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I'm the CEO of ZenPayroll. This launch is really special for us because one of our primary goals is to empower accountants & bookkeepers with modern software.

I'm the CEO of ZenPayroll. This launch is really special for us because one of our primary goals is to empower accountants & bookkeepers with modern software. Using our new functionality, accountants and bookkeepers can now offer modern payroll to their clients, and manage all of them from a free centralized dashboard. There's a growing trend of small businesses outsourcing their back-office. These business owners are strapped for time and are juggling many different balls all at once. Independent service providers are there to help but they're dependent on the tools they use, which unfortunately have usually been overly complex and expensive. With the rise of modern SaaS tools, these accountants and bookkeepers can now offer a much more compelling service to their clients, streamline their business, and hopefully expand. We're thrilled to be a part of this shift and if anyone ever has any feedback/questions/thoughts to share, I can be reached directly at josh@zenpayroll.com

brettcvz 13y ago
Thank god! This has been one of the features we've wanted since signing up, glad to see it launched. Keep up the good work
molsongolden 13y ago
I haven't had a chance to explore the ZenPayroll features and layout but can you comment on ZenPayroll vs. ADP/Paychex? I saw in the article that "these legacy solutions just don't work" for many small businesses but what really differentiates ZenPayroll from those two? Price, ease of use, presentation of payroll data? I haven't worked with Paychex but I know ADP offers fairly hefty referral bonuses to accountants so it might be tough to break through there. How soon do you expect to have full coverage in the United States? Thanks for putting together an accountant specific dashboard. I will be looking into it shortly and wish your team the best of luck.
- edawerd 13y ago
  Price and ease-of-use is a huge differentiating factor between ZenPayroll and other large payroll providers like ADP/Paychex. Unlike many payroll companies, we're a tech-company at heart and we're constantly writing software to make payroll more delightful for small-business owners, and now accountants and bookkeepers. We're starting our roll out to other states this quarter and will eventually have much of the US covered soon. Just curious -- you mentioned that ADP offers hefty referral bonuses to accountants. Can you elaborate more on what they are?
  - pifflesnort 13y ago
    We started using Paychex when we had a total of two founders, making almost nothing, five years ago. It was painless -- and cheap. On top of that, Paychex has had our back with hands-on personal customer service when things went wrong due to the usual paperwork screwups by NY State. I'm truthfully not sure what Paychex could do better. This isn't an area where -- as a tech company -- we want things to be particularly technologically complex. A real person makes all the difference to us, and its not like Paychex is a significant cost for what they do, reliably. Truthfully, I don't know why you'd badmouth them as "legacy solutions" that "don't really work". They've worked great for us, especially as we've expanded to offices in multiple cities and states, with all the attendant per-locale paperwork overhead.
  - molsongolden 13y ago
    I know that we can routinely receive $X00 checks for referring (even very small) clients to ADP. I don't remember if it is just the one time bonus or if there is an ongoing fee sharing as well. I'll find my more specific numbers tomorrow and PM you.
    - edawerd 13y ago
      Thanks! Looking forward to hearing more!
mikemac 13y ago
It's great to see a solution to using larger payroll companies, the experience is generally terrible and their massive market share gives them no reason to improve. I'm more concerned with being able to integrate payroll with Expensify and Quickbooks. Typically the biggest headaches come from having to move this data from one application to the other.
- edawerd 13y ago
  Awesome point, Mike. We'll have Quickbooks IIF export by the end of this month. Regarding moving data seamlessly between ZenPayroll and other applications -- it's something we're actively working on right now, with a particular emphasis on seamlessly integrating with major time, attendance, reimbursement, and expense reporting applications.
- hkhanna 13y ago
  Seconding the desire to integrate with Quickbooks. Glad to hear it's in the works. Our small business has been with ZenPayroll since the beginning of the year and we love it. Very easy to use, and we're hoping to add more employees in the near future. You guys have solved a major pain point for small businesses. Keep it up!
  - edawerd 13y ago
    So glad you guys love it! We're motivated by delighting our customers. Since you're a customer, keep a look out in your inbox for an announcement on the Quickbooks IIF export soon!
binxbolling 13y ago
Why do people go with ADP or Ceridian? And secondarily, perhaps relatedly, but what kinds of organizations are not a good fit with ZenPayroll? Meaning, how niche is ZenPayroll—really targeting companies of, say, less than 20 employees, or is it actually a good fit for everybody and ADP et al are just winning with brand awareness currently?
- edawerd 13y ago
  We're suitable for companies of all sizes -- we're running payroll for companies with just 1 employee all the way up to 50+ employees. If your company operates outside of California, we may not be a good fit at the moment, since we only support California-based companies at the moment. However, we'll be adding multi-state support by the end of this quarter.
signed0 13y ago
The LinkedIn icons on your about page seem to be wrapping: http://imgur.com/wuOnXUb http://imgur.com/wuOnXUb - Retina MBP + Mountain Lion + Chrome
- joshuareeves 13y ago
  Thanks! We'll look into this.

