Paychex Flex Review and Pricing

Why We Chose Paychex Flex for Remote Teams

Paychex Flex is a robust HR solution with a wide range of features that are highly conducive to managing a remote team. For example, the platform boasts digital hiring and onboarding services, like electronic HR documents and tax forms, as well as e-signature capabilities. Employees can easily set up direct deposit and access self-service features online or through the Paychex mobile app, which is essential for remote workers. Plus, because HR reporting can be a great way to keep track of your out-of-office employees, we like that Paychex has not only standard HR reporting and analytics abilities with more than 160 report types, but also customizable metrics. These are helpful for business owners who want specific, niche reports and visualizations related to their distributed workforce.

Of course, Paychex Flex also excels at facilitating standard HR processes, such as payroll and legal compliance. Because this all-in-one system is designed to support businesses of any size, we like that you can start with the vendor’s smallest package and move to the higher tiers as your workforce grows. In our ever-evolving work culture, where workplace arrangements are often in flux, Paychex Flex’s flexibility is valuable across companies of all types. Based on our years of industry research and hands-on testing, we’ve found Paychex Flex to be the best HR solution for businesses with remote teams.

The Paychex Flex employee dashboard puts key features right in front of your team members as soon as they log in. Source: Paychex

Ease of Use

When trying the Paychex Flex platform, we liked that the dashboard is intuitive and easy to navigate, regardless of what device you’re using it on. Select plans come with a free mobile app for iOS and Android devices, which is helpful for remote employees to manage their HR needs (e.g., time tracking, pay, benefits) from any location. The mobile app is very comprehensive, which isn’t true of every provider in the HR software space. You can even customize the tiles on the dashboard whether you’re using the app or the browser version of the software.

The employee view of the Paychex Flex dashboard provides essential information and easy access to past pay stubs. Source: Paychex

Although Paychex Flex is a full-service payroll and HR solution, it can integrate with nearly 300 third-party vendors, enhancing its usability. These integrations are ideal for companies that need to tailor their business platforms to meet the needs of their remote staff. By syncing Paychex Flex with other software, you can streamline operations and ensure business continuity across programs and locations. [To learn more about Paychex Flex’s remote-friendly offerings, check out our review of the Paychex PEO service.]

Features of Paychex Flex

We love that with Paychex Flex, you can manage all of your company’s core HR functions from one system. This comprehensive platform has all of the features you need to recruit new employees, track time and attendance, administer employee benefits, run payroll, and manage employee performance. In addition, a plethora of reports can help you analyze each HR process and improve your business’s efficiency.

What’s more, many of the features are ideal for managing remote teams and addressing the HR issues that can arise when not all staff members are based in the office. Although the specific tools available vary by plan, here are some of the best functions we uncovered during our evaluation of Paychex Flex.

Legal Compliance Assistance

One of the biggest challenges of managing human resources, especially when your team operates from various remote locations, is maintaining legal compliance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Paychex helps businesses stay compliant thanks to features such as new-hire reporting, payroll tax administration, automatic W-2s and 1099s, and printed and electronic labor compliance poster kits. We also like that the program can assess your risk exposure and provide recommendations for meeting regulations, such as those relevant to OSHA compliance.

Recruiting and Onboarding

Recruiting and onboarding virtual staffers can be difficult for some employers, but we discovered during our examination that Paychex has tools that simplify the process. For example, the company offers job-posting website integrations, applicant tracking and hiring services, and can even connect you with the best background check services so you can screen candidates before hiring them. This adds an extra layer of security when you’re bringing on workers remotely and lessens the odds of your new hire being a deepfake.

Once you do hire a new employee, we found that Paychex can streamline the onboarding process with electronic HR documents (W-4, state and tax withholding, EEOC, and I-9 forms), direct deposit options and e-signature capabilities. Paychex facilitates new-hire requirements via a paperless, mobile-friendly experience, so your employees can be onboarded quickly from any location.

Payroll

We like that Paychex Flex has payroll tools that allow you to process and manage company payroll seamlessly within the platform. You can run payroll for your business in just a few clicks and pay employees via their preferred method (e.g., direct deposit, paper checks, paycards). Paychex can automatically send the required year-end tax forms (W-2s and 1099s) to employees and contractors, and the software calculates, pays and files your business’s federal, state and local payroll taxes. We also noticed that with select plans, companies can also access advanced services for workers’ compensation, state unemployment insurance and garnishment payments.

The administrator side of the Paychex Flex Payroll Center allows you to run payroll from any device. Source: Paychex

Benefits Administration

Robust employee benefits can help you attract and retain top talent across the globe. With simple enrollment tools and employee self-service capabilities, we found Paychex Flex makes it easy to administer benefits online. You can use the software to provide competitive benefits for health insurance; dental and vision insurance; health savings accounts (HSAs); 401(k) retirement plans; Section 125 plans; employee assistance programs; and accident, disability, critical illness and indemnity coverage.

