Paylocity vs. PDS Vista

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Paylocity
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Paylocity provides 24/7 access to your online payroll and human resource data management. Paylocity offers highly customizable payroll functionality, as well as HR, benefits administration, and time and talent management programs.N/A
PDS Vista
Score 1.3 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Vista® is a human resource, benefits, payroll, recruiting, and self-service software. Functional elements include recruitment, staffing, position and training management, compliance, and performance and compensation.N/A
Pricing
PaylocityPDS Vista
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PaylocityPDS Vista
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsLicense pricing is based on the number of full and part-time active employees within bands (e.g. 751-1,000). SaaS pricing is based on PEPM.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PaylocityPDS Vista
Features
PaylocityPDS Vista
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.9
Ratings
1% above category average
PDS Vista
1.9
Ratings
122% below category average
Employee demographic data8.50 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Employment history8.20 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Job profiles and administration8.00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.60 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Organizational charting7.20 Ratings3.00 Ratings
Organization and location management7.90 Ratings3.00 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.70 Ratings3.00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.1
Ratings
2% above category average
PDS Vista
3.2
Ratings
85% below category average
Pay calculation8.60 Ratings3.00 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors7.40 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment8.50 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.60 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.90 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.90 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.5
Ratings
6% below category average
PDS Vista
1.0
Ratings
156% below category average
Approval workflow7.40 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Balance details7.40 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment7.70 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.5
Ratings
5% above category average
PDS Vista
2.0
Ratings
121% below category average
View and generate pay and benefit information8.60 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Update personal information8.80 Ratings1.00 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.10 Ratings3.00 Ratings
Employee recognition8.30 Ratings1.00 Ratings
View job history8.50 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.1
Ratings
13% below category average
PDS Vista
7.3
Ratings
10% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets7.10 Ratings7.30 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.4
Ratings
1% below category average
PDS Vista
2.0
Ratings
116% below category average
Report builder7.50 Ratings2.00 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.50 Ratings2.00 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data7.30 Ratings2.00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.3
Ratings
5% above category average
PDS Vista
1.0
Ratings
155% below category average
New hire portal8.50 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools8.20 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.7
Ratings
3% below category average
PDS Vista
2.8
Ratings
96% below category average
Corporate goal setting7.80 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.70 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance tracking7.80 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.5
Ratings
4% below category average
PDS Vista
1.0
Ratings
155% below category average
Performance plans7.40 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.50 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Review status tracking7.40 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Review reminders7.70 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.60 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.2
Ratings
8% below category average
PDS Vista
2.3
Ratings
109% below category average
Create succession plans/pools6.60 Ratings3.60 Ratings
Candidate ranking7.10 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Candidate search7.90 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Candidate development7.40 Ratings3.60 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.0
Ratings
3% above category average
PDS Vista
1.4
Ratings
139% below category average
Job Requisition Management8.00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Company Website Posting8.20 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Publish to Social Media7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.60 Ratings1.90 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.20 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts7.90 Ratings2.00 Ratings
User Ratings
PaylocityPDS Vista
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
2.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.8
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.6
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.9
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.7
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.1
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PaylocityPDS Vista
Likelihood to Recommend
Paylocity appears to be well-suited for startups to large businesses. As with any product, finding the right price point for the services provided is the challenge. Always remember that one small company that would really appreciate the "benefits essentials" or some other part of the platform but can't afford them right now, may be the ones to get you that large company through word of mouth...IF they had been able to experience that part of the product and refer it to others.
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You have the option of taking the system in house or being a hosted client. Figure out what resources your IT department has to spare, if you will have a dedicated administrator who will do all the upgrades and enhancements or if you will be job sharing those responsibilities. Like all software, Vista HRMS has multiple upgrades a year. You will need someone or a team of a few individuals to test these upgrades out and be able to take on a role of administrator, technology consultant or front end user and make sure these upgrades are working from all angles. Vista HRMS really is a good product for keeping all HR and Payroll related records in one system, I just stress the fact that you have to have someone on hand who wants to own the product and be willing to learn as much as possible. The more you put into this product, the more you will get out of it
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Pros
  • Obviously, time and labor and payroll. It's time and labor time sheets are so easy, so easy for employees. We have been for many years a company that's allowed our employees to self-report that was easy to set up. California is a tough company or tough state to work in, so there's been a lot of restrictions and Paylocity has really helped us establish the rules and regulations and make sure we're compliant. We've recently moved to time clocks, so something that we had to do and that was a really easy transition to do and it's going very well. And also payroll. Payroll is so easy to run, so it's two good systems that I think have been really great.
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  • Vista HRMS is very flexible, it does everything we need for HR, benefits and payroll. It’s user-friendly and intuitive to use, when we roll out new self-service items our employees have no problems and require minimal training or documentation.
  • PDS has excellent customer service and support. We get answers to the majority of our questions and problems quickly, within the day that we call. More complex issues that may require PDS’ technical support are usually addressed within a few days. We were upgrading our production servers to Windows 2012 over a weekend and a key person in our organization was on leave. When we checked with PDS to see what cost would be involved if we needed their help, they said it was included in our regular maintenance, no extra cost.
