I'm Done With ADP. Payroll Shopping for a One-Man Business

As a solopreneur, one of the joys of running a business is dealing with payroll. This is some behind-the-scenes stuff we don’t usually talk about around here, but we all deal with it… taxes and all that.

I just got off the phone with ADP after wasting an hour. The story goes back well over ten years, when I was still working with a CPA. Back then the recommendation was to automate payroll, because even when you work for yourself, you need to process some payroll and pay some taxes. It’s just a fact of life. And doing it myself, I got burned a couple of times by missing deadlines, and those penalties are no fun at all. So I signed up with ADP on that accountant’s recommendation.

It worked fine for a while, because I never had to deal with it. Then a few months ago I switched banks, and holy crap… the moment you actually need ADP, you find out what kind of company it is. I needed to change the bank account. Simple request. After half an hour on hold, the first person couldn’t help and transferred me to another department. Ten or fifteen minutes later, that person transferred me somewhere else, then told me I’d have to call back. Over an hour in, and the thing wasn’t even done. Meanwhile my account was on hold because they tried to deduct from the old bank, which has nothing in it anymore. And when I told them I’d tried to change the bank over a month ago, well… that’s when the web UI stories start, including the rigmarole I went through just to regain access to their RUN product.

Here’s my take. ADP is a big bureaucratic company full of sales guys, and for a single-person business it’s overkill on top of being a pain to deal with. And honestly, these payroll companies feel like a bit of a racket. They average around $50 to $55 per month even when your needs are as simple as possible… just paying yourself. I did the math on doing it myself, and when I consider what my time is worth, paying a company to make it disappear is worth it. But $55 a month for fully automated simplicity nobody is even looking at? That seems high.

So I went shopping. Gusto is well respected and a lot of people like it. But I kept seeing Patriot Software come up too, and Patriot is cheaper, the reviews are strong, and it’s built for small businesses. That’s what I am. I basically just need to pay myself enough to keep the IRS off my back. So I signed up with Patriot Software. To be clear, this is not a promo… I know nothing about them yet beyond signing up. What I can tell you straight up is this: steer clear of ADP. That company makes the federal government look like a pleasure to deal with.

If you run your own business in the US, what do you use for payroll? Do it yourself, or hand it off? Let me know.