- Best overall payroll software for enterprises: Rippling
- Best HR-focused software: ADP Workforce Now
- Best for international enterprises: Papaya Global
- Best for employee engagement and development: Workday HCM
- Best full-service tax administration: Paylocity
Whether your enterprise has one location or many, a crew of fully remote workers or on-site employees only, you need a payroll solution flexible enough to meet hundreds of employees’ needs while staying accessible to admins processing payroll on a mass scale. You likely also need an all-in-one software solution you can use to manage every aspect of the employee life cycle, from hiring to onboarding and beyond.
SEE: Check out this guide for choosing a payroll service.
To help you find enterprise payroll software that actively meets your team’s unique needs, we’ve ranked and reviewed the five best payroll software for large businesses. Below, we explore each product’s pricing, features, pros and cons so you can make an informed decision and choose software that makes your company’s payroll process easier, not harder.
Top payroll software for enterprises: Feature comparison table
| Rippling | ADP Workforce Now | Papaya Global | Workday HCM | Paylocity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple employee pay options | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| International payroll | Global | 140+ countries | 160+ countries | 100+ countries | Yes (third-party partner) |
| Dedicated customer support | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Industry-specific plans | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Free trial | Unlisted | 4 months | Unlisted | Unlisted | Unlisted |
| Starting price | $8/user/mo. | Custom | $25/employee/mo.* | Custom | Custom |
*Starting price for businesses with 101+ global employees. Price decreases to $20/employee with 501+ employees and $15/employee with 1,001+ employees.
Featured Partners
Rippling: Best overall payroll software for enterprises
Our star rating: 4.3 out of 5
Rippling’s comprehensive, customized packages make it one of the most versatile employee management software products for enterprises. All packages require you to purchase Rippling Unity, Rippling’s core platform. From there, you can add whichever Rippling modules your enterprise needs, starting with payroll software for large companies but scaling up to benefits administration, remote device management, inventory management, financial tracking and dozens more.
Rippling’s customizability goes beyond its product packages to its reporting, task workflows, company policy creation and learning management system courses. As an all-in-one, scalable HCM system, Rippling is ideal for enterprises that want to handle every aspect of employee, product and device management on one seamlessly integrated platform.
To learn more about Rippling, read our Rippling software review.
Pricing
Rippling starts at $8 per user per month, but Rippling’s modular software requires a custom quote.
Features
- International payroll with global currency payments.
- Internal learning management system and automated employee onboarding.
- Corporate-level financial management tools, including corporate card access, employee reimbursement and expense tracking.
- In-depth HR, IT, and finance analytics and reports.
- Remote device management, including app management and secure employee offboarding.
- Recently added ATS and compensation management tool.
Pros
- Manage most aspects of your business — employees, expenses, inventory, tech and more — from one secure platform.
- Thorough automation for nearly every task.
- Customizable user and admin permissions.
- Global workforce management includes international payroll, payments and benefits.
Cons
- Pricing can get expensive.
- Limited dashboard customizability.
- No dedicated customer support.
Rippling is currently offering TechRepublic readers a one-month free subscription. Visit the link below to get started.
ADP Workforce Now: Best HR-focused software
Our star rating: 4.4 out of 5
ADP is a leading HR and payroll management company with several decades’ worth of experience in the field. Its primary payroll service for large businesses, ADP Workforce Now, lets enterprises manage payroll, time and attendance, HR, reporting, compliance and more on one integrated platform.
The company’s full-service payroll solution is just one aspect of the hefty Workforce Now software bundle, which primarily focuses on streamlined, automated HR tools and employee benefits. ADP’s payroll app for employees is one of the best in the business, and the company is also one of the only payroll services to offer an employer-specific payroll app.
If you like ADP’s design and global reach but need a heftier solution than ADP Workforce Now, consider a different ADP product, such as ADP Enterprise HR (for companies with more than 1,000 employees) or ADP GlobalView Payroll (for large multinational corporations).
For more information, read our full ADP Workforce Now review.
Pricing
ADP Workforce Now has three plans and pricing tiers:
- Select, which includes payroll and HR basics.
