An ADP horror story ...and ....how good is Intuit's Deluxe Payroll Service?
HLC
time hourly employees and 2 to 3 freelancers. Prior to July, 2000, I used
Paychex for my payroll for about 5 years until they started making mistakes
every 2 to 3 months.
So, I talked to a salesman from ADP who promised me that the transition to
their service will be smooth and that they would pick up where Paychex left
off and that they would provide all the services Paychex had been
providing -- W-2, 1099, quarterly and annual tax filing, tax payment, etc.
It turned out ADP is far worst. As soon as I told them to sign me up for the
June payroll -- I pay once a month, less paper work ---, their customer
service representative inform me that they would not do the year end filing
because I did not start with them from the beginning of the year. I promptly
told the sales rep that I am backing out of the deal and that I would stay
with Paychex till the end of the year. So, I continued using Paychex for the
month of July. Then the ADP sales rep call me back in July and said that he
had straighten out everything and that they can do my year end filing
afterall. So, I started with them for the July 2000, payroll. Then in
October ADP sent me a certified letter telling me that they would not do my
3rd Q 941 filing because they did not have all my information. I called my
sales rep who finally got them to assure me that it was all a mistake and
that they would do it. The end of the year came and I found out that they
also do not do 1096 (? a red summary for 1099s) either -- whereas Paychex
used to do that for me.
All of a sudden, 2 weeks ago, I got a notice from IRS telling me that I did
not file my 3rd Q 941 in 2000. I called my ADP customer service rep who
never return my calls after leaving over 5 voice mail messages -- she rarely
return my calls even before this. Of course, I also kept my ADP sales rep
informed of the situation -- he seems to be powerless to do anything.
Finally, today, I got to talk to another service rep who told me that as far
as ADP is concern, they sent me a certified letter and thus was absorbed all
liabilities.
So, at this point, I am left dangling and I am therefore interested in
finding out what others experience have been with the deluxe payroll service
from intuit -- because that seems to be the only viable alternatives left
for me to explore.
Thanks for your help.
HLC
Ann
>The end of the year came and I found out that they
>also do not do 1096 (? a red summary for 1099s) either -- whereas Paychex
>used to do that for me.
That's ridiculous, of course they do. I used ADP to do payroll for
the rep business I managed for over nine years and never once had any
of the problems you've indicated....we started in mid-year, too, and
they did the whole of that year. What office are you doing business
with? And how many heads have you gone over so far. Keep going over
those heads until you get one with a brain.
--
Ann
ann...@thecia.net
*Watt
I can tell you my experience with Intuit's DPS.
It's expensive, but probably around the same cost as ADP or Paychex.
We switched at year end to avoid the specific problem you had. However,
Intuit specifically says that they can handle your type situation, and
schedules an interview to review all the information. Since I didn't have to
give any information, the interview was very brief. We have 28 employees.
We use the direct deposit for our employees. That has worked well, except
that one employee provided us with a deposit slip with the wrong routing
numbers.....so her check never made it. Intuit credited our account
automatically within 48 hours.
Just be sure you use a *check* for the routing numbers and not a deposit
slip.
Customer service was great for setup. However for follow up calls it is
abysmal and expect a 1 hour hold time sometime. Yes 1 hour. We have a
speakerphone next to a secretary so we didn't lose much work, but how they
can advertise for new business when they can barely service the existing
customers is beyond me.
My beef list:
1) If you have other companies on same payroll system, you must buy a Basic
Payroll Tax Table subscription in addition to the Deluxe subscription (which
also includes the tax tables.) I wrote Intuit's president about paying
twice for the tax tables, but they don't seem to care.
2) Must transmit payroll 2 business days before payday. (Actually 5pm PST 2
business days before.. So we had to transmit on Jan 11 for a Jan 16 payroll
with MLK day on Jan 15. )
3) Mandatory upgrade to QB2001 by April 1st. You can probably talk them
into giving you a free copy if you are a new customer. But I am not
thrilled since QB2000 is stable and QB2001 has less of a track record with
no new compelling features for us.
4) Incredibly long hold time on customer service.
5) Not cheap. But in our case was cheaper than our accounting firm, plus has
the direct deposit available for employees.
6) For unknown reasons we don't always get a reply from Intuit confirming
that they received the data upload properly. And then it takes an hour on
hold to find out.
It sounds like none of these services are perfect. I am still awaiting our
first 941 filing from Intuit to see how it goes for our first quarter.
Good luck on your IRS/ ADP problem.
William
"HLC" <hl...@hlcgroup.com> wrote in message
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Steven Latus
We have numerous clients on ADP and some on Paychex. At one time or another,
there are problems with several of the payrolls at some point. These companies
are run by human beings, so you will occasionally get some glitches (you know
how those Homo Sapiens are).
For example, ADP personnel do seem to have inordinate trouble with properly
recording fringe benefits, such as medical insurance fringe for 2% or greater
shareholders in an "S" corporation. Since this fringe has been around for a
while, you would expect they would have the handling of this item down pat - and
you would be mistaken.
The deal with them not handling your annual payroll returns at year-end is
something we run into all the time with clients who switch to ADP in mid-year.
Their position is that, since they did not handle the payroll all year, they
don't want the responsibility of filing a return that encompasses the whole year
(although they will prepare the W-2s - go figure). They also, as you found out,
will not file a 941 when they started their service in the middle of the
quarter.
Once you get past the hurdles (and the occasional glitch), though, it does take
the payroll headache out of your hands to a great degree, and that is certainly
a big plus. You just can't assume that they are doing it correctly, though; you
must examine each payroll as it comes in to make sure it is accurate. Sometimes
people look at the pretty computerized reports and checks, and just assume that
anything that gorgeous must be correct. As with any computerized output, from
ADP, Quickbooks or Excel, just because it's pretty doesn't mean it's right.
Steve
Charles
"HLC" <hl...@hlcgroup.com> wrote in message
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Arnold
A-Systems is offering its job cost accounting software, which included a powerful payroll with USER DEFINABLE TAX TABLES for free!!
Cover the cost of preparing and shipping the CD ($25) and check it out for yourself.
Find their software at www.a-systems.net (click on Starter)
Arnold
CFL
Charles
"Arnold" <arn...@a-systems.net> wrote in message
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