Paychex: The power of a single platform for payroll, time and attendance, and HR

Looking at Paychex Flex^® from the perspective of small business owners today, and in the future.

While the basics of payroll remain the same, the Paychex Flex® system is designed to be forward-thinking in terms of how busy small companies want to interact with their payroll provider. Paychex still retains the traditional dedicated payroll specialist model via telephone. However, we also offer mobile options, self-service, and dedicated 24/7 service options. Our new service model better reflects the preferences of our clients so they can run their business the way they want.

What does the power of a single platform really mean?

Paychex Flex® is a single platform that clients can use regardless of their size or number of Paychex solutions they have. For example, a business may have three employees and only need our basic payroll processing. Or you could have dozens of employees and use our full portfolio of solutions including time and attendance, recruiting, and onboarding. For businesses that need to offer various employee benefits such as health insurance, retirement, financial wellness, and others, those can also be added, all under a single platform.

Here’s why the single platform is so powerful: it’s built off of a single employee record, so there is no need to rekey data into different HR systems. Employee data is shared between the various solutions within the same platform. That means greater accuracy and time savings!

It is important to note that there’s something much more important and often missed by many small employers. With other payroll providers, employers often “outgrow” a particular platform. As they expand and their requirements become more complex, they have to switch to a new platform, which is not only disruptive, but also usually means lost time and the need to learn a new system. The beauty of Paychex Flex® is that a business can stay on the same system starting with only one employee and add employees and features as their needs change.

Is integrated technology really important to small businesses?

Simply put, YES! Even though businesses may not always use the term “integrated technology,” the benefits of a platform like Paychex Flex® are incredibly important. Take, for example, something as small as a single sign-on. It can be cumbersome for owners and managers to have multiple systems with multiple login credentials. Many businesses have five or more different systems and logins to navigate. This is especially true for those using POS systems and other time and attendance solutions. The more we can integrate all the features needed into a single platform with connections to the most common systems our customers are using, the easier it is for business of all sizes to manage their employees and payroll processes.

Is the way you track employee time as efficient as it can be?

Paper-based systems can be time-consuming. Calculating payroll manually can drain hours from those charged with this complex task. You would be surprised, but automated time tracking isn’t as widely used by employers as you might think. A 2019 survey reported that only 57 percent of respondents have adopted application software for time and attendance—and 10 percent of respondents said they spend more than 20 hours per month tracking down employees’ time. 

An integrated time and attendance system like Paychex Flex^® Time, part of the Paychex Flex® platform and integrated directly with the Clover^® system, can sharply decrease expenses related to the collection, management, and data entry involved in a manual system. Paychex Flex® Time also has scheduling, shift swap capability, overtime, leave tracking, FMLA, rest and lunch break tracking, and more to make the task of time keeping and scheduling easier than other separate systems or manual processes.

Beyond technology, are there other factors buyers should consider in a provider?

You can have the best technology in the world, but without matching service you can be left hanging with no one to help you. Not with Paychex. Often overlooked are factors such as business continuity services and security. In the case of a natural disaster or even a local service outage, Paychex offices share the load to make sure no payrolls are missed.  Paychex provides scheduled and redundant backup systems, as well as stringent data security protections that help keep data safe for businesses in a way that many local or regional providers simply can’t. All this adds peace of mind to the other features and services, reinforcing the security in knowing that Paychex is a trusted partner.

Learn more here.

Editorial Team

Clover app partners, Clover partner solutions, Money management, Payments & processing, Staffing

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