Workful is a beautifully designed, easy-to-use online payroll system that’s best suited for businesses with hourly employees due to its strong clock-punching tools. It can also support payroll for salaried employees, but not with as much depth and flexibility as our Editors’ Choice winners for payroll, Gusto for novices, OnPay for larger SMBs and those in vertical industries, and ADP Run for small businesses that are poised to grow quickly. Still, Workful is a good choice for a small business with modest payroll needs, such as a household paying a nanny, because it’s intuitive and simple, and it excels in areas like employee portals, time clock, and employer mobile access.How Much Does Workful Cost?Workful charges $35 per month as its base fee, plus $6 per worker per month. That price falls at the lower end of the payroll services. The Basic version of Patriot Software is the absolute cheapest, at $17 per month plus $4 per employee per month. SurePayroll, too, has a version that costs $19.99 per month plus $4 per employee per month. However, these two companies don’t submit payroll taxes for that price.
Gusto Plus is the most expensive, at $80 per month plus $12 per employee per month. Intuit QuickBooks Payroll Premium is $80 per month and $8 per month per employee, while OnPay is $40 per month plus $6 per employee per month.How Do You Get Started With Workful?A tool walks you through the setup process, asking for the information required, like payroll frequency and schedule, federal and state tax information, and your company bank account routing and account numbers. You may need assistance from Workful’s staff with some of this, especially if you have to supply payroll history.
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Some setup tasks are optional. For example, you can configure reimbursements for employee expenses and mileage and set up your connection to Intuit QuickBooks Online. You can also assign user permissions to managers, establish time-off policies, and designate parameters for employees who must punch a time clock (either through your company’s Wi-Fi network or within a certain distance from your office).Good (But Not Exceptional) Employee RecordsWorkful’s employee and contractor record forms are good. A step-by-step wizard helps you create new records that contain standard information like contact details, primary compensation types (such as hourly or salary), payment method, and W-4 data. You can choose from additional pay types, like bonus and commission, reimbursements, and holiday pay, and create your own. You can also create policies to calculate PTO hours, for example.
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Workful doesn’t act as a benefits broker as OnPay does. You enter the details for your own withholding options from a generous list, including medical, retirement plans, and garnishments, and Workful handles the background bookkeeping. Records are displayed on one lengthy page.How Do You Run a Payroll With Workful?Running payroll is easy, but Workful’s payroll tools aren’t as flexible and plentiful as most competitors. You can launch three types of payroll (regular, contractor, and off-cycle) and enter hours in four ways. Time clock hours are automatically added, as is the time from the Workful Time Station, an Android tablet-based time clock that integrates with the main application. You can also enter them manually or upload them from an Excel template.
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Every employee has a primary compensation type (hourly, salary), though you can add more compensation and pay types, like bonuses and overtime, during individual pay runs if you first establish them in the employee record. Unlike other payroll apps for small businesses, Workful devotes a separate page to time off rather than including it on the Hours & Earnings page. It also doesn’t display deduction withholdings there. You only see that information when you download a full summary of the pay run. The payroll summary page shows totals for withholdings and deductions, company taxes, and the final check amount. You can’t drill down on employee names anywhere in the payroll process to either consult records or see a breakdown of the current paycheck. Many competitors offer these options. Workful repeats this table after you’ve submitted your payroll, displaying the payroll total and list of checks to print.
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What’s It Like Using Workful?Workful has the simplest, cleanest user interface and navigation system of any payroll site I’ve reviewed. That’s due in part to the fact that it has a mobile-first design, and its feature set is not as robust as some of the competition. But it’s a pleasure to view and use. When you need help, you can search for words or phrases in Workful’s Help Center or browse through FAQs written for admins and team members. Where appropriate, these articles provide clearly written, step-by-step instructions with screenshots. Support is also available via chat, phone, and email.Like Square Payroll, Workful targets hourly workers who punch a clock, though it can also track salaried employees. Its well-integrated time clock functions and exceptionally simple design are its best features.
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Workful has 10 formatted reports, fewer than some competitors. They include Payroll Register Detail, Tax Liability, and Time Off/PTO. Most of them have minimal customization options, but you can download them in multiple formats, including PDF and CSV.Workful offers just enough standard HR tools to run a payroll, as I already mentioned, including new hire onboarding, document management (like employee handbooks and employee evaluations), and time-off policies.Employee Access to InfoI’ve been describing admin access to Workful here so far. Online payroll services also offer employee portals—password-protected websites where employees can access their information. Workful’s are as well-designed and easy to use as the admin sites, offering the employees’ personal profiles and other content like the time clock, time-off status, expense and mileage reimbursement requests, and pay stubs.Is Workful Safe to Use?Workful takes industry-standard measures to protect the personal information it collects. The company provides high-level types of security measures including, but not limited to, firewalls and protected facilities. Workful’s website uses SSL encryption to transmit sensitive information. The company maintains physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with applicable law and federal standards.Mobile Access Via Mobile Web BrowserIf you’re an admin, you’ll access Workful through your mobile web browser, which looks and works just like the desktop version. So you can do everything, including running a payroll. It just takes longer because of all the scrolling. Android and iOS apps are available for employees. They’re simple, intuitive, and attractive, though not as comprehensive as the employee web portal on a desktop browser.
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Is Workful Right for Your Business?Workful has some exceptional features, including its employee portal, time clock, and granular user permissions. It also has some deficits, like a lack of customizability, mobile employee apps that aren’t as fully featured as the desktop version, and pay runs that could be more flexible and data-rich. At least the user experience and help system make it exceedingly easy for novices to use. Workful is best suited to very small companies with hourly workers and modest payroll needs. If that doesn’t sound right for your business, we instead recommend Editors’ Choice winners Gusto for novices, OnPay for larger SMBs, and ADP Run for small businesses that are poised to grow quickly.
Pros
Reasonably priced
Clean, intuitive user experience
Built-in time clock supports geolocation
Suitable for very small payrolls, such as a nanny
Good employee portals
Excellent mobile access
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Cons
Payroll runs lack flexibility, access to supporting pages
Minimal HR tools
Unimpressive employee-side mobile apps
Only one third-party integration (QuickBooks Online)
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The Bottom Line
Workful is good at managing the payroll of employees who work on a time clock and also supports salaried workers, but it lacks the flexibility and access to supporting data some competitors offer.
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