ADP Payroll Services for Small Business Review, Features & Pricing [2021]

ADP Payroll Services provides a way for employers to automatically ensure every employee’s payroll is taken care of. This reduces the workload from your own staff and ensures that the job is done correctly, in theory. How well does ADP payroll really work? We went in-depth to find out, reviewing key aspects of this business so that you can make a decision that is informed and that is right for your business.

Payroll isn’t something to take lightly or to put into the hands of people who are not sure of themselves. You might have thought of automating the process, but maybe you weren’t sure whether that was safe to do. What if a mistake was made?  

If you are wondering how to improve payroll efficiency and accuracy, ADP payroll software could be the answer, and we are going to assess it for you and compare it to other options as well to help provide a fair and unbiased review of this payroll service. Right now, ADP Payroll services is running a promotion for three months where they provide free service for any new customers. Now is the time to take advantage of what the company offers and this promising deal, and now is the time for us to review them and help consumers find out if it is worth taking the plunge with ADP Payroll.

Review of ADP Payroll – The Payroll Service Explained 

What is ADP Payroll and what does it do? 

The service is completely cloud-based, and that simply means that this is a payroll online service. You do not need to install any software for it to work, and you don’t need to maintain any software either, like downloading regular updates. It isn’t something that is going to take up a bunch of space on your servers or require a lengthy download. All of the payroll services offered through this product are accessible through the Internet. When you use your ADP portal login, you will be able to access your account and payroll services using the ADP website. 

This payroll software can help you with tax information, worker benefits, workers’ compensation, earnings, payroll calendar, and deductions. You can also link your company business account to the software for easy transactions. 

After you put in all the pertinent details into the software, like employee names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, and more, you can select the ADP Run Payroll option on the software and watch it do the work for you. You will be able to make adjustments later on as necessary, and the pay deducted for each employee will be based on the information that is entered into the software’s database. You can set the payroll software to deduct from the payroll amounts sent out for things like taxes, benefits, and more. All of that can be taken care of automatically for you once you get the initial information logged and your account set up. 

As you hire or remove employees, you can simply make manual adjustments to the software to compensate and let the payroll online service do the rest. 

The software comes with three different payment methods – direct deposit, paper check (to be printed), or preloaded payment by Visa debit card. The software makes it easy to use any of these options based on your needs, and you can specify a different payout method for each employee using the ADP Payroll. 

Pros of Choosing ADP Payroll

Let’s look at some of the advantages of using ADP Payroll software for accounting services.

• Very easy to use – Designed to be easy enough for anyone to access and operate
• Automatically runs payroll – Takes care of the work for you so you can relax and use less staff
• Simple to make changes to your payroll – Make manual adjustments quickly and easily to account for new employees, pay increases, and more
• Grows with your business – Scalable software can adapt to you changing from a small business to a large one
• Reduces errors and makes payroll more accurate – Computer-controlled payroll doesn’t have the issues that human error does

Cons of Choosing ADP Payroll

There are some downsides to using this software too, and we think you should be aware of them. 

• Payroll fees – You are charged each time you process payroll, and this pricing structure might not be ideal for your company 
• Hidden costs – You cannot see rates for the service by looking online

The Cost of ADP Payroll

One interesting thing to note about this payroll check service is that the pricing will be different for various customers. Not everyone pays the same price for ADP Payroll. If you look for information on quotes for ADP online, you will not find a concrete figure. You cannot get an accurate quote for ADP online by searching. The quotes you get won’t be personalized to you until you call a customer service representative of ADP and request a quote. They will be able to give you one after asking you a few questions about the size of your business and the kind of payroll accounting services you need. 

What is the typical cost for these ADP online payroll services? Most people pay around $160 if they have 10-15 employees, but your price could be different. You will be charged a fee every time you run Payroll ADP. You are also charged extra if you want the HR software included. 

What affects the rates you pay to run Payroll ADP? The size of your business is one of the most important factors, as well as where your business is located and how often you run Payroll ADP. 

If you are looking to save money on this service and test it out for yourself, you may want to take advantage of the current promotion that ADP Payroll is running. They are offering three months of free payroll software. If you are a new customer, you can try out the service at no cost for the first three months. This offer may not last much longer, though.

What Is the ADP Platform Vantage HCM?

What is ADP Vantage? It is one of several platforms that ADP operates, and it is the most popular of them all. This is a large business online payroll platform, ideal for companies that have 1,000 employees or more. The software can accommodate that many employees easily and makes it simple to modify the input and payouts for large numbers of employees at once. 

