What are Paychex Flex users saying about the software?

Unfortunately, the UI is awful and has a steep learning curve

Calm in a sea of changing regulations

We had considered hosting our own payroll, however, with the craziness of COVID and regulations we are very happy we chose a partner provided and supported solution. Saves us time chasing new regulations and forms and the dreaded amendments.

Pros

The customer service makes the product easy to use. The support makes the product as with many payroll software products it will do what you want you just have to find the right entry and set up.

Cons

At times its so complete it can be overwhelming to find some less used features you had found before. Again they are all like this but the customer support makes this a breeze as you can actually talk to a human being that listens and helps.

Review of Paychex Flex

We enjoy using Paychex Flex. Though we feel it can be improved with more robust reporting features in the area of job costing, the time keeping system does work very well for our organization.

Pros

Our employees are able to clock in from their job sites, no matter where those job sites are, and all supervisors are able to review time cards easily. If there are any punch in or punch out issues, we are able to correct those from HQ in real time.

Cons

There are some days that the software glitches which is inconvenient, but our HR department is able to correct those issues as long as they are communicated. Also, we wish their reporting was a bit more robust. In order to get around that, we export the data needed and manually create reports each week.

Everything we need and more

Paychex Flex has cut the time we spend processing payroll requests in half, if not more. Giving employees the ability to make most changes on their own allows our Payroll Admin to focus on other parts of the business that require more attention.

Pros

I love that I can get new employees set up as users during their onboarding, then this becomes their one-stop-shop for all things payroll. They can access this site to get their pay stubs, make changes to their direct deposit, enroll/change health benefits, and even make adjustments to their 401k plans.

Cons

The only real con I have found with this system is that employees can not make changes to their mailing addresses themselves. They are still required to fill out a form for our Payroll Admin and he has to call Paychex to make the change. This seems like something simple that employees should be able to do themeselves.

Disappointed on several levels so we left

Customer service was terrible, inaccuracy was a major issue on multiple occasions.

Pros

Software was reasonably easy to use but lacked in being able to be customized.

Cons

Customization wasn't what we needed for reporting purposes and our accounting entries that needed to be made in Deltek.

Lots of features, but make sure to follow up on small issues.

Loved that they took all the background Payroll processes like Taxes, YearEnd forms (W2 & 1099). Found that there was a lot that you can utilize on the platform.

Pros

Great to have a full HR platform. Was able to take applicant all the way thru onboarding to active employee in just a few steps.

Cons

It was more the support people than the software. Always needed to follow up on small non-payroll issues. Like COBRA, Health Benefits.

Reasonable price given what they do and don't do

It's ok if you don't expect much but for them to run your payroll and make tax deposits.

Pros

Got up and running quickly. Their onboarding is the most effective part of customer support in my experience. Basic things like tax payments are handled effectively.

Cons

Customer support. I have gone weeks without receiving a message or call back to significant issues. In at least one case involving several thousand dollars, I was not able to get an accurate status update from June to October, and was handed off from one 'dedicate' rep to another at least 3 times along the way.

Not very happy with Paychex Flex

I was exited to work with them. The system seemed simple for my small operation and pricing seemed to be right. Sales Rep was very helpful and confident. They quoted a flat monthly fee of $40.00 plus $4 per employee regardless of the number of deposits per month. Then from month 1 they began billing me per payroll period. I complained several times, and they credited a few bucks back, but each month was the same. After 1 year they'd forgotten of their original quote and denied the whole thing. Then pricing started to go higher. I went from a $44 per month promise to a $51.00 per payroll period (bonuses processed separately) In the end my annual budget tripled for 1 year. At times I would pay up tp $153.00 per month for 1 employee. They also warned payroll should be turned in 48 hrs ahead, but I would always get a reminder from my payroll specialist. However, in one occasion there was a holiday in between. It was one of those holidays where most people work. Paychex did not send a reminder so I figured they'd work just like me. Next day, we get a $150.00 fine for not submitting hours on time (72 hrs in advance). Apparently, they were among the fortunate ones to get the day off. Only they forgot to give us the heads up. It soon became my job to be asking them at every upcoming holiday. Finally one day I submitted my hrs but they forgot to deposit my employee's paycheck. At that point it was time to go.