We particularly like that Paychex also offers optional employee financial wellness and cash flow assistance, which isn’t something we saw with many competitors. Your employees can track and manage their benefits through the Paychex system whenever and wherever they want; such perks can be a key driver of employee retention.

Your employees can easily view and manage their benefits, like 401(k) plans, through their Paychex Flex accounts. Source: Paychex

Performance Management

Paychex Flex has helpful features for business leaders who want to manage employee performance even when — or especially when — staffers are working from home. For example, your software package can include a learning management system with e-learning courses; this can help workers continue their education and stay up to date on certifications and compliance training, irrespective of their location. You can also remotely gather employee feedback, manage performance reviews, track employee training, and retain training and compliance documents within the Paychex platform.

Paychex’s performance management features are on par with its rivals’. However, some are only accessible as an add-on option. If your heart is set on an HR solution with great performance management features, check out our review of Paycor.

Paychex Flex Pricing and Terms

Paychex offers three HR software plans to choose from based on your company’s needs: Paychex Flex Essentials, Paychex Flex Select and Paychex Flex Pro. While Essentials’ monthly price is $39 plus $5 per employee, pricing for the Select and Pro packages is customized for each business and thus not available upfront. You’ll need to contact the vendor to obtain a quote based on your company’s specific needs.

The features included in each plan are tiered, similar to those of many other HR solutions we reviewed. The Essentials package includes basic payroll and compliance features, while the Select and Pro levels cover more robust payroll and HR needs.

As your business grows, your plan can easily scale to match, which is great for companies with expanding hybrid and remote teams. Plus, there’s another impressive perk when you work with Paychex: All plans come with the option to add free extra features, such as paycards, financial wellness programs, tax credit services and an employee assistance program.

Although there is no free trial for Paychex Flex, this limitation is somewhat common in the HR software industry, even though it may be a turnoff or even a deal-breaker for some business owners. If it’s important to you to test a prospective HR solution before signing up, check out our review of BambooHR, which offers seven-day free trials.

Paychex Flex Time and Attendance

Paychex gives businesses the option to add time and attendance features to their HR platform for one integrated system. There are two primary cloud-based time and attendance plans available: Paychex Flex Time and Paychex Flex Time Essentials. The main differences between the two are the cost and features (see below).

We like that both time and attendance plans have numerous mobile, automated and employee self-service capabilities that put many HR functions in the hands of your employees themselves; this simplifies timekeeping and payment regardless of where team members are based. The more advanced plan, Paychex Flex Time, includes additional scheduling tools, paid-time-off (PTO) management and overtime alerts.

Paychex Flex Time and Attendance Pricing

Unlike many competitors, Paychex doesn’t openly disclose pricing for its time and attendance services online. Instead, you need to contact the company directly for a quote. However, when we previously spoke with a Paychex representative, they provided the following minimum costs

• Paychex Flex Time: Minimum monthly billing of $99 per month for up to 23 employees
• Paychex Flex Time Essentials: Minimum monthly billing of $59 per month for up to 23 employees

Paychex also offers a standalone time-off management plan with a minimum monthly billing requirement of $29 per month for up to 23 employees. This option is geared toward businesses with salaried workers who don’t need to punch in and out every day.

Clocking In and Out

Keeping track of employee hours can be challenging when your staff works remotely, but Paychex’s time-tracking plans help with this. During our testing, we were impressed with how many time-clock options Paychex offers. Employees can clock in and out using a web browser, mobile phone or kiosk app with facial verification. The Paychex Flex Time plan even includes biometric iris- and finger-scanning time clocks, as well as an interactive voice response system. This wide range of options gives employees the flexibility to clock in and out in the way that best suits them.

One clocking option we especially like is the ability to use Paychex’s iOS and Android mobile apps. This allows employees to not only clock in and out from any location but also perform other time and attendance functions; such functions include managing their breaks, time off and communicating with other employees — from their phones. [Learn about the best services to track employee attendance.]

Overtime and Time-Off Management

When we tried Paychex’s time and attendance software, we found it to be user-friendly and very conducive to employee self-service, which is crucial when you have a remote workforce. For example, employees can easily view their timecards online. Paychex Flex Time also allows employees to track their PTO accruals and submit new time-off requests all from a smartphone.

Managers can use the program to review and approve (or deny) employee time-off requests, approve employee timecards, submit pay adjustments, and track employee leave and overtime. We especially like that both plans allow you to implement overtime rules to ensure employees are compliant with overtime laws based on where they’re located. The system can even send alerts to staffers when they’re nearing overtime.

