Overview
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.
Got Paycheck Flex?
Paychex Flex has made payroll easier for us!
Paychex Flex - A full service, user friendly, easy to use payroll management platform
Just the essentials, please. Could use a scaled-down version.
Want more time to work on your business? Choose Paychex
Timesaving and Professional
Great Company if you don't have payday on a Wednesday
Paychex Flex - Ease of Use
Easy to use.
Payroll is quick and easy right from my phone!
Disappointed
Good and Bad
Provides easy call-in service for payroll processing and exceeds our reporting requirements
Paychex Flex Review
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
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
Pricing
Paychex Go
$59
Paychex Flex Service
Contact sales team
Paychex Flex Enterprise
Contact sales team
Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee required
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Features
Human Resource Management
Organizing, tracking and providing instant access to critical employee data, job profiles, transfers, promotions, and benefits information.
- 8Employee demographic data(197) Ratings
Administrators have the ability to enter detailed demographic data for each employee.
- 8.1Employment history(220) Ratings
Employment history is the ability to track previous positions held.
- 6.8Job profiles and administration(155) Ratings
Job profiles and descriptions can be created and edited.
- 7.3Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.(154) Ratings
Employee move workflow provides the ability to move employees to different positions and apply pay raises.
- 1Organizational charting(1) Ratings
Organizational charting is the ability to create hierarchical charts.
- 7.9Organization and location management(138) Ratings
Organization and location management allows employees to be managed across multiple geographical locations.
- 7.4Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)(132) Ratings
Compliance capabilities ensure full compliance with federal workplace regulations by capturing required data in central database.
Payroll Management
Provides for pay calculation and benefit plan administration, in addition to managing direct deposit, salary revisions and payroll tracking.
- 9Pay calculation(271) Ratings
Pay calculation provides for computation of employee pay with state and federal deductions.
- 9.1Off-cycle/On-Demand payment(136) Ratings
Provide employees access to wages accrued during the pay period before the end of the pay cycle.
- 7.2Benefit plan administration(156) Ratings
Benefit plan administration is administration of health insurance plans and 401k plans, and other benefits.
- 9.2Direct deposit files(270) Ratings
Direct deposit is the ability to electronically transfer pay to an employee’s personal bank account.
- 8.5Salary revision and increment management(193) Ratings
Salary revision is the ability to modify individual employee pay.
- 8Reimbursement management(105) Ratings
Reimbursement management provides cash reimbursement for employee expenses related to business travel or other.
Leave and Attendance Management
Streamlines communication between HR and employees and facilitates efficient management of employee leave including requisitions, approvals, balance calculation, and annual carry-forward.
- 6.3Approval workflow(102) Ratings
Approval workflow is the process for approving employee paid time-off requests.
- 7.4Balance details(136) Ratings
Balance details is automatic updating of paid time-off balance to reflect time taken.
- 7.3Annual carry-forward and encashment(110) Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment enables unused paid time-off days to be carried forward to new year, or paid in cash.
Employee Self Service
Employee portal allowing employees to view and update their personal information.
- 8.6View and generate pay and benefit information(228) Ratings
Employees can view pay and benefit data and print pay stubs.
- 9Update personal information(239) Ratings
Employees can update personal profile with change of address, dependents, or other personal data.
- 7.7View company policy documentation(111) Ratings
Employees can review company handbook, and corporate policy documents.
- 8.7View job history(168) Ratings
Employees can view all positions held at the company.
Asset Management
Maintaining a record of assets such as laptops, pagers, cell phones, etc. issued to employees. Record typically includes asset type, number, serial number and date of issuance.
- 7.8Tracking of all physical assets(40) Ratings
Tracking of track laptops, pagers, phones, and other company equipment.
HR Reporting
Pre-built and custom reports, and integration with external data.
- 5.6Report builder(134) Ratings
Report builder allows custom reports to be created using a GUI.
- 6.7Pre-built reports(154) Ratings
Pre-built reports is the provision of a variety of canned reports on employee retention, and other key metrics.
- 5.5Ability to combine HR data with external data(83) Ratings
Ability to bring data from external systems like CRM and combine with HR data.
