2012 Review of CompuPay PayrollOnline

Strengths

• Easy to use employee portal is included with the service
• Strong support options are included
• Company setup is controlled by CompuPay to ensure accuracy
• High level of customization capabilities, though may require additional costs

Potential Limitations

• Very little human resource management functions included
• Internet Explorer is the only officially supported browser by CompuPay

PayrollOnline is the top-tier offering from the CompuPay lineup of payroll products and is one of the premier Internet based payroll providers in the country. PayrollOnline is designed for businesses with 1,000 or fewer employees and functions as a fully outsourced payroll solution. PayrollOnline is offered in three tiers of service (Basic, Advanced and Premier) and each offers all features stated in the review except where noted.

Basic System Functions: 4.75 Stars

PayrollOnline is a web-based payroll solution allowing accounting professionals and clients to process payroll from virtually anywhere. Currently the only supported browser by CompuPay is Internet Explorer, though other browsers may be capable of running the solution. Upon logging in, the screens are simple in design and easy to navigate.

Navigation is done via a sliding category menu on the left part of the screen. User access may be tightly controlled and accounting professionals may be granted full payroll processing privileges or review and reporting capabilities only. Additionally, each user may be assigned to multiple companies to avoid multiple user ID and password combinations.

All federal, state and local filings are handled within the system. Similar to other Internet based offerings within the CompuPay lineup, each company will need to submit documents prior to using the service. CompuPay will generate all required income, deduction, accrual and benefit code information. Users with appropriate user rights may add employees into the system at any time and each employee may have any combination of these codes. Each employee may be grouped with other employees and attached to up to 5 separate cost centers.

PayrollOnline processes all payroll runs through a stepped process with each step containing a shortcut directing users to the next appropriate task. Time data may be entered manually or imported via CSV. Each employee paycheck may be separately edited at any time to allocate hours to appropriate cost centers or to adjust any time accrual information.

Any number of templates may be created and used to create consistency in the data entry for each payroll run. Templates may also be setup for special check processing situations, such as monthly/quarterly commissions or annual bonuses. Prior to finalizing payroll, users are presented the option of viewing all payroll data from gross to net.

Once finalized, payroll checks may be printed by the accounting professional or client or processed through direct deposit. Each employee may have up to 99 direct deposit accounts assigned to them. Manual check generation capabilities are also allowed.

PayrollOnline contains introductory human resource management functions. Currently, only basic demographic information may be tracked in the system. Review dates along with contact and spouse information is tracked and users are allowed to create custom fields.

These custom fields can house virtually any data tracking code and many users reserve these fields for EEOC compliance and reporting. All human resource management functions require subscription to the Premiere level of PayrollOnline.

Reporting & Monitoring: 4.5 Stars

PayrollOnline is a full-service payroll service offering and manages all payments and compliance reporting. All payments and compliance reports are submitted electronically as required and accepted by the respective tax agencies. Any payments and compliance reports not able to be submitted electronically, are able to be printed and filed via traditional means.

Upon processing payroll, all payroll reports are available for printing and viewing within an hour, based on payroll traffic currently being processed through the CompuPay systems. Over 40 standard reports are available with the system and each report may be filtered by date range and sorted by cost centers, such as department or location.

Custom reports may be achieved through the report writer, though this requires subscription to the Advanced or Premiere levels of PayrollOnline. Full custom reports may be requested and generated by the payroll team at CompuPay and may require additional fees dependent on requirements.

Regardless of subscription level, each report may be exported to PDF, Excel, HTML or text format for further editing, printing, emailing and archiving as necessary.

Integration/Import/Export: 4.25 Stars

PayrollOnline is offered as a standalone product and is not part of a suite of products. CompuPay does, however, have a partnership alliance with Sage. Most Sage ERP accounting solutions have bridge technology built-in that will automatically import general ledger and bank reconciliation data from PayrollOnline and other CompuPay payroll solutions.

Other accounting solutions, such as QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Enterprise and Microsoft Dynamics products may achieve similar integration, but will require manual importing and exporting of data.

The integration files are available from CompuPay and are preformatted templates that include all the correctly mapped fields associated with the respective accounting solution. This additional integration will require subscriptions to the Advanced or Premiere levels of PayrollOnline.

Currently, no timekeeping software is directly integrated but import can easily be completed via CSV file formats. Integrations with Sage HRMS allows for bidirectional synchronization of employee data.

Help/Support: 5 Stars

Help and support is a core value of CompuPay and the PayrollOnline offering is no exception to this. Upon signing up with the service, a team is assigned to each company and will serve as the main point of contact for any payroll related support issues. These team members will also assist users with the processing of the first few payrolls to ensure the system and all underlying income and deduction codes are setup properly.

Additional live support may be obtained through an online chat feature. Online webinars and one-on-one training are also provided along with a variety of reference materials.

Client Self-Service Features: 4.75 Stars

Each service level of the PayrollOnline lineup includes employee portals. Accounting professionals and clients can fully control what information is available for viewing by the employees and, in some instances, to what extent information may be modified.

Each employee is provided a preformatted pdf containing all information related to the login process. Employees may have access to recent paystubs and payroll activity as well as their annual W-2 form. Other options available include abilities to view time off accruals and fringe benefits currently enrolled.

An online W-4 is available and requires preapproval by a supervisor prior to processing payroll. The portals may additionally be branded to the accounting professional.

Summary & Pricing

PayrollOnline is among the top-tier of online payroll service providers. Intended for businesses with up to 1,000 employees, the web based service offers comprehensive capabilities. Quality training and support are among the core competencies offered by PayrollOnline and CompuPay team members are available to assist customers with all payroll processing needs.

Pricing for PayrollOnline is dependent on level of service, pay frequency and number of paychecks processed. The basic service level offering including all compliance filings, direct deposit and online employee access for 10 employees runs $71.25 per biweekly payroll.

2012 Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars