Hand picked by our HR Technology experts after product testing, user research, and much debate - enjoy!
Looking to get your company new payroll software? Payroll is a crucial part of every organization, especially for companies with over 250 employees. Not only does it help streamline and automate an essential HR service, but it can even help protect companies from confusing tax laws. We also go in-depth on payroll software features, benefits, ROI, pricing, and more.
It’s important to understand all the net positives that payroll software can provide so that you can make an informed decision. Is getting payroll software the right move for your organization? Or are you guys better off outsourcing payroll to a PEO?
To help you with those decisions, we’ve condensed months of research into this article about the best payroll software for large businesses. Though the vendors listed below are more geared towards US-based companies, we hope this guide saves you heaps of time! Also, before you dig in, it’s worth mentioning that some of the vendors listed below can even act as a PEO if that’s better for your situation.
We take research seriously. To make sure we’re offering our readers the very best solutions in a given software category, we are methodical, rigorous, and expansive in our research. We consult with HR professionals, vendors, and industry experts. We cut through the noise to bring you a carefully curated list of vendors, along with other essential information, to help you find the right software platform for your business.
Here’s how we chose who makes the cut:
Product: We believe in gaining a comprehensive understanding of a product before we recommend it, so we start by getting to know the software. Whenever possible, we meet with a senior executive (CEO or Head of Product) for a demo and Q&A. We also test the product ourselves to make sure it has a solid UI, intuitive workflows, and the features to make it a best-in-class offering.
User feedback: We go straight to the source and compile feedback on user experience. Real-world input supports our commitment to diligence in our software evaluation methods and the products we recommend. Keeping up with the everyday experience of HR pros also puts new vendors on our radar, and it keeps us close to our community so we can better connect the right products to the right people.
Financial metrics: We are certified finance nerds, so we use all the data we can get our hands on to make selections for our guides. We comb through data for concrete statistics like retention rates, growth, profitability, and scalability. We evaluate the bottom line of each product because we know making a software purchase can put your reputation on the line.
Best for a use case: Software is never a one-size-fits-all product. Sometimes the best solution is free or cheap. Other times it’s the one that is best for global companies or the one that’s sized right for early-stage startups. Keeping this in mind, we include solutions across the spectrum so our readers can find the best fit for their unique needs.
Here's more detail if you want to read more about how we research vendors. Our dedicated staff writers rely on hard data, impartial experts, and user feedback to ensure our reviews are helpful, truthful, and hopefully a pleasure to read!
We track thousands of HR Tech solutions. Here are the best payroll software for large enterprises as of 2023.
Why we love it
:
Deel is making waves in the payroll space, being one of the first companies to specialize in international payroll for remote teams.
Deel
Review:
Deel makes it easy for large companies to operate in a multitude of countries. Clients would be able to manage international payroll, benefits, taxes, and compliance in 150 different countries from the same dashboard.
Deel
Customers:
Deel
Pricing:
A cool thing about Deel is that you can sign up for free and play around with the tool, not being charged until you pay your first team member. Once you do, pricing for Deel will vary as follows:
A cool thing about Deel is that you can sign up for free and play around with the tool, not being charged until you pay your first team member. Once you do, pricing for Deel will vary as follows:
Best For
Companies, big or small, who wish to stay compliant when hiring people in multiple countries.
Why we love it
:
Papaya Global is one of the fastest-growing companies in this space. Their platform can automate payroll in hundreds of countries, manage all employee types, and onboard new hires.
PapayaGlobal
Review:
Papaya Global is one of the best options for large companies operating in multiple countries. Aside from being focused on people and payroll, their platform is one of the most complete solutions to have for international operations.
In addition to cross-border payments, their platform can be used for hiring, onboarding, and employee management. They even have a global equity management tool that helps with offering equity to employees as a part of their compensation, regardless of where they are in the world.
PapayaGlobal
Customers:
Toyota, GDIT, Microsoft, Wix, Teradata, Ncino
PapayaGlobal
Pricing:
Processing international payroll with Papaya Global is possible via the four following plans:
Papaya has 3 plans:
Best For
Global companies that want to be able to choose from a wide array of products from the same vendor as their organization grows and changes.
Why we love it
:
ADP is a widely-trusted payroll solution that also offers many other HR tools if you need them. Their expertise is a good fit at SMBs but also enterprises.
ADP
Review:
ADP is probably one of the largest names in the payroll space. They have been in the industry since payroll processing was done manually 70 years ago. Now, their product is able to cater to companies with the largest organizations in the world. Aside from PEOs and payroll management, ADP is also a complete HRIS.
ADP
Customers:
The Boston Globe, The Bancorp, Douglas Ellman Real Estate, Margaritaville
ADP
Pricing:
Sometimes ADP has special offers, like getting 3 months free when you sign up for their small business payroll processing plan. However, they don't share the prices for their payroll packages, so you'd have to request a quote to move forward.
