Ascentis (discontinued) vs. Paylocity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ascentis (discontinued)
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Ascentis HR uses web-based management programs to help automate complex HR processes. Ascentis’ other services included customizable payroll, time and attendance and recruiting modules. Ascentis was acquired by UKG in March of 2022, and will be discontinued.N/A
Paylocity
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Paylocity provides 24/7 access to your online payroll and human resource data management. Paylocity offers highly customizable payroll functionality, as well as HR, benefits administration, and time and talent management programs.N/A
Pricing
Ascentis (discontinued)Paylocity
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Ascentis (discontinued)Paylocity
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Ascentis (discontinued)Paylocity
Considered Both Products
Ascentis (discontinued)
Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
Ascentis is more integrated and Paylocity is easier to use as it has the advantage of creating customized reports when needed. Paylocity downloads all tax returns and with Ascentis i have to request them, download and rename all the files. Paylocity's quarterlys are done in 2 …
Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
We selected Ascentis over Paylocity because we were frustrated with a lack of support from Paylocity and because we could have additional functionalities like recruiting and LMS in our HRIS at the same price we were paying for Paylocity.
Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
ADP is mostly likely the status quo for HRIS systems, their CS and 24/7 support is incomparable to other systems, including Ascentis. There are often manual corrections needed, negative changes to user view, and other very odd things that happen with Ascentis that I have …
Chose Ascentis (discontinued)
We selected Ascentis because the features and price were a reasonable match for our business objectives at the time. What stood out about Ascentis was the ability to customize and integrate with our internal tools.

We are currently starting to evaluate other software and are …
Paylocity
Chose Paylocity
UKG and Paylocity were fairly similar, but we thought the user experience seemed simpler with Paylocity. Paycom did not have as great of customer service and was much more expensive.
Chose Paylocity
We used QuickBooks Time, and migrated from that to Paylocity Time & Labor. We attempted to use Ascentis, but after 4 weeks of back and forth, we made little progress, despite a rigorous set of Demo's were we tried to make sure they could deliver what we needed in time tracking. …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Ascentis (discontinued)Paylocity
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.1
150 Ratings
10% below category average
Paylocity
7.8
979 Ratings
1% below category average
Employee demographic data6.7137 Ratings8.5926 Ratings
Employment history7.3140 Ratings8.2894 Ratings
Job profiles and administration6.9128 Ratings7.9831 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.6.7126 Ratings7.6845 Ratings
Organizational charting5.290 Ratings7.1776 Ratings
Organization and location management8.0109 Ratings7.8757 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)8.8102 Ratings7.6648 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.8
125 Ratings
3% below category average
Paylocity
8.2
954 Ratings
2% above category average
Pay calculation7.1115 Ratings8.6928 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.162 Ratings7.4456 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment8.328 Ratings8.5684 Ratings
Benefit plan administration6.7108 Ratings7.4648 Ratings
Direct deposit files9.2100 Ratings9.0924 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.692 Ratings8.2737 Ratings
Reimbursement management8.851 Ratings8.0459 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.8
105 Ratings
4% below category average
Paylocity
7.6
805 Ratings
7% below category average
Approval workflow7.999 Ratings7.9718 Ratings
Balance details7.099 Ratings7.5767 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment8.484 Ratings7.5599 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.0
153 Ratings
15% below category average
Paylocity
8.4
968 Ratings
3% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information7.8138 Ratings8.6942 Ratings
Update personal information8.6151 Ratings8.7959 Ratings
View company policy documentation5.4110 Ratings8.1763 Ratings
Employee recognition6.061 Ratings8.3680 Ratings
View job history7.3108 Ratings8.4816 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.8
33 Ratings
30% below category average
Paylocity
7.4
288 Ratings
5% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets5.833 Ratings7.4288 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
6.4
147 Ratings
18% below category average
Paylocity
7.1
887 Ratings
7% below category average
Report builder7.0144 Ratings7.1848 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.5142 Ratings7.5864 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data4.673 Ratings6.7538 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.1
98 Ratings
45% below category average
Paylocity
8.2
831 Ratings
2% above category average
New hire portal5.398 Ratings8.4825 Ratings
Manager tracking tools4.976 Ratings8.1652 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.2
57 Ratings
13% below category average
Paylocity
7.5
452 Ratings
9% below category average
Corporate goal setting6.743 Ratings7.5348 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.653 Ratings7.6415 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility7.138 Ratings7.5304 Ratings
Performance tracking7.250 Ratings7.5418 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
6.0
63 Ratings
28% below category average
Paylocity
7.4
574 Ratings
8% below category average
Performance plans5.659 Ratings7.3514 Ratings
Performance improvement plans5.650 Ratings7.3435 Ratings
Review status tracking5.857 Ratings7.4527 Ratings
Review reminders6.555 Ratings7.6532 Ratings
Multiple review frequency6.650 Ratings7.6438 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.9
27 Ratings
30% below category average
Paylocity
7.4
284 Ratings
7% below category average
Create succession plans/pools6.421 Ratings7.0191 Ratings
Candidate ranking6.421 Ratings7.3231 Ratings
Candidate search5.027 Ratings7.6257 Ratings
Candidate development5.823 Ratings7.5206 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.5
89 Ratings
35% below category average
Paylocity
7.8
545 Ratings
0% below category average
Job Requisition Management5.485 Ratings7.9457 Ratings
Company Website Posting5.279 Ratings8.1480 Ratings
