We’ve come a long way from paying employees in bread thanks to the invention of paper money and payroll software. Modern payroll solutions make efficient, accurate calculations and deductions possible while protecting you from hefty non-compliance fees.

If you’re feeling burnt out on manually managing payroll or tired of dealing with an outdated system, it’s time for an upgrade. In this article, we’re diving into the best payroll vendors and tips for comparing payroll software.

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The Best Payroll Vendors

On average, a typical payroll error costs about $291, meaning just a handful of mishaps can cost your business thousands. Fortunately, thanks to payroll software, you can reduce errors while saving time on tedious calculations and deductions.

Ready to see the best of the best? Kickstart your search with our top payroll vendor picks below.

Paychex: Best for Dashboard and Reporting

Paychex is a cloud-based payroll solution for payroll and HR management. It automates employee hours and expenses calculation, ensuring accuracy while simplifying tax filing, time tracking, benefits management and payroll processing.

Cover your HR bases with safeguard features for eliminating payroll errors, intuitive dashboards for monitoring team productivity and user-friendly mobile onboarding tools for streamlining the hiring process.

What Users Like: User-friendly UI and easy-to-navigate website. Users also mentioned the budget-friendly pricing structure and considered the system worth the investment.

What They Don’t: Customer service issues including long response times and high turnover.

Manage payroll data at a glance, including last payroll, tasks, employee registration, analytics and more, using the Paychex payroll dashboard. Source

Highest Rated Modules According to Our Data

• Dashboard and Reporting — 100
• Expense Management — 100
• Security and Compliance — 100
• Benefits Management — 94
• Time and Attendance — 91

Top Benefits

• Improved Accuracy: Ensure error-free payroll processing through various safety measures, like notifications letting managers know when the system finds an issue, to quickly problem-solve.
• Greater Flexibility: Review and submit payroll, view reports, and enable updating info on the go for your employees all through the app. By taking advantage of the cloud, employees complete essential tasks remotely.
• Enhanced Visibility: View employee leaves, payment schedules, insurance information and retirement benefits, making it more efficient for HR and accounting to address pressing issues, answer questions quickly and boost employee transparency.
• Nonstop Support: Get around-the-clock online payroll processing support. Connect with a payroll specialist for personal consultations on payment and tax concerns. For startups and smaller businesses, Paychex also provides consulting and guides for key aspects like business management and marketing.

Primary Features

• Reporting and Analytics: Choose from over 160 templates to customize reports and analytics. Visualize key data to simplify decision-making.
• Learning Resources: Empower employees with continued learning through online courses on multiple topics from compliance training to professional development programs.
• Time and Attendance: Track employee time through TrueShift physical time clocks and InVision iris recognition clocks. Get a real-time view of team activity through the manager’s dashboard and check schedules.
• Tax Filing and Payroll Management: Get automatic tax calculations to compute, file and pay taxes at federal, state and local levels. Simplify payroll processing with a streamlined approach to computing hours, setting up direct deposits and defining hours per pay period.

Limitations

• Steep learning curve.
• Late tax filings leading to penalties for missed deadlines.
• Unhelpful customer support experiences.

Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data

• Mobile Push Notifications — Not Supported
• Prorate Paychecks — Not Supported
• Performance Management System Integration — Not Supported
• Benefits Plans Recommendation — Not Supported
• Global Payroll — Supported With Integrations

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Workday HCM: Best for Security and Compliance

Workday HCM is a SaaS solution for managing payroll, time and attendance, expense reporting, benefits, and compliance. With categories readily available on the home screen, finding what you need is just a click away.

Define criteria for specific earnings, roll out multiple payroll calculations and run reports to analyze trends anytime. For a more in-depth look, watch our Workday review!

What Users Like: Workday’s multiple functionality makes it a one-stop-shop for HR and payroll tasks. Users also note the interface is intuitive, allowing easy navigation, even for beginners.

What They Don’t: There’s a learning curve in the beginning, especially when it comes to customization and implementation.

View pay group head counts, employer costs, monthly taxes and more directly from Workday’s payroll dashboard.