- Plus, which adds employee benefits administration.
- Premium, which includes more automation, time tracking and workforce management tools.
While ADP advertises a four-month free trial, it doesn’t list pricing for any of its plans online. You’ll have to contact the company for a custom quote.
Features
- Global payroll and EOR service.
- Automated time tracking, scheduling and attendance tracking.
- Benefits administration with employee self-service, healthcare and 401(k) plans and payroll integration.
- Recruiting tools, such as ZipRecruiter access.
Pros
- Highly rated mobile payroll apps for employers and employees.
- Professional in-house setup and implementation.
- Custom packages with tools tailored to your industry.
- Scalable solutions support payroll for small startups to global corporations.
Cons
- Expensive plans.
- No transparent pricing information on site.
- Software can be complex for first-time users.
Papaya Global: Best for international enterprises
Our star rating: 4.2 out of 5
As a global professional employer organization, Papaya Global helps enterprises hire and pay employees in more than 160 countries. It processes payments in dozens of global currencies and helps employers offer the best benefits to employees no matter where they are in the world.
Papaya Global works closely with each client, from its white-glove setup to its dedicated single-point-of-contact customer service. Enterprise plans are custom-built for each company’s unique workforce management needs. The company also gives you access to global payroll experts with local, on-the-ground experience so you can ensure you’re compliant with national and international labor laws.
For more information, read our full Papaya Global review.
Pricing
Papaya offers multiple global payroll solutions starting at the following price points:
- Global Payroll: Starts at $25/employee/month for businesses with 101+ employees, $20/employee/month with 501+ employees, or $15/employee/month with 1,001+ employees.
- EOR: Starts at $650/employee/month.
- Contractor Payments & Management: Starts at $30/contractor/month.
Features
- Thorough integration with dozens of third-party business software solutions.
- Global payroll and payments with optional employer of record services.
- Solutions for companies with up to 10,000 international employees.
- Comprehensive, automated onboarding for employees across the globe.
Pros
- Integrates with popular third-party products like Workday and BambooHR.
- Payments can be made in more than 160 currencies, and are always processed and deposited within 72 hours.
- Dedicated advice on international labor law compliance, immigration and other global workforce considerations.
- White-glove setup and data migration.
Cons
- Fewer HR tools and features than some competitors.
- Weeks-long setup process.
- Additional fee for reporting and analytics.
Workday HCM: Best for employee engagement and development
Workday HCM specializes in helping enterprises attract and retain top talent. As part of its focus on helping enterprises create the best possible employee experience, Workday Payroll includes automated payroll audits that check for compliance issues and payroll errors before every payroll run.
Workday’s comprehensive, customizable payroll reports give employers thorough insights into payroll expenses. Employees can also customize their dashboards to more easily see the payroll information they need upfront, such as year-to-date totals or annual salary amounts.
Notably, Workday Payroll doesn’t automatically file payroll taxes for you. Instead, enterprises can choose to tackle tax filing in house or work with one of Workday’s third-party payroll companies to outsource payroll processing entirely. The lack of built-in payroll tax administration adds another fee to enterprises using Workday’s enterprise payroll solution.
For more information, read our Workday HCM review.
Pricing
Workday lacks transparent online pricing. Contact the company for a custom quote.
Features
- Customizable mobile payroll app for employees.
- Time and attendance tracking with absence management.
- Continuous payroll processing with automatic real-time general ledger updates.
- Global payroll through Workday in the U.S., U.K., France and Canada and through third-party partners in 100+ other countries.
Pros
- Flexible employee pay options, including pay-on-demand in the U.S.
- Excellent analytics and reporting.
- Workday Compensation offers metrics on pay equity, competitive compensation and sales incentives to improve employee retention.
- Thorough talent acquisition features.
Cons
- No transparent pricing online.
- No free trial advertised.
- Complex setup process.
- No built-in payroll tax administration.
