UltiPro is now my favorite Payroll & HR Platform, hands down!
Updated March 04, 2020

UltiPro is now my favorite Payroll & HR Platform, hands down!

Juan Osegueda | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with UltiPro

Nov 2018 Update: I have used Ultipro now at two different organizations. One that used the Enterprise solution, and more recently another that used only Core. Ultipro continues to thrive by implementing innovative customer suggestions and implementing stellar upgrades with their Spring/Fall releases. I love that Ultimate Software is making Core more like BackOffice, in that Core is now able to handle a lot of the heavier things once possible only to experts and Ultipro account managers, all while providing the awesome customer support that Ulti is known for!

April 2016: Ultimate Software's UltiPro is so simple to use, that I'm raving about it to my former colleagues! I've used other platforms for payroll, but UltiPro is by far the simplest to use. Did I mention that it's easy to use?

My organization uses UltiPro for Payroll and Benefits, for Onboarding and ad-hoc reporting, and uses Ultimate Software's Payment Services to file and pay our taxes and wage garnishments. I love that the product is web-based, accessible from anywhere, and that it really is very simple to navigate and to work with, that it seems as though it covers everything and anything that you can possibly think of. They truly listen to their customers, too. For instance, if you come up with an idea to improve the platform, you can share them with Ulti and they'll get right on it and if it makes sense, they implement it!

  • Tax and wage statements, as well as the new 1095C reporting available online for all users.
  • Quick processing of payroll, simple execution of benefits and open-enrollment, great reporting suite.
  • Technical support and training available at all times.
  • Online and on-site training available for all sorts of learning paths.
  • Impactful integration of Ultipro with Cognos Business Intelligence.
  • Easy to use Onboarding.
  • No cons. Absolutely the best HCM platform I've used!
  • Costs savings
  • Time savings
  • Consolidating HR administration under a single solution
  • Security and peace of mind
Ultipro really does allow organizations the ability to create time -- by this I mean when admins learn to use Ultipro to capacity, Ultipro has the ability to do things behind the scenes that give workers the opportunity to do more with their time. For instance, analysts and admins can use Business Intelligence reporting to find errors in collected data BEFORE there is a problem, cutting down on payroll processing errors and better benefits administration. And as of 2017, Ultimate Software's XANDER brings artificial intelligence to Ultipro, helping recruiters and managers make informed decisions based on millions of data points already housed in a customer's environment. And now Ultipro's ability to generate surveys also makes any organization well-informed on what employees favor or dislike about an infinity of topics that the employer wants to know about.
Ultipro is by far the easiest of these to use. What sets Ultipro apart is the workforce at Ultimate Software that puts People First, ensuring that the customer -- while not always right -- that the customer is always informed and always empowered to perform their very best. Ultimate gives each client a team of 5-6 experts at Ultimate Software to support the client in their respective areas (benefits, reporting, tax, etc.), and they really do stand behind the product and especially putting the client first!
Give it a try -- see for yourself how well Ultipro handles and performs!

UltiPro's support is excellent. Getting help is as close as a phone call away, with online chat tools for quick payroll questions, Their customer success portal is a great place to get information, manage cases, and even share reports that you use that might be beneficial for someone else through BI Exchange. For first time users of UltiPro, they have multiple training opportunities throughout the year, and users can log into webinars and weekly calls that Ulti experts host quite often. Training is either web-based, or at a training facility, whichever you prefer.

Also, one word of advice is to reach out to your aptly-named Customer
Success Account Manager if you need any assistance. Ultimate ensures that each account has a dedicated account manager for you that can work with you whenever you need advice or to have something resolved in your environment.

Every time that I reach out to my account manager - or call the 800-number, or use the online chat feature, or venture into the customer success portal for documentation - I always find what I am looking for, and that gives me peace of mind in using UltiPro for my payroll and HR/Benefits needs.