Highest Rated Modules According to Our Data

• Security and Compliance —100
• Dashboard and Reporting —100
• Payroll and Tax Management — 96
• Time and Attendance — 91
• Benefits Management — 88

Top Benefits

• Data-Driven Decisions: Empower effective decision-making with reporting tools that provide full KPI insight. Understand your staff, encourage growth, support diversity and, most importantly, plan ahead.
• Simplified Hiring: Expedite the hiring process with collaboration tools, task reminders and synced calendars. The referral leaderboard eases hiring by recommending qualified candidates.
• Streamlined HR Processes: From onboarding to compliance, streamline HR tasks in one convenient location, like managing benefits efficiently through the ACA dashboard that ensures reliable coverage for employees.
• Effective Talent Recruitment: View talent acquisition data on a single dashboard. Use compensation comparisons and benchmarking to ensure job offers are effective and competitive. Machine learning also spots any opportunities for improvement.
• Better Time Management: Track time from any device, reducing the number of forgotten time punches. Enable alerts for any time that needs to be adjusted. Admins can approve time on the go. Save time on manual time and attendance tasks, minimizing human error, by automating rules and calculations.

Primary Features

• Payroll Management: Simplify payroll processing by consolidating all transactions in the payroll module. Equipped with a calculation engine, this module streamlines the task of running customized reports and seamlessly performing calculations for groups and individuals.
• Expense Management: Track expenses with mobile receipt scanning and approval workflows. Set spending controls and gain valuable insights into company expenses with data analytics tools.
• Absence Management: The Smart Calendar organizes and oversees all types of leave time. Track and report time-off, leave requests, balances and accruals. Track and approve time off on any device, receiving mobile alerts for urgent matters.
• Learning Management: Use a range of LMS capabilities for employee training. Sharpen employee skills through quizzes, videos and learning paths. Provide courses to external groups with the WorkDay Content Cloud, granting access to third-party users.
• Worldwide Compliance: Customize prebuilt frameworks — with support for 240 countries, over 1,500 reports, 170 absence plans and various geographic controles like privacy preferences and date formats — to match your company’s unique requirements. Ensure compliance with legal assistance spanning over 58 jurisdictions.

Limitations

• Steep learning curve.
• Faulty scheduling tools.
• Occasional glitches and slowness.

Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data

• Benefits Broker Assistance — Not Supported
• Benefits Broker Assistance — Not Supported
• Benefits Plans Recommendation — Not Supported
• Create Paychecks from Mobile Devices — Not Supported

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Namely: Best for Payroll and Tax Management

Namely is a cloud-based payroll solution for managing compensation, scheduling employees and payroll, and monitoring regulatory compliance. It also has various integration options for third-party applications, helping streamline your HR processes.

Get a full-service payroll system, an advanced employee database, comprehensive time off tracking and robust reporting tools with automation going beyond simple payroll tasks.

What Users Like: Most functions are customizable and updates happen regularly, improving platform capabilities.

What They Don’t: There’s a lack of integration between payroll and HRIS modules, demanding more time for certain tasks (like manually entering employee mileage for payroll).

View employee review info at a glance, including status and due date, using Namely’s performance dashboard.

Highest Rated Modules According to Our Data

• Security and Compliance — 100
• Dashboard and Reporting — 100
• Payroll and Tax Management —95
• Benefits Management —94
• Time and Attendance—91

Top Benefits

• Automated Tasks: Automatically perform essential tasks like approving promotions and pay raises. Set up role-based approvals by job titles, eliminating the need to assign new users every time an employee leaves or changes positions.
• Custom Workflows: Create different workflows for different departments, teams and additional groups within the company, better organizing key processes.
• Centralized Company Info: Stay in the loop on company news and announcements with a central news feed that supports uploading images, GIFs and videos.
• Increased Accountability: Boost accountability with Org Charts. Org Charts present an overview of how all employees and teams relate to one another, clarifying roles and responsibilities for everyone.
• Role-Based Permissions: Custom access controls for data by assigning user roles and setting permissions (all while keeping your data safe).

