ADP Reviews

ADP HR & Payroll solution

According to the official website, ADP is a New Jersey company serving nearly a million clients worldwide, with a few glowing testimonials. For example, Greg Harmer, the global head of Payroll at Amazon, called ADP “great technology and a great team to work with.”

He said over 75% of Amazon’s 1.3 million employees in 2021 were paid through ADP, but also that Amazon relied on its analytics, insights, and experts to break into new markets, especially the Middle East.

The name stands for “Automatic Data Processing,” but the Cisco testimonial shows the company made it into a backronym, “Always Designing for People.” Scott Herpolsheimer, team success director at Cisco, said his company needs more than technology; it must be a conscious effort to foster the company culture and talent.

John Lagonigro, senior manager of team analytics at Cisco, said increased engagement leads to better performance. So he and Scott chose StandOut, a “strength-based coaching experience” that uses Team Space for dynamic teams. According to the testimonial, 90% of Cisco employees completed the StandOut assessment, which built trust and increased authenticity across teams, discovering 41% more Teams.

ADP Payroll software Tiers

The first tier, dubbed “RUN Powered by ADP,” has four packages:

Essential provides basic payroll “done right.” Enhanced adds wage garnishment features, background checks, and ZipRecruiter job postings. Complete brings in HR tools, such as HR HelpDesk, Employee Handbook Wizard, HR Tracking, Forms & Documents, and Training and Toolkits. In addition, HR Pro furnishes legal advice through Upnetic, business advice, an HR support team, and training for employers and employees.

The cheapest plan has all the payroll functionality needed to make a tax return or do online payments; the only two benefits from pricier plans are minor payment security features and HR software.

The second tier, ADP Workforce Now, is presented as an all-in-one, adaptable, cloud-based HR. ADP Workforce Now is built on a single database; ADP Workforce Now features Human Resource Management, Payroll, Benefits, Talent Management, Time & Labor Management, Learning and Analytics, and Return to Office capabilities.

It has four packages:

Payroll Essentials offers payroll automation, and HR Plus has HR tools for workforce efficiency. Hiring Advantage brings hiring and recruiting processes to the table, while Performance Plus helps companies nurture talents to promote those with leadership skills.

Here the perks of upgrading are advanced HR functionality, such as onboarding and configurable experiences per employee type.

The third and most expensive tier is ADP’s Vantage HCM, designed for large companies with more than 1000 employees. It features all the Workforce Now tools and recruitment and talent management. There’s also employee scheduling and employee record-keeping. If you offer health care benefits, there will be extra charges involved.

ADP HR & Payroll third-party services and add-ons

ADP offers third-party services and add-ons through its marketplace. Here you can find integrated solutions from ADP & approved third-party partners, regardless if you have a small (1-49 employees), midsized (50-999 employees), or large business (1000+ employees).

Add-ons for small businesses are:

For medium-sized businesses, the add-ons are largely related to employee well-being and talent recognition:

Third-party apps to integrate with the ADP platform are:

What are the benefits of using the ADP HR & Payroll solution?

ADP Payroll can adapt to any business size, offering its ready-made platform for small businesses and freelancers and custom-made solutions for big businesses. Additionally, ADP HR has the tech and the know-how to identify the potential in employees. HR and Payroll are standalone modules that can synergize in and across cyberspace and meatspace.

Greg mentioned that in 2020 Amazon accrued 500,000 new employees and decided to switch from biweekly to weekly pay for its US-based hourly employees. He said ADP adapted on the spot, scaled with Amazon, and delivered without error, calling ADP’s self-service app simple and user-friendly. Despite Amazon challenging ADP with “crazy, unprecedented things” and extraordinary tasks, it has always delivered.

What are the disadvantages of ADP?

The two chief disadvantages are long hold times for customer support and a cluttered platform. As of June 5, 2022, there’s an increase in complaints about things like:

Other consistent themes in those complaints are broken sales promises, no tolerance for error, and service outages. However, some reviewers admit to making mistakes, such as not checking their ADP account for support messages or skipping a form, which costs them dearly.

ADP Payroll Login

Visiting the Midsized Business part of the official website reveals the “Launch Self-Guided Demo” button. Clicking it, entering contact information, and clicking another button start the demo for a product called ADP Workforce Now. It is preceded by a soft NDA, asking the user not to disclose any information seen in the demo, but there is a screenshot of the product dashboard next to the button, which is enough to get the full picture.

How to cancel ADP Payroll services?

To cancel the account, the user must do it manually through the ADP interface by going to “Settings” and terminating the subscription through “Manage Subscriptions.”