There are too many times that Ultimate Software has gone above and beyond to provide exceptional support. But one that comes to mind is when one of our open enrollment sessions needed to go live with Ultimate Software's assistance (refreshing YTD values) and I was unavailable during the week to request them to wipe the slate clean. I was able to work with a benefits specialist during the weekend, notably on a Sunday, to get our system up and running before the new benefits were to kick on just a few days later.

Nov 2018 Update: I've had the opportunity to use UTM--Ultipro Time Management in the U.S. and it seems to rival Kronos' suite quite well. Distinctively, it handles complex timekeeping rules (OT: California, hint hint!, and other qualms brought on by each state's labor departments). And I've also seen UTM used effectively across the pond, working really well in EMEA (especially in the United Kingdom) and APAC (India a plus!)

April 2016: UltiPro gets the job done! Not only can Human Resources use it for Onboarding and processing new hires, but all employee information flows so well into Payroll and benefits. It's easy to assign security roles based on multiple prompts and controls. The web-based platform is ideal for most, and it's "BackOffice" Citrix-based window portal is powerful as well, ideal for more advanced users.

I'm well-versed in tax and unemployment, handling all state and federal reporting in-house, so it's great to see that UltiPro offers this service for those who might be overwhelmed with each state's monthly/quarterly reporting requirements, and they do a good job of working with you to ensure that all taxes are paid and reported on time.

UKG Pro Feature Ratings

Employee demographic data
10
Employment history
10
Job profiles and administration
10
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.
10
Organizational charting
10
Organization and location management
10
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)
10
Pay calculation
10
Support for external payroll vendors
10
Benefit plan administration
10
Direct deposit files
10
Salary revision and increment management
10
Approval workflow
10
Balance details
10
Annual carry-forward and encashment
10
View and generate pay and benefit information
10
Update personal information
10
View job history
10
View company policy documentation
10
Employee recognition
10
Tracking of all physical assets
10
Report builder
10
Pre-built reports
10
Ability to combine HR data with external data
10
Performance plans
10
Performance improvement plans
10
Review status tracking
10
Review reminders
10
Multiple review frequency
10
Create succession plans/pools
10
Candidate ranking
10
Candidate search
10
Candidate development
10
New hire portal
10
Manager tracking tools
10
Corporate goal setting
10
Individual goal setting
10
Line-of sight-visibility
10
Performance tracking
10
Job Requisition Management
10
Company Website Posting
10
Publish to Social Media
10
Job Search Site Posting
10
Duplicate Candidate Prevention
10
Applicant Tracking
10
Notifications and Alerts
10

UltiPro Training

Nov 2018 Update: Ultipro is easy to navigate without training, I would agree, but I would recommend watching the guided tour videos or just clicking through the various tabs to land on something that might be of interest. All Ultipro customers have access to the Customer Success Portal which houses hundreds of guides and information on how to do very specific tasks.

April 2016: The product was easy to learn WITH training. If you engage with it and embrace the different learning paths that Ultimate Software offers, then you will be successful at understanding all that UltiPro can accomplish for you. Many people are satisfied with learning 'just enough' and winging it -- not good. If you choose to wing it, with time you'll discover that you're really just hurting yourself by not learning as much as you can and having to rely on technical support to do even the most basic thing for you. The more I've learned from either going to a training class, or by observing my Account Manager while she assists me, the more I am confident that I can rely on UltiPro as a massive suite with real solid performance!
  • Online training
  • in-person training
Nov 2018 Update: Online training is still quite good. I've taken many virtual courses, self-directed and instructor-led and in each of these cases the content has been easy to follow, and the instructor-led classes cover a great deal of content that might be basic for some, but instructors do take the time to answer even more complex questions during class or they follow-up with you after the class has ended. In both cases, Ulti is able to come back with a strong solution to anything that cannot be immediately handled during class.

