Great alternative to more robust systems for teams that don't need all the bells and whistles
payroll processing, tracking paid time off, tax documentation and filing
Starting at $59 per month/+$4 per employee
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What is Paychex Flex?
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.
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Popular Features
- Direct deposit files (270)9.292%
- Update personal information (239)9.090%
- Pay calculation (271)9.090%
- View and generate pay and benefit information (228)8.686%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Video Reviews
1 video
Paychex Flex Review: One Users Payroll Management Story
02:26
Pricing
Paychex Go
$59
Cloud
per month/+$4 per employee
Paychex Flex Service
Contact sales team
Cloud
Paychex Flex Enterprise
Contact sales team
Cloud
Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee required
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Features
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Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Paychex Flex?
Paychex Flex® is an HR solution boasting simplicity, with technology that grows and changes with the user's business. Paychex combines business solutions and dedicated support, to help users:
•Hire, pay, manage, and retain employees
•Get experienced support as needed with a 24/7/365 U.S.-based, live support team
•Stay ahead of changing laws and regulations with Paychex compliance experts
•Access information on the go with the Paychex Flex Mobile App and Paychex Voice Assist
Talent Management: Recruit, retain, and develop top talent from a single HR platform and streamline the hiring and onboarding process.
Workforce Management: Improve employee efficiency and productivity with workforce management resources.
Payroll and Financial Support: Pay employees and manage taxes, and expenses.
Employee Benefits: Attract and retain top talent by offering valued employee benefits while simplifying plan administration.
PEO and HR Outsourcing: Support the business throughout the entire employee lifecycle with comprehensive HR outsourcing solutions.
Employee Experience: Save time and improve accuracy by giving employees access to self-service HR, training, and financial tools.
Integrations: Automatically connect and share data between software and Paychex Flex.
Choose the right level of technology and support for the business now — while keeping the ability to grow as needs change.
Paychex Flex Features
Human Resource Management Features
- Supported: Employee demographic data
- Supported: Employment history
- Supported: Job profiles and administration
- Supported: Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.
- Supported: Benefits information
- Supported: Organization and location management
- Supported: Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)
Payroll Management Features
- Supported: Pay calculation
- Supported: Off-cycle/On-Demand payment
- Supported: Payroll history for each employee
- Supported: Benefit plan administration
- Supported: Direct deposit files
- Supported: Payroll tracking and auditing
- Supported: Salary revision and increment management
- Supported: Reimbursement management
- Supported: Statutory form management
Leave and Attendance Management Features
- Supported: Approval workflow
- Supported: Email notifications
- Supported: Balance details
- Supported: Travel absence management
- Supported: Annual carry-forward and encashment
Employee Self Service Features
- Supported: Employee login
- Supported: View and generate pay and benefit information
- Supported: Update personal information
- Supported: Request time off
- Supported: View job history
- Supported: View company policy documentation
- Supported: View company news and information
Asset Management Features
- Supported: Tracking of all physical assets
HR Reporting Features
- Supported: Report builder
- Supported: Pre-built reports
- Supported: Ability to combine HR data with external data
Integration with other HR capabilities Features
- Supported: Additional HR capabilities (talent management, LMS, etc.) supplied by same vendor
Onboarding Features
- Supported: New hire portal
- Supported: Manager tracking tools
Recruiting / ATS Features
- Supported: Job Requisition Management
- Supported: Company Website Posting
- Supported: Publish to Social Media
- Supported: Job Search Site Posting
- Supported: Duplicate Candidate Prevention
- Supported: Applicant Tracking
- Supported: Notifications and Alerts
Additional Features
- Supported: Retirement- Single Record
- Supported: FSA
- Supported: Health Insurance, COBRA
- Supported: Mobile App
Paychex Flex Screenshots
Paychex Flex Video
Paychex Flex Demo
Paychex Flex Integrations
- QuickBooks Online
- Xero
- Indeed.com
- BambooHR
- Clover
- Altametrics
- Insight360
- LCP Tracker
- Hubworks
Paychex Flex Competitors
Paychex Flex Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Mobile Web |
| Supported Countries | United States |
| Supported Languages | English, Spanish |
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
ADP Streamline Payroll, Enterprise eTIME, by ADP, and ADP Vantage HCM are common alternatives for Paychex Flex.
