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Rippling Vs UKG: An In-Depth Comparison

Rippling Vs UKG: An In-Depth Comparison

By Usama Rafique ·

Jan 29, 2025 · 7 mins Read

Implementing human resources (HR) software in an organization can significantly enhance workflow efficiency and productivity. 69% of companies reported a reduction in time spent on payroll processing, while 25% noted improved compliance implementation.

Rippling and UKG are two software that can help automate HR processes and save time, significantly impacting the bottom line. However, it's only possible with proper software selection.

That’s why we have put together this Rippling Vs UKG guide, where we have compared their essential features like payroll and scheduling, to help you make a better decision when making a purchase for your company.

Rippling Vs UKG: At A Glance

Features	Rippling	UKG
Payroll	Synchronized global payroll	Global payroll and third-party payments on behalf of employees
Time And Attendance	Time-tracking integrated with payroll	Tracks time for full-time and hourly employees
Scheduling	Custom schedules and cost analysis	AI-powered staffing predictions
Analytics And Reporting	Centralized data and visualization tools	350+ report designs, sentiment analysis, and labor analysis
Compliance	COBRA payment management and access to forms like 1094-C and 1095-C	Tax filing for 8000+ tax codes and access to forms like W-2s and 1099s

What Is Rippling?

Rippling HR is a comprehensive HR solutions provider that offers both tools and services to streamline business processes. Its offerings include custom schedules, time-tracking features, automated payroll, and more. The platform is ideal for medium- to large-sized businesses due to its scalability and international payroll capabilities.

Unique Features Of Rippling

Pay Run Comparison: Enable administrators to compare current payroll with previous ones to identify changes in deductions and wages
Recipe Library: An in-built library that offers pre-built reporting templates to help managers present data in an ideal format
Compensation Bands: Enforces compensation bands throughout the onboarding process and highlights any deviations
Headcount Planning: Helps HR view newly onboarded employees and their salaries, create hiring plans, and share them with others to keep up with the staffing requirements

Pros And Cons Of Rippling

Pros

Its integrated and synchronized features help a lot in streamlining intricate processes
The software can easily be used on a laptop, PC, phone, or tablet, allowing employees to access it anytime, anywhere
Rippling’s pre-defined workflows help assign tasks at the start of the shift to ensure employees complete them on time

Cons

Due to its extensive features, Rippling can be overwhelming, especially for people who are not familiar with HR software
The mobile app access must be approved by the admin before employees can start using it.

What Is UKG?

UKG Software is a cloud-based HR solution that offers workforce management tools and services for greater efficiency and productivity. The platform provides a suite of solutions, including reporting, scheduling, and time-tracking, that significantly help HR professionals save time on repetitive tasks and provide a better employee experience.

Unique Features Of UKG

UKG Pro Giving: Employees can donate to listed charity campaigns from within the platform, leading to enhanced employee engagement and fulfillment
HR Compliance Assist: Offers insights into data privacy and compliance requirements in over 40 countries, including the US, the UK, Australia, France, and Japan
UKG Bryte AI: UKG’s own AI tool that analyzes large datasets, creates job descriptions, helps plan schedules and more
Great Place To Work Hub: Utilizes extensive research, employee feedback, and company data to foster a company culture that boosts growth

Pros And Cons Of UKG

Pros

The dashboard makes it easy to access pay stubs, paid time off, and benefits data
Sends alerts when users try to change certain processes or company information
Employees can easily review information like vacations and pay cheques, which eliminates unnecessary back and forth with HR

Cons

The mobile app might not work well on low-end devices
Some of the offered integrations aren’t that helpful

Rippling Vs UKG – Key Features Comparison

Payroll

Rippling offers both local and global payroll capabilities with complete country-specific compliance. It allows businesses to hire and pay employees anywhere without worrying about dealing with fluctuating labor laws.

Companies can easily grant permissions to relevant people to take actions like approving, viewing, or even creating new pay runs. Users can run as many payroll cycles as they want, giving them the flexibility to pay a diverse workforce easily.

Its payroll feature is synced with internal features like benefits, time management, and expense management, ensuring all changes are updated in real time.

UKG offers multi-country payroll and processes all manual calculations on the user's behalf, helping them save time and navigate complex processes.

The payroll functionality offers detailed insights into each payroll run, such as payroll history, deductions, and other relevant data in one place. This helps businesses plan their growth accordingly by having a bigger picture of how company resources are being used.

With UKG’s payment services, organizations can delegate repetitive and time-consuming tasks to experts. This service automates and manages third-party payments on behalf of an organization’s employees, allowing them to be more productive.

