ADP Sales Tactics

I've been a satisfied customer of Paychex for almost 25 years across several employers. I have used ADP and in-house solutions and typically end up back with Paychex. They are not perfect, but who is? The few times I have had problems they have always been able to solve them quickly and professionally.

We have had a LOT of issues with Paychex. We have to review records carefully prior to the funds being disbursed to employees. Even with that, at least 25% of the time, we have to have a correction deposit issued to an employee. As far as sales calls for added services, I don't think there are many. However, they do have an added fee for a service related to ACA that you have to specifically opt out of, or they deduct it from your bank account. We had to go through several layers of management to stop the deduction and get the funds returned.

Hi Lydia,

I used ADP years (and I mean years) ago, just didn't like them. Recently a client used Paychex. Our HR point person was very good, so was the admin person (although it could be challenging to get them if an issue was very time sensitive, but you always got them).

Pricing seem reasonable. Not sure where you are located, but also look at smaller regional/local shops. They may provide a better value.

FYI: all caps is considered yelling...

I once worked for ADP so I am a bit biased. But that was long ago. In my current company we have used ADP for a long time. We do not get their calls although we do get the Paychex calls. When we need something, an email to our account rep is promptly returned and we get a clear answer. The fees are reasonable but of course we would always wish they were lower. I have had similar experiences in other companies.

We use both PayChex and ADP and none are perfect (are any of us). We do generally find PayChex more responsive and easier to work with. With ADP the key is to have an assigned CSR rather than just the "team". If your CSR is not meeting your needs, request another.

A word of caution on using smaller/regional payroll service providers -- ultimately the business owner and those deemed to have control over payments are responsible for payroll taxes. If you do not use a publicly traded company with the necessary internal controls/auditing processes, I highly recommend routine checks with the taxing authorities to ensure taxes withdrawn are actually deposited. About 15 years ago a regional firm in my area "stole" about $10MM in payroll taxes from their clients -- the clients were liable for the unpaid taxes even though those taxes had been "collected" by the payroll service. This put a number of small businesses out of business.

I made the switch to ADP because Paychex kept raising their prices while not giving us payroll tax services. One of my pet peeves is when companies raise prices for their loyal customers and give new customers more for less. The practice leads itself to customer disloyalty, and ADP came by at the right time and offered more for less. We also have a great ADP rep.

Now, ADP does cross-sell quite a bit. I use the sales pitches as opportunities to learn, and I've found out that many of our current vendors have our best interests at heart so I haven't added anything from ADP.

I made the switch from ADP to Infinisource a year ago, and have been very pleased with accuracy and customer service. I switched away from ADP due to a forced upgrade, which didn't calculate our SIMPLE IRA contributions correctly. Infinisource has a great comprehensive platform for timekeeping and payroll processing.