Primary Features

• Talent Management: Streamline talent management with onboarding, eSignature, performance review customizations, task tracking, employee surveys, goal management and review cycle automation.
• PTO On-the-Go: Through the mobile app (available on iOS and Android devices), employees track their time with geo-fencing and request time off, while managers receive real-time notifications and view and approve PTO.
• Benefits Administration: Manage a wide range of benefits, including health insurance, FSA and HSA options, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and wellness programs. Offer additional coverage for pets and identity theft.
• Analytics: Evaluate HR analytics, examining diversity through gender and age, and analyze pay gaps by gender and ethnicity across job levels and departments. Customize reports and performance benchmarks against industry standards. View a dashboard with KPIs on headcount, time-off and trends.

Limitations

• Tedious timesheet and attendance data entry.
• Lack of communication and integration between the payroll and HRIS modules.
• Long wait times for customer service.

Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data

• Benefits Plans Recommendations — Not Supported
• Geocoding — Not Supported
• Mobile Expense Management — Not Supported.
• Process Advance Salary — Not Supported
• Blackout Dates — Not Supported

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TriNet: Best for Time and Attendance Management

TriNet (formerly Zenefits) is a cloud-based suite for conducting core HR and payroll tasks. View and manage employee info in real-time, including title changes, contract updates and PTO requests. Ensure workplace communication and transparency through TriNet’s platform, centralizing reports, compliance regulations, pay stubs and time clocks.

What Users Like: Available integrations streamline and simplify onboarding and offboarding.

What They Don’t: Long wait times for support ticket responses. In some cases clients waited months for a resolution.

Edit existing payroll data to account for errors, compensation changes and more using the pay runs tab in TriNet.

Highest Rated Modules According to Our Data

• Time and Attendance —100
• Security and Compliance —100
• Dashboard and Reporting — 100
• Payroll and Tax Management — 92
• Benefits Management — 89

Top Benefits

• Simplified Time and Attendance: Track employees’ clock-in and clock-out times, along with their worked hours, using real-time dashboards. Customize your PTO policy and calendar views. Save time with single-click approvals and empower your team with self-service options for requesting time off and managing sick days (including on the mobile app).
• Streamlined Tasks: Facilitate daily tasks with approval workflows for employee changes, such as promotions, terminations and new hires.
• Data-Driven Insights: Get real-time data with prebuilt reports on turnover, compensation and equal opportunity. Customize reports for important KPIs.
• Self-Service Tools: Let employees manage their information, including viewing pay stubs and updating benefits elections, giving your staff more flexibility with employee self-service (ESS).
• Mobile Access: Access benefits, pay stubs and the company directory and handle admin capabilities for performance reviews, payroll and paid time off on iOS and Android devices.
• Strict Compliance: Stay compliant with built-in explanations, configuration suggestions, e-filing and visibility into compliance status. TriNet also provides configuration recommendations using info like company data, e-filing and ERISA data storage.

Primary Features

• Payroll and Tax Management: Run payroll with just three clicks. The platform automatically files taxes and keeps a payroll timeline.
• TriNet Pay Connect: Connect TriNet with an external payroll system and compile all changes into a checklist for complete visibility, with the option for manual updates.
• Time and Attendance: Monitor clock-in and clock-out times and PTO. Ease time management with real-time dashboards, single-click approvals and the employee self-service platform.
• Performance Management: Manage goals, meetings, action items and performance tracking. Streamline performance reviews with prebuilt templates and customizable questions.
• Document Management: Keep all your employee documents in one place for easy, efficient access. Filters, categorization and in-product guidance make it easy to drill down and update documents.

Limitations

• Lack of integrations with third-party applications.
• Occasional technical glitches and slow performance.
• Unresponsive customer service.

Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data

• Benefits Plans Recommendations — Not Supported
• Mobile Wallet — Not Supported
• Automated Reminders — Not Supported
• Mobile Expense Management — Not Supported
• Global Payroll — Not Supported

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Paycor: Best for Benefits Management

Paycor is a cloud-based HR system that facilitates payroll and time and attendance management. Base employee pay on key factors like skillset, performance and educational background.

