Item: Paychex
Rating: 8
Author: Kenton Sanders

Overall Satisfaction with Paychex Flex

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Paychex Flex as our payroll system. We also use it to assure employees read new or updated policies as it shows us who has opened a required policy file and who hasn't. It is our timeclock for hourly employees and shows us when an employee misses a timeclock "punch in or out".

Pros and Cons

Pros

Timeclock for hourly employees
PTO tracking and allows for unlimited types of time off and tracking
Basic payroll processing is user friendly
Employee portal is easy to use

Cons

Clunky when rules are different for different types of employees; programming requires Paychex Flex to create the rules
Occasionally, a system glitch will occur and getting it fixed with technical assistance can be slow and sometimes confusing

Return on Investment

We moved to Paychex Flex because they provided a service to file for the ERTC (Employee Retention Tax Credit) for a set fee of $5,000 when all others wanted 20% to 30% of the credit which would have been $40,000 - $60,000.
It provided a solid and efficient system to monitor and record employees' acknowledgement to new and updated policies, saving time and energy for HR staff.
It provided a good reporting system that was easy to read and understand, making payroll approval easy and streamlined.

Paychex Flex Reporting

Positively - We don't use many of the available reports. The quarterly 941 report is great, and the pre-payroll report is great. We have been able to make personnel decisions from the labor cost reports. Although we don't use many of the reports, Paychex Flex has almost any report imaginable, including state-specific reports and government program reports, like the PPP forgiveness, etc.

Support Rating

In our experience, Support is slow to respond. They always eventually resolve issues and answer questions, but it almost always takes time. This has occasionally been a problem for us. However, in the instances where it was a problem, they made it right by processing a payroll overnight (instead of the usual 2 day requirement) in one case, and in another, they processed a separate payroll at no charge.

Alternatives Considered

ADP Global Payroll and APS Payroll

In addition to the ones listed above, we also used BenePay, a local payroll company. We found Paychex Flex priced in the middle, with ADP the most expensive and too complicated, with many features that were unnecessary for us. We found that Paychex Flex's features and reporting to be sized right for our size (around 30 employees). Paychex Flex also offered a very reasonable service to apply for the ERTC

Key Insights

Do you think Paychex delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Paychex's feature set?

Yes

Did Paychex live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Paychex go as expected?

Would you buy Paychex again?

Yes

Usability

Employee usability is very good and user-friendly. For the most part, the employer usability is good, but for complicated rules and policies, it requires technical assistance, which in our case, was clunky and slow in implementation. Once is place, everything works as it should.

Other Software Used

Araize FastFund Online, TouchPoint Software, Blackbaud Church Management, Shelby Systems

Likelihood to Recommend

For the most part, Paychex Flex is a very good payroll system and is well suited for a small business. Most basic features are simple and user friendly. For businesses that have hourly employees, its timeclock system is a good feature. For businesses that have a large number of employees and more complicated rules and policies, it might not be as appropriate because of the difficulty to set up for these rules and policies.

Paychex Feature Ratings

Comments

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Paychex Flex - A Solid Choice