Reviewers rate Notifications and Alerts highest, with a score of 9.8.
The most common users of Paychex Flex are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(551)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(51-75 of 299)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
June 20, 2023
Paychex Flex
Payroll, full charge including filing and paying payroll taxes. Which is by far the most useful tool. Making sure that the taxes are paid on time is most important to me and the company very helpful as the IRS and State want that information on time. I feel very comfortable that Paychex Flex has the expertise.
- Payroll reports
- Customer Service
- Accuracy
- Improve the ability for the customer to to enter your own payroll
We use Paychex Flex to provide all of our payroll services to our staff. Paycheck Flex manages all of our requirements associated with the payroll process... State and Federal taxes, Social security, and other mandated deductions seamlessly with very minimal input on my part. It also generates paycheck stubs, tax reports, deduction summaries, and numerous other miscellaneous reports for quick reference that we can forward to our accountant for tax preparation purposes.
- Calculates all required deductions from our staff's gross pay.
- Generation and distribution of staff pay stubs.
- Generates and stores numerous reports applicable to the payroll history, as well as the monetary business requirements for each pay period.
- Customer service response is always timely, helpful, and professional.
- Having salaried and hourly employees, I find it challenging to create a pay schedule that continues to generate each upcoming schedule.
- Having switched to Paychex from a much more advanced and costly system that I was never able to master and was very cumbersome to manage, Paychex Flex is payroll services simplified.
June 18, 2023
All of my payroll needs at my fingertips.
I use Paychex Flex as an employer and an employee. I use it to pull records and data.
- Provides tax records - 1099s and w2s.
- Provides payment records for employers and employees.
- Provides investment records.
- It could be easier to reach someone by phone for questions.
June 18, 2023
Worth It!
ReadWest uses Paychex Flex to handle reporting hours, assign appropriate tax deductions, and issue payroll through direct deposit. Our Payroll Service Representative calls the office so we can report hours, then she offers Cash Requirements, and next, I go onto Flex and print check stubs, the invoice, payroll journal, department summary, and the general ledger. Very helpful tool.
- Customer Service response is quick.
- Sends in tax requirements in a timely manner.
- The online Flex tool is easy to use.
- Send a notification when taxes have been sent.
June 14, 2023
Perfect for any company
I use Paychex Flex for payroll. As a small business owner, the last thing I want to be responsible for is getting the intricacies of payroll correct: tax withholdings, payments to the state and federal government, etc. There are very few options for small operations like mine with one or two true employees (and a number of independent contractors). Paychex Flex is perfect for my business!
- Ability to change payroll amounts easily, just a few days prior to processing.
- Ability to handle payroll for companies with only 1-2 employees.
- Strong in-person/phone support.
- Easy-to-use online access to payroll information.
- It's difficult to see on the dashboard what I've actually paid Paychex for. This is information I need at tax time and it's difficult to tease out. That said, I’ve never had any problem, calling them directly, and having my representative give me over the phone exactly the numbers I need!
June 13, 2023
Great
Paychex Flex software is used for processing bi-weekly payroll. It addresses the complex issues related to payroll and paying the related federal, state and Social Security taxes associated with it. Paychex Flex is utilized to process a one employee simple payroll. At this point in time there is no need to take advantage of any other features that are offered using Paychex Flex.
- simple to use
- payroll is processed very fast
- corrections are able to be made via the software within 15 minutes
- payroll reports are usually available within 1 hour of processing payroll
- lower the cost of simple payroll processing
- have a dedicated contact person that includes at no additional charge or fee
- improved titles for quarterly reports
May 25, 2023
Paychex Flex Lives Up to its Name
We use Paychex Flex to process payroll and produce accounting reports.