Custom pricing is available upon request of a demo for each specific product.
Best For
ADP can work for companies with less than 50 employees, less than 1,000, or those with well over a thousand team members.
Why we love it
:
Remote is a robust and modern platform specialized in HR, payroll, and benefits for, as their name suggests, remote-first teams.
Remote
Review:
Remote is a globally-distributed HR hub where you can process payroll, perform salary simulations, onboard new hires, manage benefits, and take care of most of the administrative tasks that come with having a distributed team.
Remote is able to offer more flexibility and speed at competitive costs because they fully own the local legal entities in the countries they work with.
Remote
Customers:
Remote
Pricing:
Remote has four plans. “Contractors” lets you manage and pay global contract workers for free; you only pay for payment processing fees. Then, they have their “Global Employment” plan, which starts at $299 per employee per month. For the other two plans, “Payroll & Benefits” and “Global Employment Plus,” they offer customized pricing.
Remote has four plans. "Contractors" lets you manage and pay global contract workers for free; you only pay for payment processing fees. Then, they have their "Global Employment" plan, which starts at $299 per employee per month. For the other two plans, "Payroll & Benefits" and "Global Employment Plus", they offer customized pricing.
Best For
Companies, big or small, who wish to stay compliant when hiring people in multiple countries.
Why we love it
:
From paying your employees to managing them, developing them, and everything in between, UKG Pro is a robust HRMS suite that can cover all of your people management needs.
UKG
Review:
Many businesses choose UKG because it packs payroll on top of all the core HR and HCM features it offers. Their payroll module lets you run payroll in a flexible manner, trying to adapt to your organization’s needs at any given time. For instance, you can automate some of the manual processes. At the same time, however, they also combine their tech with years of expertise. The tool lets you access experts so you can always make sure to stay compliant and efficient. Notable among their payroll tools, but also the general product, is their mobile readiness. Through the app, your employees can access pay information anywhere. Those with the relevant permissions can also look at projections and keep an eye on trends like pay equity and how these evolve over time.
UKG
Customers:
Through the years, UKG has been trusted by organizations like Tesla, Marriott, Yamaha, Aramark, Puma, Sony Music, Samsung, Mammoth, Temple University, MGM Grand, The YMCA, The Salvation Army, and Feeding America.
Through the years, UKG has been trusted by organizations like Tesla, Marriott, Yamaha, Aramark, Puma, Sony Music, Samsung, Mammoth, Temple University, MGM Grand, The YMCA, The Salvation Army, and Feeding America.
UKG
Pricing:
Pricing for UKG Pro is not available on their website. However, it is usually on a per-employee-per-month basis, either billed annually or monthly. You’d need to contact a sales representative for an accurate quote. However, our research has shown that licenses tend to start at $600.00 per year for every 5 users.
Pricing for UKG Pro is not available on their website. However, it is usually on a per-employee-per-month basis, either billed annually or monthly. You’d need to contact a sales representative for an accurate quote. However, our research has shown that licenses tend to start at $600.00 per year for every 5 users.
Best For
UKG Pro is mainly marketed toward companies with more than 100 employees. That being said, their software is used in all kinds of industries. Smaller teams looking for an HCM-based approach to workforce management can also do a lot with the software.
Why we love it
:
Paycom offers online payroll services and HR software solutions for both big and small businesses to manage the entire employment life cycle.
Paycom
Review:
Paycom makes it their priority that your payroll is processed quickly and efficiently so that their clients can focus their efforts on other areas such as attracting, hiring, engaging, and retaining awesome talent. Aside from payroll, their platform also offers other features for expense management, tax management, garnishment administration, and reporting.
Paycom
Customers:
Paycom
Pricing:
The pricing of Paycom’s plans isn’t disclosed upfront. Contact their sales team to get a custom quote.
The pricing of Paycom's plans isn't disclosed upfront. Contact their sales team to get a custom quote.
Best For
Paycom serves companies of all sizes across different verticals.
Why we love it
:
Paylocity is one of the top names in payroll for the US market. They're fit for many company sizes and industries. People love them for their great support and friendly approach.
Paylocity
Review:
Paylocity is among the largest payroll providers in the United States. Their progress is evident since they allocate almost a third of their company to research and development to build a great product. If you’re looking for a well-established company, Paylocity is an excellent option.
Paylocity
Customers:
Paylocity
Pricing:
The exact pricing for Paylocity's offering is not publicly-disclosed.
The exact pricing for Paylocity's offering is not publicly-disclosed.
Best For
Paylocity is used by small, medium, and large businesses in widely-varying industries, but mostly in the United States.
Why we love it
:
This feature lives in the midst of all employee information, and this proximity enables objective discernment and enforcement of who can spend what, where, and when. The tool enables the policy, and the policy enables the tool.