brettcvz 13y ago

Thank god! This has been one of the features we've wanted since signing up, glad to see it launched. Keep up the good work

molsongolden 13y ago

I haven't had a chance to explore the ZenPayroll features and layout but can you comment on ZenPayroll vs. ADP/Paychex? I saw in the article that "these legacy solutions just don't work" for many small businesses but what really differentiates ZenPayroll from those two? Price, ease of use, presentation of payroll data? I haven't worked with Paychex but I know ADP offers fairly hefty referral bonuses to accountants so it might be tough to break through there. How soon do you expect to have full coverage in the United States? Thanks for putting together an accountant specific dashboard. I will be looking into it shortly and wish your team the best of luck.

edawerd 13y ago
Price and ease-of-use is a huge differentiating factor between ZenPayroll and other large payroll providers like ADP/Paychex. Unlike many payroll companies, we're a tech-company at heart and we're constantly writing software to make payroll more delightful for small-business owners, and now accountants and bookkeepers. We're starting our roll out to other states this quarter and will eventually have much of the US covered soon. Just curious -- you mentioned that ADP offers hefty referral bonuses to accountants. Can you elaborate more on what they are?
- pifflesnort 13y ago
  We started using Paychex when we had a total of two founders, making almost nothing, five years ago. It was painless -- and cheap. On top of that, Paychex has had our back with hands-on personal customer service when things went wrong due to the usual paperwork screwups by NY State. I'm truthfully not sure what Paychex could do better. This isn't an area where -- as a tech company -- we want things to be particularly technologically complex. A real person makes all the difference to us, and its not like Paychex is a significant cost for what they do, reliably. Truthfully, I don't know why you'd badmouth them as "legacy solutions" that "don't really work". They've worked great for us, especially as we've expanded to offices in multiple cities and states, with all the attendant per-locale paperwork overhead.
- molsongolden 13y ago
  I know that we can routinely receive $X00 checks for referring (even very small) clients to ADP. I don't remember if it is just the one time bonus or if there is an ongoing fee sharing as well. I'll find my more specific numbers tomorrow and PM you.
  - edawerd 13y ago
    Thanks! Looking forward to hearing more!

mikemac 13y ago

It's great to see a solution to using larger payroll companies, the experience is generally terrible and their massive market share gives them no reason to improve. I'm more concerned with being able to integrate payroll with Expensify and Quickbooks. Typically the biggest headaches come from having to move this data from one application to the other.

edawerd 13y ago
Awesome point, Mike. We'll have Quickbooks IIF export by the end of this month. Regarding moving data seamlessly between ZenPayroll and other applications -- it's something we're actively working on right now, with a particular emphasis on seamlessly integrating with major time, attendance, reimbursement, and expense reporting applications.
hkhanna 13y ago
Seconding the desire to integrate with Quickbooks. Glad to hear it's in the works. Our small business has been with ZenPayroll since the beginning of the year and we love it. Very easy to use, and we're hoping to add more employees in the near future. You guys have solved a major pain point for small businesses. Keep it up!
- edawerd 13y ago
  So glad you guys love it! We're motivated by delighting our customers. Since you're a customer, keep a look out in your inbox for an announcement on the Quickbooks IIF export soon!

binxbolling 13y ago

Why do people go with ADP or Ceridian? And secondarily, perhaps relatedly, but what kinds of organizations are not a good fit with ZenPayroll? Meaning, how niche is ZenPayroll—really targeting companies of, say, less than 20 employees, or is it actually a good fit for everybody and ADP et al are just winning with brand awareness currently?

edawerd 13y ago
We're suitable for companies of all sizes -- we're running payroll for companies with just 1 employee all the way up to 50+ employees. If your company operates outside of California, we may not be a good fit at the moment, since we only support California-based companies at the moment. However, we'll be adding multi-state support by the end of this quarter.

signed0 13y ago

The LinkedIn icons on your about page seem to be wrapping: http://imgur.com/wuOnXUb http://imgur.com/wuOnXUb - Retina MBP + Mountain Lion + Chrome

joshuareeves 13y ago
Thanks! We'll look into this.