Paychex Flex

4.1 (1,382)
Payroll & HR solutions

Overall rating

4.1 /5
(1,382)
Value for Money
4.0/5
Features
4.0/5
Ease of Use
4.1/5
Customer Support
3.9/5

78%
recommended this app
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1382 Reviews

Steven R
Overall rating
  • Industry: Accounting
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Calm in a sea of changing regulations

Reviewed on 08/06/2021

We had considered hosting our own payroll, however, with the craziness of COVID and regulations we are very happy we chose a partner provided and supported solution. Saves us time chasing new regulations and forms and the dreaded amendments.

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.
Emily
Overall rating
  • Industry: Recreational Facilities & Services
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

PayChex Flex Helps With Employee Management

Reviewed on 16/01/2023

The flexibility that comes with being able to support our employees with real-time, comprehensive pay info is unmatched.

Pros

Our organization welcomes a number of seasonal international staff on J-1 visas. Paychex Flex makes it much easier to consolidate all of their pay-related information into one easy to access place.

Cons

There are few cons to using this software for us as an organization. Occasionally, the acquisition of social security numbers can take a while for those international staff, but Paychex Flex is always very patient with the timing.

Debbie
Overall rating
  • Industry: Consumer Services
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 0.0 /10

Worst HRIS, Payroll, Time/Labor and Reporting software that I've ever used

Reviewed on 16/02/2023

See above/below:The HR, Payroll, Time and Labor/Attendance, GL, Reporting, Onboarding (with myStaffingPro) were all horrible. The worst experience in my many years of HR/Payroll.

Pros

One login for my admin/personal use was the one good feature.

Cons

Where do I begin? The HR, Payroll, Time and Labor/Attendance, GL, Reporting, Onboarding (with MyStaffingPro) were all horrible. The worst experience in my many years of HR/Payroll.

Rajbir
Overall rating
  • Industry: Food Production
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Paychex Flex Review

Reviewed on 06/01/2023

My overall experience with Paychex Flex has been phenomenal. I cant stop raving about this product.

Pros

I like the ease and very user friendly interface of the product. I am an administrator and this product has been very helpful for me.

Cons

There is honestly nothing that I do not like about the product. It is fantastic.

Arda
Overall rating
  • Industry: Airlines/Aviation
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Paychex Flex Review

Reviewed on 22/02/2023

One thing I would like to say is it's a organized thing to check you pays and much more. I love the direct deposit easy setup on this. I like this so far, good experience on this.

Pros

We just use it for payroll, and because the website and tools are simple to use, I can handle it quickly. It was simple to understand how they operated.

Cons

Although I believe I don't always receive them, I like that they provide us the most recent Federal & State employee law boards for posting. When I receive updates, it would be wonderful to receive a notification in my messages or an email. It's possible that I don't know where they are, but if I could obtain them via Paychex Flex, I could check to see if they have been updated or receive them whenever I need them.

Aline
Overall rating
  • Industry: Medical Devices
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 6.0 /10

One-stop shop, but not very customizable

Reviewed on 03/10/2019

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.

Bernadette
Overall rating
  • Industry: Construction
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

Lacking Proper Customer Service

Reviewed on 22/01/2020

Overall the system is good but their customer service needs to be more organized and at least be able to help you look into something when you need answers.

Pros

We like that employees can log in and update their personal account info. such as new address ect. we also like that they can download their tax forms and so on

Cons

Every time we've had questions it seems as though no one there has the answers we need. This can be very frustrating!

Erika
Overall rating
  • Industry: Hospital & Health Care
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Paychex Flex

Reviewed on 14/02/2023

overall experience is pleased. I haven't had any issues with the software, paycheck discrepancies, or PTO accrual issues.

Pros

Easy to use to clock in/out for the day. Helps to keep track of all hours worked daily, and accrual of PTO and vacations.

Cons

I haven't come across any cons thus far. No cons to report

Andrea
Overall rating
  • Industry: Real Estate
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Love Paychex

Reviewed on 25/01/2023

Pros

Paychex is great for experienced and inexperienced, like myself, and submitting and maintaining a legal payroll. I have never had any tax issues since using their software and am very pleased with their response time .

