7 Best HR Software for Small Business in 2019

Human resource software for small businesses manages multiple people processes, freeing business owners to focus on growing their companies. The best HR software helps employers track employee data starting with recruitment and hiring. For $3-$30 per employee, per month, all-in-one HR tools can manage benefits, payroll, and job performance with intuitive online software.

Top 7 Best HR Software for Small Businesses

How We Evaluated HR Software

Rather than evaluate human resource (HR) software that only has one main feature, such as software that helps with recruitment, manages leave balances, or keeps track of employee time, we looked at all-in-one HR software that has all of those features. We compared HR software that works throughout the employee life cycle, from hiring to termination.

Here are the HR features we prioritized in our evaluation:

• Price: Software that’s priced affordably for small businesses and startups.
• Ease of use: Tools that are relatively easy to set up and intuitive for employees.
• Employee data: Easy-to-use database that lets you report on employee information.
• Onboarding and employee self-service: Gives employees self-service access through a portal or app to view and update their own information.
• Affordable Care Act (ACA)-compliant benefits: Supports your company as you move past 50 employees or want to add healthcare, 401(k), and other benefits.
• Payroll processing: Built-in or integrated payroll processes so that HR data (like employee name, pay rate, and hours worked) passes seamlessly to your payroll system.
• Leave management: Tracks time off, like sick leave, while managing leave accruals and paid time-off (PTO) balances.
• Applicant tracking: Helps you source and hire employees through built-in functionality or integration.
• Performance management and compensation: Monitors and rewards employee performance with feedback, reviews, and bonuses.
• Employee scheduling: Helps you schedule and message workers in industries like healthcare, restaurants, retail, consulting, and services.

The software applications we choose as the best HR software for small businesses are those that tick most of the boxes and can streamline the HR side of your growing company. We choose Paycor as the best overall, all-in-one HR software that’s affordable—with all the features that a small business would need.

Paycor: Best Overall HR Software for Small Business

We recommend Paycor as the best overall HR software for small business due to its price and features such as employee self-service portal. It supports the entire employee life cycle —that means you’ll have one system to manage your recruitment, new hire onboarding, labor law compliance, payroll, benefits, time and attendance, performance management, and reporting needs.

Paycor provides integrated apps for businesses from 1 to 20,000 employees.

Paycor Pricing

Paycor doesn’t provide its pricing online, but it may cost as little as $6 per employee, per month for basic HR and payroll. It’s very affordable compared to larger HR information systems (HRIS) like SAP and Workday, yet can be used by even the smallest of businesses.

Paycor functions as a full-blown HRIS system. You can add features like ACA compliance reporting for about $2 per employee, per month, time and attendance for an extra $3 per employee, per month, or workers’ compensation for about $10 per payroll run. Each quote is personalized—your exact prices will vary based on the modules you choose.

Paycor Features

Paycor starts with recruiting software to help you hire the best employees. Then, it manages your hires from onboarding all the way through to payroll, reporting, and analytics. That saves you from having to “add on” additional HR software tools (like benefits administration) as your business grows and you hire more staff.

Paycor offers data visualization tools for reporting and analytics.

In addition, much of Paycor’s functionality is driven by workflow and electronic signatures. Therefore, you can get out of the business of filing paper HR documents. For example, if you offer benefits, Paycor provides a mobile app for employees to manage them online. In addition, setting up Paycor can be done in hours, not days or weeks like other HRIS software.

Recruiting & Hiring

Paycor offers a robust applicant tracking system designed by professional recruiters to manage your recruitment pipeline. Paycor will even help you find hiring tax credits available in your location to help offset your payroll tax liability. Once a candidate is hired, their data passes through to HR and payroll, so training can begin.

Onboarding & Training

With Paycor, onboarding is easy. It provides an employee handbook, electronic documentation, and all compliance forms such as I-9s and W-4s. In addition, Paycor contains a built-in learning management system (LMS) that allows you to assign and track employee training, such as your new hire orientation.

