Paychex Flex Software

The format should be much more user friendly and have clearer delineation of when inputting time in the system.

Pros

Inputting time
Reviewing your time
Retrieval of W2s
Retrieval of paystubs
Option to switch in-between time pay periods
Able to make adjustments to your time after payperiod has past

Cons

Not a clear delineation of where to input date and time. It appears as if it's going on the other line. Also, you are able to see other employee's time, which is a huge problem.

We have been with Paychex for over 10 years. We had no issues with the old Preview program other than it was outdated. Was looking forward to the migration to Flex so that employees had electronic access to their information and we wanted to simplify our timekeeping and have a solution integrated with the payroll processing. The migration has been a terrible experience. We have processed eight payrolls since we migrated and we still have a lot of unresolved issues. The worst is manually calculating labor distribution of wages and taxes. Payroll eats up so much of my time these days that I'm behind on everything else. And I'm being charged for this! We are currently shopping for a new provider.

Pros

Employees have online access to pay stubs, W-2s and other information, although we haven't used this feature yet since we have been waiting to make sure the program works for us in the back office. (We didn't want to introduce something to the employees and then have to take it away.)

Cons

No parallel testing took place to be sure it worked before going live to the new Flex platform. Not receiving alerts when entering vacation used more than employee's available balance; labor distribution reports do not distribute employer taxes; vacation used by salaried employees being paid out instead of just deducting the hours used from their balance; when someone from Paychex (such as your rep) logs in to your account while you are working in it, your changes will not save, child support entry could be better if it wasn't so difficult to locate the agency code

I believe this software is fine for a small company with less than 50 employees. Above 50 employees, it is cumbersome and does not produce needed HR reports.

Pros

Easy to tab from one subject to the other. Allows employees (if set up to do so) to enter in PTO requests. Managment approval for these requests produces an email to the employee with either an approval or a statement that it is not approved.

Cons

Training section produces TERRIBLE reports no matter what parameters are set. Also, when you "rehire" an employee, the system does not easily recognize the previous data.

Once you get everything set into place its a good platform but getting to that point was difficult. Great if you have a very basic payroll to run.

Pros

Easy to use once you learn how to use it.
The customer service reps really want to help and they will go out of their way to help you but you really have to insist on getting help.
Checks/Deposits are always on time.

Cons

TIMECLOCKS- They gave us so many issues at first. I don't think they were built to take a large number or punches (we have about 150 employees). We used to have our employees punch out for breaks and the clocks would freeze multiple times per week. Once we eliminated the break punch the issue stopped but I wish they would have told me that this would happen.
Conversion: Do not let them talk you into a quick conversion, push dates back if you know they are not ready. Our first 8 or 9 payrolls were a nightmare.

Mostly a good system. Would have liked more assistance in getting reports that I needed. As it was, I had to self teach and it took too long.

Pros

I like the reporting capabilities. I liked that we could add custom fields for your specific needs.

Cons

There was no training on all the changes made to the system. Especially the reporting. We also had to figure our for ourselves how to add custom fields to accommodate our specific needs.

Pros

Add on different services with one user login. The different added services sync immediately across the flex platform.

Cons

It doesn't have a modern look or feel. The reporting features do not provide strategic insight. Reports just pull static data.

Pros

I like being able to print out my own reports and save them via pdf on our network drive rather then keep a bunch of binders with paper data in them. Saves space for storage

Cons

The Report writing feature could be simplified via drop a down menu similar to when using products such as Quick Books or Peachtree. In those products that have drop down features that allow you to add change or delete columns and also specify a date range.

HR side of Paychex isn't very appealing

Pros

Good product for smaller company not needing much functionality. Able to do weekly payroll that is very tedious.

Cons

Needs to update platform to be more user friendly. Pricing is a question when looking at functionality of platform.

I hate giving a bad review, however, I hope I can help someone else avoid a bad choice. We are extremely disappointed in the ethical failure of our salesperson -- we asked specifically if the the systems we were looking for were fully integrated and they ARE NOT.

Pros

We can pull out any information OURSELVES that we put in! LOVE that. Most of the customer service representatives are knowledgeable and helpful, as well as professional and friendly.

Cons

Various features like payroll, onboarding, HRIS, etc. are NOT fully integrated as we were told by their salesperson. Also, it is frustrating to have several different contacts for customer service depending on which feature you have an issue with. The MOST frustrating issue is their time and attendance (TAA) module. IT SUCKS. Employees are EXTREMELY frustrated with it which leads to managers' frustration and them administrators being frustrated. The mobile punch app is very inconsistent which leads to incomplete timecards which requires a 2 step manual process for employees to correct IF they can correct it -- HUGE issue for the technically challenged. Many times employees cannot correct the TC which leads to the manager or an administrator having to correct it. It has taken us 8 months to get the employees and managers trained and some managers reviewing TCs DAILY to make sure we can process payroll by the deadline.

