Patriot Payroll vs. PeopleGuru™

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

Incentivized

I'd say PeopleGuru is well suited for most businesses -- a more significant (200+ employees) company may want to use something with a sleeker design. This provider is willing to work with cannabis businesses, which is unusual for payroll providers now.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• AdHoc Reports
• Applicant Tracking System(ATS)
• Flexibility in Performance Reviews
• Ability to manage company set-up and reporting
• Ability to customize standard company forms in PG for usage

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Recruiting module is very clunky and not streamlined. I've worked with recruiting platforms that are more efficient.
• Job changes are a multi-step process that feels like it could be one screen asking all the necessary info regarding pay rate, date, labor, etc. whereas now you have to go through multiple tabs and screens to change someone's position.
• Labor mapping seems to be a custom request every time when the pay rate is different for two different jobs. Feels like there is a lot of back-end work that needs to be accomplished before it pulls correctly into labor.
• Would like to see an app with supervisor/time manager functions. At least to approve punch correction or time-off requests.
• Advanced scheduling available to certain job roles instead of all or nothing.

Incentivized

It works well because it is cheap for us.

Incentivized

The software is cost-effective and exceeds our needs compared to the previous software.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Some processes are cumbersome and the help guide does not offer all solutions.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

The customer service is great for the most part. There are a few issues with tax filings but overall I am pleased with the customer service provided by PeopleGuru.

Incentivized

The trainer was difficult to understand.

Incentivized

The implementation process was cumbersome and stressful. It took an extremely long time to complete this process. We had to learn a lot on the fly because this was the first implementation for all of us. The process would have been a lot easier if there was a third party that could assist with a lot of the work required to transfer and verify data.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

PeopleGuru is better than other cannabis-friendly payroll systems, like CheckWriters or MyPaperlessOffice (companies so small they were not available in your dropdown). It is not as good as bigger companies that are not cannabis-friendly, like ADP or Paylocity. ADP is super expensive but given the choice I would be with Paylocity over PeopleGuru.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Cost is reasonable
• User experience has gotten worse
• Report writing had become much easier & less limited with variables that we can use

Incentivized