Paychex Pricing and Service Plans
Paychex offers three service bundles: Paychex Go, Paychex Flex Select and Paychex Flex Enterprise. All the packages include Paychex's core payroll processing and payroll tax administration services.
Paychex only provides pricing information for its Paychex Go plan. You will need to contact the company, and likely have a virtual meeting with a Paychex representative, to receive a price quote for the other two packages. Here is a breakdown of each package:
Paychex Go
This plan costs $59 per month, plus $4 per employee. In addition to the payroll processing and payroll tax services, the Go plan includes year-end tax forms, new-hire reporting, direct deposit, prepaid debit cards, an employee financial wellness program, time and attendance tracking, general ledger reports, accounting software integration, standard analytics and reporting, and HR and business forms.
Paychex Flex Select
This is the most popular package for small businesses. It includes everything in the Go bundle, plus access to a dedicated payroll specialist and use of the Paychex mobile app. It also offers integrations with other HR software, point-of-sale systems, productivity tools and other third-party programs, as well as $1,000 in digital marketing services. Additionally, this package includes employment verification services, an e-learning system, and an employee financial wellness program.
Paychex Flex Enterprise
This is Paychex's most comprehensive bundle and is designed for larger organizations. It includes everything in the Flex Select package, plus custom analytics, workers' compensation reports, state unemployment insurance services, garnishment payment services, new hire onboarding tools, employee screening and HR administration.
Since pricing is customized for the Select and Enterprise bundles, you'll need to contact Paychex directly and speak with a sales representative. Once they learn how many employees you have, how often you plan to run payroll, and what additional Paychex services you may be interested in, they will give you a detailed price quote.
Features
Paychex offers a number of different services and features, including the following:
Payroll Processing
Paychex handles all of your payroll processing. The payroll software calculates how much each employee should be paid based on the hours they work and their pay rate. It also accounts for additions, like bonuses or commissions, and deductions for things like health benefits.
Paycheck Options
You can pay your employees by direct deposit, check or pay card. If your employees choose to be paid by check, Paychex prints the checks and mails them to you, or you can print your checks on-site.
Payroll Tax
Paychex calculates, files, and pays your payroll taxes on time and ensures they are accurate. Paychex backs up its services with an accuracy guarantee. The guarantee states that Paychex pays the penalties if there are any mistakes with your payroll taxes. The service also processes year-end W-2 and 1099 forms for your employees.
Payroll Reports
Paychex provides employers with dozens of payroll-related reports. Enterprise users can also create custom reports.
On-Demand Payroll
Paychex now offers on-demand services that allow employees access to money they have earned before their scheduled payday. Employees can have those funds automatically deposited into a bank account, onto a debit card or into a mobile wallet. This gives employees flexibility in terms of when they get paid should an unexpected expense arrive.
New-Hire Reporting
The payroll service handles all the state-required reporting when you hire a new employee or contractor.
Accounting Integrations
Paychex allows businesses to link their payroll data to popular accounting software programs, including QuickBooks Online and Xero.
Unemployment Insurance
Paychex helps businesses manage the entire unemployment insurance process.
Employee Financial Wellness Program
This program provides a variety of tools and education to help employees meet their financial goals. It also can arrange short-term loans.
Onboarding
Paychex offers Enterprise service users several employee onboarding tools. This allows new staff members to complete their new-hire documents, such as tax withholdings forms, in a paperless format.
Background Screening
The Enterprise package includes a limited number of pre-employment background checks.
HR Administration
These tools include options to track performance reviews, manage employee training and store important documents safely in the cloud.
Added Services
Paychex offers other business services, including time and attendance systems, employee benefits and benefits administration, compliance services, records administration, hiring services and business insurance.
Paychex Pros
The Paychex Flex platform is very easy to use. As a cloud-hosted system, it's accessible from any web browser. You can also manage your payroll from the Paychex mobile app, which is available on iOS and Android devices.
The platform's homepage provides a quick glance of your important information, including when your next payroll is due, a link to start the payroll process, upcoming check dates, the cash required for the next payroll, and a quick link to the payroll reports section of the system.
Running payroll is a simple task with just a few steps. First, you enter your payroll information (salaries, hours worked and pay rates). Next, you confirm that the data is correct, and then you submit the payroll for processing. Rather than running payroll manually each pay period, you can set up recurring amounts for faster processing.
The system offers employee self-service. Employees get their own login so they can access the system to see their paystubs and year-end tax documents.
In addition to accessing the payroll tools and features, you can use the Paychex Flex platform to access other Paychex services your business uses.
Typically, larger organizations look for payroll services as part of a complete human resources platform. Many enterprise businesses want a platform that helps them manage time and attendance, benefits administration, and hiring.
Paychex fills that need for employers. In addition to payroll processing, Paychex Flex supports online timekeeping, benefits administration, compliance services, employee onboarding, employment screening, retirement plans, business insurance and health insurance.
Paychex Cons
Most of the other payroll services we researched provided details on all of their pricing packages online. Paychex only gives these details for its most basic package, which likely isn't the best option for larger businesses. To even get an idea of the costs of the other two bundles, Paychex requests to meet with the person making the payroll software decisions for your business. While those meetings previously were in person, Paychex now allows for virtual meetings.
The option for a virtual meeting makes this not as inconvenient as an in-person meeting; however, it would be nice to ascertain an idea of pricing without having to meet with someone.
We were also disappointed to see that, as of December 2020, more than 250 complaints had been filed against the company with the Better Business Bureau. Despite the number of complaints, however, Paychex is an accredited member of the BBB with an A+ rating.
Customer Service
Paychex provides customer support by phone and live chat 24/7, regardless of the bundle you choose. Select and Enterprise packages users receive a dedicated payroll specialist to handle any issues. Many of the other payroll services we looked into don't offer a dedicated point person to help with problems.
To test the support Paychex offers, we contacted the company multiple times by phone and email, posing as a business owner interested in payroll services. We were not thrilled with many of those interactions.
Often, business owners want to hear more about the product and get some ballpark figure of pricing information during an initial call. With Paychex, representatives prefer to set a separate meeting – virtually – to walk you through the platform, hear more about your specific needs and provide you pricing information.
While some may prefer that level of detail, others want to have their most-pressing questions answered during their initial call and get an idea of pricing before committing to a demo. If the pricing isn't even within a company's budget, the meeting wastes everyone's time.
It is important to note that once you become a Paychex user, you won't have to jump through hoops to get your questions answered. This is especially true for Flex Select and Enterprise users, who have a dedicated payroll specialist they can turn directly to for help.