Self-service features, like self-enrolling in benefits, reduce the admin’s workload and empower employees. Provide employees with access to pay histories, pay stubs and tax documents, saving time on gathering and delivering basic information.

What Users Like: User-friendly and intuitive payroll features as well as convenient self-service tools.

What They Don’t: Inconsistent customer support with communication gaps and long wait times (specifically when escalated or dealing with more intricate issues).

Paycor provides employee portals so your staff can view company news, contact team members, receive alerts, track punch-in time and more from a central location.

Highest Rated Modules According to Our Data

• BenefitsManagement — 100
• Security and Compliance — 100
• Payroll and Tax Management — 93
• Time and Attendance — 91
• Dashboard and Reporting — 80

Top Benefits

• Empowered Learning Development: Provide clear advancement paths, align individual goals with business objectives, reward high performers and offer accessible learning tools for skill development on any internet-connected device.
• Improved Communication and Performance Tracking: Use Paycor’s 1-on-1 tool for streamlined communication between managers and direct reports. Track goals, align individual goals with organizational objectives and highlight employees’ significant impacts.
• Enhanced Productivity: Use real-time analytics for proactive planning to prevent staffing shortages and ensure operational continuity, even when employees are out sick.
• Streamlined HR Processes: Consolidate core HR tasks in a unified platform, eliminating the need to log in to multiple systems. Track and consolidate data for generating high-level overview reports on HR practices.
• Comprehensive Compensation Management: Ensure accurate pay based on factors such as experience, skillset, education, certifications, job title and performance to reduce turnover and boost morale.

Primary Features

• Payroll: Simplify payroll processing by integrating general ledger data and enabling self-service features for employees to access pay stubs, historical data and tax forms.
• Time and Attendance Management: Monitor employee hours, predict labor costs using historical data, manage time-off requests and address time clock errors through the mobile app for clocking in with the time and attendance module.
• Benefits Management: Centralize employee information, enabling self-enrollment in benefits plans and using analytics for insights into optimizing employee benefit packages.
• Reporting and Analytics: Consolidate HR, payroll and time data into unified reports. Track and store data across all HR fields, enabling comprehensive reports for managerial insights into standard business practices.
• Recruitment and Onboarding: Automate recruiting and onboarding via branded career sites and implement employee referral rewards.

Limitations

• Occasional bugs while updating reports.
• Cumbersome review process.
• Noncomprehensive integration between the time and attendance module and payroll/benefits systems.

Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data

• Auto-Schedule Reports — Not Supported
• Create and Print Checks — Not Supported
• Create and Print Checks — Not Supported
• Geocoding — Not Supported
• Blackout Dates — Not Supported

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How We Choose Products

Our team of writers and analysts at SelectHub is committed to giving you the best recommendations based on our data. To make our list, products had to meet two criteria:

1. Closely match the topic
2. Earn a top-5 analyst score in our selection platform

Our analyst scores are based on an in-depth research process using primary and secondary sources. This includes SelectHub Analyst Briefings, direct communication with vendors, and reviewing materials such as user reviews, product brochures, specification sheets, case studies, user manuals, and technical documentation.

Our platform’s Scoring Engine processes the research and computes the analyst score. The score also factors in platform settings such as industry and company size.

Learn more about our research methodology and editorial standards

Top 8 Benefits of Using Payroll Software

Managing a business takes a lot of work — the phrase “it takes a village” applies to running payroll alone. Payroll software makes the overwhelming feel less intimidating. How? Find out by taking a closer look at the benefits of using a payroll software vendor:

Increase Productivity

While payroll software’s main focus is paying employees, many modern solutions recognize the importance of employee recognition and provide tools for you to do just that. Financial incentives and recognition can improve productivity by keeping employees motivated through awards, praise from peers and performance-based pay.

Part of boosting efficiency includes providing continued learning resources for employee development. Most payroll providers have learning and training resources that go beyond basic onboarding, letting your staff know you’re invested in their future success.

Opting for a payroll vendor also equips you with automation tools to save time (we’ll take a closer look at payroll automation tools in the next section).

