ADP Payroll Services Review: Pros & Cons

Updated 1st Feb 2022.

Your revenue is growing, your headcount is expanding – but your payroll software isn’t cutting it. Sounds like you need ADP Payroll Services. If you need to get serious about how you run your payroll to cover your company’s growing demands – ADP is the solution for you.

ADP Payroll Services is a payroll solution provider widely known for offering innovative solutions to its clients. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and has served over 700,000 clients worldwide since its inception. To satisfy the demands of both small businesses and larger firms, ADP has a wide range of products that can be used for payroll processing.

This ADP Payroll services review will look at the important features, pricing, support, and other key aspects to help you decide if that’s the right solution for you.

How does ADP Payroll Services Score?

What is ADP Payroll Services?

ADP was founded in 1983 and started its operations in 1984. Today, more than 7,000 employees are working at the headquarters located in Chicago, USA.

The company focuses on providing financial solutions to companies across different industries such as banking, healthcare, manufacturing, insurance, retail, etc.

As per the latest report published in a press release by the company, ADP’s revenue grew from $11.7 billion in 2016 to $12.4 billion in 2017.

In 2018, the company announced a partnership with Microsoft to integrate their cloud platform Azure into ADP Performance Management System. This has enabled customers to connect their existing applications and databases seamlessly.

Let’s take a look at some of the ADP key products:

Payroll: Global and local payroll processing with this service is faster and easier. The software is optimized for cross-platform compatibility, enabling employee and manager self-service from any device. Regardless of your payroll plan, you’ll have access to certified, experienced payroll experts available 24/7. Other features include simple integration with different business software, HR Systems, time tracking, and ERPs.

ADP payroll offers packages for small business owners and medium- to large-sized businesses. ADP Run is a payroll solution tailored to small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Larger businesses can benefit from the sophisticated payroll solution and HR service tools of the ADP Workforce Now.

Both Run and Workforce Now come in different packages uniquely tailored to each business’s needs.

Time and Attendance: Smart time clocks, which use cloud-based time and attendance software, instantaneously calculate the total number of hours worked and then send that information to payroll. Thanks to the biometric authentication feature, an employee can’t “buddy punch” by clocking in or out for a colleague. The ADP time and attendance service smoothly interacts with the payroll software to save you a lot of time.

Benefits: Employers can choose from various ADP benefit plans for their employees. Retirement programs, group health insurance, and benefits management are just some of the options available to businesses. The HR and Payroll services are perfectly integrated with the Benefits module.

HR: ADP’s HR services include everything from basic templates and helplines to long-term HR consulting assignments related to M&A (merger and acquisition) or restructuring. ADP TotalSource provides complete HR solutions with professionals to handle payroll tax, employee benefits, and more. The service also provides outsourcing and co-employment options for those who don’t want to deal with human resources.

ADP payroll service summary

When it comes to payroll services, ADP is one of the most well-known names in the business. If you anticipate your firm to grow quickly, this could be a good alternative. ADP RUN and Workforce were the company’s early payroll offerings.

ADP Roll, a new chat-based online payroll product, was recently introduced as the lowest-priced option designed for small businesses. The online payroll services support on-the-go access to all features included in your subscription. Even though each of the three products has its own unique set of characteristics, the following is a broad overview of their features:

ADP payroll service features ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Payroll

With ADP, you can feel confident that payroll processing is as simple as possible. It’s easy to conduct payroll once your employees have been enrolled and their pay rates, hours, and dates have been specified. Adding a personal touch to everyone’s check stubs is optional but highly recommended.

Benefits Administration

Every company’s ability to hire and retain top talent depends heavily on the quality of the employee benefits it offers. ADP provides flexible integrated solutions on desktop and mobile to facilitate your benefits administration processes.

Benefits administration options are only included in the most expensive RUN plans, Complete, and HR Plus. ADP partners allow any business owner to pay additional monthly fees to offer retirement or insurance plans to their employees.

Tax Support

Payroll tax preparation is simplified with ADP. The software calculates, withholds, and pays the IRS its portion of the tax bill for you. All of these forms are supported by ADP as well: W2, 1099, I-9, and W4. E-signing I-9s and W-4s is a simple process that may be done by your employees, who can then view and download the end-of-the-year W-2s and 1099s with ease.

Payment Methods

ADP payroll provides easy payment methods like paychecks, cash cards, and direct deposits.

Physical checks can be easily printed, provided your business has a checking account with a bank. They ensure a paper trail and stubs for employees, who don’t need a bank account. Pay stubs are available for download in PDF format directly from the employee site. You can print checks to pay your staff if you choose. Paychecks, however, have to be delivered by hand or mail, which is time-consuming.

With the direct deposit option ADP provides, you can transfer payments directly to your employee’s account from your business account. This ensures instant transfer and minimizes the time your employees wait for receiving their pay.