Paylocity: Best full-service tax administration
Our star rating: 4.6 out of 5
Paylocity’s HRIS software for enterprises includes thorough full-service payroll with comprehensive end-of-year tax filing. Like Rippling, Paylocity includes employee expense reimbursement as part of its total financial package. Employees can use Paylocity’s mobile app to submit expenses for approval while employers can use the app to approve reimbursements.
Along with managing tax compliance on your behalf, Paylocity curates a live feed of compliance-related news stories to keep you ahead of upcoming tax and employment law updates. Its comprehensive suite of features also includes time tracking, onboarding, recruiting, scheduling, benefits administration and access to compliance-oriented courses through Paylocity’s LMS.
Pricing
Paylocity doesn’t list its pricing online, though it does state that custom prices are based on the number of features you select for your HRIS package and the number of employees who use the software.
Features
- Comprehensive payroll tax administration, including end-of-year tax filing.
- Automated workflows with customized triggers and configurations.
- Built-in time tracking and scheduling software.
- Thorough onboarding and talent management features.
Pros
- International payroll available through Blue Marble.
- Dedicated client account managers.
- Fully featured workforce management software with plans customizable to enterprises.
- End-to-end process automation.
Cons
- Below-average customer service reviews.
- Customer support mostly takes place over email.
Key features of enterprise payroll software
While every enterprise has a unique workforce with unique payroll requirements, most bigger businesses need payroll software that prioritizes the following features.
Multiple employee pay options
While smaller payroll and HR software solutions tend to offer direct deposit only, especially with their lower-tier plans, enterprise-level solutions should have several employee pay solutions. The best plans offer direct deposit, paper check, prepaid debit card and on-demand cash-out options.
Top-tier security
While every business needs secure payroll software regardless of size, a data security breach can have massive, wide-scale repercussions for enterprises and their hundreds to thousands of employees. Prioritize payroll software that clearly advertises its top-tier security standards, requires your employees to log in with two-factor identification, and allows you to create custom workflows and admin privileges so you can closely monitor who can access sensitive data stored on company servers.
Comprehensive automation
Enterprise-level HR departments don’t have time to waste tediously accomplishing tasks by hand. At a minimum, your payroll software should automate paycheck calculation, payroll tax filing, end-of-year tax-form preparation, employee benefit administration and compliance checks. Some payroll software (Rippling, for instance) also lets you design customized workflow automations that are triggered by actions specific to your company.
Integration with other enterprise-level software solutions
With very few exceptions, even the most comprehensive HRIS, HCM and ERP solutions can’t cover every single task your business needs to perform. As a result, you need a workforce management system that syncs with other popular business software — especially with your enterprise accounting software of choice.
Ideally, your payroll and accounting solutions sync seamlessly. Your general ledger should update automatically (or at least by requiring as few manual actions as possible) whenever you process payroll so that when you and other stakeholders check your company’s financial data, you’re always working with the most accurate, up-to-date information.
Scalability
Enterprises with 250 U.S.-based employees have much different needs than companies with 2,000+ employees working throughout several different countries. Whatever payroll software you choose, make sure it will scale up with you as your team grows. For instance, if your business intends to go global at some point, consider software that offers international payroll as an add-on instead of opting for a company that lacks global payroll processing and payments.
How do I choose the best payroll software for my enterprise?
Choosing a payroll system for your large business requires in-depth research, multiple conversations with customer service representatives, custom quote requests and live in-person demos. Consider asking software companies for a limited free trial so your team can get hands-on experience with enterprise-level payroll software before you commit to a contract.
Most importantly, focus on finding software with features that will best serve your company’s unique needs while keeping scalability in mind. Weighing each payroll provider’s base costs, industry-specific solutions, ease of use (specifically its interface’s functionality) and level of customer service can help you find the perfect payroll software to grow with.
Methodology
To rank and review the best enterprise payroll software, we looked solely at payroll providers that clearly offered enterprise-specific solutions. We prioritized HCM, ERP and HRIS software over standalone payroll providers. While we primarily ranked payroll providers according to their enterprise payroll features, we also considered each solution’s HR features, time management tools and talent management features. Learn more about how TechRepublic chooses, rates, ranks and reviews payroll software by reading our methodology review page.