ADP Vantage is more than just a simple payroll system for large businesses. It also provides direct deposit, tax filing, scheduling for employees, recruitment management, and record-keeping. This platform functions like your personal accounting office and does the work of multiple staff members, saving you money and keeping all of your payroll records organized and accurate. 

This is just one of several kinds of platforms that ADP Payroll is offering, and we will talk about some of the other ones later on. 

Additional Costs to Know about

There might be some extra fees that you need to pay if you enroll with ADP Payroll solutions.

Workers’ Compensation insurance is made for employees who have been hurt while working, and some states actually require employers to carry it. ADP has partnerships with many different workers’ compensation brokers, and if you don’t have a worker’s compensation plan in place right now, you can use this one for a price. 

Health Benefits is a service that ADP Payroll offers, but it isn’t yet available in every state. The company gives employers the tools to ensure they are Affordable Care Act compliant and that all of their eligible staff members are covered by appropriate health insurance plans. This helps companies avoid legal fees and fines for not meeting compliance protocols for worker health insurance. The ADP Payroll app guides employers through the process of ensuring benefits for each employee and how to stay compliant with government regulations. What makes this one of the best payroll software products you could use is that it helps employers and business of all sizes to avoid paying unnecessary fees. It saves them money by pointing out potential pitfalls and making it easy for companies to stay compliant. 

The Run Payroll ADP platform does not include HR services in its base functions. You will need to upgrade and pay an additional fee to get the HR client. You can sign up for either the Complete plan or the HR Plus plan. The HR features will help you to plan out essential services for your employees, and you can find various insurance, healthcare compliance, and retirement software included in Enhanced or Essential plans. 

Is ADP Local or Cloud-Based?

As we mentioned earlier, ADP is a full-service payroll software that functions online only. You will not need to download any software to start using it, and it is less likely to be hacked or suffer a computer virus that could take it down because it is cloud-based rather than a download. 

You cannot purchase a disc that has the software on it, and you cannot download the platform from a server online. You can only access and run Payroll ADP through a cloud-based service from the platform’s designers. Your ADP Payroll login will give you full access to the client and everything you paid for that month. You get all of your extras delivered through the cloud-based server. The best payroll software doesn’t take up a bunch of space on your computer, and that’s exactly how these online payroll services work. 

Required Software and Hardware to Use ADP

What will you need in order to run this software? The good thing about ADP Payroll is that it can work on almost nothing. You only need a device that has a connection to the internet and an internet signal. There is even an ADP mobile app that you can use so you can access the payroll services for small business on your smartphone or tablet. It is easy to use and accessible practically anywhere. You can take payroll services and take them anywhere thanks to the ADP mobile solutions service. 

What Size Business Is ADP Ideal for?

The basic platform gives you extensive payroll services for small business, accommodating about 50 employees, give or take. That’s the Run Payroll ADP platform. You can go up from there with ADP Workforce Now for medium-sized business operations. Then, Vantage is for large businesses, hosting 1,000 or more employees. Choose the right one base on your current needs, and when you start with payroll software for small business and then upgrade your business and expand to more employees, you can simply move over to another ADP Payroll platform. 

How Easy Is ADP Payroll to Use?

One of the drawbacks to using this payroll software for small business is that some of the software is not very user-friendly. It is inaccessible in many ways, using language and interfaces that are hard to figure out. Businesses may struggle to use these kinds of software and then give up on them.

ADP Payroll services are designed for the everyman, and they are very easy to start using and keep using for years on end, according to many ADP Payroll reviews we have looked at and our own research. It is encouraging news for businesses looking to find an accessible small business payroll service that they can be comfortable using without having a year of tech experience. 

The software is surprisingly easy to come to terms with, boasting a user-friendly interface and initial free payroll software for those first three months as a trial period. It is also backed by guided support, helping new users with any of their questions and ensuring that any technical hurdles are resolved promptly. 

