ADP Payroll Guide

After using our comparison chart to learn about the top payroll services, use our ADP guide to see how this service works.

Advertising Disclosure: Many or all of the companies featured provide compensation to us. These commissions are how we maintain our free service for consumers. Compensation, along with hours of in-depth research, determines where & how companies appear on our site.

Our Top Payroll Partner 2024

gusto.com

Our Top Choice For Payroll Services 2024

★★★★★ 4.8/5

Adp.com

Our Top Choice For Payroll Services 2021

★★★★★ 4.8/5

paychex.com

Pros:

Assigns a specialist to your account
Offers help when you sign up
Lets you use the web and app anywhere
Offers custom solutions that work for you
Lets you print pay stubs

Cons:

Customer support often takes a long time
You may have issues removing employees from the system
Hard to track and make changes to the system
Not upfront about pricing

ADP ranks as our top choice for payroll software. The company assigns you a specialist who can help you set up and use the software along with options to print pay stubs for your workers in the office.

What is ADP Payroll?

ADP is a company that makes payroll software for managers and anyone who owns a business. You can choose a solution designed for up to 49 employees that lets you process and create checks in just four steps. This plan will also calculate the taxes that you need to pay and pay them for you. It guarantees that your business is compliant with all regulations, too. There are also solutions designed for those with up to 1,000 employees. These plans help you sync information across multiple devices and integrate the payroll software with the benefits programs and other software that HR managers use. This plan will also grow with your company. We picked ADP Payroll as the best payroll software. You can learn more about it in our ADP Payroll guide.

Features and Services

When you choose ADP software, you can choose from one of four packages designed for those with up to 49 employees. All plans include some of the same things such as support for direct deposit and the option to make reports. With the Essential Plan, you also get help creating 1099 forms for independent contractors and tax filing. ADP can send payments to Wisely direct debit cards and deliver the payroll to your office.

The Enhanced option is the most popular and includes secure check signing to keep your employees safe. This plan can also handle the payments that you make to your state’s unemployment fund and provide background checks on new workers. You get the same features with the Complete option, which combines your payroll and HR. ADP has an HR Pro option that includes enhanced support along with sexual harassment training and marketing tools.

If you have 50 or more employees working for you, you can also choose from one of four plans. The Payroll Essentials plan includes just tax and payroll support. You get those features as well as onboarding, digital records and enhanced tools for HR professionals through the HR Plus plan. With the Hiring Advantage plan, ADP helps you find the right workers for your available openings. You can use ZipRecruiter to find talented people and do background checks on all new hires. There is also the Performance Plus plan that includes performance and compensation management tools. ADP has other tools that you can add to any plan such as enhanced analytics and benefits administration.

Who is This for?

ADP is the top choice for any company that needs help creating and releasing checks. Your employees need the wages they earn and cannot afford to wait a few extra days to get paid because of problems with your software. ADP software is also a good choice for those who plan to grow their business in the coming years. While you can sign up for a plan that covers only one to five employees, it’s easy to upgrade your plan when you hire more workers. All of these plans help you add current and new employees to the system and pay them for the hours they worked and any paid time off they took.

How it Works

A nice thing about ADP is that you can request a demo before becoming a customer. The demo makes it easy to see how the software works and what you can use it for in the office. ADP asks for your name and business name along with other general information before it will send you the demo. You can also enter some general information and get a custom quote to see how much ADP costs. All ADP plans allow you to enter the names of your workers and other data to issue direct deposits and checks along with card payments.

Pricing

One of the things that we don’t like about ADP payroll software is that the company is not upfront on its pricing structure. While other sites let you see how much it costs before you sign up, ADP asks you to answer many questions before you can get an estimate. There’s no guarantee that the estimate you get will match your final price. We found that the basic plan starts at $59 per month just for the license to use the software. You will also pay $4 per month for each employee in the system. As the size of your business grows, the amount that you pay per month will also grow.

Customer Support

As much as we like ADP, we wanted to talk about its lack of customer support here. As a new client, ADP will assign a specialist to your account. The specialist is responsible for showing you how the software works and what you can do with it. They can work with your HR team and anyone else who handles payroll. You will also attend meetings with your specialist until you feel comfortable using the software.

The problem arises once you start using the software on your own. If you need help, you cannot call the specialist on the phone directly. ADP requires that you contact customer support and wait for the department to connect you with a member of the support staff. Some users claimed that they waited on hold for up to 45 or even 60 minutes before anyone reached out. You can contact customer support online if you are an employee who needs help or you are a company administrator. ADP also allows clients to call (844) 227-5237 to get help over the phone.

Final Verdict

After comparing ADP Payroll to other payroll software, we found that this is the top choice for 2024. ADP helps you choose the right plan based on how many workers you have and what you want to spend. You can choose a basic plan and add one or more optional services to get even more help. The biggest issue with this software is that it doesn’t have good customer support. You might spend more time waiting to get help than you spend talking to someone. The plans and features of ADP Payroll make it worth the price.