15 years helping Canadian businesses
choose better software
About Rise
Rise is a people management platform that brings together HR, Benefits & Payroll into a simplified, personalized, all-in-one solution.
Using Rises software for smaller business is very cost effective.
One selling feature of this product was that it integrates with QuickBooks or Xero. There is no integration.
Filter reviews (124)
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Filter reviews (124)

Ease to use it and it is all I need
Comments: It is easy to process the payroll. Time saver.
Pros:
Export input to excel sheet. Import excel to the system. I can generate reports for all departments. The customize functions is very powerful.
Cons:
Sometime the system is too slow. Especially on the rush hours, it is take time to go for next step. on the input sheet for search people, I would prefer more functions to search, for example, employee ID.
Rise Response
6 years ago
Thank you for your feedback, Grace. We are glad to hear that you have been having a good experience with report generation and payroll processing. Thank you for your suggestions on improving our search functionality. Your comments have been forwarded to our product team for consideration. If you have any more feedback that you would like to share, please do not hesitate to get in touch using the contact details below. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
LHynes
Comments: Very easy to work with, highly recommend to other companies
Pros:
Very user friendly, support is very helpful
Cons:
Couldn't change multiple user wages at one time had to do them individually.
Stay Away
Comments: Very poor and deeply disappointing. Companies like this give the software industry a bad name.
Pros:
The promises that were made up from but never materialized.
Cons:
Possibly the worst experience I have ever had with a software vendor. Misrepresented and oversold up front. Exceptionally poor support.
Alternatives Considered: Giraffe
Reasons for Choosing Rise: It seems like Rise provided more functionality.
Switched From: ADP Workforce Now
Reasons for Switching to Rise: We were told there was integration with Netsuite this was actually listed on their website but did not exist. They removed the website reference later. Fortunately we know how to use the Wayback machine. There was no explanation when presented with this information. One of the reasons we chose Rise was that we were told a ATS module would be released shortly - did not arrive in the entire time we used the product.
Rise Response
2 years ago
Hi Michael, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We value your insights in regards to our sales process and our customer service. Please know we have been working hard to help correct and improve our support over the past few months and our entire company is focused on righting the ship to deliver the customer support you deserve and expect. We would love the opportunity to try to make this right, please reach out to me at [email protected] so I can follow up directly.
My go-to for everything
Comments: I love the support team and the system. If I could bully any company I move to in the future to use Rise, I would. (I know, I'm mean.)
Pros:
I love that Rise has an HRMS system that is very user friendly, but I think my absolute favourite part is the scheduling, attendance, time off and payroll systems all being integrated. I enter a time off date for a staff member in ONE spot, the employees' Time Off Dashboard, and that's it. It carries over to payroll, to the schedule, and to time & attendance. It makes for less steps (for me to forget to enter) and it's correct each time because the entry was only done once.
Cons:
I wish RISE would pay more attention to their app and it's functionality. It crashes a lot, often just doesnt load, and there's no Admin Option on the app, so if I want to review anything it has to be done from a computer.
Alternatives Considered: Blip
Reasons for Choosing Rise: We made the switch from Zoho to have a support team that was IN Canada and was responsive within hours, not days. We also made the switch to integrate all our systems (HRMS, Scheduling, Payroll and Attendance reporting) to one provider, not three. At this point I don't even remember if cost was involved because knowing what I know now about RISE's ability to integrate everything, I'd push for it anyways.
Switched From: Zoho Social and Zoho Docs
Reasons for Switching to Rise: Due to the support team being in Canada and the HRMS, Scheduling, Payroll and Attendance reporting all in one integrated system. I can't emphasize how much accuracy and how much of a time save having a time off system that talks to the scheduling system that talks to the payroll system is. We don't have to run an excel report, format it, and upload it to do payroll. It saves us HOURS.

Excellent value, great responsive support with live chat, terrible interface
Comments: Simplicity for small Canadian businesses running payroll.
Pros:
The pricing of this product is great, they were offering free payroll for organizations with less than 10 employees at one point, but now it's something that has to be requested. Great value for the services provided and live chat support is convenient. I do recommend this software to minimize the complexity of payroll functions for small businesses.
Cons:
It is not intuitive to use. Setup is very manual, requiring the user to download pdfs, sign them and re-upload. It's not very friendly towards accountants as the client has to create their own account. Creating a payroll run requires multiple steps, and T4 submission is not automatic. One selling feature of this product was that it integrates with QuickBooks or Xero. There is no integration. There is one guy that can create an Excel macro who requires the exact details of your accounting system setup.