Time & Attendance

Paycor offers a time and attendance system that does more than manage clock-ins and outs. It provides labor costing metrics. Time worked data is integrated with payroll, saving you manual (or duplicate) data entry. Employees can clock in via mobile, web, or time clock, and they can manage their schedules using the mobile app. In fact, Paycor has recently added biometric facial recognition to its timekeeping function.

Payroll

Paycor’s payroll solution is its core strength. It’s built to catch errors and provides workflow and approvals as well as payroll tax integration for all 50 U.S. states. One benefit of Paycor is that you don’t have to add on the payroll widget (or any of its features) all at once, but it’s there.

Reporting

Paycor’s analytics lets you slice and dice any of the system data. You can create custom reports based on the business information you need to make decisions. It also contains standardized reports for quick access to information—so many, in fact, that they offer a keyword search function to find the report for which you’re looking. All reports can be customized.

Software Integrations

Further, files can be exported in case you want to share data with other systems, like charting software or mileage apps. You can also use one of Paycor’s many existing integrations. It interfaces with tax software, banks, insurance companies, recruiting firms, and retirement services. Paycor also provides a developer portal to build your own interfaces and an application program interface (API)—a kind of programming code.

Paycor Customer Support

Paycor provides support via email and phone. It offers a tool called “Solution Finder” as well as a help center and frequently asked questions (FAQs). Paycor also has 30 local business offices that work standard business hours based on the local time zone should you want to talk to someone nearby. In addition, they use customer feedback provided on their website chat to determine how best to improve their software.

What Paycor Is Missing

Paycor doesn’t offer a free trial or version of its software. It also doesn’t list pricing online. You will want to get all your questions asked and answered by the sales rep before you commit.

What Users Think About Paycor

We found that Paycor’s user reviews are quite positive on review sites. What users like most is that it’s an all-in-one solution. What users like least is that its customer support is based on the module you’re using, so some therefore have reported an inconsistent support experience.

How to Sign Up for Paycor

The best way to sign up for Paycor is to watch a demo, take a guided tour, or select the “contact us” button—all available on its website. Once you contact Paycor, one of their reps will schedule an interview and demo to find out the exact services your business needs. From there, you’ll receive a customized quote. Contact Paycor for a guided tour.

Visit Paycor

Zenefits: For Businesses Wanting to Offer Health Insurance

Zenefits was built to offer a wide range of employee benefits in addition to HR. Its HR software platform is solid in its own right, but if you’re a small business between five and 200 employees, you might find Zenefits is a great way to ensure compliance with the ACA. It’s priced similarly to Paycor and Gusto, and like Gusto, it includes benefits administration within the core HR software.

Zenefits offers employee health benefits as part of its HR platform.

Zenefits Pricing

Zenefits charges a monthly fee of $40 per month plus $6 per employee, per month. You can add additional HR features such as payroll for $6 extra per employee, per month, timekeeping and employee scheduling for $5 extra per employee, per month, or performance management for an extra $4 per employee, per month.

Zenefits Features

Zenefits HR software gives you an HR database with employee self-service and a mobile app. It offers benefits through a preferred broker program, and you can obtain workers’ compensation through a third party. Reporting and business analytics are included in the core HR package along with interfaces and an employee directory.

Zenefits provides easy-to-use HR software.

HR Portal

Zenefits HR portal gives your staff access to view their HR data (including online pay stubs if you upgrade to its payroll platform). Employees are able to view benefits information, which saves you time; they find their own answers online or via a mobile app. Zenefits’ org chart is also a nice touch to help your employees find coworker contact information through the HR software.

Time & Attendance

If you want to save time uploading data between your timekeeping software and your payroll provider, Zenefits offers all three modules. They’re integrated, so you can move the data from one application to the next without the hassle of downloading and uploading CSV files.

Zenefits Benefits

With Zenefits, you’ll have access to a wide array of benefit offerings for your employees—from health insurance plans to health savings accounts and more. Zenefits has partnered with hundreds of benefit providers and big health insurance companies so that you can do all of your comparison shopping on one website. Once you choose your plans, Zenefits manages employee enrollment through the HR portal, where your team members have access to their benefits data.