Rippling
Review:
Rippling is in a class by itself when compared to other expense tracking software. The integration of the feature into Rippling’s platform means it not only performs what you’d expect (standard features like the ability to parse a paper receipt image captured with a phone), it can also contextualize spending activity within the larger framework of employee data.
Rippling
Customers:
Proxy, Dwell, Superhuman, Expensify, Checkr
Rippling
Pricing:
Rippling's Core HR platform starts at $8 per employee per month. Contact Rippling regarding a custom Spend Management quote.
Rippling's Core HR platform starts at $8 per employee per month. Contact Rippling regarding a custom Spend Management quote.
Best For
This software is best for companies of medium to large size, globally or nationally distributed with multiple levels of organization.
There are more than a few good reasons for large companies to acquire payroll software. Having a large number of employees means tasks revolving around human capital management can take an exorbitant amount of time and resources. Here are some of the common use cases and benefits of having payroll software:
While payroll software can indeed be quite the asset, HR management has to consider some important factors when choosing a payroll service provider for their organization. Choosing payroll software for a large enterprise is a different challenge compared to choosing payroll software for different sized businesses. Here are pitfalls that we’ve identified to help you avoid when choosing payroll software:
It can be quite tricky to measure the ROI of payroll software, especially for larger companies. For small businesses, outsourcing payroll is a simpler decision as pricing for companies of this size is usually cheaper than having a dedicated payroll administrator with an average salary of $50,000 a year. However, since prices increase as the size of the company increases, larger companies might find it more cost-effective to keep payroll in-house instead of getting a full-service payroll provider.
Because of this, some vendors specifically offer flexible pricing plans that allow their clients to do most of their payroll in-house throughout the year, except when it comes to reviewing and filing tax forms.
Since payroll software is more expensive for larger companies, these companies would have to accurately determine which payroll system is cost-effective for them. This entails accurately determining how productive their current payroll system is, as well as considering their system’s accuracy. How much time does it take to process payroll? How quickly can their payroll system correct errors? How much time does it take to produce payroll reports? What are the business needs? These are some questions that can help tip the scale when deciding if a company could benefit from payroll software.
Pricing for payroll software varies greatly from one vendor to another. Usually offered as a SaaS product, a typical pricing structure for basic payroll without any add-ons would revolve around a base fee and then additional fees per user per month. However, many of these vendors offer customized plans where organizations can structure their plans so that they only pay for what they actually need. Understandably, plans with additional features will cost more.
You can find a sample pricing chart below for a few company sizes. The estimated cost already includes the base fee that organizations would have to pay upfront. You’d still need to contact and consult with each vendor to get an accurate quotation since there are many factors that go into payroll software pricing.
Take note that the price chart above is a highly rough estimate. Some vendors might only charge depending on the number of employees, while some would add a monthly base rate. Remember that there are times where you could still negotiate the prices with the vendor, especially when it comes to initial setup fees.
Handling larger companies will require software with core features that can significantly reduce workload and ultimately benefit the company. Knowing the features available in these software is key when assessing a company’s payroll needs.
Most vendors offer feature-rich payroll software with highly intuitive, user-friendly interfaces that elevate user experience. It is key that business owners and HR teams are familiar with key payroll features to allow them to choose the best one for their organization.
Virtually all vendors can offer demos to showcase their payroll software. During demos, it is important to know which questions to ask to effectively assess their offerings. Here are some questions we think you should ask on demos:
Implementation can look quite different from one vendor to another, but the primary factor involved in how long implementation will take is how big the client is. Understandably, implementation of new payroll software for a large enterprise can take up to a couple of weeks.
Fortunately, there are ways companies can help expedite the process. For example, implementation can take place much quicker when the client provides the relevant employee information as soon as possible. This relevant employee data includes employee names, departments, positions, salary information, and so on.
Payroll software is a technology designed to manage, streamline, and automate payments and invoicing to employees, as well as help maintain tax compliance and regulations. Many of these payroll software vendors also include other services such as benefits administration.
No. Traditionally, companies have done payroll manually. However, processing payroll without the aid of a payroll software solution requires a significant amount of time and labor. Small business owners might typically assign payroll tasks to Human Resources, while larger companies can acquire dedicated payroll administrators to process payroll.
Payroll software can potentially allow employers to save time and resources that would have been dedicated to a task that software can do better and quicker. However, it’s important to assess which payroll system would actually yield a positive ROI for a company of your size.
If there’s anything we can advise, it’s that you should check out 2-3 demos to get started. Take notes of what you liked and things that you may have found lacking. From there, you can begin to check out other demos and eventually evaluate which payroll software offers the most benefits to your organization.
If you’re specifically looking for global payroll options, check out our list of the best global payroll software.
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