Pros

I run 2 companies with 1 employee each. I really liked the simplicity of submit the payroll. It didn't take much of my time. But then they started sending formatted charts to fill and more information to submit. Still, it was simple enough. Not much to complain about.

Cons

Customer Service is terrible. I'm not the kind of person that requests to talk to the boss of your boss, but a payroll specialist can only do so much; So when you have a billing concern or service complaint because you employee did not get his pay, expect that no one will be in charge.

Sold on features that never worked correctly

Previously, our payroll was completed in house. We were sold on Paychex being a one-stop shop that would save us time and have everything flow seamlessly in one system. Unfortunately, that never happened. We had issues with the payroll implementation that were never actually resolved. We switched to Paychex for employee insurance, and spent over six months trying to correct the errors.

Pros

I enjoyed the ease of using the software and report options.

Cons

Our biggest issue with the software was based on the needs of our company. As a non-profit we have multiple funding streams in which employees may work. After communicating with the payroll implementation team, we set up the system as advised. Several months after we went live, the inaccurate setup caused errors in our general ledger reports, and I personally had to key journal entries of over 1,000 lines bi-weekly just to get the information accurately recorded in our general ledger software. This added one to two days of work onto my already hectic schedule. When we asked to change the setup, we were told that it would take too much time and wouldn't be possible, even though we were paying thousands of dollars a month for this service.

PREVIEW was a great payroll work horse. But beware, FLEX Payroll is no PREVIEW.

We've been on Paychex PREVIEW payroll software for 16 years. It was a solid no non-sense payroll processing work horse which came with everything you'd ever need to process payroll for 100+ employees in a very quick and efficient manner. PREVIEW software was extremely well designed and well thought out. The developers took the perspective of payroll processing users and provided all the navigation speed, functionalities and reports that we'd ever find useful or need to do our jobs quickly and efficiently. There were hardly any unnecessary clicks, keystrokes or scrolling to speak of. It exceeded my expectation all these years. Paychex's golden era and reputation as payroll processing leader was probably due to these sensible legacy products. Like all good things which must come to an end, we were switched to FLEX Q2 of 2016 because PREVIEW was so old that Paychex decided to sun set it this year - which was totally understandable. But any reasonable PREVIEW clients would also expect and assume that whatever good features, good functionalities and useful reports that were available and had been working well in PREVIEW would be brought over and be available in the new payroll product as well. Not so. Enters FLEX which Paychex touted as being technologically advanced, etc. It probably is. But as far as FLEX payroll processing features and functionalities are concerned, I am actually set back 16 years to a payroll processing product that seemed Beta, very slow, cumbersome, awkward - compared to PREVIEW. Paychex simply threw PREVIEW out the window and started fresh from scratch with FLEX. I spent my first several months on FLEX Payroll sending them suggestions to make FLEX "better". I don't know if anyone cared. FLEX Payroll screen designs and navigation are very slow, very cumbersome, and very awkward. What I considered "speed features" in PREVIEW were non-existent in FLEX. Fields are spread out as far apart as they can find room to spread them out to (instead of keeping the screen layouts compact) seemingly so as to "maximize" unnecessary clicks, scrolls and keystrokes as much as possible. It's also more cumbersome and time consuming just to get information and reports from FLEX Payroll which could be run quickly and easily before in PREVIEW. I felt like I'm using payroll software designed by inexperienced college graduates who had never processed payroll before in their lives. They're out to get as much of my time make me do as much work as possible for the same amount of work that I have to do as before - to see where my breaking point is. So overall, I'm not impressed. To me, if the basic payroll processing functionalities are less than before, FLEX Payroll will still be inadequate despite all other "great features and modules" they added to FLEX which I don't need.