Key question: Does payroll processing impact employee retention? Absolutely! According to Affinity:

Paying employees on time is one of the easiest ways to retain and attract new talent. Having a reputation as an employer with a tightly run payroll ship is an attractive quality to job seekers and could be the deciding factor when it’s time to sign on the dotted line. Alternatively, businesses that underpay their employees may suddenly find themselves losing their best employees and unable to attract new ones.”

Reduce Errors

Automating payroll processes, like using a Scantron to grade tests compared to checking paper after paper by hand, saves time, alleviates burnout and reduces human error.

Payroll systems can automatically calculate payroll and deductions for you, enhancing efficiency and significantly reducing your risk of tax filing errors like inaccurate mileage reports or choosing the wrong retirement plan. Payroll mistakes not only cause frustration for employees but also pose the risk of legal fees.

Key question: What payroll tasks can I automate? Here are a few examples:

• Calculating salaries and withholding taxes
• Generating reports
• Scheduling payments
• Getting updates and notifications (like changing laws or tax regulations)
• Enrolling in benefits
• Tracking employee time and PTO
• Transferring employee information

Keep in mind, the available automation capabilities will depend on the payroll provider you choose.

Build Trust & Transparency

Candidates are drawn to organizations that openly communicate about compensation. Enter pay transparency — the practice of openly sharing information about an organization’s compensation policies, salary structures and individual employee pay rates. This understanding becomes a powerful motivational force, linking performance directly to compensation.

Transparent pay practices also serve as a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining top talent. Beyond motivation, pay transparency cultivates trust and fairness for all employees. It can also help you identify and rectify potential disparities in compensation, especially addressing gender and minority pay gaps.

Key question: What is the cost of payroll errors?

The same way you rely on your staff to complete tasks, they depend on you for reliable payments. According to LendingTree, 64% of employees live paycheck to paycheck, so even one late or incorrect paycheck makes a major difference. Employees are more likely to look for a new job after a single payroll error.

Enhance Accuracy & Compliance

Payroll software is programmed to comply with state and federal regulations, helping minimize the potential costly noncompliance fines and penalties. Ensure accurate payroll and reports by automating payroll functions like time tracking, tax calculating and paycheck processing.

For example, PCI compliance entails adhering to a set of 12 security standards for businesses handling credit card transactions, including data transmission, processing and storage. PCI noncompliance costs range from $5,000 to $100,000 per month!

Types of compliance under the payroll software umbrella:

• Payroll tax compliance
• Overtime and labor law compliance
• Employee leaves (like FMLA)
• Data security and privacy

Key question: How do automated payroll systems contribute to ensuring compliance with IRS regulations?

Automated payroll systems ensure compliance with IRS regulations by generating reports and making tax documents accessible through secure online platforms or employee self-service portals. They streamline the entire process, freeing up time and resources to focus on other critical areas of your business.

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Improve Time & Attendance Tracking

Tracking worked hours and processing payroll go together like peanut butter and jelly. Time theft costs businesses thousands of dollars every year. It’s easy to overlook minor incidents, like if an employee stays 10 minutes late every day at the end of the week, that’s nearly an hour of unapproved overtime and every minute adds up.

Reduce unapproved overtime with time clock restrictions, minimize buddy punching with biometric authentication, and boost time and attendance accuracy with GPS-based time clocks. Detect attendance discrepancies, like missed or incorrect punches, and make easy adjustments for on-point payroll.

Key question: What role do reporting capabilities play?

Reporting capabilities enable seamless tracking for employee hours, upcoming leave and overtime, boosting transparency and helping you optimize scheduling.

Simplify Tax Season

Get automatic calculations on employee taxes based on their pay, hours worked and deductions while considering federal and state tax rates. Payroll vendors also ensure compliance with tax laws and take tax inflation adjustments into account.

Get assistance in filing forms, including W-2s and 1099s, and making timely tax deposits to the appropriate tax authorities.

This added support during tax season is especially helpful for small businesses that are putting in twice the work with half the people.

Key question: What are the most common tax mistakes small business owners make? According to the IRS:

• Underpaying estimated taxes
• Depositing employment taxes
• Filing too late
• Not separating business and personal expenses

The good news is payroll software equips you with tools to fix these popular business tax issues.

