Item: Paychex Flex
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We're a small firm with 7 people and as one of the owners, I do HR and am the Administrator of Paychex Flex. Our employees use it to see their paycheck and 401(k) information. I use it to see and print payroll reports, add new employees, and see information on our 401(k).

Pros and Cons

Easy to find payroll reports and export to save or print
Good user interface, for the most part
Easy to add new employees

When adding new employees, I had some questions and didn't find answers (e.g. whether withholding tax information was set up for new hire), so still had to contact the payroll specialist. Then when the payroll specialist replied and I thought its was resolved, I still got automated messages from Paychex Flex. That had me stressed out the withholding taxes might not be set up for our new hire.
The 401(k) section has a lot of useful information, but it takes some digging to find what I need there. [In my experience] Some of the information is buried in the fine print of long legalese documents (for example, when I wanted to see the fees based on asset value, I couldn't find it and had to call customer service. It's buried deep in a document with other fees that were not presented clearly upfront when we signed up).
Sometimes it's not clear if I should do things on Paychex Flex or contact the payroll specialist. I try to use Paychex Flex first and sometimes ask the payroll specialist just in case. I really do like the app, but I think it's good to have a payroll specialist to ask if/when I have additional questions.

Return on Investment

Saves some time as I can get answers there quickly.
By printing the payroll reports myself I save the Paychex fees and some paper, but downloading and printing it takes a few minutes. (ROI doesn't apply to me as I haven't invested anything but I'd imagine Paychex Flex has ROI form automating away some of the payroll specialist admin tasks...)

Alternatives Considered

I haven't evaluated any other. We were already using Paychex Flex and Paychex Flex promoted the app to us. I assume they want to automate as much as possible.

Support Rating

Only needed support a couple of times. Once a glitch in 2019, where data didn't show up for an employee because the Date of Birth was entered, [I felt] it took too long to get it fixed.
I got automated responses about setting up withholding tax after a payroll specialist sub had written it was all set - but I think that's the link between the payroll specialists and the app, not the app itself.

Key Insights

Do you think Paychex Flex delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Paychex Flex's feature set?

Yes

Did Paychex Flex live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Paychex Flex go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Paychex Flex again?

Yes

Usability

I"d give it 9 on the payroll section and 7 on the retirement section (and the lower score on retirement is mostly because the fees hare hidden in a pdf that I couldn't find and secondly because it's harder to find information there the on the payroll section. Could be because there's just more information and complexity in the 401K though, our payroll is pretty simple)

Other Software Used

Priority AccountEdge, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365)

Likelihood to Recommend

We're a small company and I'm not an HR person. So, the app is great for things I do regularly, like view and print payroll reports, update staff changes (address, etc). The user interface is good and intuitive on the payroll section, so I can usually find what I need quickly, without needing to contact the payroll specialist and wait for a response. It's also a very good place to find information, especially the payroll section. (the 401 section also has good information but isn't as intuitive to use)

For me, it's less appropriate for things that involve legal or tax issues, because I don't know all the rules and I'm afraid I'll enter something incorrectly. For example, how to classify employees and how to set up withholding taxes. I like having a professional payroll specialist to help with those.

A good app for managing payroll and 401(k) and finding information quickly

Overall Satisfaction with Paychex Flex