Paycheck vs ADP

I usually refer my clients to adp for payroll services as I do not provide such service myself.
But ADP service is not reliable with errors. Is Paycheck a more reliable service than ADP?
Thanks.

I find them generally comparable.
Both are currently having staffing issues with the ongoing "great resignation", so there is no real winner of the 2, as far as I can tell.

I find them generally comparable.
Both are currently having staffing issues with the ongoing "great resignation", so there is no real winner of the 2, as far as I can tell.

Agreed. I used and referred Paychex almost exclusively for 25 years. They have grown into a large behemoth and operate like ADP now. All sales, little service. Ill still refer them over ADP. I think a local firm might be a better go.

I have a network of local bookkeepers, some do payroll, some don't.
I usually try to use those as the first line for payroll service requests.
I'd rather support the local people, and have the stuff done right (usually).

If it's a larger company that needs 401k or HR services, those have to go to Paychex, ADP, or Heartland (if they service your area).

Not necessarily on the 401k. I do payroll for two companies that have 401ks and we submit a file for them for each pay period and they draft the money and handle the reporting

I use ADP. I don't make a lot on payroll as their fees are pretty high. I pay $60 per client and $1 check, so a 5 employee payroll that runs bi-monthly costs me $70 a month and I may charge them $150-$200. A majority of my headaches come from payroll. However, being able to help the S-Corp owners is most beneficial plus having everything in house make it harder for people to want to leave if they ever do...

I'm curious if anyone who has tried ADP or Paychex has also tried Gusto, and their thoughts?

My read on Gusto is that it may be better for your one-man (or woman) S Corps compared to ADP or Paychex.

I have some clients that use Gusto, but it is very self-service.
If you are using Gusto to service a client, it's a reasonable provider.
If the clients uses it, and it goes smoothly, then there is no issue, but if a payment is misapplied, or similar, the client will need help getting it sorted out. To the best of my knowledge the customer service is not that helpful with Gusto.
And if you need returns amended, etc.... forget about it.

That's just my experience.

So, ADP does the work but you bill the client. I guess I don’t understand why the client doesn’t directly engage with ADP? Does ADP give the tax firm some kind of bulk discount?

Treetopclimes, that’s how it works with Paychex and their subsidiary, SurePayroll. I am giving serious thought to switching to SurePayroll from next year. I can see plenty of upsides for me. The downside for my clients is that the large providers impound payroll taxes.

Sumwun, why Surepayroll?

And what do you mean by: the large providers impound payroll taxes.

ManVsTax, they're a subsidiary of Paychex so I know what I'm getting - I am a Paychex alum. It is more hands-on than Paychex, hence cheaper, which is more likely to appeal to my payroll clients.

Impounding payroll taxes means withdrawing on, or just before, payday. This ensures that the payroll company gets its money and eliminates the risk of the payroll provider being hit with TFRP. My engagement letter gives them a free pass first time and immediate withdrawal of services the second time. I have never had to invoke that, which is why I am just a little hesitant to pull the trigger.

I've been working on this recently as, off the record, I hate doing payroll and employment tax returns. Hate, hate, hate it. Even my own. I'm pretty sure one of Dante's circles is running payroll and doing employment tax returns.

I've scheduled a call with an account specialist from Gusto for later this week. So far Gusto has been nothing but professional, and the rep that took my information today and scheduled the call was actually pretty knowledgeable on their software and employment tax return compliance.

I have attempted to do the same for ADP. I contacted them almost a week ago. They're supposed to be getting back to me. Nothing so far...

At this time, I need something for my one-man/woman S Corps, small multi-owner S Corps with a few employees, all the way up to S Corps with one to two dozen employees. I can appreciate that ADP scales really well and large businesses would really benefit from it, but I think Gusto may fit the bill for what I'm currently needing, we'll see.

My strategy is going to be to get all those one-man S Corps on Gusto's "auto-pilot" at a set salary each month and automate the entire reasonable comp and employment tax return compliance. We'll see how that goes.

I still need to iron out some kinks and get clarification on a few open questions.

Agree with the ADP slow response. I reached out to them a week ago and they didn’t call back yet. If you don’t call back about a potential sale, you are never going to call back. I thought ADP was the way to go, unsure now.

I started out using Gusto. You have to be extremely careful on how you setup their account if they have prior payrolls. I had a rep call me fairly shortly after setting up my second client and walked me through the process. I noticed that the payroll pull was larger than what it should be but the rep assured me that it was only going to pull out the necessary taxes. The client ended up getting a 3K tax pull relating to Q1 payroll on top of their Q2 payroll and it wasn't very fun on getting the funds back.