- Flexible
- User-friendly
- Easy to learn
- Easy for employees to access
- Reports - could be more adaptable
May 23, 2023
Easy and a Great Value!
I use Paychex Flex for all payroll functions, from payroll preparation, tax deposits, federal and state reporting, and employee administration. I have not encountered any issues with the product and will continue to use it.
- Ease of employee payroll administration
- Ease of preparing semi-monthly payroll
- I have no concern of meeting state and federal deadlines
- None
Our organization uses Paychex Flex for payroll, time off accrual management, and we have just opted to use Paychex for health insurance benefits/cobra.
- Paychex Flex provides easy to use tools to manage payroll.
- Paychex Flex offers helpful reporting.
- Paychex Flex provides excellent customer support and service when needed.
- We have not identified any areas for improvement with Paychex Flex, it meets all of our current needs.
We use Paychex Flex for payroll, tracking PTO, 401k administration, and most recently for onboarding new hires. We have used Paychex for payroll for more than 10 years and in the last 5 have used the direct payroll entry feature. This feature is easy to use and greatly reduces the time spent on calling in payroll. I'd recommend setting up a custom template to only include the fields you regularly use to avoid having to search for fields. More recently, we implemented using Paychex Flex to onboard new hires. This has significantly reduced onboarding time by essentially the employee creating their own record, tax withholding documents, and direct debit information. This also allows for a more accurate entry than having to do data entry from manual forms. Overall, we are pleased with Paychex Flex's products and service.
- Payroll
- HR Generalist consulting
- PTO tracking
- The collaboration between departments. For example, the onboarding section is very separate from the other sections, like 401k. There should be an expert who knows how it all works together.
- Their sales team can sometimes be not as fluent in their product features and more just about selling.
May 01, 2023
Extremely mediocre, at best.
We have been using Paychex long before it was "Paychex Flex." Over the years, we have appreciated the partnership with our main AM; however, in recent years from my experience, the level of service has drastically decreased while the problems have increased. While at this point, there hasn't been a "deal breaker" for us to move away, I have started keeping a running list of items that are wrong, can't be fixed, etc. I can honestly say I would love to move away when we have a bit more bandwidth for such a project, and I would never recommend using Paychex. In my opinion, it is a dinosaur of a tool with an embarrassing user experience.
- Payroll is processed
- I can't think of things that I am impressed with
- We've moved away from several of the services because of how bad they were
- Regular login issues
- Employees not being able to see pay stubs or tax documents
- Employees who call for help and speak with an "agent" rarely have something resolved
- Effective date within Paychex Flex doesn't work quite like you'd think. We've been told we need to modify our procedures so the system doesn't get confused.
- Despite having COBRA services turned off for years now, the system still isn't turned off. Our AM isn't able to facilitate getting this corrected so we stop receiving notifications.
May 01, 2023
Paychex Flex Makes Payroll Very Easy!
I use Paychex Flex for three client organizations when processing payroll. It makes payroll 10 times easier and Taxpay also takes care of the tax filings too.
- Payroll Processing
- Tax Filings
- I'd like more admin privileges to be able to make small changes instead of calling my specialist.
May 01, 2023
Paychex Flex makes running your company easy
I use Paychex Flex and it’s digital platform, software and portal to manage retirement plan clients and their online record keeping portals and platforms. Paychex Flex enables organizations to tie together their online digital payroll systems to their 401(k) programs in a fully integrated one stop shop package.
- Easy onboarding
- Streamlined data reporting capabilities
- User friendly platform
- The employee experience and portal could provide more calculators
- Elaborate on investment options on platform
- Optimize customer service
May 01, 2023
Very EASY to Navigate!
We used Paychex Flex to keep track of our current pay rate, or previous, and current pay stubs, as well as taxes withheld, 401K amount, PTO hours available and used. We also used Paychex Flex to request PTO. It was very easy to use. I really liked how everything was easily accessible from the main dashboard and very understandable and easy to navigate.
