Item: ADP Workforce Now
Rating: 8
Author: Cody Murley

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

ADP WFN is used at our company for the full HR & Payroll suite. This includes employee onboarding & benefits, time & attendance, payroll & tax, and performance management. Kanopy, and other companies I worked for in the past, generally looked for a solution [that] could integrate all of the core personnel management buckets into a single portal. Additionally, we looked for a solution [that] could easily connect with other tools, such as the ERP system, allowing data to flow between systems and remain in sync.

Pros and Cons

Full-cycle Payroll (automatic filing of relevant state & fed taxes, compliance, and computations of less common pay scenarios)
Benefits Administration (mapping various benefits choices based on employee classification, and directly feeding into Payroll for deductions and similar)
API connections with other tools (ERP systems such as NetSuite, 401k and FSA platforms, other HR modules)

Customer Service - inconsistent knowledge in such a way that 2 calls about the exact same topic could end up going in completely different ways
Custom Reporting - ADP is very robust in its ability to report data, however, setting up those reports is not straightforward and often requires customer service support
Implementation - the initial onboarding for ADP can be very messy, and often takes much longer than one would think from the time of contract signature.

Return on Investment

Elimination of Payroll Tax errors
Streamlining processes to allow a non-accountant to run payroll without issue
Automated reporting and system connections make employee data management quick and easy (and always in sync between systems)

Scalability

I have used ADP at both a ~50 employee company as well as a ~150 employee company, and the difference in workload and ease of managing the various HR & accounting tasks was minimal. ADP's tool allows for scaling extremely well. My only recommendation would be to always allow more time than you may think to implement large changes to ADP based on changing business needs - the service and speed can sometimes be woefully slow.

Systems Integrated With

NetSuite
401k Portal
FSA portal

The integration was very simple to set up since ADP generally handles it between their side and the other 3rd party. Oftentimes this work is done free of charge, although I can recall cases where a company did not meet the employee # count to be large enough for ADP to perform this work. This was the case with 401k and other benefits portals being directly connected. Similarly with implementation though, be sure to give more time than you would think to do this - ADP can be slow.

Alternatives Considered

Ceridian Dayforce, Oasis and a Paychex company

I would rank ADP at the top, purely because of its scalability and reasonable cost structure. ADP generally should have all features that a company would need for HR & payroll needs, although not every module is the best-in-class. For instance, we've never used ADP for recruiting because we believe there are much better tools. Similarly with managing independent contractors, etc.

Key Insights

Do you think ADP Workforce Now delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with ADP Workforce Now's feature set?

Yes

Did ADP Workforce Now live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of ADP Workforce Now go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy ADP Workforce Now again?

Yes

Support Rating

The support is good, but wait times can be long and there is a good chance that the customer care rep may not know what to do on a call. Simply calling back and getting another rep on the line could yield a far better result. The support is above average but has room for improvement with better training of its reps.

Likelihood to Recommend

ADP WFN, as opposed to other service tiers of ADP, is well suited for scaling companies [that] have more than just a few employees. It also is great for companies [that] want to automate their payroll tax filing work and build HR modules into a standardized platform for employees. If a "one-stop-shop" for employee maintenance and HR functions is desired, ADP WFN would be a good choice. I would also recommend it for companies who wish to directly connect payroll and HR modules via API with other software such as an ERP system. I would NOT recommend it for companies that primarily use independent contractors - the contractor functionality is not great.

WFN Captures Nearly All HR & Payroll Functions and Does So With Style

Overall Satisfaction with ADP Workforce Now