The firm that I left to go out on my own had their rep and a firm down the street from me had the same rep. Got in contact with him and any time I have issues he's pretty on the ball or their back office is. What I will say about ADP is getting a client on their platform that has prior payrolls during the year can be a little tricky to figure out their system. They are also more expensive than gusto, probably 25% or so, but I got a decent discount because my colleagues firm down the street from me has a decent number of clients on their platform.

To answer the question about why would I do it versus having ADP do it. Its all about control. For S-Corp clients being able to help them navigate their payroll is huge and it makes the client feel like your more involved. Having the client's payroll, bookkeeping, and tax work is a solid way to ensure you have a long time client.

Here is my take having used most of them:

1. Gusto: best interface, easy for employee onboarding. Customer service use to be awesome, then plummeted to near the bottom. They seem to recognize the problem and have sent out apology emails. Hopefully it will improve. More expensive than other options.

2. Sure Payroll: hands down the worst experience I’ve ever had across multiple clients. We have one left over there that will be a pain to move. I’ll never use them again. Internal dedicated reps never call us back after promising to do so. They play games making it more difficult to terminate.

3. ADP Run: this is our go to for live payroll with 2+ employees. We pay 60% of the wholesale rates mentioned above for the platform. They are more difficult on the set up, but great once onboarded and priced really well.

4. Onpay: no glitz, but simple and price efficient. We have a few clients on the platform who like it, but we haven’t used their wholesale side.

For solo ATF S-Corps, we still use Drake Accounting in house. For live solo payrolls, usually Gusto. Otherwise, ADP Run is our go to.

I've been working on this recently as, off the record, I hate doing payroll and employment tax returns. Hate, hate, hate it. Even my own. I'm pretty sure one of Dante's circles is running payroll and doing employment tax returns.

I've scheduled a call with an account specialist from Gusto for later this week. So far Gusto has been nothing but professional, and the rep that took my information today and scheduled the call was actually pretty knowledgeable on their software and employment tax return compliance.

I have attempted to do the same for ADP. I contacted them almost a week ago. They're supposed to be getting back to me. Nothing so far...

At this time, I need something for my one-man/woman S Corps, small multi-owner S Corps with a few employees, all the way up to S Corps with one to two dozen employees. I can appreciate that ADP scales really well and large businesses would really benefit from it, but I think Gusto may fit the bill for what I'm currently needing, we'll see.

My strategy is going to be to get all those one-man S Corps on Gusto's "auto-pilot" at a set salary each month and automate the entire reasonable comp and employment tax return compliance. We'll see how that goes.

I still need to iron out some kinks and get clarification on a few open questions.

ADP response time depends on if you have a dedicated manager, especially if it relates to payroll setups, pricing, etc. I have a local ADP manager I can go to each time I want to refer a new client to ADP and I can get a very good price for the clients. I agree once the payroll is setup for the new clients, if there are any technical issues, etc., clients have to call the 800 numbers and it takes a while to get resolved.

I signed up for an accountant partner account with Gusto yesterday. Basically that means I can manage client accounts and pass along savings to clients.

My primary goals as previously expressed are to get payroll for my S Corp clients as automated as possible, to minimize touch points from me, and to remove me completely from the compliance work.

We'll see how it goes.

I signed up for an accountant partner account with Gusto yesterday. Basically that means I can manage client accounts and pass along savings to clients.

My primary goals as previously expressed are to get payroll for my S Corp clients as automated as possible, to minimize touch points from me, and to remove me completely from the compliance work.

We'll see how it goes.

How's it working so far? We are leaning towards Gusto at this point. About 30 clients.

I love it.

I'm in the process of moving all S Corps that I currently do in-house to Gusto. My time commitment for those I've moved over has gone down a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I schedule a one hour screen share to onboard the client with Gusto, give them a walkthrough of the platform, and field any questions they may have. I also ask the client at the beginning of the screen share if they'd like me to record the session so they can reference it later to refresh if necessary. Most of them do agree to record and find it very helpful.

Then I automate their salary and I don't have to do anything regarding payroll or employment tax returns. Gusto handles everything. The employee gets paid automatically and can pull very clean payroll reports for lenders or whoever needs them. Gusto is intuitive and I haven't clients haven't encountered any problems or issues that require help. Knock on wood.

I also have a point of contact with Gusto as an accounting partner and they've been professional and have provided timely updates regarding the platform.

Ultimately I'm currently very happy and would recommend them.

The only minor issue is that Gusto is changing its pricing structure soon. Clients who have employees in more than one state will see a jump but everyone else should be approximately the same. Most of my S Corp clients won't be affected.