Cons

It’s semi expensive. I was able to negotiate a fee but for a small business it’s a bigger expense.

Alternatives Considered

ADP Workforce Now

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

Cheaper than ADP
Sean
Overall rating
  • Industry: Security & Investigations
  • Company size: 5,001–10,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for Free Trial
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 5.0 /10

I was a user application

Reviewed on 17/02/2023

Pros

It’s user-friendly with a couple of downfalls

Cons

Multiple issues with time keeping wouldn’t registered clock ins and clock out times

Adam
Overall rating
  • Industry: Nonprofit Organization Management
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 2.0 /10

Unfortunately, the UI is awful and has a steep learning curve

Reviewed on 08/10/2019

Pretty bad if I'm being honest. If we were to pick software again, we would pick someone else.

Pros

The customer service is helpful, although I wish I didn't have to call them as much as I do.

Cons

It's surprising to me that this company is a big competitor in this space. I think their software is extremely difficult to learn how to use and graphically looks like it was made in Windows 95. I use the administrative side mostly and have people coming to me all the time with questions because it's not easy or intuitive enough to learn on your own.

Software should be created and designed so that it's easy enough for people to pick up and start using immediately. PayChex Flex is not one of those softwares.

Alternatives Considered

Gusto

Reasons for Choosing Paychex Flex

We thought PayChex would be better. Turns out it was definitely not.

Switched From

RUN Powered by ADP

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

Someone in our company "heard" that Gusto wasn't good. Now I wish we could go back and pick Gusto because from what I've experienced it's 10x better than this.
Kanwal
Overall rating
  • Industry: Education Management
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Great product

Reviewed on 07/05/2020

Customer service is the only downside. Otherwise, we are happy with the system itself.

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
Julie
Overall rating
  • Industry: Wholesale
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 0.0 /10

The Worst Payroll Company Out There!

Reviewed on 30/08/2019

I have been running payroll and in HR for over 17 years so have used many payroll services and Paychex is the absolute WORST - can't wait to switch. Overpriced and you have to do everything yourself including coding their system. Nothing works right once you do (no notifications, biometric time clocks don't record punches, CA payroll laws like 7th day OT never coded) it's truly a complete joke of a company. "Account Manager" does not actually do anything but tell you to call the 877 customer service number and they are beyond ignorant and unhelpful.

Cons

Customer service - The worst
Assigned Account Manager - Does nothing but tell you to call Cust Service (see above)
Helpfulness - None
Expensive - YES
Knowledgeable - None
Compliant - Nope, set up CA payroll laws all wrong
Ease of system use - terrible, you need to coded everything yourself
Over selling - the best (how about fix your basic customer service and functionality before you continually try and up sell)

Alternatives Considered

ADP Workforce Now

Reasons for Switching to Paychex Flex

My company was oversold on this junk company and platform before I got here.
Marta
Overall rating
  • Industry: Computer Software
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support

Paychex Flex

Reviewed on 07/10/2016

Procured the total HRO package (payroll, 401k, FSA, Time & Attendance, HRIS, HR Compliance and HR Generalist). There is no HRIS compatibility with the Payroll system, one has to run separate reports. Anytime Paychex updates their website, links do not work to the other features and or issues occur. Example, PTO accrual stopped working properly so we had to start accruing PTO manually and users not properly redirected to their links in the Learning center. On the payroll side the support is a black hole. Specifically any state registrations that are not properly loaded by Paychex and result in state tax fees which do not get resolved without employer paying penalty. Numerous emails do not get acknowledged. The implementation process is juvenile and lacks complete project management scope. Overall communication and execution by Paychex is so poor, one finally stops being frustrated and simply begins search for better system, which we are doing.

Pros

Compliance. Nice to have employee handbook online and learning center for compliance training is also helpful.
While Paychex payroll has strong workflow rules and meets general processing requirements, they make everything else so painful, therefore one could never recommend them. It would be like telling someone it's okay to cross a bridge that you know could collapse any moment and that you know is no longer maintained.

