Zenefits

Zenefits is a free payroll software as a service offered to business in the United States. The user interface itself is quite well setup and easy to learn and begin using. I like that there is a payroll, employees, contractors and business intelligence components all in one centralized dashboard. Compared to the old school manual way of doing these items it's a huge way to create time, energy and cost savings. Zenefits saves on paper, scanner and printing and maintenance costs. It cuts down on human delays, error and miscommunication in a big way if the system you are using integrates well with your organization. This is a great way to systematically streamline your entire department and see outstanding advantages in terms of team efficiency and productivity as well as an improvement in your bottom line with the considerable savings. I like that you can hire and pay contractors through Zenefits. That's a cool thing to have for free considering you can integrate about a dozen different major bank accounts into your own so you can pay folks directly which is great. As a freelancer myself I depend on prompt payment as part of my livelihood and this is more efficient than Western Union, payment by check and anything other than cash to be honest. It's good you can get quotes right from your dashboard for applicant tracking services, payroll options as well as medical, vision and dental benefits. The ACA automation is helpful too ensuring you are in line with all of the latest Employer Shared Responsibility policies. You can process time off easily as well with a module dedicated to just this function. The ability to setup administrative, management as well as employee and contractor based roles and permission in your account makes it easy to delegate only what you need to and enable staff to focus only on their own details. The business intelligence reporting and analytics are not outstanding but they are certainly helpful by providing head counts, turnover, compensation, anniversaries, employee history and more available all from this module in your account.

Zenefits is only available in the US so this is a significant drawback obviously to most of the world. And for those who are able to use it there are certainly a lot of reasons to get on board including a lot of happy businesses currently using the platform. Though there isn't the most education as there could be upon entering your account. I recall Gusto having the most helpful interactive education which leads you through every step required so you can have everything setup and be prepared to get back to the work at hand very quickly. It is not overwhelmingly complicated in Zenefits but it not as assisted or guided as it could be. It's very hands on to get started compared to others which have a more streamlined, intuitive access point helpful in particular to those of us with small businesses and no or minimal prior experience doing payroll, benefits and accounting generally speaking.

You can never complain too much about something that is free and when it comes to something as critical as payroll, heath benefits and insurance for example there is little to no room for error. These kinds of errors have a huge negative impact on family day to day lives. So my first thought was is whether using a free service is the best idea in general. I realize this company gets paid by other means but that doesn't mean they have the best support. And support in this area is going to be critical if there is a single thing out of place with any individual in the company so I would recommend putting it to the test initially.