April 2016: The few courses that I've taken have been quite good. They have basic level and intermediate level, but depending on the user's comfort level with online training, online training might not be adequate for them. The great thing is that all sorts of training is featured online; a user simple needs to look for it. Otherwise, the in-class setting is available as well. Some online classes are built upon the notion that a user has already gone through some basic training, and picks up where those classes have left off.
Nov 2018 Update: In-person training is a must-do for anyone wanting to get more familiar with Ultipro. Going to a live class is ideal because it allows one to network with peers in or not in your field, but more importantly you can spend time with an Ultipro expert (instructor) that has that added inside edge (knowledge) that makes one want to learn just a bit more to be at the same level as the instructor.

April 2016: I've been to more than five in-person training sessions and each and every time the instruction has been superb. I had never used UltiPro prior to March 2016, but their Intro classes were so well-designed and at a reasonable pace that I was quickly able to learn the platform and even fall in love with the ease of use. Once the in-person training is complete, Ulti even has a rewards program of sorts where the classes you take rewards you with points that you can trade in for novelty items or additional specialized training and gift cards. Pretty cool!

Using UltiPro

1500 - Nov 2018 Update: At my most current organization, the entire workforce uses Ultipro in various ways: timekeeping via browser or mobile app, self-service via a desktop workflow, and HR uses it for all things reporting and decision making.

April 2016: About half of our workforce (1000+ employees) use UltiPro to access Self-Service features while close to 50 individuals use it to process payroll, manage benefits, onboard new hires, and run all sorts of reports from Business Intelligence. The suite is powerful enough to indulge the tech-savvy information seeker and admins, and easy enough to use for the basic end-user.
4 - We have 4 in-house power users if you will (myself included), who are responsible for granting access rights or provide training and support for our end-users. We rely on our property admins to provide basic support to our end-users, but more complicated requests are handled by our small team of four to assist when there is a need.
  • Self-Service, access to pay stubs, tax statements, and PTO balance checks
  • Business Intelligence reporting
  • Payroll Processing and Benefits Administration
  • Mobile access and timekeeping
  • Simplified and custom-built Payroll Dashboard for our managers to run reports through Business Intelligence
  • Document retrieval, such as policy handbooks and training materials made available to specific user groups
  • Automatic report scheduling and bursting to multiple departments all at once
  • Recruiting
  • Compensation Management
  • Performance Management
Nov 2018 Update: I'm always in support of keeping Ultipro at my organization, and I spend a great deal of time showing people how to use it effectively so that they too continue to push for keeping the Ultipro HCM solution when the time comes to decide to renew the HCM solution or not.

April 2016: I use UltiPro every day and find value in all of the features that are available to this organization. While I am not responsible for deciding on staying with this HCM solution and renew it in the future, I am a huge supporter for staying with the solution because it packs quite a punch when used as intended.

Evaluating UltiPro and Competitors

Yes - Paychex, because it was limited in it's scope, not overall friendly to use, and could not handle an interactive benefits enrollment experience. We found Ultipro, went through implementation, and trained our crew to use Ultipro timekeeping, and it has been a much better experience for our employees. Moving to Ultipro was the best alternative.
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Analyst Reports
Usability. We wanted our administrators to have a some control over platform features and to customize it and make payroll data available to our employees, which we didn't have before. With the mobile app and desktop access, our employees can access their entire employee pay history and benefits, which allows us greater transparency overall.

Configuring UltiPro

I think UltiPro's configurability is just right, but it is also extensive. I'm the system admin at my organization and I am able to assign very simple security roles to more complex ones. Things like giving users certain view and edit rights is quite simple and intuitive. One thing that Ultimate manages to do is implement new features all the time, and customers should be proactive to turn those features on if they choose to. Because the platform is always changing, one would be wise to listen in on the Spring and Fall release information to stay on top of all the new features.
I don't have any specific recommendations other than spending a great deal of time with the Implementation Manager and describing what the needs of the organization are, that's all. The success of any company depends on making all the necessary features available for users to perform their jobs. At least in payroll, where accuracy and timeliness are a must, ensuring that the platform can accomplish a variety of tasks that the company needs it to perform and comply with is recommended.
Yes - we have customized the interface extensively
Yes - we have added extensive custom code
The Business Intelligence reporting suite is the heart of what I do here at my current company. Before I came onboard, the organization was using BI in limited capacity only. The BI section allows an organization to create dashboards that users can refer to and reports to run that can assist in making decisions.