Cons

Assigned customer reps - unresponsive or not timely in responses until escalations. Paychex's lack of technology understanding - every time they upgrade they do not test what the impact to customer use and all their products. They had a big upgrade in late December 2015, their system was not accessible from early morning until the evening (end of year!). Multiple email and calls yielded no information. Finally at 4pm we get an email that they were experiencing problems and would be back live shortly. Who does that?
While learning center is a nice to have, spent an hour giving feedback and nothing changed, e.g., the CA Manager Anti- Sexual harassment training is 2.5 hours all in one shot. Not standard for training needs - asked them to break into 4 modules so it would not be daunting to busy leaders....crickets.

Erin
Overall rating
  • Industry: Philanthropy
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Paychex Flex gives me peace of mind

Reviewed on 13/10/2017

Overall, I have been very pleased with Paychex as a company and their online platform, Paychex Flex.  I have the peace of mind that our payroll is in capable hands.

Pros

It is easy to use and it gives me a peace of mind that our company's payroll is in capable hands. Their customer service is great. Each customer has a dedicated payroll specialist, so every time I have a question I am talking to the same person. Our payroll specialist has always been very helpful any time I have had weird situations or questions.

Paychex withholds all the appropriate taxes for both the employee and employer and then files them when the appropriate government entities. Our business is located Ohio, which has a complex tax structure including both state and local taxes. Paychex has saved me so much time and stress.

Cons

I wish that Paychex Flex tracked pay increases. That is the only thing that I liked better about our previous payroll provider. Our previous payroll provider had a tab that showed an employee's salary history and the date of each raise. Paychex Flex does not have this, so I have to track it separately.

I wish they had a more intuitive reporting function. The standard payroll reports are laid out very well and are very easy to run, but if I need to run a report that it out of the ordinary, I usually end up calling my payroll specialist because I can't find the report. To be fair, the couple of times this has happened I have been looking for a report having to do with workers comp and since workers comp is run by a government entity in Ohio it has some added complexities.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: E-Learning
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 3.0 /10

Paychex has some unfortunate downsides

Reviewed on 21/11/2018

Typical clock in/out and benefit tracking.

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.

Devon
Overall rating
  • Industry: Internet
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

PayChex Flex is not that flexible.

Reviewed on 28/05/2020

Intuit should concede with their payroll platform and buy paychex, and paychex should enhance their integration and modernize the platform to something more agile like quickbooks. Employees should be able to onboard easier just as if they were buying something on Amazon. All of the 3rd party vendors that seem to be value added services are just more portals and passwords needing to be centralized.

Pros

When it works and the overloaded staff can actually assist you, it is an absolutely awesome service. I have used PayChex since about 2015. Back in the day my first representative was the absolute most amazing advisor and gave me confidence when speaking with her because I could tell she knew her job. Over time as we added more states and switched companies, our SUI numbers became switched, bank accounts and invoicing was not aligned.

Cons

Besides the reports that you are inundated with, the platform feels like it can actually perform, but truthfully it is pitiful java platform. The two factor auth is great but gets on my nerves and the fact that you cannot integrate with other identity providers or into your actual backoffice systems is a shame.

Debbie
Overall rating
  • Industry: Information Services
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 5.0 /10

Love the Ease if Online Benefit Administration

Reviewed on 29/06/2018

Survey software is not something that I usually recommend.

Pros

The best thing about this software is that I can do everything I need to do on my computer or mobile phone at any time of the day or night. The application is very easy to access and I administer payroll, 401k, health, dental and vision benefits, FSA and employee additions/changes over the application. Almost every service I utilize through Paychex is on this application. Invaluable! If I'm out of town I can still submit payroll! WOW! What a game changer Paychex Flex has been! The old way of doing business is out the window with Paychex Flex replacing it in a very positive way!

Cons

There is a couple of items that I would like to see enhanced. In people, I would like the ability to always pull up my preferred view of employees without having to click on the apply button. My preferred view is saved but will not display until I click on apply. Second, on the people drop down menu from the upper right corner, I would like the ability to select that view as well. When that drop down is selected I get all the employees that have ever been entered into the Paychex database - terminated and active. I want to be able to display just the active employees in that drop down. These are just enhancement requests that in no way affect the valuable pros of the application. The items in the cons are just "nice to haves".

