Paychex vs Payroll City

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Our analysts compared Paychex vs Payroll City based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Payroll Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Paychex provides payment processing, time-keeping and other general human resource software. They offer this to self-employed users, small businesses, medium business and large enterprise ventures. Buyers can choose from various pricing plans and payment options such as direct deposit, real-time transfers and same-day ACH. Most versions have some core HR management and pay processing functionalities.

Based in the cloud, it assists with hiring, onboarding, tax filing, benefits management, business insurance, startup services and more. Users can customize it to meet their specific needs, adding only what they use. This allows administrators to ensure it fits their requirements, whether they be simple or complex.
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Payroll City is a comprehensive software solution designed to streamline payroll management and related tasks. It is particularly well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses seeking an efficient and reliable way to handle payroll processing, tax calculations, and compliance requirements. The software offers a range of benefits, including automated payroll calculations, direct deposit capabilities, and detailed reporting features. Users appreciate its intuitive interface and robust customer support, which make it easier to navigate complex payroll tasks.

Popular features of Payroll City include employee self-service portals, time and attendance tracking, and customizable payroll reports. These features help businesses save time and reduce errors, enhancing overall operational efficiency. Compared to similar products, Payroll City is often praised for its user-friendly design and comprehensive functionality, making it a preferred choice for many organizations.

Pricing details for Payroll City are not readily available, and it is recommended that users contact SelectHub for a personalized pricing quote based on their specific needs. This approach ensures that businesses receive a tailored solution that fits their budget and requirements.

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Product Insights

  • Reduce Errors: Ensure accuracy in payroll processing with the help of a variety of safeguard features, such as sending managers notifications when the system detects potential issues so that these problems are avoided entirely.
  • User Support: Access 24/7 online support to assist with all aspects of processing, and the option for a dedicated specialist that can act as a personal support expert for both payment and tax needs.
  • Convenience: The mobile app enables employers and employees to access the system from any device. By leveraging the cloud, they can start work on a desktop and pick up right where they left off directly from their mobile device, allowing them to complete core tasks from anywhere.
  • Informed Employees: Employees can get information about their time off, upcoming paychecks, benefits information or retirement funds. This saves time from HR and accounting by answering their more pressing questions while also building transparency and trust in the entire process.
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  • Save Time: Process payments faster with a straightforward system. Guarantee employee access to correct wages, without the time-consuming and error-prone manual pay distributions. 
  • Stay Compliant: Rely on automated tax deductions and garnishment to accurately manage finance. Avoid stress and costly mistakes by staying compliant with changing tax laws and requirements. 
  • Cut Labor Costs: Delegate procedures like time and attendance tracking new hire onboarding to the end-to-end platform to save money and decrease billable hours on slow-moving processes. 
  • Grow Together: Concentrate on more pressing growth operations by implementing scalable software. Evolve to meet the changing needs of employees and departments with flexible platform options and attentive support representatives. 
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  • Products: It has many different products for different applications. Here are the most important:
    • Payroll: The platform offers payment for businesses with one employee, under 10 employees, from 10-49 employees and from 50 to over 1,000 workers. This includes online payroll, taxes, deductions and many tools to generate reports and look at costs.
    • Time and Attendance: The online time and attendance function ties in directly to payroll, saving time when trying to calculate paychecks. In addition to the software, it also offers TrueShift physical time clocks and the InVision iris recognition clocks. Users can track team activity in real time through the manager’s dashboard, and allow employees to record time, approve timecards and check schedules through the employee dashboard.
    • HR: It has a range of HR services and software including employee development, hiring, records administration, compliance, benefits administration, learning management and more.
      • Professional Employer Organization: This is a full-service HR consulting program that helps organizations with liability issues, daily worker problems, risk management, benefits administration and other related issues.
      • Hiring Service: The software can make the hiring process easier with applicant tracking, screening, recruiting and onboarding capabilities. Please note, they don’t have employee leasing, temp staffing or contract staff services.
      • Employee Benefits: Managers and workers alike can get access to health insurance for groups or individuals, financial wellness and retirement planning.
    • Business Insurance: Users can get property and casualty insurance with the help of agents who assist in the selection and implementation process for the new benefits. This includes business owner policies, cyber liability and workers’ compensation.
    • Finances and Payments: Besides payroll, this program also has business loans, expense management, tax administration and processing for payments.
    • Startup Solutions: For new businesses, it offers guides, consulting, advice and more for multiple aspects of the process. They give aid with marketing, the incorporation process, business management and access to free online tools.
  • Payroll and Tax Filing: Process payroll and automatically calculate taxes. Paychex can calculate, file and pay taxes at the federal, state and local level automatically. The platform can calculate hours, doing setup for direct deposit and setting hours per pay period.
  • General Ledger: Synchronize payroll data with integrations offered by Paychex. The system is compatible with a variety of popular accounting systems, including QuickBooks Online and Xero.
  • Reporting and Analytics: Generate custom analytics and reports or choose from over 160 customizable templates to track and visualize relevant data.
  • Learning and Development: Employees can take advantage of online courses to stay educated on relevant topics. Not only does this increase productivity, but it makes employees feel more invested in.
  • Core HR: It gives employee feedback, manages employee training and tracks important documents through the system’s interface.
  • Onboarding: Applicants and new hires can complete new hire documents, such as tax forms, and set up direct deposit directly through the platform.
  • Paycheck Protection Program: Introduced by the CARES Act as a measure for economic stability during the COVID pandemic, the Paycheck Protection Program loans encourage small businesses to keep or rehire workers that have been furloughed. This system offers a quick way to apply for this loan.
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  • Comprehensive Pay Management: Calculate and pay accurate wages per employee with detailed history and reporting. Account for tax deductions and filings for any state in the US. 
  • POS Compatibility: Integrate platform with many top POS systems to elevate pay management for companies in the food and service industries. Combine with Aloha, Aldelo, PCAmerica, Revention, Future POS, MicroSale, Digital DIning, POSLink, PCMX and FreeTime for complete pay and POS support. 
  • Analyze Data: Sort through data from pay history, paid time off and employee 401(k)s to run reports from within the program. Spot trends and act accordingly. Adjust tracked fields in the Small Business HRIS to see only the most critical employee data. 
  • Digital Library: Use templates for job descriptions and postings, employee handbooks, job descriptions and postings in the online HR library. Customize templates with company-specific information. 
  • Self-Service Portal: Allow new hires to complete onboarding with digital I9 and W4 filings. Enroll in benefits by using the integrated EaseCentral platform alongside your broker. 
    • Employee Records: Find and reprint past pay stubs in the employee portal for increased record keeping. 
  • Partnerships: Offer accounting professionals a competitive expansion of services instead of stealing their client base. Work with accountants in a turn-key partnership to offer behind-the-scenes office support and extend existing client services and solutions. 
  • Compliance: Avoid costly errors with automatic compliance and garnishments are reflective of changing state and federal laws. Mitigate personnel challenges with ACA and labor administration regulations. 
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Product Ranking