Payroll

Zenefits provides payroll at an extra cost. In addition, it offers you a payroll adviser (for an additional upcharge) who can help you set up your payroll processes and ensure they’re compliant with state labor laws. With Zenefits payroll, it’s easy to set up direct deposit options with online pay stubs for your staff.

Zenefits Customer Support

Zenefits has two tiers of customer support. All Zenefits users can access its customer service team weekdays from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Time. However, you can also pay for consulting services with a dedicated HR or payroll expert assigned to answer your questions.

What Zenefits Is Missing

Zenefits provides a solid HR database that works well for managing employees but not independent contractors. Also, it doesn’t manage 1099 worker data and payments like Gusto does. And, its benefits offerings are so extensive, it may take you a while to choose the best option for your business.

What Users Think About Zenefits

Zenefits was added to our list this year as its user reviews increased significantly. Our small business reviewers rate Zenefits in the 4.5 out of 5-star range, similar to ratings found on third-party software review sites.

How to Sign Up for Zenefits

The best way to get started with Zenefits is to choose from one of its free demo options. You can sign up for a demo account with little more than your email address—no credit card required. Sign up for your free 14-day trial.

Visit Zenefits

Zoho People: Best Free HR Software for Startups

We recommend Zoho People as the best HR software for startups because it’s free for up to five employees. In fact, it only costs $1 per employee, per month if you have six or more team members; this means it’s less expensive than Paycor and Zenefits—great for cash-strapped startups. In addition, Zoho People is part of a much larger suite of business software. Therefore, it’s a great place to look for business apps that integrate with your HR data as your company grows.

Zoho People provides a mobile app, making it easy for employees to use.

Zoho People Pricing

Zoho People is free if you have five or fewer employees, but don’t let the price fool you—it’s still a full-featured HR system that includes an employee database, recruiting, time and attendance, employee self-service, and leave management. Otherwise, Zoho costs range from $1 to $5 per employee, per month for monthly plans that include the features shown below.

Zoho People Pricing Table

Zoho People Features

Zoho People provides basic HR data, documents, workflow, and reports in its free package. You can then add on leave tracking, time and attendance, and performance management for an additional charge. Because Zoho is a small business-friendly enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, you also have the opportunity to add on related apps like Zoho Recruit (recruiting software) for as low as $22.50 per month billed annually.

In fact, Zoho’s suite of products includes sales, marketing, finance, and collaboration tools. They even have applications to manage your IT and help desk functions as well as help you create custom solutions for your specific business. Startup businesses that may need these types of software tools may find Zoho People to be a great starting point.

Employee Forms

Zoho People lets you create customized data entry forms for employees. The number of forms you receive is based on your package. In addition, it offers standardized forms to capture employee data, leave requests, training, and travel requests, as examples. The resulting data is then stored with the employee record, saving you from having to maintain separate paper employee files.

Time & Attendance

For an extra dollar per employee, per month, you can use Zoho People to keep track of employee time worked. This saves you from buying a time clock, manually adding up paper time sheets, or investing in another timekeeping application to gather your employees’ hours worked each pay period. The time tracking data can then be exported to your payroll system.

Performance Management

Zoho People’s performance management functions are one of the best we’ve seen in all-in-one HR software. Robust performance feedback tools are included in the Premium and Enterprise versions. You can set goals, identify key result areas, and give feedback to employees, including 360-degree feedback.

Zoho People offers a great tool for managing employee performance.

These performance tools make it easy for you and your managers to write periodic employee reviews using data and feedback from peers and direct reports. In addition, Zoho People tracks talent management aspects for each employee, keeping tabs on employee skills and competencies.

Software Integrations

Zoho People provides payroll integration with greytHR (UAE) and Paybooks (India). You can also create your own payroll integration for the software you already use, such as QuickBooks. In fact, Zoho People can integrate with just about any software through Zapier.

When you complete a workflow step in Zoho People, such as time approval for payroll, it can create a “zap” in Zapier to update your third-party software, such as payroll processing software like ADP, Patriot, Wave, or Gusto. Zoho People also integrates with all the other Zoho products, such as its CRM, project management, and analytics tools.