Pay cards enable you to pay workers in prepaid debit cards and allow them to have immediate access to their funds.

Employee Management

ADP has a wide range of tools that make it simple to oversee all of your staff members from one place. Job title, payroll details, time off, payroll tax paperwork, and benefits can all be included. This allows for additional income, deductions, and garnishments.

Employee Portal

MyADP provides employees with simple and convenient access to their tax information and pay stubs. Any HR tools you use to streamline HR can also be accessed through the employee portal.

Paid Time Off

A paid time off policy can include sick days and vacations. Depending on your payroll settings, you can either set vacation/sick days or accrue them.

Reports

ADP’s comprehensive reporting choices are a result of its maturity and experience. Additional reporting possibilities become accessible with certain functionalities. For instance, the ADP time-tracking software allows you to generate reports that reveal which employees frequently forget to clock out, which employees are nearing overtime, and so on.

Time Tracking

Payroll cannot be processed without accurate timekeeping. An excellent time-tracking function that is compatible with other time-tracking tools may be found in the ADP payroll software.

Dashboard

There are shortcuts to the payroll dashboard on the home page that run at the very top of the screen. The user interface is compact and straightforward to understand. Payroll functions can be accessed from either of those two locations.

Our offer

Irrespective of the size of your organization, you can count on ADP to handle your payroll needs. Time and attendance tracking can be integrated with direct deposit and mobile payroll solutions. Get in contact with ADP today for a customized plan tailored to your unique business needs.

ADP payroll user experience ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Running payroll using ADP service works great on mobile and desktop. Regardless of what device you use, you’ll be welcomed by a well-laid-out homepage with one-click options to take you to any desired page. In terms of simplicity, the user experience design team went the extra mile to develop a human-focused interface. This has eliminated the need for a learning curve as usage of every software part is self-explanatory.

Apart from working from a smaller screen, you get the same experience on mobile as you get on tablets and PCs. It’s noteworthy that the interface may appear different depending on what ADP plan you’re using for your business.

ADP has a slew of mobile applications available. For small businesses, ADP has launched Roll, a mobile-friendly payroll service. Use this app to handle payroll from a smartphone or tablet. Payroll processing can also be done directly from the RUN Powered by the ADP app for small business owners.

Your staff can use ADP Mobile Solutions on the go. The dedicated app provides access to a wide range of effective and intuitive human capital management (HCM) technologies that can be used anywhere in the world.

ADP payroll customer service ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

When it comes to customer care and support, ADP generally ranks highly. The BBB’s (Better Business Bureau) A+ rating reflects the 24/7 responsive support in place. The few customer service complaints revolve around long waits to speak with support. However, this is understandable as many users could be calling at the same time.

In contrast to some competitors, ADP’s customer service representatives are well informed about payroll, insurance, taxes, and other complex issues that business owners may encounter. In addition, you have a great range of options to contact ADP support:

• Phone: You can easily speak to a real person at any time by simply dialing 1-844-227-5237.
• Email: ADP’s customer service department can be reached via email at [email protected].
• Live Chat: Customers can use the website’s Virtual Support option to access someone who can help them understand their ADP program. The Live chat option is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Community Forums: Responding to every ADP payroll review on the BBB and other significant review sites is a priority for ADP. A reply to ADP via the BBB site may help if you’re having difficulties getting an answer.
• Videos: ADP now has a YouTube account of its own! You’ll discover a wealth of useful clips and information there.
• Social Media: ADP has social media profiles on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and its representatives are active on these networks, adding comments when appropriate.

ADP payroll pricing ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The first crucial point to note about ADP’s pricing is that it is difficult to obtain prices on the website. To get a quote for your business, you’ll need to set up a meeting with a salesman. It’s difficult to shop around when a provider isn’t completely open about how much you’ll pay each month.

A good reason why the cost isn’t posted on the site for everyone to see upfront is that the ADP programs are tailored to each organization’s individual needs. Note that ADP payroll’s fees are relatively high if you want to integrate benefits like managing retirement savings. Also, each time you perform payroll through the ADP software, the provider charges a fee. There is also a $25 setup charge with a contract that is usually waived.

RUN By ADP

The Essential Payroll Plan, Enhanced Plan, Complete Plan, and HR Plus Plan are all available with the RUN product. As you may guess, pricing varies across the different Run plans. The following are included in all RUN plans:

• ADP employee access
• Debit card payment support
• Direct deposit
• Electronic reporting
• General ledger interface
• HR checkups
• HR tips w/newsletter
• New hire reporting
• Payroll processing
• Payroll system suitable for 1 to 49 staff
• Tax filing
• Well-tailored pricing

ADP Workforce Now

You’ve outgrown ADP Run and need to switch to ADP Workforce Now, which has a tiered price structure. Each tier provides advanced HR services. If you’re interested in the software, you should ask a sales representative for an accurate quote.

