OnPay Review | PCMag

OnPay is one of the best online payroll services for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) because of its speed, flexibility, price, capabilities, and simplicity. Over the last year, the company has built an exceptional tool that lets you shop for medical insurance and expanded its partnerships with related applications. It also continues to find new ways to help users navigate state and federal payroll requirements. For all these reasons, it’s an Editors’ Choice winner among payroll services and the option we recommend most for larger SMBs and those in vertical industries. We also recommend Editors’ Choice winners Gusto for novices and ADP Run for organizations that are likely to grow beyond the bounds of a small business.

How Much Does OnPay Cost? 

OnPay has the best value of all the payroll services I’ve reviewed. You pay a $40-per-month base fee, plus $6 per employee per month, and you can get a free one-month trial.

Patriot Software Full Service Payroll costs less—$37 per month or $17 per month if you’re willing to file and submit your own taxes, plus $4 per employee per month—but it’s not nearly as robust as OnPay and therefore can’t compete on value. On the high end, the Premium edition of Intuit QuickBooks Payroll comes in at $80 per month plus $8 per employee per month. Gusto Plus is the most expensive at $80 per month plus $12 per employee per month.

Getting Started With OnPay

Have you already been paying employees? Are you in a vertical industry like agriculture, nonprofit work, or food service? If so, OnPay’s trained specialists will help you get set up. You can also step in during complex tasks like preparing OnPay to withhold and pay state and federal payroll taxes and employer/employee contributions for benefits like medical insurance and retirement plans—more on that later.

You can do a lot of the setup work on your own, like provide company and employee information, specify earnings types (such as regular or hourly, or even custom types), and establish accrual policies for time off. OnPay’s payroll setup is exceptionally flexible. For example, you can create multiple unlimited schedules and pay employees on different schedules. Throughout your account, you can add your own custom fields. You can also set up integrations with related applications, like Intuit QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, and Xero (for which OnPay is a certified app partner), as well as other business services, like time-tracking apps. A new app directory on the site lists them all.

Is OnPay Easy to Use?

OnPay’s ease of use can’t be overstated. It’s easy enough for a novice with a few employees to use yet capable enough to handle a workforce of hundreds of employees. Every element of the site features exceptional customizability.

All online payroll services simplify payroll tasks, but OnPay is one of the best. It’s a clean, intuitive, fast site. Its effective use of color, fonts, graphics, and navigation prompts provides a pleasant, good-looking environment that’s understandable and clear. 

OnPay offers free phone, chat, and email help in addition to its significant built-in guidance. Payroll tax information is available for all 50 states, and hundreds of step-by-step how-to guides with screenshots walk you through both simple and complex topics.

Thorough Employee Records

OnPay’s employee profiles are some of the most thorough I’ve seen. Creating them can be time-consuming, but payroll runs won’t be accurate unless you provide all the details required about each worker’s compensation, withholding, and benefits, like medical insurance and time off accrual.

Data flows in and out of these completed records, like paycheck history and earnings types. A unique, useful feature here is you can create custom forms for additional employee content.

(Credit: OnePay)

These profiles are meant for employer use, but employees can sign into their own individual password-protected sites to view and edit portions of their records. The employee portals are excellent. They have everything you’d expect and more: job and benefit details, pay stubs, company files, and time off updates. Employees can see profiles of their coworkers and get an area where they can converse with other employees.

How Do You Run a Payroll With OnPay?

OnPay gives you multiple ways to get employee hours into the Run Payroll page. You can import them from OnPay’s own Time Tracking tool, pull them in from integrated third-party providers, and enter them manually. 

(Credit: OnPay/PCMag)

If you’ve been conscientious about updating your employee records, you shouldn’t have to do much more than look over your payroll before running it. You do, however, have access to employee records and deeper pay details from this page without having to exit the payroll process.

(Credit: OnPay)

The first page in the payroll run shows minimal information about compensation. OnPay uses a sliding pane and an overlay page to provide access to the full employee record and a detailed view of the current paycheck. You can make edits there and even add earnings types on the fly without losing your place in the payroll. A detailed summary of the payroll is available before you submit it, and the final page makes clear what will be taken from your account and on what date, along with a link to the check-printing page. OnPay lacks an automatic payroll option, however, like Gusto has.

(Credit: OnPay/PCMag)

Sufficient Reports

OnPay doesn’t have an overabundance of reports, but there are enough to support its payroll data and functions. You can customize them with multiple filters, display them directly on the page, open them in Excel, and save them as PDFs. There are two that go beyond the usual summaries. The GL Summary can be used by your accountant to manually post your payroll balances to your accounting software. Using the Payroll Listing Report (the most powerful, flexible payroll report I’ve seen), you can add up to 40 items by dragging and dropping them into position among the standard columns.

OnPay continues to expand its HR offerings at no charge to users, whereas Gusto charges extra for some HR tools. Beyond basics like compliance support, official document management, and onboarding workflows, the company has added an exceptional new tool to help managers select the best health insurance (medical, dental, and vision) for groups of employees. It’s administered by OnPay Insurance Agency, LLC. Detailed product information is provided for all plans, and OnPay’s licensed brokers are available at every step of the process—or you can bring your own.

(Credit: OnPay/PCMag)

Is OnPay Safe to Use?

OnPay is accessed only through industry-standard SSL high-grade encryption (AES-256 256 bit) and is connected to the company’s secure data facility that is protected by both 24/7 security guards and surveillance systems. Additionally, all data is backed up in real time. OnPay uses encryption to protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

Mobile Access for Employers, But No Mobile Apps

OnPay doesn’t offer a separate admin mobile app for employers, but it uses a responsive design that works well on mobile web browsers, which is how many payroll services do it. You can run a payroll, accessing the linked background screens that are available on the desktop without losing your place in the payroll run. Employee profiles are thorough, and many HR resources are available on mobile devices. A few elements are missing, though, including some reports.

For employees, there is a mobile app. It’s a little pared down, though, and it’s just as easy for a worker to log in through a mobile browser. Unlike the app, the mobile website has everything that’s on the desktop version, like bank account information, time off, pay stubs, and conversations. All of OnPay’s mobile sites look and work great.

(Credit: OnPay/PCMag)

Is OnPay Right for Your Business?

OnPay does everything a payroll website should, and it does so simply and well. Pricing is affordable and transparent, with no extra fees except for adding employees. Despite its simplicity, its worker capacity, back-end accounting connections, and processing are better than most competitors. Accordingly, OnPay is an Editors’ Choice winner for payroll services, and we recommend it highly for larger SMBs, as well as those in vertical industries. We also recommend Editors’ Choice winners Gusto to novice payroll managers and ADP Run for organizations that may grow quickly beyond the realm of small business.