Paycom Payroll Review: Features, Pros & Cons

If you’re starting a business and hiring employees, mastering payroll is likely to be one of your first major hurdles. Dealing with payroll is often quite complex and time-consuming, which is why many entrepreneurs turn to a professional payroll service. 

Payroll providers can handle the entire payroll process for you, making it nearly seamless and automated while offering additional services so that you can focus on building a successful business. 

One of the top options is Paycom. But is it the best service? And is it the right choice for you? This review takes a closer look — putting ourselves in the shoes of an entrepreneur — to help you determine whether this is the right payroll service for your business. 

Pricing

Breadth of Services

Help and Support

Customer Satisfaction

Ease of Use

Overall Score: 4.2/5

Paycom’s all-inclusive HR software services are more expensive than most competitors, but all of the included tools and features offer businesses an outstanding value– especially large businesses. Based on our thorough research, we feel confident recommending Paycom to business owners.

Visit Paycom

What to Expect from Paycom

Paycom is an industry-leading HR software service provider that supports nearly 34,000 companies daily, according to their website. 

Paycom offers businesses a large spread of HR and payroll services that aim to satisfy a wide variety of business types and needs. Within one software application, businesses will find tools to assist with talent acquisition, time and labor management, talent management, HR management, and, of course, payroll duties. 

Features and Services

Unlike other payroll service providers, Paycom doesn’t offer different service packages of HR solutions. Instead, Paycom offers one software solution that includes all of its HR and payroll tools. 

Paycom breaks its HR software application down into five categories, with additional features and tools layered within. As detailed below, we explored Paycom’s software services and what’s included in these categories. 

In the subsequent section, we’ll take a closer look at Paycom’s payroll software features. 

Services overview

Payroll Service

Paycom’s payroll service offers a suite of six tools that can take many tasks off your plate and allow you to focus on more pressing business matters. Paycom’s payroll tools include Beti, Paycom Pay, GL Concierge, Expense Management, Garnishment Administration, and Payroll Tax Management. 

Beti, for instance, aims to help employees process payroll on their own, guiding them through an automated process that notes errors and provides troubleshooting assistance when needed. Employees are responsible for confirming the accuracy of their payouts, reducing the work of HR teams. 

Paycom’s Payroll Tax Management tool provides automated payroll tax deductions and filings, handling federal, state, and local tax filings, including employee W-4 and I-9 forms, as well as W-2s and 1099s. 

Hiring and Onboarding Tools

Paycom’s Talent Acquisition aspect of their HR software application provides businesses with advantageous features to assist with the hiring process, such as applicant tracking. Paycom’s e-verification tool is an extension of the US Department of Homeland Security’s Form I-9, and assists hiring managers in verifying candidates’ identities and job eligibility. Paycom’s software also offers background checks. 

Paycom gives businesses the option to enable self-onboarding capabilities for new hires, integrating the new employee’s data and information across the entire software system. Paycom’s onboarding features also include checklists and reminders to ensure legal compliance. 

Hiring employees comes with a lot of paperwork, and having a valuable service like Paycom can make it much easier for you.

Benefits Administration

Paycom’s Benefits Administration tool provides an automated and compliant benefit plan enrollment process. Employees have the ability to evaluate, choose, and access their own benefit plans, as well as review past benefits. Additionally, employees can view their wage deductions and how it impacts their take-home pay. 

Paycom Software Interface and Usability

Quality of Reporting 

Paycom’s reporting is incredibly comprehensive, almost bordering on too much information, which is rare. The developers approached it from an engineering perspective, and it shows. Every reporting possibility I could imagine was either already provided or had a relevant field in the custom report writer.

User Experience  

The user interface offers a depth of detail that is by far the most extensive I’ve seen. I have worked with many payroll providers over the years, yet still felt overwhelmed by Paycom’s options. 

Learning to navigate the ins and outs of this payroll system, as well as dedicated portals for employees and HR, would definitely take a good deal of time and effort. That’s not to say it’s confusing; everything made sense as I explored. It’s just that there is a lot to sort through.

Payroll Submissions Process 

The payroll submission process follows the theme, offering every conceivable detail as a preview. Like everything else, the dashboard also has a dedicated set of cards and links. 

All fields can be changed from the preview screen and can provide a notification to the employee or HR portal as needed.

Verdict 

The best way to sum up Paycom’s accounting features is that I wish my company was large enough to make use of all of it. Although you can use individual tools a la carte, going all-in on the full package is the most cost-efficient option. 

This provider is well suited to businesses with multiple departments and over 100 employees. 