• Compliance assistance
• Country-tailored record keeping
• Custom report builder
• Direct deposit
• Employee handbook wizard
• HR toolkit
• Job description and template wizard
• Payroll processing
• Payroll system suitable for 50-999 employees
• Robust scheduling capabilities
• Tax filing service
• Time and attendance tracking
• Well-tailored pricing

ADP Vantage HCM

Vantage HCM is the most widely used ADP platform, serving huge businesses worldwide. Here’s what the ADP Vantage plan has to offer:

• Direct deposit
• Employee record-keeping
• Employee scheduling
• Payroll processing
• Payroll system ideal for 1,000+ employees
• Tailored Pricing
• Talent and recruitment management
• Tax filing service

Extra Costs

Before joining up for ADP, you should be aware of a few additional expenses.

Health Benefits: ADP’s health benefits are not currently provided in all 50 states. While ADP interacts with various benefit management platforms, ADP’s health benefits are delivered with the help of an ADP associate who will walk you through the benefits procedure. An element of the Workforce Now program ensures conformity with the Affordable Care Act. Healthcare benefits are priced depending on the sort of care, plan, deductibles, and other factors.

Worker’s Compensation Insurance: If you don’t already have a worker’s compensation plan in place via an insurance carrier, ADP works with a number of brokers. This insurance is designed to provide coverage in compliance with state requirements and protect your business and workers in cases of workplace injuries.

Other HR Benefits: RUN’s Essential subscription does not include additional HR capabilities. You need to join up for the Complete or HR Plus Plan to access the option to administer your HR through your payroll. Insurance, retirement, and healthcare compliance, on the other hand, are all accessible as add-ons to the Essential or Enhanced plans.

Moving to Professional Employer Organization Service: Users of ADP Run or ADP Workforce who want to move to a PEO can use the ADP TotalSource solution. This is a natural progression that can help you save time, money, and effort when it comes to data migration and deployment. The migration does not necessitate any additional information, but it does come with its own set of costs.

Who is the ADP system best for?

The ADP Payroll software is suitable for small businesses and medium-large scale businesses. Your subscription plan will be determined by the size of your workforce and the unique services you desire. ADP RUN is best for businesses with less than 50 employees, while ADP Workforce caters to businesses with a larger workforce.

ADP vs. Competitors

Intuit Quickbooks

Like ADP, Quickbooks is web-based accounting software designed to help companies handle payroll, tax management, expense tracking, financial reporting, invoice management, bookkeeping, and more. It’s particularly focused on small and mid-sized businesses and features an intuitive interface and mobile app simplifying payroll processing.

Unlike ADP, Intuit Quickbooks provides pricing transparency, and you can easily check out the prices and offerings for the four different plans on the website. The least expensive plan, Simple Start, is $12.50 per month, as opposed to ADP’s Roll cost of $29 plus $5 per employee per month. It includes invoice management and auto-generated tax reports. The Essentials plan is $25 per month and allows three users, time tracking, and bill payments. The pricing of the Plus plan is $40 per month, and it includes five users, inventory tracking, and project profitability tracking in addition to the offerings of the Essentials. The most expensive option, the Advanced plan, is priced at $90 per month and features premium apps, on-demand training, batch invoices, and more, which makes it best for medium-sized businesses.

The cost-effectiveness of Quickbooks makes it a perfect option for small businesses with limited complexity of payroll operations and needs.

Gusto

Gusto is another cloud-based payroll software solution, including HR features. It is intended for a great variety of business sizes and needs.

As opposed to ADP, Gusto allows you to look at the pricing and features of the three available payroll plans. The most cost-effective option, the Core plan, starts at $39 + $6 per employee per month and offers full-service payroll including W-2s and 1099s, employee self-service, health insurance administration, health and financial benefits, integrations for accounting, time tracking, and more.

The higher tiers provide advanced features, such as time management tools, HR assistance, and dedicated customer support. Their monthly costs are $39 + $12 per payee and $149 + $12 per payee for the Complete and the Concierge plan respectively. In addition, there is a Select plan that offers greater flexibility and customization.

Paychex flex

Like ADP, Paychex Flex is a cloud-based payroll and HR management solution for businesses of all sizes.

With the Essentials plan starting at $39 per month and $5 per employee, it’s suitable for small business payroll but slightly more expensive than the ADP Roll. Like ADP, the prices of the other two plans (Paychex Flex Select and Paychex Flex Pro) are not readily available on the website, and you have to ask for a custom quote.

Note that Paychex may have extra fees for software integrations, employee benefits administration, and payroll tax administration. It easily integrates with QuickBooks accounting software, time and attendance tracking, and HR software. Paychex is best for companies that care more about built-in scalability.

Frequently Asked Questions on ADP Payroll Services