When your human resources (HR) department processes payroll manually, errors are likely to happen, leading to incorrect calculations and delayed payments. If this issue persists, it could lead to resentment and a lack of trust between your HR department and other teams. 

Wagepoint and ZenPayroll are payroll software programs that help organizations avoid this issue by streamlining HR and payroll tasks. Wagepoint focuses on simplifying payroll with features like ‘In-App Payroll Calendar’ and ‘Pay Groups,’ while ZenPayroll supports businesses with tools for global payroll and automated payroll tax filing. 

We have compared their main features in this Wagepoint vs ZenPayroll guide. Keep reading to choose the best platform for your business requirements. 

Wagepoint Vs ZenPayroll: At A Glance

Features  

Wagepoint 

ZenPayroll 

Payroll 

In-App Payroll Calendar, roles, and permissions  

Global payroll, I-9s, contractor 1099s, and W-2s 

Hiring And Onboarding 

Customized welcome pages and digital signatures  

Job posts and onboarding checklists  

Reporting And Analytics 

Year-End Forms, T4s, and W2s 

Survey Trend Analysis and workforce costing tools  

Attendance Management 

Custom rules and comprehensive calendars  

Built-in scheduler and in-app notifications 

Pricing 

Offers various plans starting from$3/user/month, plus users can get a 14-day free trial 

Offers four pricing plans, starting from $49/month + $6/person/month 

What Is Wagepoint?

Wagepoint is an online software that simplifies payroll for Canadian organizations. The platform offers solutions for attendance tracking, payroll taxation, employee onboarding, and more. Businesses can leverage these tools to improve payroll accuracy and streamline essential HR tasks, helping them avoid costly mistakes and ensuring process efficiency. 

Unique Features Of Wagepoint 

  • Roles And Permissions: Empowers employers to give permissions to employees, ensuring they only get access to relevant information and functionalities
  • Bulk Changes: Allows managers to make bulk changes to job titles, benefits, workers’ compensation, and more
  • Employee Portal: Enables employees to view their pay stubs, access forms, and troubleshoot issues without needing to contact HR
  • Pay Groups: Organizations can group employees and pay them in one go, simplifying the whole process

Pros And Cons Of Wagepoint 

Pros 

  • Preparing salaries and viewing pay slip details is very easy 
  • Users can print T4 forms directly from the platform 
  • Enables users to generate payroll reports, ensuring compliance with local regulations 

Cons 

  • Does not offer a feature to download multiple pay sheets at once 
  • Setting up employee and company profiles can be a bit difficult 

What Is ZenPayroll?

ZenPayroll, now known as Gusto HR Software, is a comprehensive human resources solution that offers tools for payroll, time-tracking, benefits administration, and more. The platform is designed for small to mid-sized businesses and can be implemented in industries like real estate, healthcare, manufacturing, and construction. 

Unique Features Of ZenPayroll 

  • Budgeting Tool: Lets employees create a budget and allocate funds for groceries, housing, and other necessities, helping them better manage their finances
  • Commuter Benefits: Helps employees reduce expenses by allowing them to use pre-tax money for commuting expenses
  • Employer Of Record: Enables businesses to hire, pay, and manage employees globally while ensuring compliance with local labor laws
  • Paycheck Splitter: Allows employees to receive paychecks in multiple accounts for different use cases

Pros And Cons Of ZenPayroll 

Pros 

  • Submitting payroll is easy, allowing HR professionals to save time 
  • Generates 1099s and W2s to simplify taxation 
  • It simplifies state registrations, making hiring easy for multi-state employers 

Cons 

  • The abundance of features can be overwhelming, especially during the initial stages of using the platform 
  • Its 2-factor authentication can be annoying sometimes, as users have to do it every time they log in 

Wagepoint Vs ZenPayroll – Key Features Comparison

Payroll

Wagepoint offers a range of tools to help small-sized Canadian businesses streamline their payroll. It lets employees view their pay stubs, edit their banking details, and access forms like T4s and T4As. This reduces back and forth with HR, helping all departments to focus on more productive tasks.

The platform comes with an ‘In-App Payroll Calendar’ displaying all the essential details like payroll deadlines, bank holidays, pay dates, and more, helping employers plan payroll in advance. Additionally, businesses can set roles and permissions to ensure the right people have access to employees’ sensitive data.

ZenPayroll offers more comprehensive payroll features that go beyond just viewing payroll details and are tailored for small to medium-sized businesses. The platform automatically files payroll taxes on a business's behalf, ensuring they steer away from any legal complications and fines. The software helps businesses organize essential forms online, like I-9s, contractor 1099s, and W-2s.

Furthermore, it assists organizations with state tax registrations in all 50 states, tracks lunch breaks for payroll processing, and performs automated calculations. Moreover, with ‘Gusto Global’, businesses can hire and pay global contractors and employees while ensuring all compliance requirements are met.