- Payroll amount and deductions
- PTO hours used and available
- 401K withholdings and Current amount
- Make Rollover of 401K easier
- Maybe Add a personal calendar
I use Paychex Flex for payroll, gather reports on 401K and FSA, and Human Resource help and advice. I am the sale user and administrator.
- Knowledgeable Employees. Have an answer for just about every question.
- Personable. I have a strong connection with the people I deal with everyday at Paychex.
- Everything is in one place. I can add an employee, look at a FSA report, and update our handbook all from Paychex Flex.
- Creating handbook
- Delivering handbook
April 30, 2023
I am a happy Paychex Flex customer
We started using Paychex Flex in 2017 at the request of our Accountant. I hesitated, as I had always done payroll myself through our business accounting software. However, I found Paychex Flex to easy to use that I can't see me doing payroll any other way. I have had other companies since try to get me to make a change and I do not see any reason to leave Paychex Flex. It is user friendly, great reports, and whenever I need assistance, they are always there to help.
- User friendly
- accurate job costing
- Great reports
- easy to make changes
- Being able to make notes on an employees paystub; for example, when giving a bonus, a place to state what the bonus is for.
April 28, 2023
My Review
GGI uses Paychex Flex to process payroll, we use the HR functions as well as workers comp & unemployment. Our HR department is very busy, Paychex Flex's products help us create more time for other important tasks.
- Reporting
- Integration with other products
- Self Service
- Would like to see retinal scans on clocks
- Custom reports are difficult to use, feels like you need to know some coding
April 28, 2023
Paychex Flex offers me peace of mind!
I use Paychex Flex for our payroll, health insurance administration, and our 401K. Our company is small and it is used for our entire company. Using Paychex Flex gives me confidence with payroll because I do not have any background in doing payroll. Also, Paychex Flex does the 401Kfor us, another aspect that I have no background in.
- Paychex Flex has a very easy to use payroll reporting system. This is very user-friendly.
- Paychex Flex also makes it very easy to add new employees to the payroll system.
- We recently turned over the health insurance administration to Paychex Flex. It was a pretty easy transition. I now have people available for any of my questions.
- Paychex Flex also makes the 401K process very easy and seamless. It is nice to be able to offer this to our employees while having experts to answer any questions.
- Paychex Flex has definitely improved over the years with payroll reporting. I used to have to call in my payroll, now they have a very user-friendly online system. In regards to the payroll reporting, I do not see anything in particular that they can improve on.
- Sometimes I have had to call about questions with the 401K and have had long hold times. I think that they could improve on that.
- I have had an occasional question with the health care that when emailed someone I did not get a timely response. When I have made a phone call I tend to get quicker results.
April 27, 2023
Paychex Flex- Not as Flexible as You Would Think!
We primarily use Paychex Flex for payroll processing and reporting and insurance enrollment. We originally purchased Paychex to use in other areas such as time-tracking and expenses, however, the implementation did not work out for those areas.
- Payroll processing
- Enrollment reminders
- Digital check stubs and W2s
- COBRA
- Implementation in general
- Time tracking
- Expense management
April 27, 2023
Paychex flex for school
We use Paychex Flex for payroll purposes. It's very helpful for reporting and employee punches.
- Payroll reports.
- Employee punches.
- Customer service
- time off
- Flexible pay periods.
- n/a
Paychex Flex allows us to process payroll for our employees. It helps prepare reports, auto-processes our W2s automatically and assists in our quarterly filing. It's helpful having a team of experts who can help you in varying capacities. If you mess up, they can assist. Have a tax question? They have a team for that! It offers a portal for employees to view their paystubs and make adjustments to their personal information. It also allows us the opportunity to deliver pay electronically via direct deposit, and we have the option to dole out electronic W2s.
- User Support
- They assign you an account leader who is extremely responsive
- It's constantly evolving to update technology to suit its customers
- They're up to date on all the local laws/regulations and apply them to payroll so you don't need to think about it
- The site goes down sometimes. It is rare but it does happen
- You have a training session at the beginning of your account but I think more training tools could be very helpful
April 26, 2023
Great for small business payroll!