Kate
Overall rating
  • Industry: Market Research
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 0.0 /10

Not user friendly, slow, difficult

Reviewed on 27/05/2022

Having used a custom made timeclock at another company, as well as used ADP, I do not have a lot to compare against but would guess that almost anything would be better than this.

Pros

There is nothing - if I had the authority to switch, I would.

Cons

The interface is clunky and makes managing time punches difficult - there are nuances that are not intuitive where you have to enter or edit a punch in a very specific way or it will cause duplicates or the system will try to combine it with another punch which means that sometimes you have to do it multiple times in slightly different ways before you get the desired result. The reporting is also not intuitive, the wording used for templated report names is vague so that I have to go through many to find one that I want. We've experienced multiple and not infrequent issues with the program from employees logging in to a white screen, to managers not receiving notifications of time off requests which can cause significant issues.

Tony
Overall rating
  • Industry: Entertainment
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Top-Notch Service

Reviewed on 31/07/2022

Pros

I like the ability to log in and do what I need to do when it pertains to employee payroll activities. I also love the features that are offered to the employees by allowing them to check and edit information when they need to.

Cons

It is a little pricey compared to some. I don't have many negative comments about the service, but it can be difficult to reach customer service after hours.

Sarah
Overall rating
  • Industry: Information Services
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

A little Wonky to Navigate

Reviewed on 27/07/2019

Pros

It is convenient for small businesses and employees who work from home or don't have one check in location. It has some nice features for checking how many hours have been working if you are actually clocking in and out from the site itself. Once you actually figure things out and have your account set up, it's conveniently all right there in front of you to see what your sick time is, clock in/out, etc.
It keeps all your info from your previous jobs that have used the site PLUS holds your tax info conveniently for you, which is quite handy.

Cons

It's pretty difficult to navigate. A lot of the site doesn't really explain where to go or what to do so you kind of just have to poke around it until you figure things out. I guess it's kind of typical for sites like this. It's also kind of nightmare to get your log in info if you lose it, so just don't. You get locked out after 3 tries and then have to call the help desk and it turns into a pretty complicated ordeal. Conveniently though, the site log in remembers your info though. There is a LOT of maintenance, constantly and when you get messages in your inbox, they never seem to go away, but that's just nit-picky stuff that's not really important.

Peter
Overall rating
  • Industry: Fishery
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

A great asset to have when running and business.

Reviewed on 10/03/2019

Pros

The software itself allows me to eliminate the need for a time clock for my employees. They are able to have the app installed on their company issued smartphones and log in with their fingerprint access on the phone (which the app supports) and can clock into work in no time. They also have the availability to request time off, check vacation, sick and personal balances, view pay stubs and a ton of other features geared toward self help for the employee. This software saves me money so that I do not have to pay someone to sit and calculate all of the different times and payroll sheets. I would be lost without Paychex Flex.

Cons

The app can be a little slow at times. They also schedule down time on the overnight hours until 530am when most of our work does begin before that. It is a simple fix as I can enter staffs time manually when needed. You also need to trust your employees to punch in and out when they actually show up to a job site and not while driving home.

ANTHONY
Overall rating
  • Industry: Gambling & Casinos
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Great Software

Reviewed on 15/06/2021

overall you get more for your buck with Paychex than other software's like ADP or UltiPro (UKG)

Pros

You get one dedicated representative for all your payroll issues. Also, processing payroll is easier.

Cons

The standard reporting function does not allow you run custom reports. You need to pay for custom reports.

Matthew
Overall rating
  • Industry: Hospitality
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Excellent company top to bottom

Reviewed on 07/06/2017

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.

Johanna
Overall rating
  • Industry: Hospital & Health Care
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Easy Software with lots of information available

Reviewed on 05/03/2022

Pros

I like the ability to see all pay stubs, schedule vacations, see time off accrued, and punch in and out.

Cons

It's a little more challenging if you have over 8 hour shifts, it defaults to having you punch in again. I also think it could be a bit more user friendly for vacation tracking.