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Paychex Payroll Services Review (2024)

Automated Tax Filing
By Top10.com StaffBy Top10.com Staff -
Last Updated: Aug 23, 2023
331 reviews
by
logo-PAYCHEX
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Pricing
Quote-based
Integrations
BambooHR, Clover, Microsoft Azure AD, QuickBooks
Benefits & HR
Health, retirement, onboarding, management

Our Verdict

Is Paychex Worth Signing Up For?

Claiming some of the most prestigious awards, including 2016’s Tektonic Awards and 2017’s World’s Most Ethical Company and Best HR outsourcing brand, Paychex has been making waves in the HR industry. It provides HR resources on various levels, including onsite, outsourcing, and more. If you’re considering an HR software option, then you owe it to your business to see how this one ranks in our in-depth review.

Pricing
Quote-based
Integrations
BambooHR, Clover, Microsoft Azure AD, QuickBooks
Benefits & HR
Health, retirement, onboarding, management

Paychex at a Glance

9.2
Editorial Score

Automatic Tax Filing

Automatic payroll and tax filing for all plans
10.0

HR Features

Offers onboarding, but workers comp & time tracking are add-ons
8.0

Employee Experience

Online and app, employee portal with employee info, financial wellness, e-learning tools
9.0

Customer Service

12-hour support Monday-Friday, live chat
9.0

Trials

3 months free
10.0

Paychex Pros & Cons

PROS

Tax, HR and Benefits management
Over 50+ customizable payroll reports

CONS

No individual dedicated account representative
Payment options may be limited based on subscription

Top Paychex Reviews

DG
Donald Gordon
So far so good
So far so good. One thing I’m sure of that ADP is terrible. Who knows maybe my expectations are just very low but I think Paychex so far has been a needed change.
Va
Vanessa
Jasmine Stout - Customer Service
I spoke to Jasmine Stout on Customer Service Chat and boy did she help me. She was professional, dealt with all my questions, and just did such an amazing job. She taught me a lot about the system and how to work it. She is such a life saver. I feel like I just graduated Paychex school!
Ja
Jessica asana
"Great place to learn the ropes"
I worked at Paychex full-time (Less than a year) Pros flexibility to work on projects, tool wise and time wise. no micro management. great products to clients. Cons politics even in a small team of 5, for promotion or everything else. narrow path to growth if you want to stay long. Advice to Management n/a. they are well established, won't listen, won't change.
See all Paychex reviews

How do I know I can trust this Paychex review?

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Paychex Paychex Visit Site

Overview

How Paychex Works

HR Features

From recruitment tracking to onboarding, and payroll to tax filing or even retirement options, Paychex’s offerings cover the spectrum. Businesses of every size are taking advantage of this company and for different reasons. Here are some of the most widely used services Paychex has on offer:

  • Payroll Services

Possibly the most popular option, Paychex payroll services takes the laborious task of tracking, submitting, approving, and sending payroll for your entire staff off of your shoulders. With time and attendance tracking tools (Paychex offers both standard time clocks and iris-recognition clocks to their customers), tax calculations, and payment processing functionality, Paychex makes quick work of an otherwise time-intensive job. The system will even calculate deductions such as time off, vacation days, and other wage garnishments automatically, and generate the appropriate paystubs with these updates included.

  • Hiring and Onboarding

Paychex HR software syncs with various 3rd-party apps, making many of your day to day jobs easier or even instant. Hiring managers will love the fact that this software automatically updates the system with new recruits that have been entered into the system with just 1 button.

  • Employee Benefits

Happy employees are productive employees, which is why businesses appreciate a software option that provides benefits to their workers. Paychex offers group health insurance, retirement plans, and even financial wellness to help employees stay on track along the way. Extensive benefits also reach further, like the disability benefits and 401Ks that are set up through Paychex, as well.

  • Finances and Payment Services

Paychex truly covers all of the bases with features like small business loans, tax calculations that are automatically cross-referenced for compliance and filed at the end of each year, and payment processing for instant payments.

  • Business Insurance

Invaluable to any company, Paychex’s business insurance options include workers’ comp, property insurance, liability, and umbrella insurance.

Paychex even offers unique startup services, training services, and compliance. One of the best features of this company is that it allows customers to choose what type of service they want. If you want someone to take care of all of your HR headaches, Paychex is available and will do the job from start to finish. Alternatively, if you just want a little assistance, you can opt for a more minimal service. Either way, customers can choose from online assistance, outsourcing, or in-house assistance.

Records and Reports

Paychex has several reporting options including online viewing, print availability, and automatic record updates. These features make reporting much easier than doing it manually, and give businesses a wider view of important factors like a worker’s productivity or the virality of a product.