I think this system may be better suited for smaller employee groups.

Pros

System is robust, they handle a lot of reporting and compliance for you. All of our reps are incredibly helpful and available whenever we have questions.

Cons

Interface is bulky to use and differs user to user which can be frustrating. To set up a new hire in the system you must navigate to nearly 6 separate screens. UI/UX is not friendly for a tech company like us to use. We are currently evaluating new options.

Pros

I think the ease of the system for a organization just starting out is a major positive of this system. If you want to automate the payroll process, as well as have a system that can create reports for your organization, this system is a great one to start out with when you are small.

Cons

It is not really a system that works well for organizations with more than 50 employees. The system was great when I worked for an organization that had ten employees. But, once I got to a company with more than about 30, it did not work as well. There is a lot of manual components to the system that I would want automated since its purpose is to automate.

Thank you Paychex Team.

Pros

The product is easy to use, always available the results and report are timely and accurate. The reports satisfy the accountant and the insurance company for the workers comp annual audit.

Cons

No Cons, just Pros and the staff are Pros and great to deal with when needed. Their phone support and online chat work very well and I have never had to deal with a question or isuue a second time.

Use ANYONE else

Pros

We left and went w/ a company that truly IS one platform. The MULTI systems do NOT fluently speak to each other. It is truly at least 3-5 different platforms being sold as one. It isn't!

Cons

Systems do not speak to each other. It does NOT save time. They couldn't provide us our info on a CD or anything when we left.

If you have a straight forward payroll this software will meet your needs. The company that I was using this for has a number of complicated pay differentials and it just couldn't handle it.

Pros

Inexpensive, customer support was good. Not a lot of training required to process a pay run. Reports can be built easily if you have basic program knowledge.

Cons

Quirky at times. 3 separate software pieces didn't always communicate well. Payroll wasn't able to handle all of shift differentials, which meant a lot of manually entry and calculations.

If the company does not have a lot of special earnings and deductions code and has very simple transactions.....this platform is o.k.
BUT, if the "small" company has complex transactions such as RSA, RSU, NQSO, ISO-Disq Dispositions, ESPP Gain, etc....FSA/HSA.....this platform is not too user friendly.

Pros

I like their report writing feature. I like that fact that the product is in the cloud. However, if 2 or more are in the system, you are limited from saving or entering your work. There must be a way to override this, example....if I am in the Payroll module....and someone else is in the People module....then we should be able to save our work because we are in 2 different modules or spreadsheet. As long as you are NOT in the same screen, the system should be able to save your work.

Cons

Not very organized in the way reports are presented. You have to look all over the place for find what you are looking for.
HR and Payroll info is not in sync at times.
We terminated an employee but employee was still in paysheet.

Would be fine if all I wanted was a basic payroll system for >50 employees in one state.

Pros

Once you learn the program it does work well. My current CSR is responsive and knows this particular product well. Payroll is always accurate. Some items are pretty flexible if you need them customized to your situation.

Cons

Flex is not seamless with the timekeeping solution. Not a single sign-on if more than one product. Lag time between entering and saving can be intolerable. The Help feature needs an overhaul. Spending too much time/money on phone app when the basic product needs to be updated. Some updates were done last year that were helpful.

Pros

Always on top of our account whether it be for routine payroll reporting or special requests. Always efficient and professional.

Cons

I do not have any criticisms at this time. We are completely satisfied with the service Paychex provides.

Sale rep promised a lot but not all are delivered, what was delivered were incorrect! Very disappointing experience. Not able to log in to online access since setting up the account, help desk not able to resolve it.

Pros

Nothing so far. Haven't got any good experience since signed up. Information given by sale rep is not always true. Just trying to get you to sign up, once you signed, no responses at all from the sale rep.

Cons

Transition over is slow and messy just because the lack of communication between the sales rep and the payroll specialist. Information provided to sale rep was not passed on. First payroll was screwed up.

N/A

Pros

Quick set-up for small business needs in regards to processing simple payroll performance. Geo-Fencing set-up is functional and a great concept, but unreliable..

Cons

Severely manual from an employer perspective. Not functional for the needs of a mid-size group. Not integration compatibilities through silos for benefits, recruitment, or talent mgmt. Too many system updates interrupting daily office functions. System malfunctions weekly under Time & Attendance. (Overall, not that reliable)

I cannot recommend this product to any public company. If you are private and less than 100 employees, this might be a good product for you, until you go public.

Pros

Fairly easy to use from administrative side. That's about the only positive statement I can make at this time.

Cons

You cannot manage your employees whom are exempt. It must be done from Paychex side. The handling of stock for employees whom have moved from state to state is unacceptable. You cannot process them both stock transactions on the same date. This makes the process particularly burdensome. The customer support from Paychex Flex is at an unacceptable level. Managers of the customer representatives do not get involved enough in to help resolve the technical issues. We have asked to discuss multiple items with the technical support but this has not been done.