Onboarding
Employee onboarding is the process of orienting new hires to the social and performance aspects of their jobs so that they are able to function in their new roles as quickly as possible.
- 8New hire portal(151) Ratings
New hire portal eliminates printing and mailing with a personalized portal of all required reading, corporate information, and all forms and other paperwork, online.
- 7.8Manager tracking tools(100) Ratings
Tracking tools allow hiring managers to check status on individual hires for all onboarding activities.
Recruiting / ATS
Recruiting or Applicant Tracking Software is software used to manage the recruitment process electronically by handling job postings, applicant status, resume management, etc.
- 9.7Job Requisition Management(32) Ratings
Job Requisition Management – Job requisition management is the ability to create jobs quickly and easily
- 9.8Company Website Posting(30) Ratings
Software allows postings to be displayed on the company website
- 6.7Publish to Social Media(23) Ratings
Software provides ability to publish postings to social media sites
- 6.6Job Search Site Posting(30) Ratings
Software provides ability to publish postings to top job search sites
- 6.8Duplicate Candidate Prevention(28) Ratings
Duplicate candidate prevention prevents candidates already in the system from being added
- 9.7Applicant Tracking(33) Ratings
Applicant tracking allows recruiters to assign applicants to various stages so others can see status at a glance
- 9.8Notifications and Alerts(53) Ratings
Notifications and reminders inform you of tasks to be completed
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 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
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(551)Attribute Ratings
- 9Likelihood to Renew42 ratings
- 9.3Availability10 ratings
- 9.1Performance10 ratings
- 7.9Usability240 ratings
- 7.7Support Rating245 ratings
- 7.1Online Training4 ratings
- 4.5In-Person Training1 rating
- 9.4Implementation Rating11 ratings
- 7.6Configurability8 ratings
- 9.3Product Scalability10 ratings
- 9.1Ease of integration3 ratings
- 9.2Vendor pre-sale32 ratings
- 8.9Vendor post-sale31 ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 25)Just the essentials, please. Could use a scaled-down version.
- Remit federal and state payroll taxes. I no longer have to do this.
- Provide detailed information to employees regarding their own pay information. Employees have access through a portal.
- Remit retirement contributions to retirement plan administrator
- Their ad hoc reporting tool is difficult to use. I don't find it to be very intuitive. The few times I have used it I have had to contract someone for help.
- I was not satisfied with the training I received in using the software. It took a while to figure out how to do things.
- I get the impression that my client representative has too many people to support.
Paychex has been a great addition to our company!
- Abides by Federal/State laws.
- Processed quarter/year-end filings.
- Makes payroll processing super easy.
- Manual manipulation to certain areas on our own without needing an account manager.
- General ledger setup.
- Backup assistance is more attentive when the account manager is out.
User Friendly and Efficient Payroll Software
- Timely quarterly reviews
- Multiple payroll reminders before the end of the pay period
- Account manager checkins
- Promotions are more frequent than I would prefer
Worth It!
- 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.
Paychex Flex- Not as Flexible as You Would Think!
- Payroll processing
- Enrollment reminders
- Digital check stubs and W2s
- COBRA
- Implementation in general
- Time tracking
- Expense management
Avoid Paychex Flex PEO and Payroll Service
- 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.
Paychex Flex Review
- ACA Compliance
- Onboarding
- Reports
- Payroll
- Time & Attendance Vacation time and the need to be able to job cost
- General Ledger Department
- Not change my Specialist - Bryan Bowman
Payroll/HR and Accounting Manager
- Custom Reports
- An experienced payroll specialist
- Meet dead lines
- Some of the Custom Reports are not Customized enough
- It would be nice to add general ledger numbers without having to send to the specialist
- Setting up employees could be a little easier
Overall my favorite payroll company!
I use the software every day for any one or all of the above reasons. I have a dedicated account person to contact with any issues. When she is not available, the 1-800 number gives me great support evey time.