  • The PDS User’s Conference is an excellent learning opportunity for training on everything Vista does, including using Crystal Reports for custom reporting. You also get to meet and talk to the executive and development staff and have direct input into the future product development.
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Cons
  • We have had lots of year end issues specifically with Partners W2's.
  • We had an accrual issue that was causing 2 additional vacation/sick accruals per year.
  • When updating accruals- the paperwork to do so is confusing at times. I feel there is little support to assist you in filling the paperwork correctly to reflect what you need the accrual to actually do.
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  • Job History - Too many areas that dates populate.
  • ATS - There is a lack of flexibility for applicants when applying for multiple jobs.
  • Searching - The functionality is a little limited, would be nice to type in any information on a person and search.
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Likelihood to Renew
We most likely will because we are learning how to use it better all the time. It does integrate with our Advanced Benefits. But the customer service is not responsive when needing help. It almost always requires several contacts to get anywhere, and the contacts can be several days apart. Once you actually get to TALK to someone, things are usually resolved fairly quickly, but their email system is not efficient. I get half answers and they close the ticket! But once I can get to someone, it is almost always great service. Very hard to get someone though.
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It's working well for us. Yes, we do have some challenges, but we're working through them. With all the time and money put in to this, why would we switch. Especially since we really haven't used this product to it's full potential, but that's many due to time challenges.
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Usability
Staff hasn't had that many glitches and they don't come with as many problems as we had with, we had a DP before. And there will always be issues sometimes with time clocks, time, time we clocking in and stuff. We've really seen downsides with that. That staff is not complaining as much.
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In my line of work, PDS Vista doesn't fit. I recruit and manager talent pipelines, as well as all onboarding aspects of 11 companies. I spend more hours getting data configured and searching for information within this software than I spend with my candidates. Theres an abundance duplication, and there isn't a single stream of information shared across screens. I have to input the SAME details into several screens for them to match up. Nothing is intuitive, and its certainly not end user friendly
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Reliability and Availability
Over the last 3 years, we've only had one major service issue that rendered Airbase unusable for us for about 24 hours. That said, they navigated the SVB bank crisis very well and made sure funds were available during that time.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
We had some minor hiccups throughout the year but they have all been fixable. Paylocity integrates well with our 401k provider, Principal, and our benefits, OneDigital. It makes it simple to house everything and have it all connected. It doesn't slow anything down to have Principal integrated. It makes it more efficient
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I really appreciate that we are assigned a support manager. That person is very familiar with our set up, our needs and our history. However, I've spoken to others on the support team and have had very positive interactions and get the help needed.
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PDS has excellent customer service and support. We get answers to the
majority of our questions and problems quickly, within the day that we
call. More complex issues that may require PDS’ technical support are
usually addressed within a few days
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In-Person Training
I didn't have in-person training, but I'm sure it was just as great as any other training/assistance Paylocity provides. Paylocity customer service is always available. You never have to be on hold and their answers are always accurate and timely. Documents in the help section are helpful as well. My in-person training was conducted y one of our employees who was involved in the initial set-up and training of all employees. She was excellent.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
The training was live online, but was with a group of other companies. We did not receive any personalized training with our team. Whenever we would ask for training, we would be sent a peak article link or a video. It felt like the reps we dealt with didn't know the answer to the questions.
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The resources and online tools that PDS provide are extremely thorough and helpful in our training and learning.
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Implementation Rating
We were handed off to multiple implementation people, some quit, one went on leave, one left suddenly, one was transfered to a diff dept...all causing a significant amount of disruption for our team. Many had conflicting info on how to properly set things up...hence a complete mess was left for us to figure out
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Ask lots of questions, ensure you fully understand the functionality (particularly history records) and train, train, train the users for correct and complete utilization of the system.
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Alternatives Considered
I would say that Paylocity is a significant upgrade from my experience with Paycor. I would say that it's a similar product to Paycom. The one thing I liked, Paycom did pay the PTOA little bit differently. It was in real time, but Paycom did not value us as a customer and they lost us due the pricing. And then they've tried to come back and they've tried to match. They have tried to match Paylocity pricing, but we chose not to go back because we're happy with Paylocity and I'm not going to make a huge move like that if I'm happy where I am.
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We had multiple vendors come and demo their products/systems for us. Each one had great features but at the end of the day, based on what the Vista HRMS system had to offer and how we were able to personalize the system to meet our needs we felt the choice was simple and we havent looked back since.
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Scalability
We have gone from a medium sized company to a larger company with no issues whatsoever with Paylocity being able to keep up or do what we need it to do for the size of our needs. In fact, it does more than we even use at this juncture
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • All of the above, the data is readily available so that we can actually see what our turnover ratio is or the data that we need to make decisions. So I think overall it made our process a bit more seamless. There are training that's readily available that we can deploy to our employees as opposed to creating it and it's customizable so we can add things to it that is specific to our organization and just build on to what's already there.
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  • Vista HRMS offers a very reasonably priced solution that performs the functions we need for our business.
  • With a very small IT staff we successfully implemented all modules of Vista HRMS in approx. 6 months from start of implementation. Compared to other projects the cost to implement this system was very cost effective.
  • We have been able to maintain our internal benefits, payroll & HR functions in-house with no additional staff at a significantly reduced annual maintenance cost.
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ScreenShots