Zoho Recruit

Although it’s an extra $25 per user, per month when paid monthly, if you opt to use Zoho People, you can recruit new employees from the same platform. The Zoho Recruit add-on gives you a career website, links to premium job boards, and resume parsing so you can compare applicants side by side. That saves you from having to buy third-party recruiting software. Once you make a hiring decision, that person’s data can pass directly to Zoho People.

Zoho People Customer Support

You can submit a ticket online or send an email to get help from Zoho People. Paid subscribers can access customer support 24/5, Monday through Friday (24 hours a day). There’s also a knowledge base and a user community that can help you (and free software users) with routine questions.

What Zoho People Is Missing

Zoho People can link to other software through Zapier. However, none of Zoho People’s packages includes a U.S. payroll option. You’d need to find a free or paid payroll program to manage payroll processing and build the integration yourself.

What Users Think About Zoho People

Our research showed that Zoho People has solid ratings, similar to Paycor’s. People like how customizable it is. In addition, users rate other Zoho products highly. However, those new to HR may find themselves on a steep learning curve because there are so many features to learn.

How to Sign Up for Zoho People

The best way to get started with Zoho People is to sign up for a free account and test it out with sample data from a few of your employees. Zoho People remains free if you only have five team members. Otherwise, Zoho People offers a free trial. Check out Zoho People free for 15 days.

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ONEMINT: Best HR Software for Global Small Businesses

ONEMINT is best for global small businesses, particularly in complex industries like healthcare and food service. It’s priced only a bit higher than Zoho People but includes payroll in that price, making it super affordable. It has the additional advantage of working well for businesses with a global workforce in terms of HR and talent management, because it offers those features worldwide.

ONEMINT has an intuitive, tabbed-based interface.

ONEMINT Pricing

ONEMINT costs between $7 and $10 per employee, per month based on company size, feature set, and your negotiation skills. That makes it on par with Paycor, but pricier than Zoho People for U.S. users. Of course, ONEMINT’s price includes payroll; you don’t have to add on a payroll system at an extra cost like you would with Zoho People or BambooHR.

ONEMINT also charges a setup fee based on the number of employees. For example, to set up the system for 25 employees, it would cost $500. However, it’s possible that representatives could reduce or eliminate the setup fee based on contract negotiations.

ONEMINT Features

Unlike some HR software that cobbles together various tools, ONEMINT is designed as a single database. That means there aren’t going to be interface issues between different parts of the software, such as HR and benefits or benefits and payroll. In other words, it’s not a roll-up of other software that has been bolted on over time. It’s been designed as one interconnected system.

ONEMINT combines all these HR features in one application.

All-in-One System

ONEMINT includes HR, benefits, and payroll. It also has workforce management, such as timekeeping and scheduling. It includes talent management with recruiting, promotions, and incentives. It even does succession planning, training, and certifications. Therefore, it fits the bill as all-in-one HR software, with security configurations that let you control who has access to what.

Employee Self-service

The ONEMINT system can be configured to allow approvals and workflow in all areas, from employee performance reviews to time cards. In fact, typically difficult-to-manage features, such as benefits enrollment, can be pushed to employees through self-service options that let workers set up benefits without requiring the help of their manager or HR.

Reporting

With all the data in one system, your reporting becomes easy. Depending on the different modules purchased (HR, payroll, time and attendance, scheduler, ACA, benefits), there are over 100 standard reports. Reports can also be created on the fly from nearly any screen with the custom report builder.

Software Integrations

ONEMINT integrates with benefits, tax, and banking vendors, as well as QuickBooks. And it has an API option similar to Paycor in case you want to connect your data to third-party applications like expense tracking or a QuickBooks alternative for accounting. ONEMINT’s software consultants can help you set up these integrations.

ONEMINT Customer Support

ONEMINT provides customer support via phone and email from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time (extended hours are offered for Premiere packages) on Mondays through Fridays. You can choose to send a request for help on its website. In addition, ONEMINT offers self-help articles and interactive tutorial guides for customers to access 24/7.

