FunctionFox vs. Patriot Payroll

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
FunctionFox
Score 8.0 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
FunctionFox provides TimeFox which is a timesheet and project management solution for small creative companies. The vendor says TimeFox is currently used by over 100,000 creative professionals in Canada, the US, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
$5
per user
Patriot Payroll
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
Patriot Software headquartered in Canton, Ohio offers Patriot PAY, their benefits administration and payroll software.
$174
Pricing
FunctionFoxPatriot Payroll
Editions & Modules
FunctionFox Classic
$5
per user
FunctionFox Premier
$10
per user
FunctionFox In-House
$20
per user
Basic Payroll
$17/mo + $4 per employee/contractor
Accounting Basic
$20/mo (unlimited use)
Accounting Premium
$30/mo (unlimited use)
Full Service Payroll
$37/mo + $4 per employee/contractor
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FunctionFoxPatriot Payroll
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsNo hidden fees. All customer support, and regular upgrades are included free of charge.Patriot Software has two payroll options to choose from: Basic Payroll, and Full Service payroll software. Both start with a simple three-step payroll process. With the Full Service Payroll, Patriot will collect, deposit, and file federal, state, and local payroll taxes on the customer's behalf; end-of-the-year payroll tax filing is included at no extra charge. Print W2s on 8 x 1/2 x 11 plain white office paper to hand to employees, or post to the free employee portal. Also, Patriot Software offers free direct deposit.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FunctionFoxPatriot Payroll
Features
FunctionFoxPatriot Payroll
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
FunctionFox
-
Ratings
Patriot Payroll
8.3
Ratings
1% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FunctionFoxPatriot Payroll
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
TimeClock Plus
TimeClock Plus
Score 9.5 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Zoho People
Zoho People
Score 8.4 out of 10
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FunctionFoxPatriot Payroll
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
3.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
4.0
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FunctionFoxPatriot Payroll
Likelihood to Recommend
FunctionFox seems particularly well suited for tracking time where there is one billing rate for each individual rather than the scenario where one person is billed out to clients at different rates. It would seem to be most appropriate for smaller organizations (< 10 people) since those with more people would certainly need the ability to have it integrate with QuickBooks. For the price though, it's great for those smaller companies. As we've grown, we've found other applications that are more expensive and more highly adapted to Marketing Agencies in particular. Plus, we now track our expenses directly in QuickBooks vs. using that FunctionFox feature (since the two don't integrate, there's no reason to track them in both places).
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Patriot is well suited for an office with a small staff without complicated tax issues to manage. My office had 2 employees: one full-time and one part-time. There were no 1099's issued, and no special tax exemptions or other special tax situations for employees. The owner was a sole proprietor, so she was not paid as an employee through Patriot. It was easy to quickly run simple payroll tasks on a bi-weekly basis in my situation. However, I believe a more complex situation with more employees would still be suitable for this software if there was an employee dedicated to performing payroll and human resources tasks. Information must be manually entered each payroll period and submitted before 8pm to process at the scheduled pay date, so if there was not a dedicated employee for the task, it would be easy to end up paying employees a business-day late. I know that Patriot offers add-on services for human resource tasks, such as time sheets and tools to manage sick days, benefits, and record employee attendance. I did not require these extra services, but I like that Patriot offers services a la carte so that there is no need to pay for tools you do not need
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Pros
  • FunctionFox allows 451 Marketing to pull and customize many different reports, which is important to us both internally and externally.
  • FunctionFox allows 451 Marketing to track time either by exact time, using the timer or by entering time in blocks. That is helpful to us because we have 6 different departments and each department likes to track differently.
  • FunctionFox allows administrators to assign different levels of usage per user.
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  • Patriot's software is very easy to use for running payroll. It takes about 30 seconds to do.
  • The payroll reports are abundant, easy to find and print, and make my accounting very easy.
  • Having a full service payroll provider as easy to use as Patriot leaves me with more availability to focus on treating patients and running other aspects of my business.
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Cons
  • Segmenting. It is so difficult to always select which activity/team you are on, which is a big time suck.
  • It shouldn't take you a significant amount of time to log time, but it does.
  • There is still a lot of improvements that can be made on the reporting side and the overall UI. That could make this a more valuable, tool.
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  • The third party direct deposit processor Patriot previously used was not particularly easy to work with...but Patriot just brought all direct deposit processing in house.
  • Clergy housing allowance has to be manually entered each payday. They tell me they're close to adding the capability of making it (and other similar pay types) as a recurring item.
  • The setup process is geared toward novice users who need to be hand-held through the process. That's great for those who need it but a more streamlined, no-frills process payroll pros would be welcome.
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Likelihood to Renew
All of my employees are used to it and introducing a new software to them requires them to get trained again increasing the costs. TimeFox is an easy to use and understand software. Another advantage of TimeFox is that is an online software and I can access it whenever I want to.
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It works well because it is cheap for us.
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Usability
It's a good tool for tracking hours and overall budget. It does not give you insight into why there are those hours, or what part of the project has over burned. The tool is also tough to export reports and find the correct information throughout. Not only this, but I also have a hard time changing project details - there's no real easy way to and there's a larger room for error
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I think it is great once things are setup as for general user looking to look for simple things like a copy of a paystub or a current pay rate for an employee. However, to find specialized things like a state withholding number or payroll integration settings those do require a bit more digging to find or possibly a call to customer service for help.
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Support Rating
I haven't used FunctionFox for a lot of support requests. On the times that i've been having issues I've had the issue resolved within a day, most questions I have had i've been able to source answers online or from a colleague. From what I have experienced the support team seems great.
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Generally speaking it is pretty good that when I need to call somebody up for a payroll question I can generally within five minutes get somebody on the phone and they can help me resolve the problem or specify where specifically I need to go or contact to find my answers. However, that being said, for my specific situation as a partner my assigned contact has not always been very responsive.
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Implementation Rating
Unsure on implementation of FunctionFox - was before my time at the company. Everyone at the company had a good understanding of the product and how to use it by the time I joined. My understanding is we implemented ourselves with a few training sessions for the creative team and adding hours as well as training for the account team to add projects
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
FunctionFox is better than things like teamwork or project management tools as it is truly made for time tracking. This decision came from our finance team as it was meant to be able to appropriately allocate how much time certain things were "costing" based on total team costs across the organization.
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Cost is the major factor here, but the ease of use (and design of the interface) is a big advantage for Patriot PAY. Items are (ironically) more "intuitive" to find and manage in Patriot PAY than Intuit.