UltiPro Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
Yes - Yes, while each client has a dedicated Ulti team available to support the client in very specific ways, there may come a time that additional services are required to accomplish new projects. And this is true anywhere. Once the product has gone through implementation, Ultimate Software ensures that an integration team stays connected with the client to resolve any loose ends. Beyond that, it is common that as an organization goes through a myriad of changes, you may need to invest additional dollars to have Ulti build an external connection, for example, that you suddenly need.
Yes - Yes, I have reported a bug with Ultipro. When I made it known, I found out that a few others had made it known to Ultimate Software already and the bug was corrected when a new release was made available within our environment.

Using UltiPro

Ultipro is by far the very best HCM solution that I've used, and I don't mind acting as a point of contact to anyone that might be interested in hearing from an actual user about my experiences with the suite. Ultipro can pretty much handle anything that you throw at it, while ensuring that what you throw at it is compliant with federal and state regulations. It really is quite simple to use and only gets easier to use the more you use it obviously. I would encourage anyone that is having issues with the suite to partner with their customer success manager to tackle anything that is at any point problematic.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Business Intelligence, various reporting options
  • Onboarding and Processing New Hires
  • Processing Payroll and customizing payroll models
  • Web Import Tool
  • Form W-2Cs
  • Web Import Tool (gets easier to use with repeated use)
  • PTO plan creation -- definitely need an expert to help you create a new PTO plan
Yes - I love it! Admins are able to decide what features are made available to employees. From being able to view YTD pay and paystubs, to clocking in and out from the app, to requesting time off, the mobile app makes it easy for employees to have 24/7 access to their pay and tax information. And the app is an easy way for the organization to send communications to employees, especially during year-end and bonus payouts, it's cool that certain memos can show up in the app with specified pay triggers.

UltiPro Reliability

Nov 2018 Update: If anything seems to complex to configure on your own, be sure to reach out to your customer success manager to come up with ways to resolve or correct any situations that come up. While Ulti partners with each client, the client also needs to invest in the relationship as well and let Ulti know what's on the horizon for the organization and Ulti is usually very quick and able to come up with a solution before there even is a problem.

April 2016: Recently with a new local PTO policy that went into effect in IL, the techs at UltiPro were able to write a script that would include the provisions of the new sick plan to a current plan and it works well. I suppose I would rate UltiPro's overall scalability a '10' because it can handle this and so much more. Also, we've seen some challenges when our employees terminate and our payroll admins forget to pay out vacation or true-up benefits, for example. it's great to know that we can create some platform configurations to do these things for us automatically so that they are not missed, and that to me is fantastic and forward-thinking!
I've found Ultipro to be completely reliable. Outages are typically planned to occur on weekends and only once did I have connections issues connecting Citrix to the server where our environment was housed, but within the hour connection was restored. I think that's a pretty good track record, considering I've used the suite daily for over three years. Especially when processing payroll--say the internet goes down in the middle of you performing a task... Ultipro is able to recognize that a connection error occurred and quickly restores the process that was running, avoiding lost productivity.

Relationship with Ultimate Software

We communicate with our Customer Success Manager (CSM) every two weeks. We use these phone-conference opportunities to discuss any pitfalls we are experiencing and to receive updates on any larger-scale matters that are affecting our production environment. More than anything we use this opportunity to network with our CSM and to ensure that we, as UltiPro clients, are staying on top of any communications from UltiPro that may affect our organization.