What makes ONEMINT stand out regarding support is that when you contact their team, you’re getting an expert from their development staff. The same people who build and maintain the software are the ones who provide you with customer support. Support staff typically respond to requests within two hours.

What ONEMINT Is Missing

Currently, ONEMINT only offers payroll in the U.S. and its territories. Payroll services are not offered globally. Only the HR and talent management aspects of the software are designed for global use. That means non-U.S. global firms will have to set up their own payroll software interface.

What Users Think About ONEMINT

There are great (albeit few) online reviews for ONEMINT because it’s just a few years old. This is an up-and-comer that may be perfect to support an international small business. We hope to add our own review of ONEMINT in the coming months.

How to Sign Up for ONEMINT

The best way to get started with ONEMINT is to sign up for a demo of the software. You can do that by choosing “book a demo” from the website or by scheduling your demo using its website chatbot. ONEMINT does not offer a free trial.

Visit ONEMINT

Gusto: Best for Businesses Under 50 Employees

Gusto is best for small businesses that want a basic and affordable HR software option with payroll and benefits included. Gusto is designed as payroll software; however, its HR and benefits offerings are so robust, and its price so reasonable ($45 monthly for one employee), that we’d be remiss in excluding it from our list of best HR software for small businesses. Gusto provides HR, onboarding, benefits, e-signature, leave management, payroll, and reports.

Gusto provides all-in-one HR, payroll, benefits, and reports.

Like ONEMINT, Gusto includes self-service so your employees don’t have to come to you with basic HR needs, like requests for copies of prior period paychecks, questions about the amount of their dental copay, or the total paid time-off (PTO) hours they have left. Employees can find this information for themselves using the mobile-optimized website.

Gusto Pricing

Gusto’s pricing is transparent. It starts with a base price of $39 per month. On top of that, you’ll pay $6 per month per employee or contractor. Everything from HR—onboarding, e-signing of documents, document storage, ACA compliance benefits, and payroll—is included at that price. Tax filings are also included at no extra cost.

Gusto Features

Gusto’s HR software contains an employee database, online forms, e-signature, and an employee handbook (or a template you can use to create one). When you hire an employee, it has self-service onboarding, so the employee can complete and sign documents like W-4s and I-9s electronically. It also provides integrations to popular business, payroll, point-of-sale (POS), and timekeeping software.

Gusto lets employees complete and e-sign new hire forms online.

Gusto also does payroll. It’s included in the price. When you’re ready, Gusto offers benefits such as health insurance and 401(k), all integrated into one software package. Again, the service is included, but your employees (or you) will have to pay the premiums.

If you need timekeeping, Gusto provides an interface to free time and attendance, scheduling, and employee messaging software, Homebase. In fact, by interfacing with Homebase, you’ll get job postings and an applicant tracking system, all for free.

New Hire Onboarding

New hire onboarding is so intuitive. You input the employee information, including the employee’s email address, and they’ll receive a welcome link. Then, they onboard themselves, review and sign documents electronically, and receive reminders such as where to report or park on their first day. In fact, if you use Indeed, you can import new hire data directly into Gusto.

Employee Benefits

Many small businesses think they can’t afford or aren’t large enough to obtain employee benefits, but with Gusto, it’s easy. Gusto is an insurance broker as well as an HR and payroll vendor. Therefore, it provides all kinds of health benefits to firms with as few as one employee, saving you the trouble of looking for benefits providers or waiting until you have more staff. Here are the states where Gusto currently offers health insurance benefits.

Employee Self-service

Employee self-service is proven to save you time. Employees can find their own pay stub or their own copay insurance amounts. They can add a dependent (e.g., new child or spouse) and make other personal changes online without ever having to get you involved. Similar to Paycor and ONEMINT, employee self-service with Gusto puts employee information at their fingertips.

Payroll

Unlike Zoho People, payroll and taxes are built right in with Gusto. In that sense, it’s more similar to ONEMINT, Zenefits, and Paycor. Each payroll cycle, Gusto calculates both employer and employee payroll taxes and makes the payments to the correct federal, state, or local agency on your behalf. It also manages your contract workers and 1099 payments.

