ADP Review: Security, Support and Features Explained

ADP offers end-to-end small business payroll solutions as well as plans for larger companies too, with a close focus on automation, integration, and global compliance.

However, even though it offers solutions for small businesses, it’s best for medium to large businesses with a global workforce, since its services can be expensive, and its integrated HR and payroll software might not be necessary for very small businesses.

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.

It offers both payroll and HR software and outsourced services, for businesses with between 1 and 1,000-plus employees, making it suitable for a variety of business sizes.

Its cutting-edge payroll software helps businesses save time and money through fast, highly automated payroll processing and tax handling. Plus, it offers global payroll services, and is able to manage payroll in over 140 countries. This makes it a great option for international businesses.

In addition to this, it packs software solutions for talent acquisition and time and attendance keeping, making it an integrated solution for all things people management.

The Pros and Cons of ADP

Here’s a rundown of ADP’s strengths and weaknesses:

✔ Pro: Integrated payroll and and HR solutions

ADP offers a suite of payroll and people management software, which can be used as a single platform. For example, ADP’s small business software solution, ADP iHCM, comes in three packs, one with payroll only, one with payroll and HR, and one with payroll, HR and talent acquisition. Optional add-ons include time and labour management.

Having a unified platform with all people management services means businesses avoid constantly having to switch between platforms, and having to conduct tiresome data imports and exports. It can also save you money, since combined packages are generally cheaper than purchasing software separately.

✔ Pro: Accommodates a variety of business sizes

ADP provides software solutions for businesses of any size, from those with just one employee to those with over 1,000. This makes it a highly scalable solution, able to grow along with your business.

Switching payroll providers isn’t easy, and requires a lot of time and work. You can avoid this by choosing a scalable provider like ADP, where the risk of outgrowing the platform is very low.

✔ Pro: Top-tier reporting features

ADP offers advanced reporting features, such as the ability to combine HR and payroll reports. It offers hundreds of standardised reports, plus on certain plans you also get access to custom reporting. You can gain insight into salary by job, and diversity and equity at your business, to name a few use-cases.

This type of in-depth reporting can help you gain better insights into your business’s spending, and how it rewards employees, helping you plan for the future.

✔ Pro: Employee self-service

All ADP software comes with an employee self-service portal, where employees can view and download payslips and their personal information. There’s also a mobile app for added convenience, allowing employees to check their payroll data on the go.

Conveniently, ADP’s mobile app can also be used as a clocking-in system, if you’ve signed up to that service, so employees can record their hours directly from their phones.

It’s not the only provider to offer integrated payroll and HR, with several competitors, such as Iris, Moorepay, and Advanced offering similar solutions

X Con: Expensive for small businesses

Although ADP offers solutions for small businesses, it’s not the cheapest solution for them, since it’s built with growth in mind. That means it offers powerful solutions, most with combined payroll and HR software, which come at a high price tag.

Very small businesses just looking for a simple payroll solution will be better off with a more basic payroll service, offered by providers such as 1 2 Cloud, which offers pay-as-you-go payroll processing.

For a list of the best payroll solutions for small businesses, check out our article.

X Con: Pricing isn’t transparent

ADP doesn’t advertise its pricing, not even for its payroll software plans. Although not unusual in the industry, this does mean that you won’t know how much to expect to pay until you’ve requested a quote and gone through the process of negotiating a contract with ADP.

This can be off-putting, especially if the end quote is higher than you were expecting. Some providers do advertise some of their pricing, especially their small business solutions. One example is Iris Staffology, whose plans start from £35 per month. If you’d rather know what you’re paying before you contact a provider, Iris is a better option than ADP.

X Con: Customer service could be better

Several ADP customers have left reviews complaining that ADP’s customer service team is hard to reach, particularly over the phone. Being kept on hold for a long time over the phone isn’t ideal during a busy work day, so using ADP’s live chat, available via the ADP eService Portal, is probably a better way to get help quickly.

How Much Does ADP Cost?

ADP doesn’t advertise its pricing, only offering custom quotes for all of its software and services. This makes it hard to know exactly what you can expect to pay.

Based on testimonies, here are some ranges you can expect from ADP’s payroll software solutions:

• Under the iHCM plan, ADP small business payroll software, 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, ADP’s payroll software for medium to large global businesses, you can 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.

You can check out our articles on typical payroll software costs and payroll outsourcing costs to get a rough estimate of what to expect to pay for payroll.

Here’s a summary of ADP’s payroll software plans:

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.

ADP Key Features

The features you’ll get access to with ADP do vary a little depending what solution you’re using, outsourced payroll services or its various payroll software plans. Here’s a quick summary of what’s available:

• 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.
• Expert payroll advice: Whether you’re using ADP’s payroll software or outsourced services, you’ll get access to a team of experts that can advise you on topics such as the latest legislation, how to get the most out of ADP’s platform and how often to pay your employees.
• Global payroll: ADP offers several solutions for managing both domestic and international payroll in over 140 countries. Its solutions can help you stay compliant with various country’s legislation, while avoiding using separate systems for each country your employees work in.
• Employee and manager self-service: ADP offers self-service solutions for employees and managers, that aren’t just limited to payroll. If you opt for ADP’s HR or time and attendance software, employees can also use the platform to clock-in and out, log leave, and more.

Is ADP Secure?

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 Customer Support and Resources

As we’ve noted, several ADP customers are unhappy with the provider’s customer support service, complaining that they’re difficult to get hold of.

ADP does provide support through two channels, a phone line and live chat, giving you some flexibility on how to reach them. They are missing an email channel, however, which would be useful for non-urgent issues that you don’t have time to deal with on the spot.

There are also a host of resources and guides, which are handy for troubleshooting on your own time. These include answers to FAQs, blog articles, and even full how-to guidebooks that can be downloaded for free. In general, ADP’s support resources are on par with resources offered by Frontier and similar payroll software providers.

How does ADP Compare to Competitors?

• Pricing: ADP doesn’t advertise its pricing, which is quite typical for the industry. Top competitors Moorepay, MHR, and Advanced are also secretive about their costs. That said, ADP is on the more expensive end when it comes to pricing, with small businesses getting a better deal with competitors such as Iris Staffology, Roubler, or 1 2 Cloud, which are more tailored to their needs.
• Scope of payroll options: ADP offers a range of payroll solutions, from software, to managed outsourced payroll, for businesses with between 1 and 1,000 employees. This gives it more range than competitors like MHR and Moorepay, that don’t typically serve micro businesses, or platforms like 1 2 Cloud, that specialise in them.
• Payroll features: ADP offers similar payroll features to competitors of its size, such as Iris, MHR, Moorepay, and Advanced. These include automated payroll processing and advanced reporting tools. That said, MHR offers slightly better reporting tools than ADP, especially when it comes to managing finances, since the provider offers software designed for budgeting, while ADP doesn’t.
• Native software integrations: ADP offers a very complete suite of people management solutions, only matched by Advanced when it comes to breadth. However, it’s lacking spend and finance management tools, offered by competitors MHR and Advanced.
• Help and support: ADP has a decent suite of guides and contact channels for customers, similar to what’s offered by competitors Moorepay and MHR. However, it’s missing live training for staff on how to use its software, something offered by Advanced.

How Did We Review ADP Payroll?