My company is looking to "improve" our payroll services. We currently have a fewer than one hundred employees, but that number could explode: in 2011. I have two questions for which I could use some "
Online Payroll Services
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Heaven help you! ADP is the biggest by far. Paychex used to be second. They are both largely web-driven. I heard recently that ADP is shedding smaller accounts, but you may still be able to get decent pricing if you are going to grow (these services shed customers they don't like by raising prices for those customers). When I last shopped aggressively, ADP was the cheapest. Unfortunately, their service level matched their pricing!
What to ask for:
-Pricing at multiple expected employee #'s (e.g. 100, 200, etc.)
-Will they do all state
-Get a demo of both your admin portal and the user's portal. Utility is in the eye of the beholder.
-Have them show you their admin user reports. Any time you have a question, you or whomever is managing the system will have to deal with this tool.
-What kind of periodic reporting do they have? Is it all online? Can you automate it?
-Do they provide you with automated month-end journal entries for dumping into your acct'g system?
-Who will be your account manager? How long have they been there? What's the turnover like in this position? Will this person be your one-stop-shop for any and all questions you have?
-When do they pull from your account? That is, how far prior to a payroll run.
That's some of the big stuff. I'm sure I'm leaving a bunch out, but it's a start...
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Hi Scott,
As a small company, your ability to negotiate and receive good service may be limited. As a similar sized company, I found Costco's on-line payroll service was excellent, and a great price for a smallish company. They acted as the wholesale intermediary, setting pricing and standards based on their volume of buisiness, and contracting the actual service to Intuit. It was timely, good reports, cheap, and reliable.
I would caution you about changing your payroll service at any time other than the end of the calendar year, as this will give you a headache rolling up multiple reports to reconcile at the end of the year.
We have had a lot of luck with Paylocity also. I've done recentl looks at Paychex and ADP's products, and neither had anything completely web delivered solution. Also, Paylocity was there with pricing. I also refuse to submit a payroll unless I can get a realtime batch payroll process file for my
I am happy to provide more detail on the rest of your questions. Our payroll flexes from 50 full-time staff to include 1000+ sessional employees.
I have had continued luck with Paylocity. They specialize in smaller firms and offer you the ability to be completely autonomous and handle payroll on your own, or offer the services themselves. When I originally switched from ADP I found their prices were similar - except I received a lot more on the Paylocity basic plan that I had to pay a lot extra for with ADP.
If you want contact information for them, please let me know and I will be happy to share. I really like what they have to offer and their prices.
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I have used Paylocity as well, with good results. High touch, low cost. Their online system is dizzyingly complete. That is, it takes a bit of learning as a small company b/c it has so many features that it would easily accommodate much larger companies. But that is a nit. Check them out for price and service.
I have used many over the past years Priority Payroll in LasVegas was by far my best experience. The were bought out by Compupay. Contact there is Kirsten Arrendo, 888-575-5337 x107. Great customer service
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