Features Offers by ADP Payroll

The ADP Payroll calculator offers a number of great features that consumers should know about:

• Payroll – The key functionality of this software is its payroll service. This can be used to calculate payouts, send payment from your business bank account, calculate employee hours and account or taxes, workers’ compensation, and benefits. This is a robust and fully featured payroll software. 
• Employee Management – Allows you to add and modify information on job titles, pay rates, benefits, and more
• Dashboard – Easy to navigate interface with quick access to all features
• Employee Portal – Lets employees access payroll data remotely and works in conjunction with the HR software
• Reports – The reports feature lets you see regular reports on earnings, taxes, benefits, paid time off, hours worked, and more
• Pay Stubs – Print out detailed pay stubs with this software
• Tax Support – Preprogrammed tax support coding handles taxes automatically so you don’t have to deal with them
• Paid Time Off – You can implement vacation hours and wages, sick leave, and other forms of paid time off as needed
• Payroll Garnishment – The software gives you the ability to garnish wages as necessary
• Benefits Administrator – Track and assign benefits, deducting them from payroll as needed
• Time Tracking – Keep track of hours to ensure accurate payroll
• Payouts – The system is designed to handle both direct deposit and cash cards

We Review ADP’s Payroll Plans

Let’s take a look at the payroll plans offered by ADP. The different plans are designed for different sizes of businesses.

ADP Run Platform

ADP Run Payroll can handle up to 49 employees, so it is ideal for smaller to medium-sized businesses. Within RunPayroll ADP, there are four different types of plans. The Essential plan is the most basic example of software offered by payroll companies for small businesses. It is able to process checks, create reports, update tax details and prices W-2 and 1099 forms. You also get HR guidance and forms for retirement, workers’ compensation, and retirement services. 

The Enhanced plan offers you all of that plus more options for payment and enrollment into the update service for labor law poster compliance. The Enhanced plan also gives you help with garnishing wages and state unemployment insurance. 

You could upgrade to the Complete plan as well, which adds on extra HR tools and gives you a small business payroll pro direct line from ADP. You will also be able to do multiple background checks each year and get help with putting together an employee handbook. 

We have to mention the HR Pro Plan too, which is an ADP Run payroll plan that gives you a ton of HR options, including legal guidance, discounts for employees, assistance programs for work-life, and a personal team of HR advisors. 

The ADP Workforce Now Platform

Another kind of platform that ADP offers is called ADP Workforce now. While ADP is one of the top payroll companies for small business, it is also able to provide effective, efficient software for larger businesses, and ADP Workforce is ideal for companies that have anywhere from 50-1,000 employees. That covers a wide range of business sizes, providing suitable ADP payroll calculator, scheduling, and reporting for medium and large-sized businesses. While RunPayroll ADP is ideal for the little guys, WorkforceNow ADP is suitable for a large business with a lot of employees to keep track of and track payroll details for. 

What do you get with the ADP Workforce platform? You get all of the basic payroll functionality you would expect from ADP, as well as talent management, HR, time tracking, PTO management, and more. You can add some features to this platform for your business, using what is called “My ADP Workforce”, and you can really make it your own. 

What’s great about ADP Workforce is that you can tailor it to your specific business, giving you a lot of control over what features the program has and what it can do for you. 

Run Payroll ADP is more simplified, and it doesn’t need to do as much or be as complex since it is only catering to 49 or fewer employees. It is ideal for what it is supposed to be used for. Compare RunPayroll ADP to Workforce, and you will see that Workforce offers a lot more functionality and gives you tools that are more suited for a larger company with more employees on the payroll. Both of these offer invaluable tools, including an ADP paycheck calculator and ADP self service, so that you can do a lot of the payroll tasks on your own.

ADP’s Customer Support Detailed

What is it like to work with the customer service department of ADP? While your ADP payroll login can be used to do a lot of tasks manually, you may need assistance from time to time. 

We consider ADP’s customer service to be exceptional. They have a great reputation, and even though there are complaints of long wait times for customer service assistance, the experience provided by the customer service personnel is excellent in our assessment. Many payroll companies don’t offer personal assistance 24/7 like ADP does, but you can contact this company over the phone and talk to an actual person at any hour of the day. They also offer email customer support and live chat and forums for internet users. 

What Customers Are Saying about ADP Payroll

The customer reviews for ADP are very positive, and in our research, we found very few negative reviews. Customers like how simple the ADP Payroll login is to use and how they can do most tasks on their own. They also compliment the company on the ease of use of the ADP mobile service and the responsive and helpful customer service.

The Better Business Bureau has rated the company A+, and customer reviews for the Run Payroll ADP service are mostly great ratings. You can find a few complaints here and there, but these are not common and tend not to be very serious problems.

