Square Payroll - Dangerously bad payroll service, especially for first time employers.
August 27, 2021

Square Payroll - Dangerously bad payroll service, especially for first time employers.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Square Payroll

I attempted to use Square Payroll for my first employee in my small Massage Therapy company. Set up took over two months and was still unsuccessful. I am leaving this review to warn others like me. I am not the only client voicing these complaints.
  • If you use the appointment booking and point of sale then in theory the integration could make payroll easier.
  • [In my experience] they can cancel your service at any time, without warning or explanation. When they do this your funds are held by them for up to 90 days, at which time they are presumably accruing interest on your money. This could take a small business under very quickly and there is nothing you can do about it.
  • [I believe] getting verified is complex and not customer friendly. Until you are verified you can't talk to payroll customer service, which is paradoxical. Even getting a hold of account services for this purpose is tricky and exceedingly time-consuming, plus they can not answer most questions directly.
  • [I feel] they don't communicate well, closed my account with no notice whatsoever. The only notification I had about the need to verify my account was one easily lost email. Not having responded to this email fast enough created months of stress and difficulty in the setup process, only to find in the end I would need to start from scratch to attempt to sign up again.
  • [In my experience] if they close your account you can never reopen it. You have to start a new account from scratch.
  • [In my experience] they can hold your money and not deposit funds if your account is "under review". This can happen without explanation. No customer service is directly available for this. I was told I had to wait for them to call me.
  • [I believe] they are either lying, or the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing to such an extent that they give a great deal of misinformation.

Do you think Square Payroll delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Square Payroll's feature set?

Yes

Did Square Payroll live up to sales and marketing promises?

No

Did implementation of Square Payroll go as expected?

No

Would you buy Square Payroll again?

No

I would not recommend Square to anyone. The fact that they have not corrected numerous complaints like mine is borderline unethical. [I feel] this is due to the potential consequences of their customer-unfriendly policies, i.e. a business folding because they retain your funds for 90 days or employees quitting because they can't get paid for 2 months.

Square Payroll Feature Ratings

Pay calculation
Not Rated
Support for external payroll vendors
Not Rated
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment
Not Rated
Benefit plan administration
Not Rated
Direct deposit files
Not Rated
Salary revision and increment management
Not Rated
Reimbursement management
Not Rated