Contributor, Benzinga
January 20, 2021
Paychex
Overall Rating:
securely through Paychex's website

Paychex originally began to provide simple, cost-effective payroll services for small businesses. It grew to be an all-in-1 integrated payroll, human resources (HR) and benefits outsourcing powerhouse. 

Paychex is a solid choice for a service to handle all aspects of managing human capital. You’ll find a wide range of features, including benefits tracking, time and attendance tracking and compliance tools. 

It’s a great platform for smaller and mid-sized businesses ready to expand. As your business increases, you may find that managing your expanding staff and payroll becomes overwhelming. Paychex will step in and pick up the slack, freeing up your time and energy to do what you do best.

Best For
  • Small to medium-sized businesses
  • Rapidly expanding businesses
  • Businesses reopening during COVID-19 adapting to local, state and federal mandates
Pros
  • Fully-integrated payroll and HR services
  • Accessible customer service
  • Wide range of human capital management offerings
  • Employees can easily access payroll records
Cons
  • Lack of pricing transparency at higher tiers
  • Mobile app not available with lower package tiers

Paychex Ratings at a Glance

Pricing
Product Offerings
Customer Service
Mobile App
Privacy
Performance
Overall Rating

Paychex Pricing

Paychex offers 3 packages: Paychex Go, Paychex Flex Select and Paychex Flex Enterprise. Paychex currently offers 3 months free for new account holders. 

Paychex Go is recommended for 1 to 9 employees. This level of coverage costs a base price of $49 per month and an additional $4 for each employee. Paychex Flex Select is for 10 to 49 employees with a suite of services well-suited to mid-sized businesses. Paychex Flex Enterprise is designed to handle companies with anywhere from 50 to 1,000 employees. 

Paychex Flex Select and Paychex Flex Enterprise don’t publish monthly prices. Instead Paychex will offer you a quote based on your unique needs as a company. Although this may come as a slight inconvenience, the option to tailor your services and only pay for what you need can have major upsides.

Each tier includes the following features:

  • Online Payroll Administration 
    •  Input and manage your payroll online
  • Payroll Tax Administration 
    • Paychex handles calculating and paying local, state and federal taxes for your payroll
  • Attendance Tracking Time
    • Integrate your employee time tracking directly into your payroll
  • New Hire Reporting
    • Easily comply with legal requirements for new hires, rehires and independent contractors 
  • General Ledger Report
    • Easily generate frequently needed payroll reports
  • Accounting Software Integration
    • Works with Quickbooks Online, Sage Intacct and Xero
  • Standard Analytics and Reporting 
    • Useful payroll reports are a click away
  • Direct Deposit and Paycards
    • Make paying your employees hassle-free
  • Additional Employee Pay Options 
    • Paper checks, check signing and check logos

With Paychex Flex Select, you’ll also have access to prepaid digital marketing and integrated HR and payroll services. Your employees will benefit from financial wellness programs, employment and income verification services and e-learning.

At the Paychex Flex Enterprise tier, you’ll unlock even more feature. At this level, you’ll access workers comp reporting, state unemployment insurance services, custom analytics, wage garnishments services, digital employee onboarding and HR administration along with the rest of the features. 

Paychex Product Offerings

Main product offerings from Paychex broadly include tracking benefits, time and attendance, payroll, human resources, hiring and employee onboarding and compliance. Paychex makes it easy to file your payroll online. It’s also easy to switch over from your current payroll company.  

Paychex’s full range of offerings is comprehensive and impressive. While some features may only be available through the higher package tiers, you can cover a lot of ground with Paychex Go. 

The following features and more are at your disposal: 

  • Payroll Services
    • Solutions for various sized businesses, easily switch payroll, enter payroll online
  • Time and Attendance
    • Online timekeeping, iris recognition time clock, regular time clock
  • HR Services
    • Benefits administration, compliance services, records administration
  • Hiring Services
  • Employee Benefits
    • Group health insurance, individual health insurance, retirement and financial wellness courses
  • Business Insurance
    • Workers’ compensation management, cyber liability insurance, property insurance, business owner insurance and more 
  • Finances and Payments
    • Business loans, payment processing, tax preparation services
  • Startup Services

Paychex Customer Service

Every level of Paychex membership receives stellar customer service. Clients enjoy a U.S-based customer service team. Specialists are highly-trained in all aspects of human capital management, including in information and data security.

You can contact customer service using the live chat feature, so it’s easy to troubleshoot issues online and on-the-go. 

There are also several ways Paychex makes compliance easier. You’ll automatically receive important tax forms like W-2s and 1099s each tax season. Any HR or business forms you may need are always at the ready. Each account will also receive a labor compliance poster kit to meet federal requirements. 

Accounts that utilize either Paychex Flex Select or Paychex Flex Enterprise will be assigned a dedicated customer care representative. This representative will know your account and be able to address any issues you may encounter.

Paychex Mobile App

Paychex offers a solid mobile app called Paychex Flex. It has a number of features that ensure a fluid experience whether you’re accessing Paychex from the app, mobile browser or your desktop. 

However, Paychex Flex is only available at the higher membership tiers. Smaller businesses or self-employed professionals may not benefit from the app if the higher price subscriptions aren’t a logical choice. 

Both employers can utilize the application for a variety of features. You can enter payroll, access HR services and use many other features directly from the app. 

There are also 2 other mobile apps available from Paychex: Paychex Time and Paychex Time Kiosk. Paychex Time allows employees to use their phone as a time clock in a separate service from payroll. Employees can stay logged in and track their time without accessing your sensitive data.

Paychex Time Kiosk enables you to use any compatible tablet as a time clock that integrates with your payroll. The app is available in Apple and Google Play stores.

Paychex Privacy

Paychex prioritizes its clients' privacy and security. It takes several measures to protect you and your employees from data theft, security breaches and more.

To keep your information private, Paychex doesn’t share or sell your information with outside companies. It also utilizes technology, implementing malware detection and prevention software along with date encryption to shield your data. 

Paycheck ensures that its employees are trained in information security and data protection, only allowing employees with a certain level of security clearance to view and handle your sensitive account information.

On the user end, Paychex offers protections like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). MFA is the highest level of authentication and makes it more difficult for unauthorized users to access your account.

Paychex Performance

In business for over 40 years, Paychex delivers on its promises to provide stellar integrated HR and payroll services. Its comprehensive offerings have won a host of awards like the Best HR Outsourcing Solution for Small Business 2019 by Inc. and 1 of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Forbes in 2018.

Paychex is responsible for paying 1 in 12 people working in the private sector. This alone demonstrates its consistent standard of excellence in payroll outsourcing. Its grown from just 1 employee at its inception to 14,000. Now Paychex serves over 500,000 companies. 

Paychex is particularly adept at helping small and medium-sized businesses grow by providing its software to handle services that would otherwise be a drain on time and resources. It makes it simple to track employee hours and manage HR needs. It offers digital, streamlined service with dedicated expert attention from its customer service team.

Paychex Overall Rating

No matter the size of your business, Paychex can reduce the time and energy you spend on handling human capital management. The integrated design streamlines tracking your employee’s time and pay while keeping you covered on the compliance end. And HR services take the guesswork out of managing your employees fairly and legally. 

Contact Paychex today to learn more about how its services can support your business.

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