Rise Response
6 years ago
Hi Jenny, Thank you for taking the time to provide us with this feedback. We're glad that you feel you are getting good value for the services provided and that you would recommend us to other small businesses. Your feedback on the product is valuable and helps us better understand your needs. We are reviewing our payroll software to help streamline the pay run process in future releases and we are also currently building integrations with Quickbooks and Xero. Please feel free to reach out to us anytime if you have more specific comments or suggestions. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Evans
Comments: It has been difficult, conflicting direction, changes and poor onboarding process, too many needs cannot be met. feels like the wrong platform for our custom business but I have to say Rise support staff and managers have gone over and above trying to support us. We acknowledge we have not been the perfect client and have issues as well, perhaps we are too needy for what rise can support
Pros:
The people and support, try very hard to satisfy but unfortunately there are just too many issues that we need that cannot be accommodated.
Cons:
Platform is fractured , development support is good but actual development is poor, frequent loss of resources
About rise
Comments: Easy to use.
Pros:
The payroll function is easy to use . And we can easily modify it in the payroll sheet.
Cons:
The HR function is a bit complicated—mostly the part of creating an employee profile.
Still getting going but good so far
Comments: At this point I have a lot more to learn to customize my experience as a manager but I am enjoying what I have explored so far. I like seeing scheduling, time sheets, recruiting all in one place. Excited to see how we are going to utilize it even more in the future.
Pros:
The onboarding process has been simple and straightforward. I like that the dashboard is intuitive and is customized for what your position is, only showing you the things that you have permissions for.
Cons:
Some of the language can be a touch ambiguous in what exactly they are asking for. Specifically I am talking about the scheduling page where it is asking for frequency and a couple other items. I noticed that I don't seem to get notifications for missed punches, which would be super useful. That being said, I haven't dug into my settings to see if there are options for this.
User Friendly
Pros:
User friendly and every concern was addressed on time.
Cons:
So far everything is ok, every concern was addressed timely
Rise Review
Comments: I'm rating it a 9/10. Overall, it has been very helpful as a tool.
Pros:
It has been an awesome experience, and I have learned to easily navigate along the way. CS is also very helpful and always has been.
Cons:
I would say recent glitches have been a struggle, and sometimes, it's not always compatible with our hardware, takes a lot of time to download reports or just to open the features of the app.
Room for Improvement
Comments: RISE has taken away alot of manual tracking and spreadsheets so it saves time for the HR team and managers with admin tasks. Employees are more in control of their information, and can make changes/requests very easily. The tech team seems to move a bit slow, and not sure if its due to lack of staff or a high number of service tickets, but it can be a bit frustrating waiting for a resolution for 7-15 business days.
Pros:
I like that it is a whole program, meaning admins and employees can go to one spot to get information, and you do not have to deal with multiple platforms and programs. The KB articles are wonderful resources to use to solve problems/issues without having to send in a ticket. However there is still room for improvement, with the functionality of the the various modules speaking to each other. Also needs some simple fixes, like the calendar having a choose the date instead of scrolling month by month; but overall its a great program.
Cons:
The reporting feature within payroll is very complicated, hard to pull data that we need so we end up having to create our own reports. Some of the modules do not speak to each other; changing a start date doesnt flow over the compensation start dates, onboarding defaults to work email and phone number when should go to personal; calendars are tedious as you cant choose a date, but need to scroll month by month. Its definitely a work in progress with areas to improve quite easily.
Alternatives Considered: ADP Workforce Now and BambooHR
Reasons for Choosing Rise: Pay at work was only a payroll program, and we needed a full HRIS. It ultimately came down to cost and what RISE was doing for future releases of programs, like performance management and onboarding that really got us excited.
They had potential, but proved to be very poor at what they claim to be great at
Comments: I didn't, I only received more costs.
Pros:
I like the platform, it was easy to use and very convenient from anywhere I happened to be. Making changes to payroll on the fly was fairly easy and having support there gave the appearance of having a professional helping along the way.
