Payroll Services

By Dylan Mazeika

Paylocity has been in the payroll services and human resource software solutions sector since 1997 across the United States. They work with thousands of small and mid-market businesses nationwide. They mostly provide web-based solutions.

Certifications/Awards

Paylocity has received a number of awards for various aspects of their business:

• American Business Award Finalist (2008)
• Best Places to Work in Illinois (2006, 2007, 2011)
• Business Excellence Award (The Business Ledger – 2004)
• Chicago Area’s 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For (2005-2011)
• Inc 500 List of America’s fastest-growing privately held companies (2003-2004)
• Inc 5000 List of America’s fastest-growing privately held companies (2007-2011)
• Independent Payroll Providers Association (IPAA); Service Award – 2011; Growth Award – 2002; Service Bureau of the Year Award – 2003-2004
• Stevie Awards Winner 2011 – Contact Center of the Year with up to 100 seats (2011)
• Stevie Awards Winner 2010 – Sales Department of the Year

Customer opinions on Paylocity services

Paylocity has not sought accreditation from the Better Business Bureau, but on the other hand they have been given an A+ rating.

There has only been one complaint registered with the BBB, but this was resolved promptly. Their track record, response to complaints and length of time the business has been operating was the reason why they received the A+ rating.

Paylocity is also on the IRS list of companies that have passed the Assurance Testing System (ATS) and Business Acceptance Testing (BATS) requirements for Software Developers, Reporting Agents, and Transmitters of electronic business returns.

A recent CPA Practice Advisor review suggested that Paylocity is a great company for businesses to employ for payroll purposes who have a national presence, because they are streamlined mainly for the entire USA and it’s only the data integration that needs to be reconciled with their system. The review does mention a significant drawback though, which might be a deal breaker for certain businesses – their web interface works only in Internet Explorer. With the increasing market share of Apple and desktop Linux implementations such as Ubuntu which Dell is marketing, this could be a problem for many businesses; though at least in the business world Microsoft does seem to dominate. Apple’s share has been estimated at some 10% by Gartner for A2 2011.

Another very recent CPA Practice Advisor review suggested that the strengths of Paylocity are that they provide a single database for payroll and HR data for convenience, integration with popular accounting packages such as QuickBooks, Sage Peachtree, Microsoft Dynamics and customizable data entry screens. The only drawback is that they do not provide satellite Internet service and that the HR management tools cannot be unbundled.

What sets Paylocity apart/makes them different?

Employee portals can be rebranded to have the company name on them and the system supports reports comparing different companies or departments. Alerts and reminders are included to help both companies and clients keep the processing of payroll on time; they also notify users of cash requirements and track time sensitive tasks.

What questions to ask when getting quotes?

The basic services are quite useful for most businesses, but it might pay to ask about some of the ancillary services, benefits administration and integrations also offered by Paylocity. Healthcare, 401 (k) accounts, retirement plans, insurance, employee management training, international payroll system and workers compensation are just some of the many ancillary services available with the company.

Larger or smaller companies?

Paylocity was mostly geared towards small and medium sized businesses traditionally. But in 2003-5, CEO Steve Sarowitz restructured his programming department and successfully upgraded the software to be able to manage 10,000 concurrent users in any one company, with a staggering 2-3 minute import of all user data.