What do you like best about ADP TotalSource?
We use ADP TotalSource regularly for payroll processing, time and attendance, employee onboarding, benefits administration, retirement plan administration, HR support, and compliance resources. The biggest value for us has been having all of these services available through a single PEO relationship, rather than managing separate vendors for each HR function.
In day-to-day use, the UI and overall experience are generally workable once you learn where everything lives. Managers can review timecards, run payroll, access reports, and manage employee information online. Employees can use the mobile app to view pay statements, access tax documents, review benefits, and manage basic account details on their own. That level of employee self-service reduces the number of routine requests our administrative team needs to handle. That said, navigation is not always intuitive, and moving between payroll, timekeeping, benefits, and reporting can take more steps than expected.
The integration between time and attendance and payroll is one of the most useful parts of the system. Employee hours flow into payroll, which reduces manual entry and helps us manage a workforce with different roles, schedules, pay rates, overtime rules, and paid-leave categories. The broader integration experience is more uneven. While ADP’s payroll, benefits, retirement, and HR services are connected under the TotalSource relationship, they can still operate like separate departments and require manual coordination.
Performance is generally reliable for routine payroll processing, even when we are reviewing a larger volume of employee timecards and pay records at once. Payroll calculations, direct deposits, pay statements, and standard reports are usually handled consistently. Where reliability has been weaker is in resolving unusual payroll or account issues. We have had problems stay open across multiple payroll cycles despite repeated follow-up.
Pricing reflects the breadth of services included in the PEO model, but our return on investment has been mixed. ADP provides payroll processing, benefits administration, HR guidance, compliance resources, reporting, and employee self-service tools, which reduces the need to maintain several completely separate systems. However, the overall cost is harder to justify when our internal team still has to spend significant time coordinating between departments or repeatedly following up on unresolved issues.
Onboarding provided the core training and resources we needed to get started. Ongoing support has varied depending on the representative. Some ADP contacts have been knowledgeable and extremely helpful, especially when we could reach someone already familiar with our account. Other issues have required multiple emails and escalation. The support experience would be stronger with clearer ownership, faster follow-up, and a single point of contact who can coordinate issues across payroll, benefits, billing, and HR.
I have not found ADP’s AI or intelligent automation to be a major source of value. Automated payroll calculations, reporting, employee notifications, and self-service features are helpful, but no specific AI-powered capability has stood out in our regular use. AI-based payroll anomaly detection, proactive error alerts, smarter account-specific search, and more intelligent support routing would be valuable improvements in the future. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What do you dislike about ADP TotalSource?
The biggest issue we have faced is the lack of transparency around pricing. Within the PEO model, there are multiple fees, charges, and recurring invoices that can be difficult to identify and reconcile. We pay certain fees calculated as a percentage of payroll, but the effective percentage has changed without a clear explanation or advance notice. When we asked for clarification, the answers were often vague or noncommittal, making it difficult to forecast costs and evaluate the true value of the service.
Administrative fees are also invoiced separately from payroll. We asked whether those invoices could be aligned with one of our regular payroll withdrawals to simplify reconciliation and cash-flow planning, but ADP was unwilling to accommodate the request.
When our benefits renewal came up, we were presented with a 26% increase and no meaningful alternative options. For comparison, another PEO provided an initial quote that was more than 33% lower. That difference reinforced our concern that we were not receiving competitive pricing or enough assistance exploring alternatives.
Reporting is another significant frustration. ADP offers a large number of reports, but the reporting interface is not intuitive. Creating even a relatively basic customized report can be unnecessarily complicated, and finding the correct fields, filters, and report type often feels like it requires specialized technical knowledge. The number of reporting options is impressive, but that does not provide much practical value when the tools are so difficult to navigate.
Customer support has also been inconsistent. Some representatives have been helpful, but complex issues often require repeated emails, multiple departments, and escalation. We have experienced payroll-related problems that remained unresolved across multiple payroll cycles, with limited proactive communication or clear ownership. Too much of the burden falls on the customer to continue following up and coordinating between ADP’s internal teams. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