Cons:
The biggest complaint I have with Rise is that the software itself worked great, but the team behind the software is unfortunately incompetent. There are plenty of staff available to help, but none have the correct training or experience to actually help employers make decisions. On top of that when a mistake is made on their end they do not take ownership of it because "a company this size is unable to absorb a loss like that" is what I was told by the CEO. The blunders made by Rise ended up costing my company a five figure fine with CRA because they were not able to follow properly sent instructions on their intake forms. I have no problems with a smaller company needing to make mistakes in order to learn, but unless you're willing to own those mistakes, learn from them and then improve your systems you will never be sure you do not fall into those same mistakes again. Ultimately we left Rise as staying with a company that treats their clients poorly does not make sense. The costs may be higher with other larger companies, but I can assure you it is money well spent, avoid Rise at all costs.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your candor in your review of Rise. We're glad that you liked the platform and found it very convenient to use. To clarify, we've ensured that our client service team is PCP certified in order to provide the best possible payroll support to our clients. Unfortunately the review below is not an accurate reflection of the situation. The mistake was not made on our end and we made every effort to ensure that we provided the best support possible throughout this process. We value you as a client and would have very much liked the opportunity to continue our service for you.
Great product for Canadian payroll, time tracking and schedule and HR integration
Comments: We're super happy. We needed a more in-depoth, robust, integrated payroll and HR solution and this was perfect.
Pros:
I like the scheduling and time tracking. We love the integration with Payroll. Saved SO much time as we were doing everything manually before.
Cons:
I find it a bit overwhelming when figuring out how to set everything up - and where to go to access certain information, as some is stored in the HR section and some is stored in the Payroll section.Improvements can definitely be made in the scheduling and time tracking module. For example, the ability for other employees to see other employees schedules within the app - for more transparent shift delegation, capacity planning, shift-swapping, etc.
Alternatives Considered: ADP TotalSource
Best cheap option
Comments: Support has always been lacking here it can take days to get a response and payroll is time sensitive. I wish they had a call center or live chat available during business hours. This year the system made an error in my pay cycle dates and it got messed up no one at Rise was here to help i had to reach out several times because i had over laps of pay dates on employees pay stubs my dates didnt match up it was a mess. I got very basic email on how to fix it all MYSELF this was a Rise issue not mine i was shocked no one would help fix this. I also made a comment how this would then effect ROE's and possibly T4's throughout the year and it did. All ROE's were incorrect and again took days for Rise to respond how to fix this and it was again left to me to fix their error.
Pros:
This is the best cheap payroll service on the market. Running payroll is simple if everything is set up properly. On boarding employees is simple
Cons:
Support is not great can take days to hear back from support and when its regarding payroll time is of the essence. Running any type of off cycle payroll is extremely painful and never turns out right, taxes are always wrong and way to high. Having salary and hourly paid employees i have to have two different companies and have to run two payrolls each run would be nice if it was all in one payroll run.
System is easy to use but there is a lot of manual inputting.
Pros:
Using Rises software for smaller business is very cost effective. Once the system is set up properly it is very easy to use and have reports made. As long as you are accurate the automated system completes everything you need.
Cons:
If things aren't set up properly it is a pain to work with. There a few times where you cannot access the system but after an hour, the system is back. If you have a larger company it isn't time effective to use as there are many inputs that you must do manually.
Rise Response
6 years ago
Thank you for your feedback, Enrico. We appreciate hearing your thoughts and are glad that you are now finding the system easy to use. Rise provides the ability to import inputs, outline formulas to help calculate outputs, and enter default values per employee, department, or company. Our client service team would love to help you automate this, so please feel free to get in touch using the contact details below. Also, please let us know if you ever experience downtime so we can investigate immediately. Thanks! All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
I love the emailing of pay statements and T Slips!
Comments: Easy of use, can be done anywhere and the email of the pay statements. The payroll is great for any size company, big or small.
Pros:
The software is accessible from any device you use, it's easy to use and I love the emailing of pay statements and t slips. I also like the ease of the payroll input screen, adding or changing employees, etc.
Cons:
I don't really have any cons other than the reports as they can be difficult to create. I also find it frustrating at times if Rise does not communicate software changes that affect the user but that isn't often.
Rise Response
6 years ago
Thank you for your review, Pauline. We're delighted to hear that you've found our software to be easy and accessible to use. We appreciate your feedback on how we can improve with our reporting feature and with our communication of software updates. Should you have other recommendations for us, please feel free to connect with our client service team through the contact information provided below. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Much easier to use after initial set up and first year. Easier than Ceridian or ADP
Comments: Save time
Pros:
Convenient to have all records for multiple companies using one login. Tons of options in payroll instructions.
