Paychex Flex Reviews

Pros

The customer service makes the product easy to use. The support makes the product as with many payroll software products it will do what you want you just have to find the right entry and set up.

Cons

At times its so complete it can be overwhelming to find some less used features you had found before. Again they are all like this but the customer support makes this a breeze as you can actually talk to a human being that listens and helps.

Alternatives Considered

Payroll Relief

Reasons for Choosing Paychex Flex

ADP client support is a nightmare from our experience. From changing sales people to unreachable customer support.

Switched From

RUN Powered by ADP

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

We actually tried it and it was not even close to what we had hoped. Paychex customer support makes it the only choice for us.

Pros

If you have assistance or a payroll representative who understands the system it works great.

Cons

No help, lost my representative last summer and do not have a replacement although a former employee i have never spoken with is listed as my representative.

Alternatives Considered

ADP Globalview Payroll and ADP HR Assist

Reasons for Choosing Paychex Flex

To upgrade and stop processing the day before payday the night before.

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

They had an office in my town of course this was 30+ years ago.

Pros

I use Paychex Flex for personal reasons with my payday. I love that I can see my paystub with everything on it. I also love that I get paid up to two days earlier because I enrolled through direct deposit also.

Cons

I don't like how if you make a mistake and forget your password you have to go through 800 steps to reset it. And if you call to use customer service help they can't help either.

Pros

It's a payroll system. That's the only good thing I can say.

Cons

Customer Services are very unresponsive.

Pros

One of the most significant benefits I've experienced as an employee who uses Paychex Flex is the ease with which I can access my payroll data online through the self-service portal. My ability to view my paystubs at any time and from any device has been extremely beneficial to my financial management.For instance, when I recently applied for a loan, the lender asked for a copy of my most recent pay stub. I was able to log in to Paychex Flex and download the paystub right away, so I didn't have to wait for HR to send me a paper copy or ask for one. I was able to submit my loan application on time thanks to this, which saved me a lot of time and effort.I've found that Paychex Flex's mobile accessibility is another benefit. Being able to manage payroll activities on the go has changed my life as a remote worker who frequently travels. While on business trips, I have used the native mobile app to punch in and out to record my time and attendance. This has saved me from having to manually track my hours or rely on paper timesheets.Overall, Paychex Flex has been very good to me, and I would highly recommend it to other employees who want a payroll management system that is easy to use.

Cons

The cost of the service is one of the drawbacks I've encountered in using Paychex Flex. Even though Paychex Flex has a lot of useful features and benefits, it might be too expensive for small businesses or businesses with limited budgets.For instance, my previous employer was a small start-up with just a few employees, and we found that using Paychex Flex was out of our price range. We ended up switching to a different payroll management system that was less feature-rich but more affordable, which was a trade-off.I've also found that Paychex Flex's limited customization is another drawback. Even though the system has reports that can be changed in any way you want, it can be hard to get the system to work the way we need it to for our particular payroll needs.For instance, the standard reports in Paychex Flex did not fully meet our business's unique reporting requirements. We had to spend more time and resources creating custom reports or workarounds as a result, which was a little time-consuming and frustrating.Overall, Paychex Flex is useful and convenient, but its price and limited customization options may be a problem for some businesses.

Pros

It is very convenient to have access to the phone application, so you can access information and even run payroll from anytime / anywhere.
The add-on Stratustime allows you to track the non-exempt employees' hours and feeds directly into the payroll system.

Cons

Entering one-off payroll data such as expense reimbursement or a medical insurance payback has to be done at the individual level through individual checks.
it is difficult to customize access such as giving access to managers to accrue CTO days only, or giving them access to some HR info (number of vacation days, salary) without giving them access to all of it.
Also, the marketing is a little aggressive, the company offers so many other side services (writing your employee handbook, offering 401k, etc) that they call you too often with too many proposals, often different people for the same products.

Pros

The setup was super easy and simple. My rep was informative and helpful as well. The software works great and makes payroll easy once you learn how to properly use it.

Cons

The software takes a little longer to learn to use than others I've used. The price was a big factor because I am a small business.

Alternatives Considered

ADP Workforce Now

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

Pricing was better with paychex, at least for the introductory.

Pros

I really liked how easy it was to access all of my paystubs and see what was pending

Cons

At the time I was using it a lot the login process was difficult but it is much easier to access my account

Pros

I really like how easy it was to assign training courses that were needed for a company, useful tool!

Cons

I think the app and website is pretty straight forward, not much to dislike

Pros

Very easy to use, can access on mobile device

Cons

Have nothing over the years so far that I don’t like.

