Founded in 2017 and taking its roots from TaxSlayer.com, Workful offers small and medium businesses (SMBs) payroll, time tracking, and human resource management (HRM) features. Workful is less popular than other best payroll service providers, such as OnPay and Gusto. Still, it boasts payroll efficiency, unmatched time tracking functionality, reliable customer support, and a robust self-service employee portal, and many Workful users or Pros, as Workful calls them, agree with this. Also, Workful doesn’t pack popular payroll features, such as global payroll and benefits administration, but it fits businesses with specific payroll needs.
This Workful review will show you its offerings, benefits, and cost to help you determine whether it’s worth trying.
Workful Payroll
| Transparent pricing? | Yes, $45 plus $7 per team member, per month |
| Free trial length: | 30 days |
| 24/7 customer support? | No, limited hours |
Workful plan & pricing overview
Workful’s pricing model is simple. There’s only one plan, and it offers payroll, time tracking, and other human resources (HR) functions, such as new hire onboarding and internal communication. For $45 per month and an additional $7 for each employee, you’ll access these features and more:
- Unlimited payroll runs
- Built-in time tracking
- Multiple pay rates
- Checks and deposits
- W-2 and 1099 preparation
- State and federal tax forms filling
- Overtime and time off management
Pros and cons of Workful payroll for small businesses
Below are the primary reasons SMBs choose Workful or consider Workful competitors.
Pros
Workful offers payroll and HR features on the same platform yet stands out for easy navigation. Its built-in time tracking features, which users get free of charge, is another perk since most payroll providers offer time tracking as an add-on or require you to integrate with a third-party app to manage hours, overtime, and the rest.
On top of that, Workful allows you to set up multiple pay rates for workers and run payroll as many times as needed, and that’s for both employees and contractors. It also helps you prepare for state and federal tax filing, and if you encounter any issues, you can trust that the support team is available to help resolve them.
Cons
Unlike Gusto, Paylocity, and a few other payroll services, Workful does not offer automated payroll, which means you cannot schedule payroll. It also does not enable international payments, making it unfit for businesses that engage workers worldwide. Other Workful cons are its limited integration capability and the inability to scale with businesses with its single-plan offering.
Other services Workful offers
Workful offers more features to make running payroll a breeze:
- Time tracking: Workful pros also access built-in time tracking features that sync with payroll. Employees and contractors clock in on their devices from anywhere, and Workful pulls in hours worked, calculates overtime, tracks paid time off (PTO), and allows managers to approve time offs, making it easy-to-run payroll.
- Expense reimbursement: Workful users can upload business expense receipts to request for reimbursement. Approved requests sync with payroll so employees receive refunds during the next payroll.
- Time off management: HR leaders can track employee schedules and time off, approve time off requests, and see all PTO requests.
- Payroll reporting: As an account manager, you’ll see real-time reports on everything payroll, including time sheets, expense reports, and tax liabilities.
- Wage garnishment: Workful allows you to set up deductions, such as health insurance premiums and retirement contributions from employee earnings.
The Workful platform and customer support
Since Workful is no-frills payroll software, it’s easy to navigate. There’s a menu list on the left side of your screen, and you can access real-time processes, employee payroll history, and payroll reports quickly with a few clicks. The employee self-service portal, which is accessible from anywhere, makes payroll professionals’ workload lighter since time-off requests, expense receipt uploads, and others are out of the way.
If you need help navigating a feature or resolving an issue, Workful’s customer service team is available by phone from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday. You can also reach them via email. Workful says there’s a live chat feature, but we didn’t access that, even after several clicks at various intervals. However, its help center is available 24/7, with answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) and articles showing instructions on navigating the payroll software or resolving technical issues.
Is Workful secure?
Workful takes customer protection seriously by combining various security features with compliance with industry standards and regulations. Apart from processing information on secure servers, it uses secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption to transmit data, whether it’s within the organization or when dealing with the IRS.
Workful user reviews
Since Workful is not as popular as other payroll providers, we found only a few reviews on trusted sites. Still, it’s worth noting that the few users we interacted with gave the payroll tool 5-star ratings and were happy with the software because of how easy it is to use and how well it reduces payroll workload, especially with its self-service employee portal. Users also loved that the customer support is not only accessible but knowledgeable and helpful, and having such reliable support makes it easy to run payroll.
Compare Workful alternatives
 Workful |
 OnPay |
 Roll by ADP |
|---|---|---|
| Base monthly cost | Base monthly cost | Base monthly cost |
| $45 | $40 | $39 |
| Fee per employee | Fee per employee | Fee per employee |
| $7 | $6 | $5 |
| Free trial length | Free trial length | Free trial length |
| 30 days | 30 days | [30 days |
| Learn more | Learn more | Learn more |
| View offer at Workful |
View offer at OnPay |
View offer at Roll by ADP |
Workful vs. OnPay
Both payroll providers offer a 30-day free trial to intending customers and similar features, such as unlimited pay runs and wage garnishment. However, SMBs often prefer OnPay because of specific benefits. For example, it’s cheaper, even with its embedded benefit administration functionality, which Workful lacks. It also offers direct integration with a few more apps and allows you to add as many apps as you want through its application programming interface (API).
Like Workful, OnPay offers limited customer support but enables emergency weekend support via email. It also supports local tax filing and guarantees an error-free tax calculation. More perks include a free account setup. However, its customer support is less reliable than Workful’s.
Workful vs. Roll by ADP
Roll by ADP is another best payroll service we recommend, especially for small businesses. Like Workful, Roll by ADP doesn’t offer automated payroll. However, it performs better than Workful in terms of affordability and functionality. For instance, it offers benefits administration, and its artificial intelligence (AI) functionality gives personalized insights and automated suggestions that optimize payroll. All these are available to test for free for up to 90 days.
Workful, however, shines better when it comes to intuitiveness. It also includes a robust time tracking feature, which Roll by ADP doesn’t even offer as an add-on.
Is Workful right for you?
Workful will suit small businesses looking for an easy-to-use payroll platform, especially those with hourly or seasonal workers who want to avoid paying for time-tracking features. The ability to run unlimited payroll and set up multiple pay rates also makes it an ideal fit for those looking for those perks. But if you’re looking for a more comprehensive or scalable tool, we recommend looking elsewhere. Workful lacks some payroll features and won’t integrate with most business solutions.
Frequently asked questions
Does Workful integrate with other apps?
Workful currently only integrates with QuickBooks Online, a popular accounting software. If you’re particular about integrating with several third-party apps, consider a Workful alternative. Rippling, for example, offers integration with more than 500 apps.
Does Workful offer automated tax filing?
Workful offers tax services for full-time employees and prepares W-2s and 1099 forms for independent contractors. It calculates your tax liabilities whenever you run payroll and fills in necessary federal and state tax forms, but it doesn’t offer automated tax filings. You’ll need to click a button to do the actual filing.
Does Workful have an employee portal?
Yes, Workful provides a mobile-friendly self-service portal for employees. Workful administrators can invite employees via email. Once they set up their accounts, they can clock in, request time off, submit expense requests, and update tax withholding information.
