Outsourcing Payroll

idchrbee

Currently we perform payroll in house. Has anyone dealt with a particular outsourcing company that handles payroll and would you be willing to offer up any advice regarding going through the transition of outsourcing payroll?

The three companies we are researching are
Paychex
ADP
Ceridian

We are small-midsize company with around 60 employees.

marc

I personally don't like to outsource payroll. When it is all said and done, it is not that convenient nor does it produce significant time savings.

Plus, unless you want to pay extra, you must be able to fit into their pre-packaged reports and accounting interface. Then, to deal with final checks, adjustments to checks, etc - a whole nuther pain in the butt.

Its all much easier in house.

For your size, I cannot imagine you needing anyone full time to do this function. I combine it with benefits, deposits and accounts payable to get to full time. We have 70 EEs.

System

I have to strongly disagree with you Marc. We own an employee leasing company (PEO) and provide payroll services for all our clients. Although we don't offer just strictly payroll services (like ADP), we have very adaptive payroll technologies that interface with the client system so they don't have to change the way they process payroll, or we create a new system that provides them with much more efficent ways of capturing payroll data, processing it, and uploading it to our system all by internet, with very little time required on thier part. We customize reports, and make them as simple or complex as they need. Pay adjustments are no more of a hassle than normal, and often are easier to do because of the enhanced technology of the systems we create. Our clients range in size from 5 employees to 500, so we have delat with just about all of the issues facing each particular work environment. You are probably right about companies like ADP that require you to use their pre-packaged systems and reports, but their are other options to consider, such as a PEO. But the issues you point out are the valid questions to ask of any service, whether just a payrolling service or a PEO, that being, do you add value and do you allow me to dedicate more time to more revenue producing activities.

HR In NH

We currently outsource payroll for 200+ employees to Ceridian and we couldn't be unhappier. We inherited Ceridian from our former parent company when we separated last year. Their customer service is terrible - slow response, borderline rude, and unknowledgable - and we pay quite a bit for this. Ceridian charges for everything. For example, I was out on maternity leave for 8 weeks and I forgot my password. Ceridian charged me $100 to reset it. Their canned reports are not very good and it's difficult to build the report you need. Custom reports have a 6-8 week lead time and run approx. $1000. In addition, we often have weird software glitches on the payroll and on the separate time & attendance side. We have to carefully audit everything.

I just started shopping around and I received a very competitive quote from ADP (who I used for years previously). I was happy with ADP's customer service and it will allow us to save $12,000 a year, plus have an upgrade to the HR piece as well.

I contacting Paychex for a quote, too, before making a final decision. I haven't heard anything - good or bad - about them.

Whatever you decide, I would avoid Ceridian.

Open1

I have +/- 250 employees and was hoping this thread would have suggestions other than PayChex, ADP & Ceridian. Like Ceridian, ADP charges an arm and a leg for each and every tiny little thing. Customer service is variable, and they send bills for things we never bought or ordered and I have to spend my time protesting them, repeatedly.

I have been trying to get eTimeSheet (one of ADP's time tracking systems) up and running for months - the tech supervisor forgets to call me back, etc. etc., while their Accounting Department keeps calling me wondering why we haven't payed the bill (which is nearly double what the estimate was). It doesn't work yet AND I have no tech support...

Once in a while we do get a customer service person on the payroll side that is really nice, professional, knowledgeable and DOES what they say they'll do. x:-) As for the rest... th-down

System

Have you looked at any PEO's in your area?