--- title: Sage HCM Reviews meta_title: 'Sage HCM Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 21 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Sage HCM works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.4 review_count: 21 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-10-03' parent_category: name: HR url: https://www.g2.com/categories/hr ---

Sage HCM Pros and Cons: Top 5 Advantages and Disadvantages

Quick AI Summary Based on G2 Reviews

Generated from real user reviews

Users commend the exceptional customer support of Sage HCM, highlighting quick responses and continuous improvements based on feedback. (7 mentions)
Users appreciate the high configurability of Sage HCM, allowing effective adaptation to unique business needs and rules. (6 mentions)
Users appreciate the ease of use of Sage HCM, finding it simplifies HR tasks effectively and efficiently. (5 mentions)
Users value the exceptional customer support of Sage HCM, which enhances their overall satisfaction with the product. (5 mentions)
Users appreciate the efficient payroll processing of Criterion HCM, enhancing accuracy and simplifying HR tasks across the board. (5 mentions)
Users find limited customization challenging, as adjustments can be time-consuming and often inflexible for specific needs. (2 mentions)
Users report slow loading times in Sage HCM, causing occasional lag and minor disruptions in their workflow. (2 mentions)
Users experience software glitches with Sage HCM, causing issues with important data and overall system performance. (2 mentions)
Users report time clock issues and occasional system lag, impacting overall efficiency and user experience. (2 mentions)
Users experience system glitches in Criterion, which can alter important data and disrupt functionality. (1 mentions)

5 Pros or Advantages of Sage HCM

5 Cons or Disadvantages of Sage HCM

Ini E.
IE
Ini E.
Payroll Supervisor
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"Sage HCM Streamlined Union Payroll, Reporting, and Self-Service HR"
4.5/5
What do you like best about Sage HCM?

Sage HCM has been an excellent HR and payroll platform for our company. The seamless integration of both modules makes for an efficient, productive experience.

Union support was a critical feature in our search for new payroll software, since we work with over 20 different unions. Sage HCM makes handling union rates and deductions relatively simple. When evaluating competitors before choosing Sage, I found that many lacked a sophisticated way of handling union complexity. We use Sage's certified rate table to host all union rates—each union has its own entry, and we can keep a history of rates as new ones come in each year. There's a learning curve to get everything set up, but it's clear that union support is a priority for Sage and not an afterthought.

We process payroll in-house, and Sage makes it easy to go from starting a batch to downloading an ACH file for bank import. It also supports printing manual checks. Being able to create and complete batches quickly matters, because situations occasionally come up—mainly terminations—where we're given little notice and need to cut a check fast.

We also integrate with Acumatica, our accounting software, so project information syncs automatically from Acumatica to Sage. This lets employees select the correct project on their timesheets, which ultimately gives us good job-cost data. The integration took a little longer than expected to configure correctly, but it has definitely been worth it.

Sage has been reliable—I can't recall any downtime of consequence. When I have questions or issues, I'm confident the support team will resolve them promptly. We generally work with the same handful of agents, who are all knowledgeable and helpful. I usually receive an initial response within 24 hours, often sooner; tickets that require developer support can take longer.

As our company's administrator, I've also found Sage HCM's data grid valuable for creating custom reports, which is important when finance or other departments need data that isn't in one of the many stock reports.

Overall, Sage HCM helped us transition from antiquated payroll software to a platform that offers employees self-service and online timesheet submission. This has empowered employees to access their own payroll information while decreasing the administrative load on our payroll and HR departments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Sage HCM?

I’ve found that you do have to pay attention to Sage’s built-in tax engine. I haven’t run into issues with incorrect tax rates overall, but there have been occurrences where the tax engine applied the wrong local tax based on an employee’s address. As a result, local tax was withheld when it shouldn’t have been.

Local taxes, in particular, can be very complex to determine, since it’s possible for two people living on the same street to fall into different tax districts. At the employee level, there is a way to override the local tax rate, which helps when this comes up.

My other dislikes are mostly technical issues or design decisions I’ve noticed within Sage HCM. These include updates to tax reports, org charts, and the data grid. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

JN
JP N.
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"Streamlined Payroll with Room for Improvement"
3.5/5
What do you like best about Sage HCM?

I like how quickly you can access data and how you can pull reports or prior payrolls to see trends. I also like how automated everything is, and how Sage HCM syncs to our ERP, so people aren't having to use two platforms. They can enter the time in the ERP, and Sage HCM pulls it all in, does what it needs to do, and then spits out a GL entry. This makes the payroll process quick and easy to run with less chances of human error. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Sage HCM?

It doesn't handle workers' comp, especially in Canada as well as I would have liked. I feel like it's lacking in certain specific Canadian remittances. It also lacks a little bit in the year-end preps, especially if you have employees that work in multiple provinces, as it doesn't do the greatest job of splitting out their income by province. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Grace C.
GC
Grace C.
Coordinator of Internal Operations
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Effortless Expense Management with Sage HCM"
5/5
What do you like best about Sage HCM?

