What has been your experience with the Paychex system, i.e. pros and cons?
Answers
We have used Paychex since 2005 and have generally been pleased with the service. We like to outsource payroll so that we don't have one person in the office responsible for generating calculations, checks, etc.. We use the service where they call for the payroll. They also have online capabilities. Most of our employees are on salary so it is pretty easy. We have problems every year carrying over vacation time correctly but have been through it enough that we know what could happen. From time to time we will get a new person that handles our account. Either there is not longevity in the job or they are moving accounts around, I'm not sure. I would suggest Paychex if you are outsourcing payroll.
Regis,
I have transitioned many clients to Paychex. They have been satisfied and have saved significant $$ vs. other providers. Good systems and reporting. They have saved from 30-43% using our strategic sourcing methodology.
I have had a different experience. As a small employer (20+), I found their business model too fractionalized. As usual with this sort of service, we do all the data entry, but they unduly limit the access to data in a way that would be useful to us. Reports are in fixed format (no query capability). They have numerous divisions to deal with (Insurance, Qualified Plans, etc), and the contact is too much like a call center (until things go bad and they wonder why you are leaving - which I did). They also do not communicate between their own divisions very well for service-related issues. I know they have several different service types, but it's not the Paychex I used to know.
Over the last 20 years I've competed against them, worked for them, referred them into the accounts I was doing consulting work for and am back to competing against them. Overall, I believe their business model is best suited for companies with under 50 employees. That said, there are many regional competitors who provide better
I agree with Terry. We have used them for several years. Have gotten good service mostly. We use a model where we prepare the PR on our end and transmit it. We also use their Time Reporting and Employee Access (Paystubs) web based products. It all works but none of talks to each other, the interfaces are all pretty bad and different, and it ALL feels really old school. But it works and the cost is reasonable.