#4

among all
Payroll Software

#120

among all
Payroll Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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Benefits Management Dashboard And Reporting Expense Management Mobile Capabilities Payroll And Tax Management Platform Capabilities Security And Compliance Time And Attendance Management 94 100 100 81 90 100 100 91 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 2800 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 15 reviews
83%
of users recommend this product

Paychex has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 83% when considering 2800 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

95%
of users recommend this product

Payroll City has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 95% when considering 15 user reviews from 1 recognized software review sites.

4.5 (24)
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4.2 (1342)
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4.73 (15)
4.1 (1122)
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3.9 (312)
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Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Paychex and concluded it deserves the award for the Best Overall Payroll Software available today and earns best-in-class honors for Expense Management and Platform Capabilities.

Analysts' Pick Award
Expense Management Award
Platform Capabilities Award

Payroll City stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

User-Friendly UI: A total of 80% of reviewers who mentioned the UI felt it easy to use.
Price Within Budget: Around 50% of reviewers that mentioned price were satisfied with the pricing structure and found that the system was worth it.
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User-Friendly Interface: Payroll City is known for its easy-to-use platform, making payroll processing smooth and straightforward.
Strong Customer Support: Users consistently praise Payroll City's responsive and knowledgeable customer support team.
Seamless Integrations: The software integrates well with popular accounting and ERP systems, ensuring data accuracy and reducing manual effort.
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Late Submissions and Missed Deadlines: Around 80% of reviewers that mentioned taxes ran into issues, with around 70% saying they had to pay penalties as a result.
Terrible Customer Service: Clients complained that the customer service was rude, unqualified, ill-informed, unhelpful and had high turnover in almost 70% of reviews that mentioned customer service.
Broken Features: Over 50% of reviews that mentioned the features said they were left wanting. The most common issues were communication problems. Just under 20% of all reviewers complained about errors made by either the solution or the staff.
Late Cancellations: Around 20% of reviewers that discussed price complained that they had canceled the program, but it had kept taking money out of their account.
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User-Friendly Interface: Payroll City is known for its easy-to-use platform, making payroll processing smooth and straightforward.
Strong Customer Support: Users consistently praise Payroll City's responsive and knowledgeable customer support team.
Seamless Integrations: The software integrates well with popular accounting and ERP systems, ensuring data accuracy and reducing manual effort.
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Paychex incorporates a range of different solutions and is used widely by small, medium and large-sized companies. While around 40% of users were happy with the functionality of the system, the majority expressed dissatisfaction with its tax capabilities, pricing and customer service. Many described it as dishonest and complained especially that they were oversold on its capabilities and that the salespeople used pushy tactics to try and upsell them. Other complaints of the system included making errors, overpaying employees or even miscalculating taxes resulting in serious penalties. Current and former clients greatly disliked the service. The UI was the most positively reviewed element of the platform with around 80% expressing satisfaction with the design and navigation. Around 50% were happy with the pricing structure and a minority of around 30% of users said they had positive experiences with some select customer service members. This disparity in experiences may be in part to the high turnover rate in representatives which is mentioned many times during the reviews. This solution could be appropriate for small and medium-sized businesses. It supports larger enterprises, but buyers should make sure it has the necessary functionality before purchasing.

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Is Payroll City the key to unlocking simplified payroll management? Users seem to think so! Payroll City generally receives positive reviews, with users praising its user-friendly interface and responsive customer service. One user raved about the platform's ability to "talk" to their accounting software, highlighting the seamless integration with other systems like ERP and timekeeping, which sets it apart from competitors that suffer from data loss during transfers. This ease of use, coupled with robust features, makes handling complex payroll tasks a breeze. However, some users expressed a desire for more advanced reporting features, indicating room for improvement. A standout feature of Payroll City is its exceptional customer support. Users consistently commend the knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful staff who go above and beyond to provide solutions and address concerns. One user even exclaimed, "Ask for [rep's name], she is the best!!!", showcasing the personalized assistance provided. While a few users mentioned occasional miscommunications with customer service, these instances appear to be rare. Overall, Payroll City excels in its simplicity, making it ideal for small to medium-sized businesses seeking a reliable and efficient payroll solution. The platform's intuitive design, coupled with exceptional customer support, ensures a smooth and hassle-free payroll experience, freeing up businesses to focus on what matters most – growth and success.

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