As a small company, we have used Paychex Flex off and on for years. The customer service is excellent and I love my Payroll Specialist! The website is user-friendly and all the forms are readily available. Paychex Flex files all the required reports and I never worry if they are done correctly. Although not the cheapest service, my payroll is worry-free! Thank you!
- User-friendly website
- Comptetent & pleasant Payroll Specialists
- Reports filed timely & correctly
- We have had a slow down for several months & I think the $58 charge for inactivity is a little steep.
- None
- None
I use Paychex Flex to set up new employees, get reports, verify data, 401k information, and FSA accounts. I am using Paychex Flex at least once a week for some payroll or HR needs. It has simplified printing reports, and emailing required documents to say in compliance. It makes keeping in compliance with the 401K very easy. It helps with peace of mind.
- Easy to print payroll report for year end needs or for audits.
- Quickly able to find and email required documentation for 401K compliance.
- Simple and easy to find and print payroll reports.
- Step by Step process to set up new employees.
- Searching for additional or special payroll reports are not always easy. If you don't know the name it can make it more time consuming to find.
- Finding the monthly Disability/PFL invoice is not easy.
- Using the FSA part of Paychex Flex is slower and less responsive then the rest. When clicking on anything for the FSA expect to wait for it process to it. You can't go in and get out quickly. You will need to plan time when using it.
April 26, 2023
Avoid Paychex Flex PEO and Payroll Service
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Unfortunately, my experience with Paychex Flex was extremely disappointing. From the beginning, we encountered numerous problems with their services. The onboarding process was a nightmare. In my case, it took months and months of emails back and forth with multiple people requesting the same information over and over again. In my experience, they made countless errors in our set up and payroll and caused inefficiencies that cost us time and money to correct. Employee turnover seemed to a huge problem, and any employees that weren't new, were just promoted to the new position so there never seemed to be anyone in a position that really knew what they were doing. Additionally, their benefits and 401k management left a lot to be desired. We had to constantly follow up with them to make sure that everything was being handled properly. Moreover, I feel their hiring process was inefficient and lacked proper procedures. We had to constantly follow up with them to ensure that the employees were set up properly in the system for payroll and benefits. In my opinion, the system was not user-friendly, and we had a hard time navigating through it. We also found it absurd that we could not send an offer letter through the system until after the candidate had been hired. What's the point of that? To make matters worse, in my experience, their software was not user-friendly, which made it difficult to access important information and reports. I feel that it was frustrating to navigate their platform, and we often had to rely on their customer support team to help us find what we needed. Even fixing an employee timeclock mistake was an unnecessarily difficult task. Overall, I would not recommend Paychex Flex to anyone. In my experience, they made false promises, caused a lot of headaches, and failed to deliver on their services. Save yourself the trouble and look for a more reliable PEO and payroll provider.
- I did not have a good experience with Flex, it is "OK" technology. Not on par with newer products and software but costs as much or more.
- In my experience, terrible PEO onboarding and offboarding (we left after first year contract was up)
- In my opinion, there are too many people in new positions who don't know exactly how to handle a situation which requires constant corrections and fixing things and bringing more people in to correct the situation. Lots of time wasted as a business owner.
- I feel time and Attendance was cumbersome, employees made more mistakes than in my previous software and fixing it was also unnecessarily difficult. Integration was quirky, even importing into Flex Payroll from Time and Attendance had delays and issues. The software needs work.
April 25, 2023
Paychex Flex - It does what you need it to do
We use Paychex Flex to process payroll, administer our health benefits, and process our onboarding for new employees. Paychex Flex brings them all under one roof and assigns representatives assist us in these areas.
- Everything under one roof
- Knowledgeable representatives
- Abundance of resources
- The hiring function doesn't always transfer employee info over correctly
- Formulas in the background should be able to do more or make the user need to do less outside of Paychex Flex
- Some of the errors or warnings are excess or redundant