- Timeclock and attendance
- Splitting rates of pay in payroll
- User friendly platform
- Great customer service
- Reports and variables needed to run reports
- Easier access for employees on the app
- When adding new hires, the "pre-checked" process doesn't include direct deposit. I have to finish adding the employee and then go back into the pay tab to enter the direct deposit
- Very difficult to edit employee phone numbers and e-mails in the system
Time off tracking works very well for me and easily managed.
Sometimes, the day-to-day function can be cumbersome. When adding a new employee, they created shortcuts in the process, but the "direct deposit" portion does not work. You have to manually go into the employee to add the direct deposit. Not a huge deal but takes extra time. The reports are hard to understand if you are trying to create a report on your own. We do use quite a few of the "canned reports".
Flex? Yes and No
- Dashboard is user friendly
- Making corrections in the time & attendance module is easy
- Integration with payroll is seamless
- Reports - are not as robust as I'd like
- Programming the specific payroll types in cumbersome
- Locating and navigating the instructions is not straightforward. As a super user, it is not clear what access I do and don't have.
Paychex all the boxes for our nonprofit
- Simple to load and run payroll
- Links well with our QuickBooks General Ledger
- Phone support when I have questions is outstanding
- Easy implementation of garnishments
- I really can't think of anything. For what I use it for it meets all my needs.
Paychex Flex is great!
- Organization
- Customer service
- Innovation
- Merging time and attendance to employee management
Great general payroll service
- Timely deposits
- Great reports
- Organized
- 401k updates
- PTO balance updates
Paychex works great - with the necessary training.
- Time clock tracking and importing into payroll
- Time off tracking
- Payroll from beginning to end.
- GL Ledger import
- While Customer Service is excellent, sometimes things fall thru the cracks.
- Easier product training (training modules that could be done on employee's own time).
- Better ease and transition into other Paychex Flex departments from Customer Service.
Paychex Flex good with a little room to become great!
- I think the payroll center is very intuitive and generally makes it easier to process payroll.
- Pulling employee and tax reports in Paychex Flex is also pretty easy
- Updating personal information, tax information, managing 401k benefits is easy and convenient on the administrative and employee end.
- It's difficult to update user emails and user phone numbers after they have been set
- The performance management system could use some quality of life improvements like viewing previous reviews while completing a new review or allowing a manager to view the self-review of an employee while completing the manager review.
- For the issues and incidents section, it would be great if system admins could submit a new case like a workplace injury or near-miss without having to tag an employee in the case. Sometimes we just want to add the information into Flex for recordkeeping purposes and for generating 300A forms at the end of the year.
A Priceless Tool in an Inexpensive Toolbox
- Paychex Flex allows a simplified one-stop shop for employees to access their pay records, tax records, and their retirement accounts.
- Paychex Flex takes tax filing burdens off our shoulders.
- Paychex Flex helps us stay in compliance across the many states in which we work.
- Sometimes the general ledger journal that comes over from the GL team doesn't match up with the Cash Requirements report from the payroll team.
- It would be nice to have a better safety net in place to ensure that new state withholding and unemployment tax accounts are set up and activated accurately with both the payroll side and the GL side of Paychex.
- Sometimes there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the payroll specialists and the GL team regarding communication with our state tax accounts. It seems that sometimes one side can't correct something that they can see needs to be corrected and that they have to wait on the other side to accomplish this.
Outstanding Payroll Service!
- Paychex Flex is user friendly.
- Paychex Flex reports are comprehensive.
- Paychex Flex reports are customizable.
- Paychex Flex reports are clear and concise.
- The charge tip distinction on the reports could be clearer.
Two thumbs up to Paychex Flex
- They make sure all your questions or issues are addressed within a reasonable time frame.
- It gives the employees access to their information and pay stubs.
- The app makes it very convenient.
- I really like Paychex Flex and really cannot think of anything that can be improved.
Paychex - Need to be more focused on the customer experience and fix the General Ledger reporting group
- Accurate payroll tax reporting and remittance (tax pay).
- We have been with the same payroll specialist for 7+ years and she is very good.
- The ad hoc online reporting is helpful once you know what to look for. The custom reporting feature is helpful.
- Paychex seeks to offer you a number of related products - from time reporting to 401k, etc. I'd prefer they focus on better execution of their core business.
