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Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

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Re: Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

#51

Post by jaz »

kalvin wrote: post #43

PSA: Go with Gusto (formerly Zenpayroll) instead for payroll. We signed up for both Zenefits and Zenpayroll several months ago. Zenefits was a nightmare. Zenpayroll has been an absolute delight. They obviously don't offer identical functionality, but they're getting more similar now so this is a comparison of where they overlap. Customer support: Both Zenefits and Zenpayroll are very responsive, but Zenefits provides…

If you don't mind sharing, which providers did you end up using for health insurance and 401(k)?

Re: Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

#52

Post by [deleted] »

kalvin wrote: post #43

PSA: Go with Gusto (formerly Zenpayroll) instead for payroll. We signed up for both Zenefits and Zenpayroll several months ago. Zenefits was a nightmare. Zenpayroll has been an absolute delight. They obviously don't offer identical functionality, but they're getting more similar now so this is a comparison of where they overlap. Customer support: Both Zenefits and Zenpayroll are very responsive, but Zenefits provides…

[deleted]

Re: Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

#53

Post by TeMPOraL »

tvladeck wrote: post #46
pbreit wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see what you mean but don't think it's that bad. The actual cost is $4/employee/month. It's not like using it for less than a year is a common scenario.

But using it for non-whole multiples of a year probably is. Also, it both obfuscates the price and creates the impression that you can trial the product without being locked in. If it didn't confuse people (even if only unconsciously), it wouldn't be such a widespread practice.

> If it didn't confuse people (even if only unconsciously), it wouldn't be such a widespread practice.

And this is the key observation about those sales practices. Most of them work, because you're being dishonest. You only call it "growth hacking".

Re: Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

#54

Post by ar7hur »

kalvin wrote: post #43

PSA: Go with Gusto (formerly Zenpayroll) instead for payroll. We signed up for both Zenefits and Zenpayroll several months ago. Zenefits was a nightmare. Zenpayroll has been an absolute delight. They obviously don't offer identical functionality, but they're getting more similar now so this is a comparison of where they overlap. Customer support: Both Zenefits and Zenpayroll are very responsive, but Zenefits provides…

+1 we had the exact same bad experience with Zenefits.

It looked easy and nice at the beginning, but quickly became a nightmare when they did mistakes for half of our employees. Once mistakes were done, it became harder and harder to contact their customer service. The rep was nice but completely ignorant.

It's sad to see that Gusto/Zenpayroll, who provide a very high quality service, doesn't grow as fast as Zenefits.

Re: Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

#55

Post by gatsby »

kalvin wrote: post #43

PSA: Go with Gusto (formerly Zenpayroll) instead for payroll. We signed up for both Zenefits and Zenpayroll several months ago. Zenefits was a nightmare. Zenpayroll has been an absolute delight. They obviously don't offer identical functionality, but they're getting more similar now so this is a comparison of where they overlap. Customer support: Both Zenefits and Zenpayroll are very responsive, but Zenefits provides…

We had an identical experience.

I just counted and I have two threads with Zenefits - one with sales and one with acct mgmt. The first thread with sales has 38 emails, and the account management thread has 16 emails. All of this to get set up as a new, tiny little company (4 employees at the time).

The craziest thing was that I didn't need to be "sold." I had used Zenefits previously, and filled out the form on their site to create an account, and got kicked into an incredibly long and painful manual onboarding process that took over five weeks, multiple calls, and 50+ emails.

Gusto got us set up in 20 min. with one automated workflow.

I understand that enrolling in healthcare is a more complex process than payroll, but it felt like I was working with a very traditional insurance broker.

Running a startup myself, I'm usually really empathetic toward startups with growth pains, but there were many things about the process where Gusto far exceeded expectations and Zenefits really underwhelmed me.

Re: Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

#56

Post by abuehrle »

kalvin wrote: post #43

PSA: Go with Gusto (formerly Zenpayroll) instead for payroll. We signed up for both Zenefits and Zenpayroll several months ago. Zenefits was a nightmare. Zenpayroll has been an absolute delight. They obviously don't offer identical functionality, but they're getting more similar now so this is a comparison of where they overlap. Customer support: Both Zenefits and Zenpayroll are very responsive, but Zenefits provides…

Agreed. We're extremely happy with Gusto.