Winner: ZenPayroll wins here as it provides businesses with extensive payroll features, plus the ability to pay their global workforce.

Hiring And Onboarding

Wagepoint allows managers to create a personalized onboarding and welcome page for each new hire, ensuring a professional first impression. They can assign onboarding tasks to employees from different departments like IT and HR, ensuring they all take care of their side of things helping new hires seamlessly settle into their new roles.

These tasks can also be tracked and drafted into a template for future use. Additionally, the platform lets employees use digital signatures to sign important documents and save all the paperwork online. This speeds up the onboarding process while ensuring all data is safely and reliably stored.

ZenPayroll enables businesses to create job posts and track applications online. Managers can then send personalized offer letters to chosen candidates, increasing acceptance rates. Administrators also get access to an easy-to-use and comprehensive onboarding checklist for every new hire, helping organizations ensure that all the processes and requirements are met.

Furthermore, it integrates with a number of popular hiring applications, including ApplicantPRO, Breezy HR, and Ashby. These integrations further enhance the platform's capabilities, helping businesses hire and onboard more effectively.

Winner: ZenPayroll takes the lead again as it offers job posting and application tracking features along with numerous third-party integrations.

Reporting And Analytics

Wagepoint equips businesses with ‘Year-End Forms’, allowing them to automate tax form generation for documents like T4s and W2s. With its ‘Workers’ Compensation’, employers can track and report employer contributions to the insurance, helping businesses stay compliant with local laws.

It also offers a detailed ‘Deposit Summary’ that provides a breakdown of payroll payments, enabling businesses to retrieve this data in the future, especially during audits. Moreover, it lets managers generate payroll invoices, allowing businesses to keep track of their expenses.

ZenPayroll offers several features to accurately file State and Federal reports. It also lets organizations create custom reports to analyze data as per their requirements. Managers can use employee surveys and ‘Survey Trend Analysis’ to get valuable feedback from employees, helping them improve processes and policies.

Furthermore, its project tracking and workforce costing tools enable administrators to monitor individual projects and enhance performance by making data-backed decisions.

Winner: It’s a tie as both software offers powerful reporting tools for specific use cases.

Attendance Management

Wagepoint simplifies attendance management with a range of features. The platform gives employers full control over attendance policies and enables them to create custom rules for work-from-home requests, sick leave, holidays, and vacations. It offers a comprehensive calendar that centralizes all time-off data, like upcoming holidays and scheduled offs. This helps managers create better schedules to meet the staffing requirements.

Moreover, employees can view their time-off balances, helping them schedule their upcoming months accordingly and ensuring they are available for their respective shifts.

ZenPayroll offers a built-in scheduler to help managers create and share custom schedules with ease. The data is presented in a clear and centralized manner, giving administrators a bird’s eye view. This helps them avoid overstaffing and keep project costs low.

Employees can also be informed of their new schedules or any updates to their current schedules using in-app notifications. Overall, the software is easy to use for employees to submit and employers to approve time-off requests.

Winner: Again, this round ends as a tie as both platforms offer reliable tools for attendance tracking, helping businesses enhance productivity.

Pricing

Wagepoint offers a number of pricing plans for payroll, HR management, and time tracking. Following are the plans for each category:

Payroll:

  • Solo - $20/month + $4/employee/contractor
  • Unlimited - $40/month + $5/employee/contractor

People by Wagepoint:

  • Startup - $3/user/month
  • Studio - $5/user/month
  • Growth - $6/user/month
  • Enterprise – Custom Pricing (For 150+ Users))

Time By Wagepoint:

  • 0-5 Users - $20/month
  • 6+ Users - $4/month/active user

All the above plans come with a 14-day free trial, allowing businesses to test and use the solutions in their specific workflows.

ZenPayroll offers three pricing plans designed for businesses of different sizes. The three plans offered by the vendor are:

  • Simple - $49/month + $6/person/month
  • Plus - $80/month + $12/person/month
  • Premium - $180/month + $22/person/month

Businesses can also get a contractor-only plan that costs $35/month plus $6/contractor/month. This plan offers features like unlimited contractor payments, new hire reporting, and 4-day direct deposit.

Winner: Wagepoint wins as it offers a 14-day free trial to let users try out the software before making a purchase.

Final Verdict – Which HR Software Is Better?

While both software programs aim to simplify payroll, they are quite different and are designed to solve various needs. 

Wagepoint is a platform that provides payroll solutions only to Canadian businesses. However, its HR management and time-tracking solutions are also available for US businesses. So, if you are a Canadian business wanting to streamline its payroll, then it’s a very good option. 

ZenPayroll, on the other hand, is a comprehensive payroll and HR solution. It offers global payroll capabilities and a range of features to automate HR tasks. This is a good option for medium-sized companies, as it allows them to hire, manage, and pay talent from abroad. 

Before choosing a software between Wagepoint vs ZenPayroll, it’s essential to identify your specific needs and consult with experts to ensure you purchase the right software.