Creating reports is easy and most of the work can be automated for an even smoother ride. Paychex will also create a clear preview screen for each of your payrolls. What’s more, the reports are clear and easy to understand without any of the special characters that sometimes clutter up payroll reports (to signify deductions, taxes, etc).

Flexibility of Terms

Paychex has a tremendous amount of flexibility with its package offerings. Businesses can choose which benefits and services they are interested in as well as the length of time they want to commit to. Of course, the longer you sign up for, the lower the overall costs.

Paychex App

Paychex ranks high on the usability charts because it makes everything as user-friendly as possible. The system is designed with a clean and clear layout, so users can find what they’re looking for quickly. Additionally, Paychex employs easy drag-and-drop functionality for optimal user experience. Employees, managers, and team leaders can schedule meetings, change locations, and add important information as easily as dragging their mouse across the screen.

Electronic onboarding is another way Paychex makes tedious business tasks easier. By syncing the system with potential hires, managers can instantly onboard new employees within seconds.

The iOS and Android-friendly mobile app is free, as with most HR software options, and it is just another easy way to manage your business from the comfort and convenience of your mobile device. One thing that is unique about Paychex’s mobile app is that it is compatible with Linux devices as well. Employees have the ability to see their pay stubs and vacation days from the dashboard and can request things like time off or end of the year reports from the app. Managers can use the mobile app to approve permissions, send out payments, track employees, and review reports even when they’re home.

Paychex Customer Support

Paychex provides 24/7 email customer support to all of its customers (Note: the live chat and phone support are not available 24/7, only the email support). Anyone can reach a friendly and helpful representative via live chat, phone, or email. However, some customer reviews have mentioned that the wait can be a bit long. That being said, we had very positive experiences each time we spoke to a staff member.

Additionally, when subscribing to one of the premium packages (all of them except the express, entry level plan), customers receive a dedicated customer service specialist who handles all of the company’s needs.

Paychex even offers walk-in assistance with a location finder right on the site to help you find the branch closest to you for a quick troubleshooting session in person. Phone support is available 8am-8pm ET, Monday-Friday, and live chat is available on site via the chat window.

Paychex Paychex Visit Site

Paychex Pricing

Pricing & Special Offers

Paychex has several plans to choose from and each service comes with various packages. For example, the payroll solution has 4 different packages: Express Payroll, Flex Select, Paychex Flex Pro, and Paychex Flex Enterprise. Benefits can be added or left out of the tailored plans. The price for an average 1-year package before any discounts are applied could run in the $3,300 range, while the usual discounts (bulk contracts, long-term sign up options, etc.) could potentially shave off a good $2,000 from the overall total.

Setup is free, but there is a single fee for end of the year W-2s and 1099s processing.

Bottom Line

Paychex delivers on the promise of truly being an all-in-one solution for a business’ every HR need. With payroll, employee benefits, finances, and PEO, Paychex is the end-to-end software provider that handles all your HR needs and stores them neatly on the cloud. 

Top10.com's editorial staff is a professional team of editors and writers with dozens of years of experience covering consumer, financial and business products and services.

Paychex reviews

Bad • Reviews 331
on
Excellent
1%
Great
0%
Average
1%
Poor
3%
Bad
95%
Sort by
DG
Donald Gordon
1 year ago
So far so good
So far so good. One thing I’m sure of that ADP is terrible. Who knows maybe my expectations are just very low but I think Paychex so far has been a needed change.
Va
Vanessa
1 year ago
Jasmine Stout - Customer Service
I spoke to Jasmine Stout on Customer Service Chat and boy did she help me. She was professional, dealt with all my questions, and just did such an amazing job. She taught me a lot about the system and how to work it. She is such a life saver. I feel like I just graduated Paychex school!
Ja
Jessica asana
6 years ago
"Great place to learn the ropes"
I worked at Paychex full-time (Less than a year) Pros flexibility to work on projects, tool wise and time wise. no micro management. great products to clients. Cons politics even in a small team of 5, for promotion or everything else. narrow path to growth if you want to stay long. Advice to Management n/a. they are well established, won't listen, won't change.
Eric Hsu
1 year ago
Not great but not horrible
Began using this week about 3 weeks ago. The company I recently get hired for uses Paychex as their 3rd party one-stop-shop. Time cards / payrolls / sick / vacation hours / tax tops / and even External tools like FinFit. As my experience has neither been horrible or great I’m neutral at this point because this app was only pushed upon me by my employers to get all Employees on one platform. Hopefully this app gets some kind of universal integration with a majority of the banks. Such as Zelle to better see where it can serve a purpose in banking / finance

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