Pros

I love that I can get new employees set up as users during their onboarding, then this becomes their one-stop-shop for all things payroll. They can access this site to get their pay stubs, make changes to their direct deposit, enroll/change health benefits, and even make adjustments to their 401k plans.

Cons

The only real con I have found with this system is that employees can not make changes to their mailing addresses themselves. They are still required to fill out a form for our Payroll Admin and he has to call Paychex to make the change. This seems like something simple that employees should be able to do themeselves.

Alternatives Considered

ADP Workforce Now

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

Paychex Flex offered us everything we were looking for in one package at a very affordable price.

Pros

We used to rely on our accountant in the past. This is a great way to have access to anything at anytime. Another perk is that the employees are able to review their tax documents remotely as well.

Cons

This is not really related to the software itself, but the customer service continues to be an ongoing problem. God forbid if you receive a notice from EDD or IRS, you'll be chasing behind people to follow up. I wish whatever forms are submitted, we can have access to them from a particular page along with the outcomes.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Time

Reasons for Choosing Paychex Flex

We switched our time entries to Paychex Flex too because Timesheets.com doesn't have a proper tracking system for paid time off.

Switched From

Timesheets.com

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

Price and everything being under one place

Pros

The time tracking feature is helpful to small companies who use the "honor" system as their time tracker

Cons

I think the software would benefit by being a little more user friendly

Alternatives Considered

Paycom

Reasons for Choosing Paychex Flex

Time tracker, benefits

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

Paycom didn't return our requests to learn about their product.

Pros

Every employee has their own login information

Cons

Customer support. I went through THREE account reps before deciding to find someone else, and NONE OF THEM would answer the phone, return calls, or respond to emails. I finally got the retention team on the phone, who assured me that my rep's supervisor would call me on a specific day at a specific time. That phone call never happened. When I spoke with the retention department again, they informed me it was because it was the supervisors last day in that position, as he was getting a promotion. A supervisor with at least 3 team members who cannot be bothered to speak to a customer and couldn't be bothered himself got promoted.

Alternatives Considered

Gusto and ADP Workforce Now

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

They seemed like the better choice during the onboarding process. That all changed after I ran my first payroll.

Pros

The most impactful features in Paychex Flex are the ability to manage all employee information in one place, the comprehensive suite of payroll and HR tools, and the ease of use. Paychex Flex is very easy to use, and integration with existing business processes is seamless.

Cons

The least favourable aspect of Paychex Flex would have to be its payroll processing. Reports have surfaced of payroll being processed very slowly, and in some cases, not processed at all. This can obviously create a lot of problems for businesses that need their employees to be paid on time.

Alternatives Considered

Gusto and Paylocity

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

Paychex Flex was chosen over Gusto and Paylocity because it offered the best combination of features and price. Paychex Flex is a comprehensive HR and payroll solution that is affordable and easy to use. It offers robust features such as time and attendance tracking, benefits administration, and online payroll.

Pros

We've used several different payroll processors and this was the easiest one when it came to entering our employees hour each week. I'm surprised how difficult and convulted other companies make it, but Paychecx stood out for the ease. And that matters when you have 20+ employees to enter each week. You want it to go quick, and Paychex did.

Cons

We weren't crazy about getting paper checks. We had been used to Next Day Air delivery from a past company and Paychex paper checks were a courier and came at inconsistent times. May not seem like a big deal, but employees want their checks early to deposit at lunch and if they arrive late employees get antsy. We had people tell us they would stop working until their check was in hand. Luckily it wasn't a huge issue, as most people chose direct deposit.

Pros

Paychex is easy to use as an employee. Being able to clock in and out is simple - there is a button to click that records the punches. I've also used the timesheet to manually enter time, which is also straightforward. As a supervisor, seeing my direct report's timesheet is handy. To approve, it's a matter of checking a box for approval - I feel like it could not get any simpler as an end user.

Cons

While easy to use, I'm not too fond of the feature for switching between the employee (self) details and supervisor (direct report) details. A switch role function in the upper corner is not necessarily intuitive. I would love for there to be a way to have it all on the same "home" page rather than having to switch roles. While I personally do not have anything to do with the setup of Paychex, I am going to assume there are some issues from there, as our HR department seemed to have difficulty making updates to the system regularly.

Pros

I use Paychex Flex to clock in and out daily, check my time card, request time off and for retreiving an W2. I love that this portal is very user friendly. Nothing is hidden. You can easily find what you are looking for using the tabs on the side. You can also customize your home screen to display what you are needed. As soon as I login in I'm able to clock in and out, view how many hours of PTO I have as well as paystubs.