Publish to Social Media5.659 Ratings7.7374 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting5.871 Ratings7.8455 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention5.657 Ratings7.2387 Ratings
Applicant Tracking5.783 Ratings8.1499 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts5.369 Ratings7.9500 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Ascentis (discontinued)Paylocity
Small Businesses
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.1 out of 10
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.6 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.2 out of 10
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Ascentis (discontinued)Paylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
7.2
(164 ratings)
7.9
(1044 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.3
(12 ratings)
8.9
(95 ratings)
Usability
7.6
(44 ratings)
8.6
(65 ratings)
Availability
6.7
(5 ratings)
8.8
(11 ratings)
Performance
7.1
(4 ratings)
9.4
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(150 ratings)
7.2
(87 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.6
(2 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(4 ratings)
8.2
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.3
(5 ratings)
8.0
(40 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.3
(9 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(7 ratings)
Ease of integration
3.0
(1 ratings)
6.7
(8 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.7
(4 ratings)
8.8
(10 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.6
(3 ratings)
7.7
(10 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.6
(3 ratings)
9.2
(9 ratings)
User Testimonials
Ascentis (discontinued)Paylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
Discontinued Products
In working with Ascentis in payroll, the program makes my job so much easier. I am new to this position and the learning process has been so much easier with this product than those in the past. I appreciate the patience I am given when I call in for assistance as well.
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Paylocity
Onboarding once configured has made our hiring process a smooth transition into employee database that encompasses HR & Payroll as well as Time & Labor for timekeeping purposes. And like all companies these days - finding qualified, dedicated employees and enough of them is difficult for Paylocity as well
Read full review
Pros
Discontinued Products
  • Easy to use software. I have had several new HR employees comment on how easy the system is to learn!
  • Problem Solving- Ascentis is always problem solving! When we were in the process of selecting a new payroll company, we needed unemployment claims management assistance for our locations, something Ascentis did not currently offer. The sales rep went out of his way to find a unemployment claims management company that would work with Ascentis and us. That company has helped us keep an 80% win rate for our claims!
  • User conference- Engage is an awesome way to learn more about the products Ascentis has available as well and meet up with the staff you work with every day!
Read full review
Paylocity
  • The payroll software is top notch. Recruitment module has been great. I think the workflow and the way you can customize all of the features of the recruitment module is awesome. Same thing with performance, you can really tailor everything to your specific company needs.
Read full review
Cons
Discontinued Products
  • Updating the system so it is one platform and not two.
  • Create changes to the benefit enrollment process and upgrade the system so hire dates do not need to be changed to trigger benefits for status changes.
  • Focus updates on HR Admin, mobile application, ATS and transitioning to one platform. Larger areas of focus have been on the payroll portion of the system with a few updates to other areas.
  • When something is broken, quicker turn time on fixing the issue.
  • System needs updates to support AAP reporting.
Read full review
Paylocity
  • No, I know they're working on implementing it so that we can control our own GL that I'm looking forward to. That is one thing that I feel like has been missing, so I'm happy to see them addressing it.
  • We went through a couple of different service reps, but that's been my only issue. The problem is a couple of the service reps.
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Likelihood to Renew
Discontinued Products
This rating would be a 10 if it were not for some issues we have been having recently with the benefit carrier connections. The carrier connections are critical for us so how these issues are resolved will be key in our renewal decision.
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Paylocity
We have had many issues with the way our platform was set up at implementation that still continue to plague us. In addition, our benefits, in particular our FSA, have been mis-managed causing a balance due from an employee (and also a lot of work for our accounting and HR team, as well as stress for the employee). Our service rep continues to answer incorrectly on many fronts (original response is usually check out this paylocity article, vs. helping) and recently our COBRA management was mishandled (not adding Dental to a person on Cobra who had requested it). So- all in all...we are not particularly happy w/ Paylocity
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Usability
Discontinued Products
I'd give it a 7.5. If the modules were easier to access and not so buried (or placed in left field to find), I would give it a higher rating. As I said, as the potential to be great if ACCESS to other modules was easier.
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Paylocity
I find Paylocity to be almost too robust so that its functionalities are sometimes too complex to use. Sometimes it appears that they don't get a user's experience and keep a software developers mindset which doesn't always work well with users that are not at their technical level of expertise. A perfect example is the way the payroll dashboard USED to look compared to the recent update
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Reliability and Availability
Discontinued Products
They normally give you notice when an update will affect the use of the system. Otherwise, when we have an error , we send a message to the support team. Sometimes someone will get right back with you and sometimes it takes a while.
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Paylocity
Paylocity support is always available and I never have to wait endlessly on hold. If our dedicated account manage is not available, there is an entire team assigned to our account. Every one of them is knowledgeable about our organization and Paylocity's process.