Pros

Flex integration with Benefits Administration (Benetrac) module can make life a lot easier for some - but Beware - only if your group is 100+ enrolled. Our Paychex sales rep did make the claim that with Benetrac service, our medical insurance transactions "will all be automatic with carriers and we wouldn't have to do a thing" - which was totally not true. As it turned out, more carriers than not do not do EDI for groups (company) with < 100 enrolled. So the main FLEX selling point totally didn't even pan out for us. Please learn from our lesson. Do verify specifically that your medical and dental carriers will do EDI for your group before signing up for Benetrac.

Cons

Although FLEX does its job as payroll software, having been on a faster and more efficient product before, we know how much more time we are spending on this "more inefficient" product compared to before. Oh and please save yourself the headaches and trouble by passing on other Paychex's services. We tried Paychex Health Insurance and ACA filing. They both failed miserably. Same story in both cases. Can't get hold of the account rep and customer service rep. No one would answer or return our calls. Last year's ACA were 60% wrong after I've redone and resubmitted data 3 different times after 3 different CSR told me 3 different things. They were just making it up as they went. Very frustrating.

Streamlined and Simplified Payroll Processing and Ancillary HR Services

Thus far, the experience has been positive and meets all needs of the company. Tax compliance, W-2s, time keeping, and benefits admin all went smoothly through a full annual cycle. The customer service response times are within a reasonable range, and the mobile app surprisingly is very useful due to the simplicity of the overall platform. Employees can also self-serve make a certain number of changes to things like addresses or banking info without the need for an HR team member to service such requests.

Pros

The ease of onboarding and implementation (compared to ADP, for example), as well as the streamlined processes that allow for staff who may not be payroll professionals to accurately run payroll & benefits to a high degree of efficiency.

Cons

The functionality for contractors isn't as great as some other providers I've used in the past (PayReel, for instance). Additionally, the level of sophistication for tax issue or researching problems from state notices, etc. isn't the best I've seen though it is certainly adequate.

Simple payroll & employee management system, ideal for small businesses.

If you don't need accurate time clock functionality, Paychex Flex is a great way to have a payroll processing solution.

Pros

The ease of use is the key selling point for Paychex Flex. As a small business owner with little to no HR/Accounting experience, Paychex made payroll and employee management simple and easy.

Cons

Their employee app and time/attendance functionality is terrible. Time clocks were never accurate, difficult to correct, and is the reason we switched providers.

Paychex Flex for Office Use

I would recommend Paychex to other businesses.

Pros

I like that the employees are more involved in their enrollments, set up, banking and tax selections. Prior to Paychex this was a manual process performed by Admin and HR.

Cons

It was a very complicated start. Paychex should have taken more time to understand our setup prior to implementation. Once we got through that phase it has been much easier.

Many features, great value, options to expand capabilities

Paychex Flex seems to do it all: You can access all your HR forms, sick and vacation time, timesheets, if you're a manager you have access to your team, complete HR actions, and much more. The mobile app runs basically the same, although it isn't the most touch-friendly app, it gets the job done. All the features work well, and while the app isn't the most user friendly, it is more than serviceable. There are also features that would be great for our team if we used them, like integration with other HR apps, but that's more an organizational issue. We switched from a different HR app which was completely unusable, and we've been happy ever since.

Pros

It does everything we need for the organization: payroll, time clocks, tracking, coding time, HR benefits, vacation and sick time, organizational forms, etc. There are also a lot of features that we just don't use as an organization. For instance we use a scheduling app (Homebase) for some of our employees and you can integrate Paychex into Homebase to handle the payroll. We came from another system that was very clunk and difficult to use, so the simplicity of Paychex was a breath of fresh air.