Of course, if you want to cancel the subscription, you must first check the contractual period. This is normal for any subscription service – if you cancel before the end date of your contract, there might be some extra charges.

Details of ADP Payroll Features

ADP has all the features and tools businesses of all sizes look for in a payroll company. Furthermore, it also serves as an HCM software, featuring a wide variety of tools that take care of all things HR.

However, looking closely, you’ll find that ADP Payroll has cluttered many features into its software. This may lead to confusion or a steep learning curve.

The pricing package comparison for small businesses lists these payroll features:

You can also add messages in the paystubs for your employees. Plus, with the options of time cards and timesheets, it’s easier to calculate things like PTO.

Payroll Processing

You can process Payroll via a computer, with the ADP mobile app on iOS & Android devices, or by phone. You can also import or manually key in employee work hours each pay period to calculate paychecks based on wages or salary. In addition, it automatically calculates deductions for taxes, health benefits, and retirement contributions.

Payroll Tax Support

ADP Tax Support features are standard in the payroll software industry. It calculates and auto-files the proper forms,

ADP also supports W-2s, 1099s, I-9s, and W-4s. So you can have your employees e-sign their I-9s and W-4s, and they can easily view and download their W-2s and 1099s at the end of the year. However, there’s an additional cost for W-2s,1099s, I-9s, and W-4s.

Another great perk about ADP is that it offers a filing error guarantee – should a mistake be made, it will pay the fines or penalties you incur.

Payroll Reports

Regardless of your service plan, you’ll have access to plenty of payroll and HR reports. In addition, the reports are fully customizable, and you can adapt them perfectly to your needs.

Payment Options

You can pay employees by direct deposit, prepaid debit card, or paper check. In addition, ADP saves you precious time by delivering the paper checks to your office so you can give them to employees on payday.

ADP HR Features

The same feature comparison list showcases these employee and HR perks of signing up with ADP:

New-Hire Reporting

It is another useful feature of ADP. It will fill out and file all the necessary paperwork for reporting new hires to the proper state and federal agencies on your behalf.

HR Services

When choosing the Complete and HR Pro plans, you will have access to additional HR resources & tools. These include the ability to post jobs to ZipRecruiter and conduct background checks. In addition, ADP also offers an employee handbook wizard, a job description wizard, new-hire onboarding, a complete library of HR forms and documents, an HR compliance database, and guides to best HR practices.

Employee Management & PTO

ADP makes it easy to manage your employees and contractors from a single interface. From adding job titles to payment information, time off, tax documents, and benefits, ADP allows you to manage additional compensations, deductions, and garnishments.

HR & Onboarding

The platform has various HR and onboarding features that should suit the small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses.

The Payroll’s onboarding features are available on each small business plan. However, if you want access to the advanced features, you’ll need to purchase a higher-tier plan.

For example, the small business plans include new-hire reporting, self-managed new-hire onboarding, employee access portal, employee discounts, contractor hiring, onboarding, and management (WorkMarket integration).

The Enhance or bigger plans include Zip Recruiter, Labor law compliance posters, and background checks.

Choosing the Complete plan or higher will give you access to the document vault, employee handbook tool, HR help desk, HR employee tracking, HR forms, and HR training toolkit.

Company training and harassment prevention courses are part of HR Pro and up.

Customer Service

Every user can reach the ADP customer support team through an online help form, by phone 24/7, or contact the local service center in your area. ADP Payroll’s customer service team is responsive but struggles to resolve issues quickly and efficiently.

As we stated before, more and more users are complaining about long wait times to talk to them. Furthermore, as in any other payroll service, even if the individuals answering calls are doing their best to help users, they may lack specific knowledge about Payroll, insurance, taxes, etc.

However, even if finding someone who can answer your specific tax question or problem can be challenging, people work hard for ADP’s customer support. We know that from the company’s reputation & attentiveness to concerns.

Lastly, ADP Resource Center provides support for administrators and employees, including detailed answers to various questions.

Is ADP Payroll software reliable?

With a history of over 70 years, and lots of major companies like Honeywell, Dell, and Pfizer in their portfolio, we can say yes – ADP Payroll is a reliable software.

Furthermore, there’s almost guaranteed a plan that meets your needs, whether you want the basics for your small business or lots of HR & team management tools for your growing firm.

However, considering the increasing number of online complaints, our absolute yes shakes a bit. The point of contention varies from customer to customer, but the common theme is that ADP is difficult to use correctly and lulls users into complacency.

Regardless, ADP can still provide utility if everything is scrutinized to ensure no errors.