Add-Ons and Software Integration

There are a number of software programs that Run Payroll ADP already has integrated in it, including Xero, Wave, and QuickBooks. It works with Deputy, MakeShift, ClockShark, Dolce, TSheets, and Homebase as well for attendance and time management. To plan resources, the software programs Infor, FinancialForce, Workday, and Oracle are all integrated. The Run Payroll ADFP platform is compatible with other programs as well, and you can get a full list from ADP.

How Secure Is ADP?

You want to choose payroll companies for your business that offer secure programs and are not suspect of hacking and other forms of interference. Business online payroll should be able to be conducted in safety with secure services. Do Run ADP Payroll, ADP Workforce, and the ADP mobile app have the proper security to gives business owners peace of mind?

The company has very strong cybersecurity and has features in place that allow them to update their cybersecurity as needed to deal with emerging threats when they occur. The platforms from ADP like Run Payroll ADP are fitted with dozens of integrated programs that look for security issues and address them quickly and effectively. 

ADP Payroll’s Competitors

There are other business online payroll services you could be using, and we want to look at the top competitor for ADP, which is Paychex Flex. This is one of the strongest competitors to ADP thanks to their quality HR services and human-capital features. This is a scalable platform that can be used by businesses of any size to track payroll and manage payouts. Paychex online gives business owners and staff members access to live tools that are protected against cybersecurity threats and that are robust and diverse. Paychex is not quite as user-friendly, however, when compared to the Run Payroll ADP platform and Workforce Now. It also doesn’t share the high customer service rating that ADP boasts.

Should You Go with ADP Payroll?

Is ADP the right choice for your business? Each company has to look at its own needs and what kind of payroll services it requires. The size of your business will determine which kind of plan and platform would be best suited to your business, but you also have to look at pricing and how affordable the plans are. Your business may benefit from comparing multiple payroll online services, judging Run Payroll ADP against its competition to see who comes out on top.

ADP Payroll is good for businesses of any size, and it allows for versatility and functionality that you wouldn’t get from other similar services. For instance, the ADP mobile app is very useful for busy management team members who are on the go. It allows them to easily and effectively check reports and make changes to the system.

If you are wondering if ADP is the best choice for your company, then you will definitely want to compare it to other options, but you also need to look closely at ADP and see if it offers the kind of functionality that your company needs for effortless, accurate payroll reporting and calculations. Take time to look at the customer reviews and see if those reviews reflect the kind of company you want to work with and the kind of customer service experience you would like to have. 

If you only have a couple of employees, then there is no need to use an advanced and complex payroll software like this. You can take care of payroll much easier on your own, but if you have a few dozen employees this software will be a lifesaver. It will help cut costs, reduce time spent calculating and managing payroll, and help you to reduce staff.

ADP – Buy or Pass?

What’s our verdict on ADP? Are they a worthwhile online payroll service or should you look elsewhere for these kinds of services? We think they are a great choice for business payroll software, whether you have a large or a small business. The scalable software that is designed for different sizes of businesses makes them perfect for companies to handle their payroll affairs no matter their size and no matter how many employees they have on staff. 

The ease of access is a big advantage for us. We believe a lot of businesses will benefit from how simple and user-friendly the interface is and how quickly staff members will pick up using it. While there is some great customer support and guidance available, most people will hardly use it since a lot of the software is self-explanatory and simple to understand. That ease of use extends to the very helpful and efficient ADP mobile app. Not every payroll service offers something like this that makes things more convenient for payroll staff and management to be able to make changes and access information from the payroll software while they are on the go. 

We also appreciate how fully-featured the platform and plans are. While your business might not use all the features this software has to offer, it is all useful functionality that adds value to the purchase price. From time management to HR, from scheduling to tax features, this payroll software seemingly has everything that you need. You would be hard-pressed to find a more robust payroll calculation and management software from any company. 

The pricing is another point that is worth mentioning again. Whether you are getting Workforce Now for the larger business or the simplified smaller business Run Payroll ADP platform, the rates are competitive and are fair for what you get, in our opinion. You can read customer reviews as well and see what others have said about this product. You will find that they are very positive almost across the board. That’s true of professional reviews as well, and this is a well-regarded payroll service that is useful for just about any company. 

So, smaller businesses may not want to bother with the software and may not find it cost-effective, but if you want to keep your payroll management staff limited and keep better track of your payroll, employees, taxes, and other payroll-related details, then this software has the tools you need to do that effectively, and we highly recommend it. 

 

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