficiency
Employee Self-Service
Time saving 100%

Usability

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Online, Google Workspace

Kenadee Whitton

Assistant in Customer Service at Xpress Fuel Mart (11-50 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

For our company, we use Paychex Flex to do payroll, and track all employees hours and vacation hours.

Pros

Keeping important information for each employee.
Making it easy to add in new hires and remove employees who are no longer with us.
Making it easy to do payroll.

Cons

Separating the clock in and clock outs totals hours for each employee's pay period by weekly instead of the totals of the whole period in the timecards section. Such as the first week have the total hours for the week, same thing with the second week, then have the overall total hours for that pay period under the employee's hours.
Maybe being able to add in all employees' schedules before the pay periods to start to make it easier to check all hours of each employee.

Return on Investment

I just started doing payroll and it was easy to learn with little instruction
TAA makes it easy to access

Usability

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Online

Beth Baker View profile

Office Manager at Xpress Fuel Mart Inc (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it for our payroll service and also our retirement account is now set up through Paychex as well. We do use it in multiple locations for time and attendance. Its great that the time and attendance offers a geo option to ensure that employees are clocking in at the locations and the times that are allotted to them.

Pros

Time and attendance
Our account rep is great at handling the issues and questions that I have
Fairly simple to use
great access to reporting

Cons

the vacation time justification could be a little more user friendly

Return on Investment

love that they have to clock in and out on the app, only an issue if they do not have a phone. But overall love it.
trying to get employees to onboard themselves however some don't understand how to do it. But I love the concept
When used correctly by employees, Payroll is very fast and efficient.

Alternatives Considered

ADP GlobalView Payroll

Usability

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Desktop Premier

Phil Knapp View profile

Quality Manager in Quality Assurance at Laser North Inc. (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Paychex for a multi-functional solution covering payroll, benefits management, training, and compliance-related operations. Our department heads can manage employee time tracking, PTO requests, and monitor overtime in real time through their standard Paychex logins. We're just getting started with the software, and we still haven't fully realized its benefits. We expect to nearly double our use of the software in 2026.

Pros

Payroll management.
Benefit enrollment & management.
PTO requests and approvals.
Calendar management.
401k management and monitoring.
Safety training.

Cons

I understand logging you out is a security function, but I'd prefer it not to log you out so soon.
The training we received for the team's meeting was subpar, in my opinion. Probably better geared for people with little to no computer experience. Very slow pace; we could have easily received all of this from some tutorials in a few minutes.

Return on Investment

This software has provided visibility to shift managers and department leads that they never had before in managing their subordinates. They now have an easy-to-use go-to source for seeing who has PTO, how much they have available, and what the work calendar looks like, allowing them to make better-informed decisions.
With this software to manage open enrollment, we can now get through that process with a tool we use regularly, rather than jumping into enrollment management software only once a year and having to relearn it each year.
Literally thousands of steps are saved each week by not needing to traverse the entire shop floor or track people down to clear up questions with time cards. With everything digital, so much can be observed and addressed in real-time through the app.

Usability

Other Software Used

ProShop ERP, Autodesk Fusion, Hexagon

Paychex

What is Paychex?

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Paychex Key Features

Top Performing Features

Performance tracking

Individual goal setting

Line-of sight-visibility

Areas for Improvement

Ability to combine HR data with external data

Applicant Tracking

Duplicate Candidate Prevention

Who Buys & Uses Paychex

Most Frequent Users

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Manufacturing

Health Care and Social Assistance

Most Frequent Users

Small Businesses

Mid-sized Companies

Enterprises

Most Frequent Users

United States of America

Canada

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Most Frequent Users

Finance

HR

Admin

Paychex Reviews

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Other Software Used

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Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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Other Software Used

Paychex Alternatives