Gusto Customer Support

Gusto provides support by phone, live chat, and email from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. There’s also a support center with video guides and helpful articles.

What Gusto Is Missing

Although you can set up interfaces, Gusto currently doesn’t offer applicant tracking and recruiting tools to find employees. However, you can interface it with a free ATS like Indeed or Homebase. If you already have a review form and process, Gusto allows you to store your ratings and review form templates, but it doesn’t provide a performance management module.

What Users Think About Gusto

We consistently see top ratings from Gusto user reviews. It’s perfect for small businesses that love its design and self-service options. Some users feel they outgrow the software after reaching about 100 employees, so it’s best for smaller firms.

How to Sign Up for Gusto

Unlike many other HR software and payroll services, you don’t have to sit through a sales pitch to sign up with Gusto. You can try the software free for 30 days by answering a few questions about your business. That way you get to try it before you buy it. You can even run your first payroll for free. Get your free 30-day trial.

Visit Gusto

BambooHR: Best HR Software for Compliance-focused HR Professionals

We recommend BambooHR as the best HR software for human resource staff focused on compliance. It offers a built-in applicant tracking system and recruitment software, plus customized onboarding for new employees. All of those features include workflows and approvals. That’s important for a business that wants to monitor their labor law compliance, such as ensuring its hiring practices are fair.

BambooHR employee interface.

BambooHR Pricing

Bamboo no longer publishes its prices online. In the past, it cost about $8 per employee, per month, which was in the same range as Gusto, ONEMINT, Zenefits, and Paycor, although much more expensive than Zoho People. In addition, BambooHR charges a setup fee that can be between $250 and $2,000. That’s a hefty premium to pay if you just have a few employees.

BambooHR Features

BambooHR is an all-in-one HR software that includes features like recruitment, applicant tracking, and onboarding. You can add on performance management for about $1 per month extra per employee. Payroll processing is not included. However, it manages time off, which employees can request via mobile app, as well as asset tracking.

Recruiting

BambooHR integrates recruiting within its own HR software. Once you select an applicant, you can move their data directly into your HR system. In addition, BambooHR’s recruiting software provides a full applicant tracking system, from job board posting and employer branding to an easy-to-use online job application form for candidates to apply.

BambooHR provides a full applicant tracking system as part of its HR suite.

Employee Self-service

BambooHR saves your employees and your HR staff time. It provides self-service, ensuring employees can check their own PTO balances, find their benefits information, and know who is out of the office. That prevents them from calling or emailing you with routine questions. For instance, employees can submit time-off requests and even look up coworker contact information in an employee directory.

Performance Management

BambooHR has all of the tools—from annual employee reviews to ongoing feedback—that allow you to manage workplace performance. It’s all built into their HR system. You no longer have to develop reviews on paper and track down whether evaluations have been done or not. It’s features like this that make BambooHR best for professional HR staff. It saves them and you time.

Software Integrations

BambooHR offers integrations with time clocks, org charts, payroll, scheduling, benefits, 401(k) vendors, and employee praise apps. In comparison, Paycor, Zenefits, and ONEMINT have those features baked into their HR software.

BambooHR Customer Support

BambooHR provides support Monday through Friday by phone, email, and online chat. Its customer service hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mountain Time.

What BambooHR Is Missing

The biggest downside of BambooHR is the hefty setup fee, which software like Zoho People and Gusto don’t charge. In addition, it doesn’t offer payroll or benefits in its HR software like many of the other HR software for small businesses do.

What Users Think About BambooHR

Our research showed that BambooHR has good ratings on online review sites. It appears to be liked most by HR practitioners who enjoy having a streamlined workflow. Novice HR practitioners and users requiring customer support aren’t as complimentary.

How to Sign Up for BambooHR

The best way to get started with BambooHR is to check out its free 14-day trial. Bamboo HR offers its platform only on a month-to-month subscription basis only, so there are no annual discounts. Sign up for your free trial of BambooHR.