Access Support

Payroll software provides added support like online training modules, educational blogs and consultations. The amount of support varies depending on the software you choose and what the vendor offers.

For example, Patriot Payroll features a help center with answers to commonly asked questions and QuickBooks has a two-day live training class. Some products are more user-friendly than others, so the time needed for training may vary.

Key question: How can I ensure a smooth transition when it comes to training employees?

Ensuring a smooth transition involves careful planning and effective communication. Here are some tips for the transition:

• Communicate the upcoming change well in advance to prepare.
• Clearly outline the reasons for the transition and the benefits it will bring to the organization.
• Conduct a thorough needs assessment to understand the specific requirements of your organization.
• Look for payroll software that has an intuitive and user-friendly interface.
• Consider platforms with a clean design, logical navigation, and minimalistic workflows to enhance user experience.
• Read user reviews and seek recommendations from other organizations that have successfully implemented the software.
• Choose a software vendor that provides comprehensive training resources and customer support.

Secure Sensitive Data

Payroll processing means handling highly sensitive employee information like their addresses, Social Security numbers and bank account details. Any unauthorized access puts your team at risk of identity theft, financial fraud and potential legal fees.

Putting a payroll system in place enhances data protection with tools like encryption to secure sensitive data during transmission and storage and access controls to restrict access based on roles and responsibilities. Additionally, multi-factor authentication provides an extra layer of protection by requiring employees to provide multiple forms of verification before getting access to your payroll system.

If an incident occurs, ensure you’re prepared with audit trails that log and track changes made to payroll data. Detailed audit trails can help save some time during potential investigations by noting user activity. Boost peace of mind by opting for a payroll solution that includes payroll data backup and data recovery plans to mitigate the impact of a security breach.

Key question: What factors should businesses consider when selecting a payroll software vendor?

Choosing reputable payroll software vendors that prioritize security is crucial. Your payroll vendor should implement industry best practices, undergo regular security audits and comply with data protection regulations.

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How to Compare Payroll Vendors

There are plenty of fish in the sea when you’re searching for a new payroll system. So how do you narrow down payroll vendors? Start by assessing your major payroll management pain points.

Develop a list of must-have features from your new payroll app. From there, you’ll eliminate any system that doesn’t meet your needs and scope out reviews from current or previous clients.

With so many features and functions to sort through, knowing where to start is tough. Get a head start on building your list of must-have features by taking a look at some of our key requirements below:

• Core HR: HR and payroll services go hand in hand. Some systems have employee self-service functions, allowing your employees to adjust their benefits independently.
• Payroll Processing: Customize your payroll processing based on your business and employee needs, like setting up direct deposits and opting for paperless pay stubs. Remember that this feature varies from vendor to vendor, so consider what payment processing the system supports before committing.
• Payroll Management: A lot of administrative work goes into effectively conducting payroll. This feature includes calculating taxes and generating relevant payroll forms. View financial records like gross earnings and deductions, enhancing accessibility.
  Workforce Management: The amount written on your employees’ paychecks varies weekly, depending on how many hours they work. This feature contains tools that track all this information, including time tracking, absence management and scheduling.
• Compliance Management: There are a lot of laws and regulations to consider when compensating employees, like minimum wage per state and deadlines for benefits enrollment. These laws and regulations change over time. Fortunately, automatic updates are available (depending on your vendor), ensuring there’s never a lapse in compliance.

If you’re looking for more guidance, consider checking out our free requirements checklist to streamline your search and ensure your unique business needs aren’t forgotten.

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Next Steps

Just like a calculator solves complex mathematical problems, payroll software simplifies calculations, making your payroll process more efficient and manageable — proving to be a smart investment.

Whether you go for payroll software or payroll services, you’ll be in good hands with automation options for saving time and enhancing accuracy.

Remember to thoroughly analyze your options to ensure you land on the best payroll software for your business needs. Need more guidance? We’re here to help! Narrow down choices and see how top solutions stack up against each other with our free, in-depth comparison report.

Which payroll vendors land on your list? Which payroll vendor has the essential features you’re looking for? Let us know in the comments below!