Paycom Review 2023: Features, Pricing, Alternatives & More

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Paycom helps businesses streamline their HR processes, including talent acquisition, payroll, time and attendance tracking, benefits administration and more. The platform also provides self-service functionality, enabling employees to access and manage their personal information, benefits, time-off requests, time clock histories and automatic mileage tracking.

Additionally, Paycom offers tools for talent management, including applicant tracking, onboarding, performance management and learning management systems. These features help organizations effectively recruit, train and retain employees.

Pricing

Paycom doesn’t advertise solution pricing on its website. The company encourages interested buyers to request a demo, after which they’ll send custom quotes based on the buyer’s needs and use cases. Vendors that offer quote-based pricing models usually don’t have a uniform pricing structure — they charge based on the number of users, business size and required features.

For comparison, many payroll providers charge a monthly base fee plus a monthly per-employee fee, and they may also bill additional fees for add-on features or services like setup and tax filings.

User reviews and other online information indicate that Paycom charges about $500 for 15 employees as a setup, training and implementation fee, and its pay runs cost about $4 to $6 per employee per paycheck. Your actual rate may vary based on your employee count, company size, required features, and other factors unique to you and your business.

SEE: The Best Payroll Software for Enterprises in 2023

Key features of Paycom

Payroll capability

Paycom features an online payroll management system that helps the company streamline employee payroll processes. Paycom’s payroll services include direct deposit, payroll cards  (Figure A), tax filing and withholding, deductions, paid holiday tracking and more.

Figure A

Paycom’s payroll features include:

• Beti: Beti is an automated payroll assistant tool that enables employees to manage, troubleshoot and verify their own payroll. It detects errors and guides employees through fixes before submitting them for approval.
• Tax management: Through this feature, Paycom debits the organization’s payroll taxes, deposits them on their due dates and remits filings. They handle IRS forms 941 and 940 and W-2s, as well as related items like 1099 and W-2 C filings.
• Garnishment administration: Paycom can handle garnished wage calculations, payments and record-keeping for companies.
• GL Concierge: Paycom’s GL Concierge helps business owners maintain their general ledger data and allows them to track labor costs more accurately.

Figure B

Expense management

Paycom’s online payroll system offers an expense management feature that helps businesses easily track and manage employee expenses as they’re incurred. Employees can upload receipts to Paycom’s self-service app to eliminate manual entry, and they can link credit cards to simplify expense tracking.

The system automatically allocates expenses to the appropriate general ledger account, reducing time spent on manual data entry. Paycom also offers convenient mileage tracking for even more accurate reporting and expense management.

Talent acquisition

With Paycom’s talent acquisition platform (Figure C), companies can streamline their hiring process to ensure only qualified applicants get through it, reducing the time it takes to find and hire the right people. Employers can also verify employees’ eligibility via Paycom’s e-verify system, reducing the customer’s exposure to government audits, financial penalties, prison sentences, forfeiture of assets and civil fines.

Figure C

Paycom also enables employers to run background checks on candidates to ensure they don’t pose any risks to the business. Employers can conduct the following investigations using Paycom:

• Employment verification.
• County criminal search.
• Sex offender registry search.
• National criminal scan.
• County criminal search.
• Education verification.
• Drug testing and health services (DOT and non-DOT options).

Talent management

Paycom talent management features help streamline employees’ performance and career management processes. The solution provides employers with the resources they need to create custom talent management strategies for their unique business needs.

From performance management to compensation budgeting to employee self-service and Paycom learning, Paycom’s talent management can help employers manage all aspects of their employees’ careers and performance.

Human resources management

Paycom offers various HR capabilities, including:

• Direct data exchange for real-time employee usage monitoring.
• Benefits administration.
• Enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliance.
• Documents and checklists.
• Continuation of Health Coverage (COBRA) administration.
• 401(k) reporting.
• Mobile capabilities.

Time and labor management

Paycom’s time and labor management features help businesses manage employee time and attendance, through total hours summaries (organized by employee or department) and labor or overtime analyses. Paycom also optimizes employee schedules to meet demand, considering employee availability, skill sets, labor laws and workload requirements.

Figure D

Paycom offers both digital and physical time clocks to capture accurate time data. Digital time clocks can be accessed through web browsers or mobile devices, allowing employees to clock in and out electronically. In contrast, Paycom’s physical time clocks are hardware devices that capture employee time using biometric, proximity or swipe card technologies.

Paycom pros

• Employee self-service.
• Intuitive Android and iOS mobile apps.
• Employee performance management and compensation budgeting capabilities.
• Benefits administration.
• Helpful learning management system.

Paycom cons

• Lacks transparent pricing.
• Limited third-party integrations.
• May be too pricey for small businesses.

If Paycom isn’t ideal for you, check out these alternatives

Although Paycom is a solid human capital management solution, it doesn’t mean it’s the perfect fit for every business. If you’re not quite finding what you need in Paycom, there are a few other noteworthy alternatives to consider.

Paychex: Best for fast-growing companies and startups

Paychex Flex is a human capital management solution designed for businesses of all sizes, from one-employee businesses to large businesses with over 1,000 employees; it is one of the best payroll applications on the market today. While Paycom is suitable for midsize organizations looking for core HR capabilities with payroll functions, Paychex is ideal for small or fast-growing companies that need a solution to scale with them as they grow and expand.

SEE: Best Free Payroll Software for Small Businesses in 2023

Paychex also offers more third-party integrations than Paycom, making it easy for companies to connect with tools they already use. Like Paycom, Paychex offers a quote-based pricing model: interested buyers must contact their sales team for custom quotes.

ADP: Best for international payroll

ADP (Automatic Data Processing) provides global human resource solutions and business process outsourcing services. It’s one of the best international payroll services and provides a range of features, including HR, payroll, talent, time, tax and benefits administration. ADP serves clients in over 140 countries, so it’s great for businesses that need to scale internationally as they expand their coverage outside the United States.

ADP also offers a quote-based pricing model, so prospective customers can contact the company for custom quotes.

SEE: Paycom vs. ADP: 2023 Payroll Software Comparison

BambooHR: Best for performance management

BambooHR is designed to streamline and automate various HR processes for small businesses, including employee data management, recruitment and onboarding, performance management, time off and leave tracking, benefits administration, and reporting.

Like other vendors on our list, BambooHR doesn’t advertise pricing on its website. Interested buyers will need to fill out a quote request form on the vendor’s website for custom pricing.

Review methodology

To write this review, we gathered primary data from Paycom’s website, including features, services offered and more. We also collected user review information from Gartner Peer Insights and other sources.