**Alternatives: Paylocity, Rippling**

Website Interface and NavigationPaycom’s site is user-friendly and contains a bounty of information. Users can explore Paycom’s all-in-one software solution and have access to more in-depth information about the different services. 

Paycom makes it easy for potential customers to investigate their five main categories. 

Users can also analyze the tools available within each of Paycom’s software service categories.

Overall, we were impressed by the website’s design and organization. It’s laid out well and easy to understand. The site also includes a robust collection of resources and information. 

Our only complaint is that Paycom does not make prices readily available on the website. However, this is common with payroll service providers as the total cost often varies from one company to another. 

How’s the signup process navigation?

In order to get a price quote from Paycom, you must first request a meeting. This can be done on Paycom’s homepage, as detailed in the screenshot below. 

When you click the button to request a meeting, you’ll be taken to a page asking you to fill out a form with details about you and your business. You will need to have the following information ready:

• Your business’s name
• Your name
• Your position at the business
• Your work email
• Total number of employees at the business
• Business’s zip code

After you submit your request, you should receive an email outlining the next steps.  

How’s the mobile experience?

Paycom has a mobile app for employees of companies that use Paycom for their payroll. Employees have the ability to clock in and out of shifts, allocate their labor, review their accrued paid time off (PTO), and request time off, as well. 

The mobile application also supports modifying personnel information, submitting time sheets, previewing take-home pay, reviewing past paychecks, and more. 

Quick and Easy Cancellation?

To cancel Paycom’s service, contact your business’s Paycom specialist or customer support and request to cancel. 

In Summary

The site is quite user-friendly overall, and information is easy to find. If you have all your information handy, you can request a meeting with Paycom in less than five minutes. 

Even though there aren’t any prices listed on the site and the meeting request button can be found on every page at least once, Paycom’s call to action is not intrusive. Rather, the website is more focused on providing users with information about their services and how Paycom can help them. 

Paycom offers a strong user experience, though customer support is limited.  

Customer Support

Paycom’s website does not offer chat support, and after a diligent search, we were unable to find any email addresses, either. We did, however, find multiple telephone numbers for Paycom, including a general inquiries number and numbers for Paycom offices in 28 states.  

We tested Paycom’s phone support feature, as detailed below.

Phone support

We called Paycom’s customer support and asked the service representative if employees are able to change their personal information on their own. The representative was very kind and assured us that Paycom’s software enables employees to update their information as needed.

Support Rating:

Response time:

Immediate

Pros and Cons

Overall, Paycom’s services offer advantages and drawbacks, as detailed below. 

Company Background

Paycom was founded in 1998 by Chad Richison in Oklahoma and now has offices in 28 states. It’s recognized as one of the first payroll services to be completely online, and, according to LinkedIn, the company employs more than 5,000 people.

Since its April 2014 initial public offering, Paycom has been a publicly traded company. 

Alternatives to Paycom

Patriot Payroll

Patriot Payroll offers a free trial of their HR services and better customer support. Patriot Payroll, however, provides fewer services than Paycom. 

ADP Run

ADP Run is typically better for smaller and growing businesses, while Paycom is great for larger businesses. However, Paycom’s software includes time and attendance services, while this service must be added on for an additional fee for ADP Run customers. Conversely, ADP Run offers more integration capabilities. 

Paycor

Paycor offers a similarly robust suite of HR services and tools. But Paycor has been an established company for a longer time, and provides more extensive customer support. 

Our Approach

We take our responsibilities seriously. We understand that countless entrepreneurs, and business owners, rely on our judgments and insights, particularly when it comes to creating their business.

As a result, our writers do their utmost to gain a comprehensive understanding of the services offered and the actual customer experience. In this case, we:

• Examined every page of the Paycom website
• Reviewed all of their offerings
• Put ourselves in the customer’s shoes, creating an account
• Communicated with customer service via phone
• Gained a full understanding of the customer experience and service value

Thanks to this full immersion in the actual customer experience, our reviewer and team are able to provide the most complete and insightful review of Paycom payroll services.

Human Resource’s Verdict

Overall, we were pleased with our Paycom experience. The site is easy to use, information is readily available, and it doesn’t take long to request a meeting with a representative. 

Their customer service is rather weak, as they have no live chat support and no email addresses listed on their website. When we called to speak with a customer service phone representative, however, our call was answered quickly and politely. 

Paycom’s all-inclusive HR software services are more expensive than most competitors, but all of the included tools and features offer businesses an outstanding value– especially large businesses. Based on our thorough research, we feel confident recommending Paycom to business owners.