Ultipro Vs APS Payroll

Human resource (HR) management has seen a significant transformation in recent years. Earlier, it was all about maintaining spreadsheets for record-keeping, tracking employee hours, and calculating wages. However, today, these processes have become increasingly automated, with sophisticated software systems that streamline and simplify various HR tasks.

Among them, UltiPro and APS Payroll have emerged as key players in revolutionizing the HR landscape. These platforms automate HR and payroll processes and provide HR managers with access to employee data anytime, anywhere, thanks to their cloud-based infrastructure.

Find out which one is a better choice for your business in this comprehensive UltiPro Vs APS Payroll comparison.

UltiPro Vs APS Payroll: At A Glance

Feature

UltiPro

APS Payroll

Payroll Processing

Automates calculations, integrates with time-tracking, and offers global payroll

Error checking, customizable processing, and tax compliance

Reporting And Analytics

Customizable dashboards, predictive modeling, and real-time reporting

Pre-built templates, customizable reports, and real-time insights

Scheduling

Intelligent scheduling with mobile-first features and labor law compliance

Centralized dashboard, alerts, and labor expense reporting

Benefits Administration

Comprehensive plan setup, employee shopping experience, and communication

Centralized management with COBRA support and a self-service portal

Mobile App

HR access, pay statements, and time-off requests; slow performance noted

Time tracking, pay stubs, benefits access, and document e-signing

AI Capabilities Workforce-centric AI for scheduling, payroll, engagement, frontline operations; data-driven automation; autonomous multi-step HR/payroll execution Offers limited native AI, relying mainly on analytics and third-party integrations to support data-driven insights
Pricing Custom pricing Starts at $6/employee/month + $50/month base fee

Disclaimer: The pricing is subject to change. 

What Is UltiPro?

UKG

UltiPro (now called UKG software) helps businesses manage various aspects of the employee lifecycle, including HR, payroll, talent management, and timekeeping. Its product suite includes UKG Pro and UKG Ready, each catering to specific organizational requirements.

UKG Pro is a global HCM solution that provides features such as payroll, talent management, and AI-powered analytics to support informed decision-making. On the other hand, UKG Ready offers an integrated platform for managing the entire employee journey, from recruitment and onboarding to offboarding, with capabilities like benefits administration and performance management.

If you are wondering how much does UltiPro cost, the vendor offers custom pricing plans catering to the diverse requirements of organizations.

Unique Features Of UltiPro

  • UKG Bryte: Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), UKG Bryte is designed to enhance employee experience and streamline operations. It offers personalized insights and proactive recommendations to employees, managers, and HR leaders, thereby fostering a more intuitive and efficient work environment 
  • Expert Tax Filing Support: The software enables companies to partner with a tax filing expert, who serves as the primary point of contact and addresses the unique needs of every business, such as W-2 filings, wage attachment disbursements, and more 
  • Centralized People Data: UKG’s centralized people data solution ensures all employee information is securely stored in one place, making it easily accessible for HR teams 
  • Learning And Development: The ‘UKG Learning’ solution facilitates quick and efficient delivery of learning content. It keeps employees in the loop with the available courses, fostering employee growth and skill enhancement 
  • Rapid Hiring: The UKG Rapid Hire, an AI-guided mobile-first solution, expedites high-volume hiring by automating most of the repetitive hiring tasks, including sourcing, screening, scheduling, and onboarding 

Pros And Cons Of UltiPro

Pros

  • Easy access to payment details and clock-in/out management in one place
  • Secure VPN ensures personal information is protected
  • Allows users to customize the software to suit their requirements

Cons

  • Setting up compensation management can be difficult for administrators
  • The mobile app often crashes, hindering the functionality

What Is APS Payroll?

APS

APS Payroll is a cloud-based platform that streamlines payroll and HR processes for businesses across various industries. Its unified solution encompasses payroll management, core HR functions, time and attendance tracking, and employee self-service features, all accessible from a single, intuitive interface.

It automates various HR tasks, saving time for managers and employees alike while reducing compliance risks. Users can choose from three pricing plans according to their needs. Furthermore, their functionality can further be enhanced by selecting various add-ons.