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Namely: Best HR Software for Customization & Integrations

Namely targets mid-sized companies and is priced two to three times higher than the other all-in-one HR software we reviewed. However, for complete integration across the entire HR life cycle, it does it all, including payroll. It also lets you to customize and tailor everything from dashboards to data entry forms to fit your business processes and employment brand.

Namely’s user interface is clean, practical, and customizable.

Besides an employee database, Namely provides a way to communicate with employees via a news feed. You can also view org charts, manage user roles, set up workflows, manage your company calendar, and store all your important company resource documents (such as your employee handbook, standard forms, and job manuals) in one place.

Namely Pricing

In order to get accurate pricing for Namely, you have to contact them for a quote. Third-party sites indicate that the pricing ranges from $15 to $30 per employee, per month, which is much higher than the other options we reviewed. They also have a setup fee similar to BambooHR and ONEMINT. The setup fee is based on the number of staff you have and can range from $50 to $100 per employee.

Namely Features

Namely offers every HR feature an HR professional would want to automate. It allows your HR team to customize the software, from org charts to employee profiles. It also has a mobile app to ensure you and your employees have access to the data they need from anywhere. Custom workflows are one of the features that can save your staff time and ensure compliance by making sure everything, from time-off requests to bonuses, is approved.

Namely does HR, benefits, payroll, talent management, onboarding, performance reviews, and timekeeping. It adds one additional feature the others don’t offer, managed services, that allows you to pay to have someone else manage HR and all these tasks on your behalf.

Dashboard

Namely provides dashboards for different functions, such as timekeeping. Additionally, it has a dashboard to monitor staff activities. These all-in-one screens give you and your employees quick access to the HR data they need, whether you’re monitoring performance reviews or verifying hours worked.

Example of Namely timekeeping dashboard.

Software Integrations

In addition to being able to customize Namely, you can integrate it with just about any kind of software you use. Examples include applicant tracking systems (ATS), e-signature, benefits, single sign on (SSO), international payroll, and more. In fact, it appears Namely provides more preconfigured integration options than any of the other HR software we reviewed.

Reporting & Analytics

Namely provides all kinds of standardized reports, such as employee, salary, headcount, open position, and payroll reports. You can customize them and manage the data you prefer to view on your dashboard.

Managed Services

The managed services option removes you from the business of coordinating HR and payroll. For a fee, Namely manages everything from benefits enrollment to labor compliance reports on your behalf. Namely can serve as your employee service center and provide employment verification. These services mimic what a professional employer organization (PEO) provides. For comparison, here’s an article that compares Namely to a PEO.

Namely Customer Support

Both you and your employees can contact Namely by phone or email, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time for help using their system. However, to protect your business, Namely won’t provide confidential employee information over the phone. Representatives advise employees to contact you instead.

What Namely Is Missing

In addition to being pricey, Namely takes eight to 12 weeks to implement. That’s because Namely’s team is customizing it to fit your needs. And since it doesn’t provide pricing online, you’ll have to navigate through a sales pitch to get an accurate quote for your business.

What Users Think About Namely

Users on Namely review sites generally rate Namely 4 out of 5 stars. Price seems to be a big deterrent, as well as some integration issues between Namely’s HR and payroll functions.

How to Sign Up for Namely

To sign up for Namely, you’ll need to select the “Get Started” option on its menu and request a demo. Just fill out a short form and a representative will contact you. Sign up for your free demo.

Visit Namely

Alternatives to HR Software for Small Business

HR software covers a huge range of applications from timekeeping to performance management. If the all-in-one HR software options above don’t suffice, consider these alternatives below:

Bottom Line

HR software helps you manage the people side of your business. You can get some HR software for free, but others cost as much as $30 per employee, per month depending on company size and the services you want (e.g., recruiting, payroll, or training). The best HR software for small business ensures you remain compliant with federal labor laws (anti-discrimination and overtime, as examples); they also improve productivity, monitor workers on the job, and offer benefits.

If you’re looking for a modularized approach, where you pay only for the components you need, you may want to consider Paycor. It provides HR data, templates, benefits, payroll, reports, and leave tracking. And when you’re ready for the training or performance management components, you can add those on. Contact Paycor for a demo and quote.

Visit Paycor