ADP Review: Security, Support and Features Explained

Looking to pull the trigger on a new payroll software provider? ADP offers an end-to-end small business payroll solution as well as plans for larger companies too, with a close focus on automation, integration, and global compliance.

Because of its top-notch security measures and international application, ADP is ideal for international businesses with sensitive employee information. Pricing is fully bespoke for all four plans.

In our ADP payroll review, we found it to be a strong candidate for businesses seeking a reliable, global payroll system.

What Is ADP Payroll?

ADP offers HR, HCM, and payroll solutions for businesses. Its cutting-edge payroll software helps businesses save time and money through fast, highly automated payroll processing and tax handling.
It caters to businesses of all sizes, with a focus on international organisations.

How Much Does ADP Cost?

ADP’s website doesn’t show exact pricing. There are four ADP plan types, but each one is fully bespoke. You’ll need to get a customised quote from the company before finalising any budgets. We outline what you get in each plan below.

ADP iHCM

iHCM provides features to automate the core elements of the payroll process. The focus is mostly on ease of use and ensuring compliance. The plan has three sub-tiers that further differentiate the features offered:

• Payroll
• Payroll + HR
• Payroll + HR + Talent

iHCM is ideal for small and mid-sized businesses. Pricing is fully bespoke.

ADP Celergo

Celergo takes payroll data from up to 140 countries and combines it into a single system. Its strength is taking inconsistent data sets from different sources and organising them for easy payroll processing.

It’s ideal for businesses that operate internationally but on a smaller scale. Pricing is fully bespoke.

ADP GlobalView Payroll

GlobalView Payroll provides much the same services as ADP Celergo, only for larger subsidiaries in each country. With GlobalView, you’re limited to 40 different countries, but the payroll processing you can perform in each country is much more sophisticated.

It’s designed for large, international businesses. Pricing is fully bespoke.

ADP Global Payroll

Global Payroll marries the wide operating range of Celergo with the extensive feature set of GlobalView to form the ultimate multi-country payroll software.

This makes it suitable for the largest international enterprises. Pricing is fully bespoke.

What To Expect

ADP only offers custom quotes, but you can check out our article on typical payroll software costs to get a rough estimate of what to expect from ADP.

Under the iHCM plan, you’re probably looking at £16 to £32 per month, plus £2 to £5 per employee. Assuming you have less than 10 employees, that comes out to around £100 per month.

Under the Global Payroll plan, expect around £48 to £120 per month, plus £5 to £10 per employee. If you have more than 500 employees, this could be £2,500 or more per month.

ADP Features

Across its four plans, ADP offers a tremendous feature set. Here are the highlights.

• Automated cloud-based payroll processing: ADP streamlines payroll management by automating tedious calculations like bonus checks, paid time off, and expense reimbursements. This reduces manual errors and saves time.
• Integration with HR and time and attendance solutions: One of ADP’s key strengths is that its payroll software comes part and parcel with HR and management solutions. Payroll data will be even more reliable, as it will constantly be syncing with other business systems.
• Compliance with HMRC requirements: Tax reporting is often the bane of those trying to do payroll manually. ADP automatically keeps businesses aligned with tax regulations, and will even send tax returns to HMRC automatically. This seriously minimises the probability of legal issues down the line.

ADP Security

ADP’s strong point is its robust security measures.

First off, payroll data is protected under the ISO/IEC 27001 certification, which is a globally recognised framework for managing and protecting data. If your employees’ personal information is particularly sensitive or prone to data leaks, ADP gives its users immense confidence.

Secondly, ADP undergoes external and internal audits every few months to ensure security measures are up-to-date. ADP is compliant with ISO 9001 and 27001 certifications, Sarbanes-Oxley, SOC 1 and 2 reports, and PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).

Finally, ADP engages in data encryption and risk management, standard security practices shared by Iris Staffology and MHR, two of our other favourite payroll software solutions.

ADP Support Resources

ADP provides extensive support resources for businesses that need help getting started with payroll software.

The website’s resources section is broken up into two sections: Small Business Resources and Midsized & Enterprise Business Resources. It may not seem like a huge deal, but this extra level of organisation will help you find resources tailored to your specific needs.

Resources within these sections include FAQs, blog articles, and even full how-to guidebooks that can be downloaded for free.

While these support resources are helpful, they’re on par with resources offered by Frontier and similar payroll software providers.

ADP Scalability

ADP’s three highest plans, Celergo, GlobalView, and Global, are already tailored to large businesses. As such, scalability isn’t advertised as a key feature, since it’s not exactly needed.

Scalability is much needed for ADP’s small and midsized business plan, iHCM—and ADP delivers on that front.

In particular, the fully bespoke pricing model ensures that you’ll only be paying for the features and services that you need. Scalability is also enhanced by the iHCM plan’s three sub-tiers: Payroll, Payroll + HR, and Payroll + HR + Talent.

ADP Customer Support

ADP provides extensive customer support for businesses using its payroll software and those interested in learning about it in the first place.

Its main strength is its omnichannel support: Customers can find help from a live agent through email, phone, and live chat. ADP meets its customers on their preferred channels, which means help arrives much faster and with fewer headaches.

The only downside is that ADP doesn’t offer chatbot support, which can be helpful for finding quick answers to simple questions. Then again, Frontier, Advanced, and Moorepay are other premier payroll software providers that also don’t offer chatbot support.