Employee Scheduling

We found Paychex’s employee scheduling features to be competitive with other products in the industry. Both Paychex Flex Time and Paychex Flex Time Essentials come with convenient tools to create and manage employee schedules, such as visual schedulers and calendar integration. Paychex Flex Time offers the added convenience of scheduling templates and schedule exceptions. It even has capacity scheduling, which shows managers workers’ availability and a weekly view. If you want to give employees some power over their own schedules, you can opt to permit shift swapping.

Geolocation and Job Tracking

We love that Paychex Flex allows employers to track employees based on their location and job, which is yet another reason this solution stands out for remote teams. Because Paychex has built-in geolocation and geofencing technology, employers can ensure team members are clocking in and out from the proper location, thus reducing the potential for time theft. With job-tracking tools and mileage calculators available with select plans, employers can better plan for job costing and labor distribution across various jobs, projects and locations.

Alerts and Reports

We like that both of Paychex’s time and attendance plans offer report scheduling. With the Paychex Flex Time option, you also gain access to ad-hoc reporting and real-time analytics; this gives your HR administrators a real-time view of employee activity and attendance metrics. This data is great for managing operational needs across various locations.

If you want to keep your employees in the know, they can easily set up alerts for things such as scheduling updates and overtime notifications. The plans also enable employee messaging; this is a vital tool for keeping employers and employees on the same page about time and attendance.

Implementation and Onboarding With Paychex Flex

Paychex Flex is an intuitive platform that can be implemented by businesses of all sizes. The exact implementation process varies based on the plan you select and whether you sign up for any of the optional add-ons. Each of those takes a little additional time to set up, but these extras can add significant value for your employees.

During our research, we found that Paychex can integrate with nearly 300 third-party applications. Although setting up integrations also tends to add a little implementation time, they can be extremely helpful in streamlining your business processes, thereby saving you time and money in the long run.

Regardless of the plan you choose, you will need to provide Paychex with certain information —  like your company’s tax identification number, banking information and employee email addresses — to get started. If you previously worked with another payroll provider, you may be able to transfer your data to Paychex’s system. A Paychex implementation specialist will set up your new account and ensure you understand how to use the different features, and they can onboard your staff, too.

Paychex has a user-friendly dashboard for administrators. Source: Paychex

Customer Support

We really appreciate that Paychex Flex offers 24/7 U.S.-based customer support. You can reach a representative by phone or live chat at all hours of the day. We also have to highlight that Paychex Flex plans can come with access to a dedicated payroll specialist for one-on-one payroll and tax assistance, which is really nice. This personalized support helps set Paychex apart from its rivals.

Like many of its peers, however, Paychex also offers a digital help center, blogs, online calculators, webinars and a searchable knowledgebase that can be filtered by need (e.g., payroll/taxes, human resources, employee benefits, etc.). These are great tools for self-guided help.

Limitations

Paychex is a great HR solution for businesses in all sectors, but one downside is that the vendor doesn’t list its Paychex Flex Select or Paychex Flex Pro pricing online. Because the company creates custom quotes for businesses on a case-by-case basis, you need to contact a representative to get an estimate. This extra step can be a deterrent for business owners who have a very limited budget and want to know the cost upfront before investing too much time in learning about the product. If you prefer to know more in-depth pricing details before contacting an HR software provider, check out our Gusto review — this vendor is a worthy alternative that lists its pricing online.

Something else to be aware of is Paychex Flex’s customer reviews and ratings on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website. Paychex’s current customer rating is only 1.05 out of 5 stars, which indicates customer dissatisfaction. However, unlike many competitors, Paychex is accredited with the BBB and has an A+ rating from the organization.

Methodology

To identify the best human resources systems on the market, we researched and analyzed dozens of HR solutions. As part of each investigation, we evaluated every platform’s recruiting and onboarding capabilities, employee benefits administration, time-tracking tools, payroll processing, performance management features, reports, integrations, legal compliance assistance and usability. We also took into account contracts, pricing and customer support options. Whenever possible, we watched product videos and conducted demos. Learn more about our methodology.

When searching for the best HR software for remote teams specifically, we paid particular attention to certain aspects — like recruiting and onboarding tools, payroll and benefits administration, time tracking, usability, employee self-service abilities, third-party integrations and reporting functions — that can make it easier to execute HR responsibilities virtually.

Bottom Line

We recommend Paychex Flex for …

• Employers with remote or hybrid teams.
• Businesses that want HR software with self-service employee features.
• Organizations that are interested in offering team members e-learning and development courses.

We don’t recommend Paychex Flex for …

• Businesses that need to know pricing before reaching out to a vendor.
• Companies that want a free trial.