Paylocity is human resources and payroll management software that is designed with the employee in mind. It’s different from other HR software providers out there because of the quality end-user focus. But they fall short in a few categories where other providers excel. We feel it’s great for simplifying the many parts of payroll at a very appealing price tag. Let’s dive into the full review.
Comparing Paylocity to the Best Online Payroll Services
Paylocity is a tool used to manage payroll services, along with other HR-focused tasks. It’s good at making sure employees have access to payroll information while simplifying the management of hours and PTO. However, it did not make our list of the top online payroll services on the market today:
- Rippling – Best online payroll service for most
- BambooHR – Best for an employee-first solution
- Deel – Best for automating multiple payroll tasks
- Remofirst – Best for receiving payroll analytics
- TriNet – Best for payroll services for SMBs
- Paycor – Best for payroll compliance
- Gusto – Best user interface for payroll
- QuickBooks – Best for knocking out payroll & accounting in one step
- ADP – Best for avoiding payroll growing pains
- Deluxe Payroll – Best way to attract more talent
- SurePayroll – Best worry-free guarantee for small business taxes
- Payroll4Free.com – Best feature-rich free-forever online payroll service
- Remote.com – Best for global hiring and payroll
For a more detailed look at the ones that did make the cut, we have a post you have to check out. We painstakingly researched the most important details of online payroll service providers and laid it all out in a simple-to-scan post. We tell you all you need to know so you can quickly decide on the best online payroll service for you. If you are curious about what companies did make our list, you can see our top picks here.
Paylocity: The Good and the Bad
The Good
On-demand payment solutions: Your employees can make any day payday without interfering with your payroll process. Paylocity also allows employees to get a portion of their wages early in case of an emergency. Having this feature in your back pocket offers an added benefit in attracting new hires, keeping employees happy, and boosting retention.
Expense management: Reimbursements and receipt attachments can stack up in a flash, making things more difficult to manage when payroll runs come around. Paylocity has an expense tracking tool that makes it super simple to process any expenses with pinpoint accuracy, all with zero paperwork. You won’t find this with many alternatives. You can also automate reimbursements, approve and track expenses from the mobile app, and pay employees faster. This one feature gives you back hours in your week.
Managing security: Payroll and customer data is the number one area attackers look for. Paylocity protects your company’s stored information with care. Information security professionals are continuously trained and certified to make sure your data is protected through proper coding practices and relationships with all the security interest groups.
Wage garnishment: Not every company will have to deal with this but, if mishandled, it can cause serious consequences for your business. This no longer has to be a fear or concern using Paylocity. Their wage garnish management service takes all the stress out of compliance so you can continue your business as usual with no unwanted stress.
Customizable payroll rules: Paylocity experts work with you to create customizable reports, accruals, and other steps to make your business’s payroll workflow exactly what you need it to be. You can create the rules and steps to be built into your personalized system so you don’t have to squeeze your business into a platform that can’t handle your demands.
The Bad
Poor customer support: When you need help or a company makes an error, you expect them to help you solve your problems. However, Paylocity is becoming notorious for turning a blind eye to support issues, with one user saying that the benefits department didn’t take ownership of the mistakes they made themselves. It’s worth putting Paylocity’s customer support through its paces before committing to using them for your payroll service.
Stressful implementation process: Getting started with payroll is complicated enough without having delays in implementation and hard-to-reach specialists. Many users complained about implementing Paylocity into their organization, with some complaints touching on Paylocity reps displaying poor knowledge about simple tax, 401(k) guidelines, and more. It should not take months to launch your payroll service, but that is exactly what happened to one business owner. And, sadly, they did not receive the service promised after that long process.
Difficulty managing employee clock-in – The Paylocity app is great because it allows employees to view their schedule and time sheets from anywhere. There is also a function that allows them to clock in on it, but that allows them to clock in even if they are not on time for work. Clearly that is a loophole that needs to be addressed, as this feature doesn’t have a safeguard to prevent employees from signing in even if they are not onsite.
Paylocity Pricing and Options
Paylocity shines in this department, which makes them so enticing to small business owners. Their payroll service pricing is very reasonable and might be why so many users stick around.
The pricing structure is straightforward; it’s just $2 per employee per month. That is a steal for any business size, really. There’s also no setup fee, either.
Be advised, the Paylocity website no longer shows pricing details and has you request a demo instead. That allows for greater customization in arranging a plan for you, but it could also raise the price point.
There is no free trial, nor any free or freemium version either. So you will pay out of pocket up front, without being able to try it on for size first.
Another issue is that there are no premium consulting or integration services. So, if you need one-on-one attention when starting with Paylocity, you have to call your implementation specialist. That’s just code for calling customer support and waiting for help like everyone else.
It’s not ideal, even though the price is less expensive than many other providers. For a comparison, a company like Rippling charges $8 per user per month.
Paylocity Payroll Expense Management
One of the add-on services Paylocity offers is an expense tracking tool to easily manage all your receipts, reimbursements, and categorize your expenses by type such as travel, meals, or supplies. This also lets you pay employees faster and make approving payments much simpler.
Paylocity Tax Services
The tax preparation services you can include with your Paylocity payroll service deliver peace of mind. You no longer have to spend your own time staying on top of regulatory changes or having to handle tax payments in-house. Using this add-on guarantees that taxes will be handled properly, no matter the state you do business in.
On-Demand Payments
This Paylocity add-on allows your employees to pick their payday and get cash advances when they’re in a pinch. Life is unexpected, so when things don’t go according to plan and your employees need a little help, this service extends that helping hand. What’s great about this service is it does not interrupt your regular payroll workflow. Your employees can get a piece of their income early and get the difference on payday. This one employee benefit alone can attract more candidates for hire and keep your current staff happier.
How Paylocity Ranks
Paylocity has some incredible features that make payroll much easier. But it does not rank well compared to the other online payroll service providers we’ve reviewed.
If you want to review the top providers in the industry and save yourself hours of research and headaches trying to find the best payroll service providers, take a look at our top recommendations here.
Summary
In the end, we would not recommend Paylocity for most organizations. The customer support is not efficient and does a poor job resolving issues, plus initial implementation seems to be full of headaches. There are far better providers with reliable customer support, more features, and lightning-fast deployment processes.