Cons:
Mass changes to benefits/benefit deductions (done annually) can be a bit cumbersome when you need to change multiple items for a large number of staff. Further automate stat pay calculation!!!
Rise Response
6 years ago
Thank you for your feedback, Cyrus. We are glad to hear that our software is convenient and provides a lot of options for payroll instructions. Our client service team would be pleased to show you how you can import mass changes to benefits and deductions to help save you time. Also, the system includes functionality that automatically calculates the stat pay amount for which each employee would be eligible. Can you help us understand how we can further improve or automate this? We welcome any feedback or suggestions you may have....please get in touch with us using the contact details below anytime. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Great system that has everything
Pros:
It was so easy to implement and use and continues to update with new features.
Cons:
There are always quirks but Rise does a good job of fixing bugs and taking feedback for new features.
Just simple, no complications at all
Pros:
Their PR system is simple and user friendly. It saves a lot of my time when I finalize my employees' payrolls and year-end for their T4s.
Cons:
When I need their support to change my PR configurations or have some questions, they are very helpful most of times but sometimes totally not helpful. Depends on to whom you speak...
Rise Response
6 years ago
Thank you for your review, Ado. We're glad to hear that you've found our software to be simple, user friendly, and time saving when it comes to your payroll processes. We appreciate your feedback on your experience with our client services team. Rise's support representatives have been enrolled in ongoing training courses to act upon our commitment to improvement and providing the best support for our clients possible. We value your feedback and look forward to continuing our support for you in future. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
10/10 Customer Service
Pros:
Firstly, I want to provide a shoutout to the customer service department, in particular [sensitive content hidden]. [sensitive content hidden] answers my questions in a timely matter, will always help me and provide suggestions on how I can make things better for my employees. [sensitive content hidden] is wonderful!Overall, the product is very easy to use and onboard new employees. I like having everything I need in one system.
Cons:
For performance management, I would be nice to have a better way to download results/feedback and have it automatically saved into employee files.
Rise - Great for business, large or small
Comments: The service is free and that is a great thing for small business. It is accurate and having all statutory deductions handled directly is a great assurance for compliance
Pros:
The system is very easy to use. The Rise team is most responsive and offers the best in customer service. Automated reminders for payroll deadlines are very helpful for business small proprietors
Cons:
Great system. No issues worthy of mention.
Easy enough to use; reporting is not intuitive; it is difficult to see the back end of things
Pros:
The software is easy to use, and quick to process. Interface is clean and attractive. Chat box is always available
Cons:
Reporting is clunky and could be made easier with better help menu. Back end reporting (ie which fields report to which box on T4, which fields are taxable EI, CPP, etc.,) is not great
Rise Response
6 years ago
Thank you for your feedback, Dena. We are glad that you find the software easy to use and that you are able to reach us by chat whenever you need help. We are continually working on improving our software and value your comments on reporting features. If you would like to provide further feedback, please feel free to get in touch with us using the contact details below. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Review of RISE
Pros:
The software is very user-friendly. Customer service responds fast and they are knowledgeable.
Cons:
Nothing that I can think off, to be honest I have not had a chance to fully explore the software outside of the features that I need.
ecobee has had an excellent experience with Rise. We were one of your early customers.
Pros:
Ease of use. Ability to export, edit and upload pay runs. Excellent and very responsive customer support team.
Cons:
Exporting to ERP is complicated. Not enough notice when payroll has to be sent early due to holidays.
Rise Response
6 years ago
Thank you for your review, Jon. We are happy to hear about your good experience with processing your pay runs and speaking with our customer support team. We are in the process of developing an enhancement to our software that will help export all your customized GL data in a simpler way. Please let us know if there is any other data you need to export on a regular basis so we can investigate. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
After sale customer service is poor
Comments: Not good. Antiquated system, poor customer service and continuous errors on their part which they push back on the customer to enter corrections. Response time is terrible for a deadline centric process such as payroll.
Pros:
offers same backed user features as other systems.
Cons:
Customer service is ineffectual and response time is completely unacceptable when deadlines are involved. Pushes their error correction back on the customer. Incompetent service reps, unresponsive to inquiries of a critical nature. Have to reach out multiple times and continuously follow up.
Rise Response
2 years ago
Hi Lisa, thank you for sharing your feedback. Based on your comments, it's clear we've missed the mark in meeting your expectations. Please know our entire company is focused on righting the ship and we've done a lot of work to deliver the customer support you deserve and expect. I can assure you this is 100% of our focus from leadership all the way down.