Paylocity Screenshots

Screenshot of a view of real-time employee data and performance metrics used to uncover and analyze trends. This creates an impactful understanding of the business, increase retention, understand labor costs, and plan for changes.Screenshot of where to automate manual processes with Paylocity's self-serve automation engine, Workflows. Users can implement routines for time-consuming manual tasks.Screenshot of where to manage and comply with employment law. Paylocity's HR Compliance solution helps users to stay on track and view important employee compliance items, from Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), healthcare, and compensation.Screenshot of how Paylocity Recruiting can automate hiring processes. amplify outreach, showcase a company's culture, and build stronger candidate connections to swiftly fill positions.Screenshot of recognition and rewards in Paylocity.

PDS Vista Screenshots

Screenshot of employee data, which is the heart of a corporate knowledge base. Within Vista, an organized database of employees, applicants, jobs, and positions can be created and maintained. The product’s flexibility allows users to structure corporate data as simply or as complicated as business needs require.Screenshot of Vista Payroll, which is designed to strike the perfect balance between power and simplicity. It is designed to process large volumes of data within tight time constraints, whether U.S., Canadian, or Caribbean.

Vista Payroll is focused on its main tasks of calculating pay, creating paychecks, producing payroll registers, and federal, state, local, and provincial tax reports.Screenshot of the included Vista Benefits features, which can include unlimited plans and coverage levels, automated benefits eligibility, auto-housekeeping of valuations and premiums.Screenshot of Vista Recruiting, which presents critical applicant information in an efficient manner for both human resources professionals and hiring managers, alike.

Vista Recruiting gives HR departments command over the entire hiring process for each department in every location while more easily tracking and controlling costs, improving applicant management, strengthening relationships with applicants, and reducing paperwork for the HR team.