I like the ability to take a picture of the receipt and text it to the Sage number, which attaches it to the expense. It's extremely easy to use and is set up for easy use by the rest of our organization to submit their reports efficiently. I also like the ability for it to grab amounts and select expenses that belong on the report, which cuts down on receipts needed for proof of purchase and eliminates steps to upload and attach them to the correct expense. The initial setup of Sage HCM was easy. I was recently hired and trained to use it—and have trained other employees to do the same—and I also got them set up with the receipt texts and added the Sage extension to their email. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Sage HCM?

there is nothing I dislike about sage. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Roopam s.
RS
Roopam s.
Executive - Recruitment & Delivery
Staffing and Recruiting
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"Keeps Employee Info and HR Processes Perfectly Organized and makes HR work more organized"
4.5/5
What do you like best about Sage HCM?

it keeps all employees information and hr processes in one place, which make day to day work much easier and more organized Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Sage HCM?

sometimes navigation can feel a little complex for first time users but overall its a good system Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Rukundo d.
RD
Rukundo d.
Information Security Analyst
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"Seamless Sage API Integration with Internal Platforms"
4.5/5
What do you like best about Sage HCM?

API integration of Sage with any internal platforms that a company uses. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Sage HCM?

The visuals are very dull, and would use an improvement in the UI/UX. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ajith K.
AK
Ajith K.
"Unified, Customizable Payroll Platform with Stellar Support"
5/5
What do you like best about Sage HCM?

I appreciate how Criterion HCM facilitates payroll processing, making it quicker, more accurate, and less manual. Its ability to handle complex pay calculations and ensure tax compliance across multiple jurisdictions is particularly impressive. I value its unified architecture and how it acts as our single platform for all HR, payroll, and benefits, as well as time and attendance needs, negating the need for integration with other tools. The system's high configurability suits unique business rules well, especially for mid-market companies like ours. I am truly impressed by the dedicated, responsive, and high-quality customer support from Criterion HCM, which contrasts favorably with our previous experience with an enterprise provider. The initial setup process was intuitive and well-managed, allowing us to smoothly transition despite our complex HR needs. Criterion HCM proves to be a powerful, stable, and truly unified system that has effectively resolved our most intricate payroll and compliance challenges. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Sage HCM?

I have experienced occasional slowness or lagging within the Criterion HCM system, although it's not a major issue. Additionally, I have faced some time clock issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

EW
Ericka W.
Benefits and Leave Manager
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"Quick, Helpful Support Team That Resolves Issues Fast"
4/5
What do you like best about Sage HCM?

The quick response team that assist with questions and resolutions when an issue arises. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Sage HCM?

Sometimes, resolutions of in task developments take too long when we need a fast solution to continue doing business. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Construction
AC
Verified User in Construction
Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
"Easy, Humanized Experience with Great Mobile Access—Reporting Needs Work"
3.5/5
What do you like best about Sage HCM?

Easy to use. and so humanized. The greatest part is mobile access Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Sage HCM?

reporting, and access to my employee info. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Kelsea S.
KS
Kelsea S.
Accounting Outsourcing Manager
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"Helpful for Organizing Unpopular Client Tasks, but Could Be More User-Friendly"
3/5
What do you like best about Sage HCM?

Organizes tasks the clients typically don’t enjoy most. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Sage HCM?

Not as user friendly as some competitor products. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

NH
Nicole H.
HCM Implementation Consultant
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"Streamlined, Customizable, and Surprisingly Easy"
5/5
What do you like best about Sage HCM?

I’ve worked with a wide range of HCM solutions throughout my career, and Criterion HCM truly stands out as a scalable, user-friendly, and highly configurable platform that meets the complex demands of modern HR operations.

I first implemented Criterion in my role as an HR Generalist at a social services organization with approximately 250 employees. We were a lean HR team managing a high volume of transactional, reactionary, and compliance-related tasks. Adopting Criterion allowed us to operationalize efficiency by leveraging workflow automation, self-service functionality, and role-based access controls. The platform enabled us to decentralize HR processes, empowering managers and employees to own their experience and access information that mattered to them.

Payroll was previously a highly manual, time-consuming process that left little room for flexibility or transparency. As a result, we were effectively locked into a rigid compensation structure that didn’t reflect the nuanced contributions of our employees or allow for differentiated rewards. This not only created inefficiencies, but also contributed to a perception that compensation wasn’t aligned with performance or value. With Criterion, we were able to automate payroll processes, apply complex pay rules, and generate real-time visibility into how employees worked and got paid, enabling the ability to be more equitable and responsive.

Over the past three years, I’ve moved into an HCM Implementation Consultant role doing implementations of Criterion every day, and remain impressed by its flexibility and effectiveness across industries.

Overall, Criterion HCM strikes the perfect balance between functionality and flexibility. It’s a robust system that scales with your organization and enables HR to move from administrative execution to strategic impact. If you're looking to reduce administrative burden, enhance employee experience, and modernize your HRIS ecosystem—Criterion delivers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Sage HCM?

Because Criterion is so flexible and open-ended, a strong implementation team is essential. If you're not clear on your internal processes or don’t have the right support, you might miss opportunities to fully optimize the system. Fortunately, once it’s set up properly, it runs beautifully. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Brett Schklar of Sage HCM

We're thrilled to hear that Criterion HCM has had such a positive impact on your HR operations and payroll processes. Thank you for sharing your experience and highlighting the platform's scalability, user-friendliness, and configurability. We're committed to providing a solution that empowers HR teams to streamline their processes and make a strategic impact. Thank you for being a part of the Criterion HCM Success!