Standout Features Of APS Payroll

  • Affordable Care Act (ACA) Reporting: This feature includes tracking employee eligibility, managing benefits enrollment, and generating necessary forms like 1094-C and 1095-C for timely submission
  • Dedicated HR Advisor: APS Payroll assigns a personal HR expert to each client, who is tasked with offering tailored HR action plans and providing support where required
  • AI Assist: It aids in creating job descriptions, conducting performance reviews, and managing employee events, thereby enhancing efficiency and consistency in HR processes
  • Enhanced Payroll Automation And Flexibility: A unified set of payroll enhancements that enable dynamic income and deduction management, streamlined onboarding and offboarding workflows, and intelligent batch controls; improving accuracy, user autonomy, and overall payroll efficiency 

Pros And Cons Of APS Payroll

Pros

  • Automatically inputs approved payroll data, saving time by eliminating manual entry
  • Allows new hires to complete all paperwork on their first day, keeping everything organized in one place
  • The payroll time cards/forms have a user-friendly format, making them easy to use and organize

Cons

  • Lacks a calculator for users to pre-calculate paychecks, which causes users to manually calculate their gross income, deductions, and taxes
  • Features like benefits administration and workforce planning are available through add-ons only

UltiPro Vs APS Payroll – Key Features Comparison

Payroll Processing

UltiPro's payroll solutions automate complex calculations and tax compliance while integrating seamlessly with time-tracking systems to ensure accurate compensation. The platform reduces manual errors through AI-driven validation checks and real-time data synchronization across HR, benefits, and workforce management modules.

The system provides self-service portals for employees to access pay stubs, tax documents, and payment history, reducing administrative burdens. Advanced features include customizable payroll reporting and predictive analytics that help organizations forecast labor costs and optimize budget allocations.

Additionally, it also offers a global payroll solution, allowing businesses operating in multiple countries to manage payroll seamlessly.

APS Payroll provides a comprehensive payroll management system designed to simplify payroll processing for HR professionals. The platform includes automatic error checking to identify administrative issues before processing, along with configurable payroll settings for one-time adjustments and deduction management. It also features advanced payroll controls, such as gross wage limits and payroll check voiding.

Additionally, APS Payroll supports seamless data integration by allowing the import of timekeeping data and export of payroll information to systems like general ledgers and 401(k) accounts. To ensure compliance, the software provides guaranteed payroll tax services, acting as the reporting agent to manage federal, state, and local tax filings and payments.

Winner: While APS Payroll provides strong payroll controls and compliance features, UltiPro wins in this category due to its AI-driven validation checks, real-time data synchronization, and seamless global payroll support.

Reporting And Analytics

UltiPro's reporting capabilities offer customizable dashboard and predictive modeling tools, which help managers convert raw data into actionable insights.

The system combines information from HR, payroll, and workforce management modules to provide holistic views of organizational performance. Furthermore, its real-time reporting capabilities enable leaders to track key metrics like employee turnover, labor costs, and productivity trends.

The platform supports regulatory compliance through automated audit trails and generates industry benchmarking reports that help organizations measure their performance against sector peers.

With APS Payroll's analytics and reporting capabilities, managers can gain access to real-time insights into various HR and payroll metrics. This helps them make informed, data-driven decisions.

The platform offers a selection of pre-built report templates, allowing users to generate detailed reports on aspects such as labor costs, benefits eligibility, and employee turnover. These reports can be customized, saved as favorites on the dashboard, and shared with other users for quick access, facilitating efficient analysis across multiple locations or company entities.

Winner: It's a tie. UltiPro stands out for its customizable dashboards and predictive modeling, while APS Payroll shines for its pre-built reports and customization.

Scheduling

UltiPro offers workforce management tools, enabling intelligent scheduling aligned with business demands and employee preferences. The system analyzes historical data, seasonal trends, and employee skills to create optimized shift patterns while ensuring compliance with labor laws.

The mobile-first platform allows employees to swap shifts, request time off, and view schedules in real time. Furthermore, managers can visualize schedules through drag-and-drop interfaces and receive alerts for potential overtime conflicts. Its advanced AI-forecasting adjusts staffing levels based on predictive sales data and integration with time clocks to track actual hours worked against scheduled shifts.

The scheduling feature in APS Payroll enables managers to create and assign schedules based on total labor needs. It offers an intuitive dashboard that provides a centralized view of all shifts, enabling managers to monitor schedules efficiently. Moreover, the platform facilitates proactive management through dashboard alerts for absences, late arrivals, schedule conflicts, shift time variances, and clock-in exceptions.

APS Payroll also offers labor expense reporting, helping managers oversee regular and premium employee pay to control labor costs. Employees benefit from enhanced communication, as they can access their schedules via email, printed copies, or through desktop and mobile self-service portals.

Winner: UltiPro wins this category due to its mobile-first approach and intelligent scheduling, which leverages historical data, seasonal trends, and employee skills to optimize shift planning.