We tried Zenefits first and had a similar experience to yours. It turned out they couldn't help us get health insurance based on the number and locations of our employees. We went over the details in the first call (and subsequent emails), but it was probably 2 weeks and a handful of communications more before they said they couldn't do it.

Their payroll sync (we used Paychex at the time) seemed pretty buggy and confusing too. Support was not helpful.

Gusto's product and support have been amazing. Their phone support team has helped with some hairy issues for us.

(I have no other connection to either company).

Re: Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

#57

Post by BRValentine »

kalvin wrote: post #43

PSA: Go with Gusto (formerly Zenpayroll) instead for payroll. We signed up for both Zenefits and Zenpayroll several months ago. Zenefits was a nightmare. Zenpayroll has been an absolute delight. They obviously don't offer identical functionality, but they're getting more similar now so this is a comparison of where they overlap. Customer support: Both Zenefits and Zenpayroll are very responsive, but Zenefits provides…

+1 We left Zenefits about 18 months ago after a series of colossal screwups on their part. I'm both amazed and not surprised that so many other companies continue to have similar difficulties with them.

We spent waaaay too much time dealing with their support team, constantly being shuffled around to different people. At one point we discovered they had left my co-founder's wife off of his policy for 3 months (later acknowledging this was their fault). They're an insurance broker, and they couldn't even sell insurance!

FWIW at the time we were also using Zenpayroll, and had a good experience with them.

We switched over to TriNet for everything mid-2014, which for us was a great choice. We have people in NY and CA, and once we hit 5 employees it was a no-brainer even with the monthly fee per employee. The health plans are much, much cheaper for a similar offering, and our support experience has been generally pretty good after a somewhat rough onboarding. Also all of the onboarding fees with TriNet seem to be pretty negotiable. But overall the most important thing is that we're saving money and spending very little time or energy worrying about HR matters.

Re: Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

#58

Post by kalvin »

jaz wrote: post #51
kalvin wrote: post #43

PSA: Go with Gusto (formerly Zenpayroll) instead for payroll. We signed up for both Zenefits and Zenpayroll several months ago. Zenefits was a nightmare. Zenpayroll has been an absolute delight. They obviously don't offer identical functionality, but they're getting more similar now so this is a comparison of where they overlap. Customer support: Both Zenefits and Zenpayroll are very responsive, but Zenefits provides…

If you don't mind sharing, which providers did you end up using for health insurance and 401(k)?

We went with a broker based in DC, Joshua Lavine, for health insurance, since that's where we [eventually learned that] we needed to base our plans from. Great experience (well, the DC small business health exchange is a separate sad story.) Health insurance is so complicated and state-specific you really want someone knowledgable.

We went with Captain401 (a YC startup) because we needed a fast turnaround and they had amazing service. Too early to render judgement otherwise. OctaveWealth is another seemingly competent YC 401k startup. If you're not in a rush and don't want to trust a startup with your company's 401k plan (though assets are safe regardless), Vanguard is great, and would have been our backup option.

Re: Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

#59

Post by eitally »

pbreit wrote: post #44
tvladeck wrote: post #30

I know this is now "industry standard" but I hate the practice of quoting a yearly price as if it were a monthly price. There is a meaningful difference between $120/year (where you pay once, upfront, for the full year) and $10/month (where you pay each month). Note here that they quote $4/month/employee in the "Pro" plan, but the prices are actually $48/year/employee or $6/month/employee. There is no $4/month plan.

I see what you mean but don't think it's that bad. The actual cost is $4/employee/month. It's not like using it for less than a year is a common scenario.

It absolutely is in the service & manufacturing industries.

Re: Zenefits launches free payroll software for small businesses

#60

Post by mattmaroon »

kalvin wrote: post #43

PSA: Go with Gusto (formerly Zenpayroll) instead for payroll. We signed up for both Zenefits and Zenpayroll several months ago. Zenefits was a nightmare. Zenpayroll has been an absolute delight. They obviously don't offer identical functionality, but they're getting more similar now so this is a comparison of where they overlap. Customer support: Both Zenefits and Zenpayroll are very responsive, but Zenefits provides…

Since so many people here mirrored that sentiment I'll just say my experience with Zenefits has been mostly pretty good. I have run into a few minor bugs, but nothing disastrous, and the salespeople have been friendly and knowledgable. I'm probably about the easiest business to run but can't really complain about them (other than the ADP snafu, which is at least not entirely their fault).
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