Cons

The biggest issue I have, and just a disclaimer I might not be the best trained, is that employee management is time consuming. It's not super difficult, but I often have trouble finding employees on my team, checking and modifying their time, etc. Also signing forms is a bit cumbersome because you have to click around the document yourself, something more like Verisign would be very helpful when dealing with forms.

Implementaion and Set up

I like the product. It is still early in our usage.

Pros

The Sales Rep. as well as the portal to access reports.

Cons

The integration was not smooth. It seemed like one department didn't know what the other department was doing. Better communication needed. Eventually I was connected with agents that knew how to help with errors and they were able to help.

Takes the fuss out of payroll

It has been a wonderful resource over the past 10+ years for our small home health care business.

Pros

Ease of use. Able to add more than one admin and give that person full control too. Able to use the app on the go.

Cons

You can't manually set up certain benefits which would be helpful if you know what you want. WE have a PTO benefit that we are still trying to work out the kinks for.

Has Made Payroll Easier for Employees

Paycheck Flex has streamlined our payroll process and our accounting department no longer has to individually send out emails with paystubs so it saves time and resources.

Pros

This software is easy to access and even had our pay stubs a day earlier than we get paid on the app as well as other pertinent payroll information.

Cons

As of now there are no features that I feel are missing in the software so I have nothing to say regarding not liking anything.

Lacking Proper Customer Service

Overall the system is good but their customer service needs to be more organized and at least be able to help you look into something when you need answers.

Pros

We like that employees can log in and update their personal account info. such as new address ect. we also like that they can download their tax forms and so on

Cons

Every time we've had questions it seems as though no one there has the answers we need. This can be very frustrating!

Employer problem or Paychex?

Pros

Easy to use and direct deposit staff paycheck directly into their desired account.

Cons

Some of my colleagues, myself included, have experienced "lag times" in payroll. I'm not sure if this is our employers issue or a Paychex issue. If payroll lands on a weekend or holiday, we don't get it until the next "open business day." For example, payroll hits on the 1st and 15th for my company. This July 1 was a Friday but because it was a holiday weekend, the money wasn't deposited until the 5th. I find this problematic that people aren't paid on time - especially when bills are due.

A simple HR system for employees

I overall enjoy the system vs ADP.

Pros

Paychex Flex is easy to use. You login, authenticate, you get all pertinent info as an employee, including login/logout function depending on your role. I see my retirement funds, health plans, PTO, paystubs, and W2s.

Cons

The retirement funds UI is lacking. It takes more time than necessary to see monthly/quarterly performance, calculate my own contributions, etc etc.

Great HR Platform

Pros

Employee tracking is essential for any company and Paychex has the top platform with ease of use

Cons

Customer support should be more efficient

Paychex Flex for Small Business

My overall experience with the software has been positive. I can run payroll very quickly and everything comes back in a digital format for me to save, upload, or print for my records. They also have amazing customer service which they make personal and memorable.

Pros

The software is very user friendly and easy to navigate. There isn't anything hidden or difficult to figure out. Users can easily manipulate the software without guidance because everything is clear and concise.

Cons

I have not found anything about the software that was challenging or difficult to figure out, so far, the platform is everything a small business needs to get started with payroll.

Easy

Pros

Easy to use. Easy to view needed documents

Cons

Locks out relatively easy, employees run into login trouble

Spectacular Software

Pros

We used this software for years for payroll, and it was so easy to use!

Cons

The only thing i did not like as a user was not being able to see any of my vacation/sick time.

Paychex Review

It has been a great experience as we were able to streamline many processes as a result of implementing the software.

Pros

It has given us more power to perform our necessary payroll functions which are a core foundation of our business. The self access portal allows me to manage and track my 401K. We do business in different state markets with different state statute regulations. Paychex has shown flexibility to be able to adapt to our needs.

Cons

The implementation stage took longer than we had hoped for. In the beginning the partnerships was getting quite expensive. We were able to work with Paychex to reach terms that best suited our business model.