Benefits Administration

UltiPro offers a comprehensive solution for managing benefits administration, simplifying the process for both HR teams and employees. With this platform, organizations can easily plan, set up, and administer benefits offerings while securely and automatically transmitting enrollment and benefits data to carriers.

It offers powerful administrative tools that enable flexible plan configurations and automation of key processes. Administrators can easily communicate with employees throughout the enrollment process, making the entire experience efficient and clear.

For employees, the platform provides an intuitive shopping experience, complete with decision-support tools, such as educational videos, document libraries, and personalized plan recommendations.

APS Payroll streamlines employee benefits management by facilitating the automatic submission of paperwork and centralizing the entire process within a user-friendly dashboard. This approach eliminates time-consuming data entry, allowing HR professionals to focus on more strategic tasks.

Employees can access the self-service portal to view various plan options, enroll in benefit plans, and manage their dependents, all from any device at any time. The system also offers powerful compliance support, including Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) administration, which simplifies the tracking of qualifying events and ensures adherence to coverage requirements.

Winner: While APS Payroll provides strong compliance features, including COBRA administration, UltiPro’s interactive and personalized employee experience, makes it the more user-friendly and strategic choice for businesses.

Mobile App

UltiPro's mobile applications, including UKG Pro, UKG Ready, and UKG Workforce Central, offer the convenience of accessing HR and payroll information on the go. Through these apps, users can easily perform essential functionalities, such as viewing pay statements and managing time-off requests.

That said, user reviews note certain issues with these apps. These include slower loading times, frequent logging in requirements, and occasional server connectivity problems.

APS Payroll's mobile app offers a range of features that enhance workforce management for both employers and employees. Employees can manage personal information, access pay stubs and tax forms, view benefits enrollment details, and stay informed through a company newsfeed. The app also facilitates time tracking by allowing employees to request time off, check accrual balances, and review timecards.

Additionally, it provides access to important documents for review and e-signature and alerts users to relevant HR tasks, promoting proactive engagement. However, users have reported challenges with the app's design, citing it as not as user-friendly as desired.

Winner: APS Payroll wins in this category despite some design concerns, as it offers a more feature-rich mobile experience, including time tracking, benefits access, document e-signing, and company news updates.

AI Capabilities

Ultipro embeds AI through Bryte AI, combining generative AI, machine learning, and automation to support HR, payroll, and workforce management. It uses workforce data to generate insights, create content like job descriptions, and enable natural language queries for quick answers and analytics.

It also helps optimize staffing by forecasting labor demand and improving scheduling. Overall, the AI is built to assist users with tasks and decision-making rather than operate autonomously.

Conversely, APS Payroll places relatively little emphasis on built-in AI compared to some competitors, prioritizing its core payroll, HR, and workforce management features instead. Although it does provide strong reporting and real-time analytics for workforce insights, these tools are not heavily marketed as AI-powered.

The platform does reference limited AI support, such as ‘AI Assist’, which appears to offer basic guidance for tasks like performance management and job-related insights, though details are sparse. More advanced capabilities; such as candidate matching, talent scoring, and workforce forecasting, are typically delivered through third-party integrations.

Winner: Ultipro (UKG Pro) offers more extensive, built-in AI across workflows, while APS Payroll has limited native AI and relies on integrations for advanced features.

Ultipro Vs APS Payroll: Pricing Comparison

Ultipro Pricing 

Ultipro offers a custom-based pricing model for its users where the cost can differ based on the organization's headcount, the complexity of labor rules (such as union contracts), and the specific combination of modules selected, such as Advanced Payroll, Global Workforce Management, or AI-powered Predictive Analytics. 

Disclaimer: The pricing is subject to change. 

APS Payroll Pricing 

The cost of APS Payroll starts at $6/employee/month for the Payroll plan. The platform uses a per‑employee, per‑month subscription model with a monthly base fee of $50. It also offers the following plans: 

  • Payroll + Attendance: $10/employee/month 
  • Payroll + HR + Attendance: $14/employee/month 

Disclaimer: The pricing is subject to change. 

The Final Choice – Which Platform Takes The Lead?

UKG Vs APS Conclusion

Overall, UltiPro edges out due to its strong feature set and ease of use, making it a suitable choice for businesses looking for an all-in-one platform for HR and payroll management. On the other hand, APS Payroll would be the preferred choice if you are looking for a payroll solution with advanced capabilities that can be seamlessly accessed via a mobile application.

Ultimately, the right choice depends on your business priorities. So, evaluate your company's requirements against the strengths and weaknesses of these platforms and make an informed choice.