- Paychex has many silos in their operations and the silos do not communicate or work well together. A prime example is the General Ledger group. At one time 5+ years ago, I had a dedicated General Ledger specialist assigned to my account. That was great. Paychex now has a queue for General Ledger and you call in and get the next available agent. Hold times are crazy long. Then when you get a GL specialist, the know noting about your account or business. So every time you call, it is highly inefficient for the customer to get the GL specialist up to speed on your account. Also, the general ledger staff by and large understand the Paychex system, but have almost no understanding of basic accounting. The GL user is most always seeking to use GL services to facilitate an accounting entry. So it is frustrating the GL has no real understanding of basic accounting.
- The Paychex systems are older legacy systems. They are frequently anomalies that occur and are explained as issues with the system. Some upgrades are being done, but more is needed. And recently, the "upgrade" took some featured of reporting and made prior reports that the user could add to a favorites list of reports unavailable. So now each pay period I get a series of reports in my favorites list, but I have to do a specific search to get one report that was impacted by the upgrade. Perhaps the system works better on the backside that I don't see, but the upgrade was not user friendly and makes the customer do more work not less work. So all in, I see Paychex as more focused on their system needs and far less focused on the user experience. So, I'd like to see them be more focused on the customer experience.
- The staff at Paychex are good, but they are always slammed. It seems to me that the payroll specialists are overloaded with a high volume of clients, and that makes timely responses and help on non-routine work an issue. I wish the specialists we not as highly leveraged.
Paychex is a great choice!
- Paychex has an excellent customer service strategy. If my account manager is not available (which is rare), another team member is ready to step in. Paychex requests feedback and uses it to support their Account Managers. They actually listen/read what I say and reach out.
- Paychex reporting is easy to use. The ability to be able to customized many of the reports is wonderful. Pulling employee data is a function that use frequently and they make it easy. Being able to pull most reports into Excel is a big plus!
- Payroll and tax processing is accurate and on time! This takes a lot of worry off me.
- Paychex has been in the process of migrating time and attendance into Paychex Flex for some time now. I am looking forward to this migration!
- I would like to have more reports that are customizable and that could be downloaded into Excel.
- I really wish they had a magic button I could push so my supervisors would approve time off requests as they come in.
Great product for the value
- Great reports
- General ledger posting and reporting is amazing along with the GL customer service team
- The over all customer service is great!! Whenever I need them with all my crazy changes that need to be made they have never once told me no.
- Very few aspects are not user friendly.
- I would like to be able to do more with the time and attendance part myself. Although customer service is great, some things that need to do I know are quick fixes and I would love to be able to do them on my own.
Paychex Flex as best configurable ADP engine
- Paychex Flex performs payroll management automatically.
- Allows the update of schedules through specific tasks.
- Employee performance review opens the possibility of a healthier work environment.
- The accounting tool has some flaws.
- It is a bit difficult to implement.
- Billing information is often confusing, and we can almost never get all the necessary data.
Paychex.. satisfied, yet unsatisfied.
- Custom payroll options.
- Performance reviews for employees.
- Customer service takes awhile to get an issue resolved.
- General Ledger department is not up to par.
Good for small business
Took a little bit to get everything running smoothly, but after that no issues or problems.
- Time and Attendance interchanges into the payroll module really simply.
- The transition between T&A and Flex is really quick.
- The new grid is always on basic, but basic doesn't work for me. I made my own grid but have to choose it every time, it's not automatic.
- Any changes I make do not go into effect until next paycheck, even if you want it to go through some things just won't be immediate.
- An updated interface.
- A robust list of reports and analytics.
- Sending W2's out at the end of the year.
- Time and attendance apps and check-in option where it will tag when a person arrived without clocking them out.
- Easy to adjust missing punches for those out in the field.
- The Paycheck Flex App is separate from the paycheck Time app for punching in the clock - It would be nice to see them working together a little more efficiently.
- They have representatives and the quality of service you receive can greatly vary depending on who you are assigned to. This can be annoying and frustrating as you don't always know who to contact.
- It can take a while to get off the ground.