As a savvy entrepreneur, what do you wish you knew before you chose your payroll service provider?

Samantha, I'm probably too late to help with your article but thought I would weigh in because it's an interesting question. As an entrepreneur, I like to do business with other innovators of which the payroll market doesn't have many. There are many good things about ADP and Paychex, but they are not known for innovation. They do the same thing at roughly the same price - there's really not much difference. Paycycle seemed interesting, but they were acquired by Intuit. I know Workday offers payroll, but am not sure if it's offered standalone or is even competitive with the best of breed providers in the space.

You may wonder why a market like payroll even needs innovation. Shouldn't we just care about getting paychecks deposited into our bank accounts? Yes, but I do think there's an opportunity for a payroll provider to offer an elegant user experience, supported by a highly functional product, where employees would actually want to spend time. Think of it as falling into the career development and management category. Is there an app for that? Not really.