Cons

I would improve being able to have more widgets in the home screen so you are able to see your time card and attendance right on your home screen. It would be easier to track.

Pros

Very easy to view clocked in users, people on break, etc. As a manager it is easy to view and approve hours. It allows for a convienant way for staff to access paystubs and documentation.

Cons

Employees often have trouble with the site when punching in/out - the easiest to access option are buttons that move, and as a result it is easy to click the wrong button! Way more time clock corrections that we used to get. It is very difficult for staff to tell how much vacation time they have remiaining, they constantly have to ask for confirmation - very frustrating. It isn't always easy to tell that as a manager either, so we have had issues where people took more time than allocated. THE most frustrating aspect of it is when someone misses a punch - sometimes adding a missed punch is just a matter of clicking a box and filling in the correct time, other times switching a type of punch - like from start break to start meal is ridiculous and you can end up with a big mess. Have never seen a program that is so irritating to handle corrections like that. As a manager I hate working with this program.

Pros

Paychex Flex is an online software that human resources personnel can utilize for payroll. Paychex Flex has various subscriptions that company's can select depending on the types of features. Paychex Flex offers an employee dashboard that requires an username, password, and pin number. Paychex Flex allows users to disburse amounts of funds to contractors, employees, vendors, and sponsors. Paychex Flex offers tools, tutorials, and customer support related to the online library and overall application.

Cons

Paychex Flex requires a new verification code upon logging into the dashboard. Users listed in the Paychex Flex may not be deleted depending on administrative rights to complete such an action. Paychex Flex may provide usernames and passwords to administrators and not employees, thus employees may not be able to update time card electronically. Paychex Flex allows time card adjustments to be made by the administrator. Paychex Flex allows payroll adjustments to be made by the administrator.

Pros

This product works fine for day-to-day activities but has failed to meet some basic requirements when anything out of the ordinary is required.

Cons

Customer service through Paychex has been very challenging for our business, which ultimately led us towards switching payroll service providers. Countless errors were made when switching contractors to employees, when terminating employees, and Paychex failed on many occasions to provide financial information and tax documents to various states we were reporting in. They were also unhelpful in providing documentation to various states and city governments while our company was dealing with past-due notices that Paychex should have been responsible for. Our account manager changed hands a number of times with no notice, often no notification, and without a clear line of communication. Overall, their lines of communication seem outdated for companies operating online and whatever 'personal touches' they may have been known for have been lost to the wayside of a digital communication age where information has the capability to be freely transmitted from one employee to another. I found myself frequently re-sending the same required documentation to multiple parties and asking the same questions time and time again which were either ignored or partially answered. Overall an incredibly disappointing experience for the years we were with them.

Pros

Payroll features and time management tools are easy to use and simple to implement. There is always a payroll specialist available when needed

Cons

Reports are sometimes difficult to generate to many options can be confusing to find exactly what you need without a payroll specialist

Pros

We do our 401k Admin through Paychex, and our rep has been great. No complaints on 401k side.
We were able to get 1 customer service rep that was helpful.
Our employees get paid (usually)

Cons

Customer service is lacking.
Incorrect Data
Staff inability to catch errors, making us wait to find on our own later

Pros

time tracking is seamless for payroll purposes
strong control over IP addresses for mobile app is awesome
remote offices link and easy to control the whole team
zero % errors with timesheets since we switched from a manual system

Cons

can't get good reports that are standardly used in business apps- like Paid Time Off balances based on anniversary
PTO balances are not live, they only update after a payroll run, so its confusing for staff
notes section in the People tab for Time Off adjustments; no way to get a report on those changes, even though there is a huge Notes: section to use.
401K portal for enrolees is fine, for admin it is lame, no automated notices go to eligible staff.

Pros

Paychex has been top-notch for over five years, when I switched to them from another payroll company. I operate a small seasonal business with about 10 employees, and from the beginning I have received all the support that I need for my payroll and tax responsibilities, and at a more reasonable rate than I was paying before. I deal with one single payroll specialist every week (unless she is on vacation or something), which I love, and if she is unavailable the fill-in specialists have been able to take care of my payroll, which is not quite standard, without any issues. The website took a little getting used to initially, but I download my reports from there every week, quarter, and year, and everything is easy to find and use. I couldn't recommend Paychex more highly, at least for any business such as mine.

Cons

If anything, I feel that it would be good to consider a website review and edit - I do not have anything specific to offer in terms of what to change, but it did seem a little confusing the first few times using it. I don't have any issues now, but admittedly I only log on to do the same thing (download the report) each week, quarter, and year.