Patriot PAY is closer to ADP/Gusto/Paychex in how it looks and feels and operates in a full-service capacity, but it is much more affordable.
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Return on Investment
  • FunctionFox pays for itself just about every month in terms of how much more I am able to bill than before I started using the software, and how much less time I need to spend on non-billable admin tasks. I used to create invoices based mostly on what sounded fair, rather than on accurate time & cost records. I'm sure my clients loved it, but it wasn't healthy for my business. Now I base invoices on actual time and expense records, and end up with more money in my pocket.
  • It's not tangible, but FunctionFox has improved my ability to communicate with clients, and with freelance partners when I'm involved in a collaborative project. I can anticipate and discuss potential budget or delivery deadline overruns before they occur. The goodwill this builds has had a tremendously positive impact on client and partnership relations.
  • I fell into freelancing without a lot of experience running a business. FunctionFox has been a great teacher, helping me think through many issues that I wouldn't have even recognized as important. It is simple to use, with a UI that is neither intimidating nor overwhelming, and it has been super flexible in terms of molding it to suit the way I work.
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  • Patriot allows the entire team to be on the same page when it comes to a campaign or donor. All of the information is in one place to see how much a donor gave or communication with that donor by a specific team member.
  • It provides comparative historic data and donor analysis. The organization of donations by appeal allows teams to know which campaigns were successful in previous years.
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ScreenShots

FunctionFox Screenshots

Screenshot of Easily navigate throughout FunctionFox from the customizable Home dashboard.Screenshot of CEO Desktop enables users to visualize budgets and deadlines for specific projects.Screenshot of The Project Status page provides the users with  an overview of the projects and the different stages they are at. With the filters users can drill down to see specific clients or projects.Screenshot of The Calendar provides a great weekly or monthly view of project start and due dates, along with deliverables, milestones, and meetings.

Patriot Payroll Screenshots

Screenshot of the 3-step process to carry out payrollScreenshot of the Payroll interface, which can be used run payroll on any device with internet or data connection. There is no need to download and maintain a separate payroll app.Screenshot of a payroll report, to sort by work location, employee, and date range.