Winner: Rippling wins as it offers global payroll capabilities that are synced with other internal functionalities such as time-tracking and expense management.

Time And Attendance

Rippling’s time and attendance tracking features are synced with its payroll. This means it’ll automatically take employee hours and add them to payroll calculations. This saves HR professionals a lot of time and eliminates manual data entry and potential errors associated with it.

The platform ensures that organizations comply with local laws regarding employee mealtime breaks and overtime to manage billable employee hours effectively. Furthermore, the software also streamlines manual work by routing timecards approval to managers before the final payroll submission.

UKG allows businesses to conveniently track time and attendance for their full-time and hourly employees. It saves managers from doing separate calculations for hourly employees and simplifies the payroll process later. The software also enables employees to easily check in and register their working hours accurately.

It also offers detailed absence data management, allowing managers to check trends such as planned leaves and extended absences. These insights enable organizations to take necessary measures for boosting workforce productivity.

Winner: Rippling takes the lead because its time-tracking features are synced with payroll, saving businesses from manual data entry.

Scheduling

Rippling empowers businesses to create and manage custom schedules based on ongoing requirements. The platform offers intuitive tools and controls that give managers the ability to drag and drop, copy shifts, set schedule patterns, and add breaks to their schedules.

Admin can assess scheduled shifts and review the ones costing them the most. Factoring in each shift’s cost allows organizations to plan schedules effectively while staying within their budget.

UKG leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to help companies predict their future staffing requirements by analyzing past trends. This accurate forecasting allows them to create custom schedules to fulfill their requirements without overburdening their workforce.

Employees can identify their shift preferences and availability so that managers can assign shifts to enhance work life balance. This flexibility significantly enhances employee satisfaction, eventually leading to more productivity. Additionally, employees can view their scheduled shifts from a mobile device, ensuring there are no missed shifts.

Winner: UKG is the clear winner as it utilizes AI for accurate staff forecasting that helps with efficient scheduling.

Analytics And Reporting

Rippling centralizes company data and presents it in a simple yet detailed manner. Users can apply filters to gain access to department and team-wise information from specific dates. This data set helps managers review team performances and suggest strategies for improvements. The platform also connects all data points within an organization, allowing multiple departments to access and share information for deeper insights and better decision-making.

It also enables users to visualize stats using scatter plots, graphs, bubble charts, and more. It helps stakeholders better comprehend scattered information and implement company-wide strategies for innovation.

UKG equips managers with a range of analytics and reporting tools. Managers can use these tools to conduct sentiment analysis, labor analysis, labor expense analysis, and more. These data-backed reports help analyze individual team performance and identify areas that could be improved.

The platform offers 350+ report designs, allowing managers to present the data in the most appropriate format. Furthermore, they can visualize the information using pie charts, sheets, bar graphs, and more.

The customizable KPI dashboard shows how well different teams, departments, and employees are performing. It enables administrators to get real-time visibility on collective team efforts.

Tie: UKG wins since it offers a wide range of tools and features, including pre-built reports, sentiment analysis, and a KPI dashboard.

Compliance And Legal Requirements

Rippling has pre-built compliance policies that are automatically updated in real-time to ensure businesses stay compliant with recent regulatory changes.

In terms of benefits administration, it handles an organization’s COBRA payments and sends timely ACA notices to ensure important tasks are not delayed. The system keeps track of any change in policies on a state and federal level. It also files forms like 1094-C and 1095-C, generates documents like Section 125 POP, and distributes SPDs.

Additionally, the software is certified by local taxation authorities in supported countries and submits payroll taxes on time.

UKG provides a detailed and centralized compliance dashboard, allowing managers to promptly respond to requests like data erasure and data portability. Being able to respond to these requests properly and on time helps businesses stay away from legal complications.

The software’s ‘Automated Tax Lookup’ feature uses geo-location technology to recommend employee tax rates based on an employee's location. It could save HR professionals a lot of time and effort, especially during wage calculations.

Its tax filing services help manage and file taxes for more than 8000 tax codes on federal, state, and local levels inside of the US. Furthermore, it’ll download, print, and file forms like W-2s and 1099s.

Winner: This one’s a tie as both offer extensive tools and services, from form filling to taxation and real-time compliance updates.

Final Verdict – Which HR Software Is Better?

The ideal software for your business is the one that fulfills your specific requirements. We highly recommend you compare their individual features and involve your HR teams before making the decision.

Rippling is ideal for businesses operating globally with its global payroll that is synced with other software functionalities. On the other hand, UKG is best for companies that want to utilize their company data with the help of AI tools.