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Comment by mathattack | Hacker News Reader

My understanding is that a big source of ADP's profits is their ability to make money on the float. [0] Does ZenPayroll do this too? I suspect it doesn't make sense at the current scale, but could be part of their valuation. Payroll is a great recurring revenue stream. Even with these new entrants, most firms keep the same provider for many years. (I don't pay great attention, but I don't recall ever having a paycheck come from someplace new within a given company)

[0] http://ww2.cfo.com/people/2013/04/how-adp-turns-payroll-into...

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We don't do this, as we're currently just 100% focused on building the best product possible for our customers.

Interesting - I've always assumed ZP does do this, because the lag between when you debit our account and when the employee's account gets credited seems to be pretty long (3-4 business days at least).

Is this just an artifact of ACH? What is it that causes it to take so long?

They did a great write-up on ACH actually: http://engineering.zenpayroll.com/how-ach-works-a-developer-...

Yup! Part 3 of the post explains why there is the lag:

http://engineering.zenpayroll.com/how-ach-works-a-developer-...

By the way, I hope no one minds if I insert a plug here: We're working on some very interesting ways to cut down this time in our engineering team and we're hiring on all fronts. Shoot me an email directly (in my HN profile) if you're interested in learning more!

Devops?

Shoot me an email. We have a growing Devops need!

Do you have integrated timecards? ADP does that, as well as payroll for us. (I looked at your site and didn't see anything.)

We have a number of great 3rd party time tracking software tools thats integrate well with ZenPayroll via our api. For example ,TSheets, WageBase, Nimble Schedule.

https://zenpayroll.com/integrations

What is an integrated timecard?

People are paid from what's on their timecard (aka timesheet) and job cost and billing is generated from the single source.

Ahh - got it!

Thanks for the response. My 2 cents... This will be a great bonus for you once you've grown. In the meantime, I think you're in an area ripe for disruption. ADP and Paychex are old companies with old technologies, processes and mindsets. It's like you're competing with GM or IBM. Good EPS management, but not the future. You'll grow fast, and what's the worst thing that happens? One of them buys you so the other won't.

Leaving a payroll provider can be difficult (especially if you have 401k, and other benefits tied into it). That said - it's worth switching to Zenpayroll. In my experience with Paychex and now Zenpayroll, Zenpayroll is a clear favorite.

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