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Performance
Discontinued Products
Yes, this pages do load pretty good but there are times when things are slow and I believe that's because they are sometimes trying to do updates.
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Paylocity
pages load in an acceptable amount of time, reports come back quickly, but integration is very complicated and hasn't been possible
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Support Rating
Discontinued Products
Support is attentive and quick to answer the call and get the answer for you. If they for any reason cannot answer right then, they are back to you within a day and always seem to have a sense of urgency. You truly get the impression that they are aiming to make you happy.
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Paylocity
Everyone wants immediate assistance. Awaiting a response from an email only to ask 2-3 more questions is time consuming. Within the first six months of setup, I would rather respond back to the instructors who provided me the training in each category of my contract.
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In-Person Training
Discontinued Products
First, to clarify our "in-person" training was done mainly through Web-X meetings and conference calls. It was the closest thing we got to as far as an "in-person" training for this software. However, for the large majority of it, this type of training worked out well. We were able to share our screens and the trainer was able to share his/her screen. We could follow along with what we were doing in our database in real time and see how different functions worked and how manipulating our information could produce different results. It was also nice in that it provided for real-time results if something hadn't been coded correctly or we were having issues as to why something wasn't working the way we thought it should be. However, it did have some downsides in that we often had to rely on a conference phone and that made it difficult to hear people on both sides. Also, sometimes the trainers had internet difficulties when working from home and that caused issues with the WebX meetings.
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Paylocity
I didn't have in-person training, but I'm sure it was just as great as any other training/assistance Paylocity provides. Paylocity customer service is always available. You never have to be on hold and their answers are always accurate and timely. Documents in the help section are helpful as well. My in-person training was conducted y one of our employees who was involved in the initial set-up and training of all employees. She was excellent.
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Online Training
Discontinued Products
Ascentis HR has a number of online training videos to watch on a number of different topics. I gave it a lower rating because there is not much interactivity with the videos and it seems to cater to really only one or two learning styles. Plus, one has to be pretty motivated to go to a separate area to access the videos and then pull up a specific one to watch it and then learn. From my experience, people know that they are there, many just don't take the time and effort to go find them and actually watch them - especially since the username and password are different from their normal username and password.
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Paylocity
The training was live online, but was with a group of other companies. We did not receive any personalized training with our team. Whenever we would ask for training, we would be sent a peak article link or a video. It felt like the reps we dealt with didn't know the answer to the questions.
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Implementation Rating
Discontinued Products
It was very easy to implement, but the customization pieces should really be fleshed out in order to determine the full need of an organization at the time of implementation. I believe if a little more time was spent on the requirements, the recruiting module would not have to be customized again at a cost at a later date.
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Paylocity
I had gone through an implementation process of another HR platform (Paycom) in my previous job and was traumatized, it was painful. I was surprised how easy and fast it was with Paylocity, the team was very helpful and set us up for success
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Alternatives Considered
Discontinued Products
Ascentis has far better customer service and the implementation experience was also better. The ability to do a lot of customization is also easier with Ascentis as it's smaller organization. The payroll has positive and negatives compared to ADP but the accuracy is the same in both. Ascentis just started their community site which doesn't have a lot of traffic but hopefully can become more like ADP's community site, which was extremely helpful to me as an administrator.
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Paylocity
We've used Paychex. They used something in Sage before I used it. We use a ADP as well. And I think Sage, I think those three. I've been with the organization for almost seven years and we've been through three different payroll programs I think it was Sage, ADP within a couple of years. And then we got on to Paylocity and I think we've been in here for four or five years and we're not changing.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
Include more services in the packages they offer.
Read full review
Scalability
Discontinued Products
Large acquisition would be very complicated, seems more appropriate for companies under 100
Read full review
Paylocity
You have an account manager assigned to you on a daily basis but that person is barely available to you
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Professional Services
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
Support is quick and proffessional
Read full review
Return on Investment
Discontinued Products
  • HR DPT. is much more effective, as we can assess any employee information no matter where we are, etc. This helps to provide information immediately when requested!
  • Employees have access to Ascentis, and therefore to their timecard, open enrollment, etc., from anywhere at any time!
  • Time, PTO requests, employee goals, and evaluations can be approved from anywhere at any time!
  • Recruiting can be accessed any where at any time, and this helps with hiring, internal communication, etc.
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Paylocity
  • I think there's a lot of data that we're capturing and honestly the consistency of being able to automate a lot of processes, which frees up my time to really deal with my employees at the level that they need me to. And so it frees up that admin task that before Paylocity or having to do by hand or a little bit more of a manual process.
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ScreenShots

Ascentis (discontinued) Screenshots

Screenshot of Access all of your details including, paychecks, personal file, timeclock, etc via our mobile app.Screenshot of Punch-in and punch-out on the go.Screenshot of Centralized location for everything related to a user or admin.Screenshot of Every employee has access to their personal information in one location.Screenshot of Pre-built reporting along with Ad Hoc reporting gives you the ability to understand your business as a whole.Screenshot of Benefit enrollment made easy for your employees.