[SwellJoe]

I don't know much about this industry, but this seems like a hilarious response to the ADP lawsuit. When your partner/competitor screws you really hard, launching a free product that performs the most important function of their very expensive product line is just about the most satisfying form of vengeance I can think of.

Also, I hate Intuit Payroll (and it's cost me a small fortune due to deadlines being missed and other random crap based on Intuit requiring constant babysitting to do anything on time), so I'm signing up. If it supports multiple states, I am totally on board.

[tzier]

I doubt this is a response to ADP; ADP is a horrible product, and Zenefits knew they could make a better solution (like ZenPayroll/Gusto). They've probably been working on this for a year, to be honest, given the requirements for payroll providers and syncing with the IRS/etc.

What's more interesting is that the payroll is free only if the company manages everything else HR related in Zenefits. Talk about lock-in.

[semiquaver]

The CEO explicitly says that this is a response to ADP:

> As Conrad tells it, a select group of Zenefits employees holed up in the Courtyard Marriott to start working on a secret project to create a payroll system shortly after paycheck services giant ADP cut the company off earlier this year.

> “We’ve been working on this basically since the day we started getting blocked by ADP,” Conrad told TechCrunch.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/16/zenefits-launches-its-own-p...

[SwellJoe]

I would have probably been working on it before that, if I were them, as I don't ever feel comfortable being a sharecropper on someone else's land. But, they've delivered quickly.

[tomasien]

I think ADP and Gusto forced their hand. They realized they needed to be in control of this part of their business, and while before they had planned it as an "eventually" thing, it became a material risk that was no longer tolerable. If I were them in the absence of the ADP shut down and Gusto competing head to head I would have wanted to focus every dollar on the core service and scale and kicked Payroll down the road. Makes sense in context they did it now though.

[SwellJoe]

I'm sure they've been working on it for a while. And, it may even be part of the cause of the falling out between ADP and Zenefits, who knows? But, nonetheless, I bet it feels good to launch.

[mikemac]

> a free product that performs the most important function of their very expensive product line

There is zero chance I'd subject employees to a hacked together payroll system. Building one is far from trivial, considering the complexities of tax and employment law in 50 different states.

[SwellJoe]

I've not seen any indication that Zenefits is offering a shoddy product. Their other products seem to be well-regarded, do they not? And, their other products are in the same general area (most benefits programs have some tax and accounting repercussions that they'd need to understand, as well as integration with banks and payroll systems), so they already have some domain expertise in-house.

So, yes, it's hard to build. That doesn't mean that no one can do it. Many companies have done so, including several startups. And, given how poorly one of the market leaders (Intuit) has implemented it, I'm willing to give a startup a try.

[mintplant]

>Their other products seem to be well-regarded, do they not?

Not entirely, no. There's a history of Zenefits customers and their employees suffering from serious technical and support failures.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/zenefits-hr-rocket-ship...

>in late February this year, with coverage supposed to start days later, Zenefits informed Hawkins that it had made a significant mistake, attempting to enroll his employees with an insurance provider that didn’t cover the company’s region. The insurance wouldn’t come through as planned. [...] In several cases employees like Harris, who had put their trust in Zenefits, were left without health insurance for a month or more after they had expected it.

[x0x0]

My 15-person company uses zenefits. When our HR person was sold on zenefits she was promised some features that, bluntly, didn't and don't exist. They also, as a user, required some emailing to get stuff set up. It seems to be ok now that it's all set up, but it definitely wasn't 0 friction initially.

[kevin_thibedeau]

> There is zero chance I'd subject employees to a hacked together payroll system.

Not an ADP user I presume.

[mikemac]

I actually am an ADP user/administrator. As crappy as their system is (I could go on for days), their domain expertise is unmatched.

I wish a payroll startup would put resources into a nice UI and having some really season support too. Just doesn't seem to be there yet, unfortunately.

[JeffreyKaine]

We're launching in all 50 states. Happy to have you on board!

[run4yourlives2]

Pretty sure the ADP fiasco was likely an understanding by ADP that zenefits was working on this already.

Payroll/Benefits is long overdue for disruption.