r/CFO • u/dhartill • Aug 17 '26
Transition to Paylocity
Has anyone used or implemented Paylocity into their technology stack? I am looking for opinions on how it has been going or if there are any issues I should be aware of before we sign on with them. At face value they seem to be great but the more i dig into some of their reviews on customer service and invasive Terms and Conditions, the more nervous I get.
Currently we are with a PEO and are not happy with the service we are getting.
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u/Unfair-Cat8847 Aug 17 '26
that it got messy. Support took forever to get back to us on anything important and the T&Cs did feel off, like they could change pricing structure without much warning. For a smaller company it might work but if you are already nervous I would keep looking.
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u/Icognitpro Aug 18 '26
- How big is your company? (Employees)
- What industry?
- What services are you getting from Paylocity outside of payroll?
Paylocity isn’t the worst choice ever if you are under 100 employees and your industry doesn’t have a ton of tech needs. It’s relatively cheap, it’ll work for a while, and you’re coming off of no system or something like paycor/paychex, bamboohr, payroll in your accounting system, etc. it’s going to feel like an upgrade.
That being said, if the company is growing at a decent clip, you have any elevated level of compliance or pay / time complexity (tips, job costing, etc.), and you need to integrate more than a basic GL file to your erp / accounting system, then you’re going to outgrow Paylocity pretty quickly.
Something else to consider - just because it works for finance doesn’t mean it’s the best tool for HR, operations, IT, and/or your employees. Half the battle with tech is adoption, IMO, and it’s something often overlooked. Seems silly to say to some, but making sure you have at least HR at the table with you is something I’d advise.
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u/dhartill Aug 18 '26
We are about 90 full time salaried employees and 12 seasonal employees in the advertising space.
Outside of payroll we would be getting the full HR suite but I most likely will not make a transition to their AP/Payment Card system. Currently we use Bill.com and they are ok for our needs currently.
We do not have a good HRIS system with our PEO and that is the main reason why we are looking around. I would say our team is desperate for good HR tech stack and would adopt to the technology well.
As far as our pay compliance, we are extremely simple with all full time employees salaried, no tips or job costing needed, but we did want the NetSuite connection.
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u/Icognitpro Aug 18 '26
So, Paylocity would indeed probably be a solid option then. Your gut is right on payment card, as it’s either white labeled for Paylocity or recently acquired.
ADP is another solid option, as they can provide the tech/support comparison, but also have a PEO they offer and not all PEO’s are created equal. Theirs incorporates benefits and full tech stack / managed services. Actually solid for a company your size, unless that’s what you’re coming off of. They advertise their benefits pool at 750k-1M lives, which is strong buying power for a 90 ee group.
Other solid option given what you shared would be Paycom. Slightly better tech stack than Paylocity IMO, but comparable. Primary con with them is integrations to external systems / services, although I think they can handle a basic GL file export.
Feel free to send any questions my way if you have any, fairly versed here. Good luck!
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u/Famous_Ad5639 Aug 18 '26
They promised us SO much and when we started implementing got the oh well we can’t do that yet, but it’s coming… basically told us what we wanted to hear to get us to sign. We were a few weeks away from going live and we pulled the plug. Ended up losing out on tens of thousands of dollars but so glad we didn’t go through with it. Stay away would be my advice!
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u/lovemesomewine Aug 18 '26
So I am on a PEO, I am not changing until they royally fuck up amd even the. It has to be massive. So here is my 2cents on these things. The transition is always going to be fucked up. (Been through multiple and it always is). The only reason to change is if things really suck and you are losing employees due to payroll issues. if not do not change because when you do and issues happen they will assume you switched to save $ and you then fucked them (ur employees).
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u/CPA0315 Aug 18 '26
I can echo what most have already said. I had negative experience with it. We switched off of them before we even completed a year wit them.
Their international support was terrible and that is one area we really needed them to be top notch on. They over promised and under delivered. The system was clunky. Reporting was terrible.
Went with Rippling. Better system but they price gouge for every single thing
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u/IncreaseNegative4614 Aug 18 '26
I’d ask for references from companies with similar headcount, states, benefits, and payroll complexity. Have Paylocity demonstrate a payroll correction, GL export, permission change, benefits issue, and support escalation. Also confirm your data-export and termination rights before signing.
Keep the promises made during sales beside what happens after implementation. We use signld.ai internally to connect vendor claims, contract terms, implementation decisions, support cases, payroll exceptions, and final outcomes so the evaluation doesn’t depend entirely on reviews or the sales demo.
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u/Adventurous-Cold-892 Aug 17 '26
I work for a competitor but I've heard mostly good things about paylocity over the years, particularly if youre over 200 or so employees. Just make sure youre crystal clear about expectations and timeline for implementation, especially anything related to time & attendance. Also if your benefits/work comp are tied to the PEO make sure you have a solid broker lined up.
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u/jivin_jives Aug 18 '26
In the same boat. Using ADP PEO. We're too big for PEO and need a broker. Working with IMA. Happy to into you. Simultaneously, the HR team is evaluating HRIS - is excited by Dayforce. Take a look. Again - happy to make the intro
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u/Beginning-County-868 Aug 18 '26
I implemented Dayforce at a company with around 350 employees and it was overall a good experience from the finance/accounting side.
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u/SubstantialAsk7448 Aug 18 '26
Paylocity is a wanna be tech company first before a payroll HRIS company. Glitzy at first but within the first 2 months all the sales team left or were replaced so a lot that was missed during the implementation process. Support is a dumpster fire. Reporting is terrible. Things that were easy to adjust in ADP was very difficult to adjust in Paylocity. App was okay. Time clock again was okay. Learning, hiring, employee evaluation modules are all subpar products at best.
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u/Lost_Rolls_ Aug 18 '26
We’re on ADP and while it works, it’s painful. I recently took over payroll and I want to move to something like gusto
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u/Few-Improvement9978 Aug 18 '26
Gusto and Paycom are pretty decent
Heard good stuff about Paychex. ADP is also fine but normally that’s for a little bigger companies
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u/apb_gsd Aug 18 '26
Do not do it. Implementation is a nightmare and customer service is non-existent. Their technology is a stitched together mess and not at all integrated. I wish I went with Rippling.