About Rise
Rise is a people management platform that brings together HR, Benefits & Payroll into a simplified, personalized, all-in-one solution
What I like most about this software, it makes doing payroll easier. It takes care of all your payroll deductions and T4 information at the end of the year.
Furthermore, their website's pricing page has absolutely no mention about a base $30/mo.
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Filter reviews (89)

Grace
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
5 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
Murray
Works Great for Payroll
Comments: Getting the Original companies setup. Simple, not complex, great support.
Pros:
Ease of use and Customer support. .......
Cons:
So far everything has exceeded my expectations.
Rise Response
11 months ago
Hi Murray, thanks for your review. We're happy to hear that Rise is exceeding your expectation by making Payroll easier for you!
Katrina
Alternatives Considered:
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.
Verified Reviewer
Everything needed for payroll, stellar customer support
Pros:
Customer support is far and away the best part of this software. If anything goes wrong they will fix it.
Cons:
The main interface hasn't changed a lot since Paysavvy and is showing its age. When I sign in, automatically create the next payroll if it's due soon, rather than making me click "Create Next Payroll". When I add a new rule or click Save, don't force a refresh of the whole page, but persist as is. When I click Submit, skip the need to "View Results" and go straight to a summary report that has all of the information broken out. I always need the invoice data. Detecting statistical exceptions would be great. For example, I once accidentally entered all of employee's time for a pay period as both regular time and overtime. It would be nice for Rise to point out when an employee's hours are significantly different from their median. Web Service API access to the invoice data in particular is something I've wanted for a while. I have a script that scrapes this data and inserts into my accounting system, because it takes a long time to do by hand.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your feedback - these are great suggestions. Your feedback is being reviewed by our product team for consideration. If you would like information about our API or would like to discuss access to data, please feel free to reach out to us using the contact details below anytime and we would be happy to help. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483

Jenny
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
5 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
Tina
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.
Grace
Alternatives Considered:
It takes a longer time to download reports.
Comments: Overall, Rise is good. I am very impressed with the customer service. The team sounds professional. They respond to my questions quickly. No matter what questions I have, they fix it right away.
Pros:
I like that I can export the input sheet to excel, I can work on the excel sheet for any adjustments. I can import the excel to the system after I finish all adjustments. It saves a lot of time to process the payroll when I have 200+ payslips to process.
Cons:
There are two things I have to say to get improve. 1) It takes a longer time to download reports. (time-consuming) 2) It is hard to customize the report. For example, I am looking for a report that shows all employees' (Including the termination ) salary changes in a specific period.
Theresa
Getting personalized customer service is more difficult now than when it was free.
Comments: I was a pretty happy customer initially but after transitioning from the free to the paid service, have experienced worse customer support. I also find it frustrating that the payroll cutoff dates are so far out from the actual pay date. When my staff person was ill with covid, I was forced to predict a full week of work for her, which she ended up not being able to work, and so she was overpaid for 31 hours and her ROE is incorrect. When she was able to return to work over a month later, she was in the position of owing me those 31 hours.
Pros:
I am a first time business owner and first time administering payroll so using Rise was amazing as they took care of the deductions and direct deposits for my team and it was a huge weight off my shoulders. The service was free for companies with less than 10 employees which was amazing. When I needed help I was usually able to get help quickly either by online chat (even though times to access it were quite limited) or by email and I really appreciated getting to communicate back and forth with difficulties I was having or mistakes that I made. I definitely made the most of the system and customer service was amazing and patient with me.
Cons:
The free service was discontinued and now that I am a paying customer, I have a harder time accessing customer support which was disappointing and counter intuitive. I can no longer access online chat at all and the last issue I had, for which I submitted two tickets, was never responded to. And it was a serious issue. I had a staff member fall seriously ill to covid and took an extended leave and I completed her ROE incorrectly which has delayed her ability to collect EI. I initially waited to see if I would get a response before completing the ROE myself, but it was over a week and I had heard nothing back, despite submitting a second ticket, so I just did it on my own, made an error and as I mentioned, delayed her support response. It was a rep at EI who called to clarify the mistake I made so that her application could proceed.
Rise Response
11 months ago
Hi Theresa, first and foremost, we want to thank you for your honest and detailed feedback. Although we were fortunate to have experienced great growth over the past year, one area that we've had a harder time to keep up with was in Client Support. This is something that we plan to learn and grow from. Your feedback helps us do that. We want you to know that we're aware of the work we need to do, and every team across the organization has been working hard the past couple of months to revamp our client support processes, tools, and training to reimagine every interaction a client has with us. We doubled our support team members so we can respond to and resolve tickets faster. We've implemented a new support request form and ticket routing process to speed up ticket responses. And we're improving our live chat experience and will have that back by the end of May. Please know our entire company is focused on righting the ship to deliver the customer support you
Verified Reviewer
Rise has solved the problem we set out to solve, with good support and a few rough edges
Comments: Rise allowed us to formalize and simplify our payroll system, which has been extremely valuable. Having gone to the trouble of getting set up on Rise, the ongoing work to keep our payroll system running is now quite minimal, which means payroll gets done, taxes get remitted, and we can get back to work quickly.
Pros:
- Rise has spent a lot of time on onboarding and support, and their support has also typically been quite responsive. - While Rise is a fairly complex system, once we got up to speed, our payroll workflow every month is pretty quick and painless. (I would expect this is the case for most users who have extremely simple payroll requirements) - Rise is free for smaller companies, which is a price that you really can't beat.
Cons:
- From time to time it's felt like we were interacting with someone who didn't have a great handle on the nuances of what we were trying to accomplish (particularly when we had questions at tax time), which has resulted in some hiccups around our payroll tax filing. Our support experience has often been quite good, but it's been uneven, depending on who we ended up talking to.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your review. We're glad that you've been having a great experience with Rise after going through our onboarding process and working together with our support team, and that our services have helped to formalize and simplify your payroll system. We appreciate your feedback on your experience with our customer service team. Rise's support representatives have been enrolled in ongoing training courses to act upon our commitment to improvement, learning, and providing the best support for our clients that's possible. Thank you again for this feedback and we look forward to continuing to work with you. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Nick
Best Customer Support I've Encountered
Comments: Payroll management is a breeze. We're just starting to use their recruiting and onboarding system and it's fantastic. If you hate doing things manually, Rise's platform will be your new best friend.
Pros:
In the event that I've had an issue, Rise's customer support has responded to and solved the issue within a day or two at most.
Cons:
Mobile functionality needs some love. It's almost completely unusable from my phone.
Rise Response
7 months ago
Hi Nick, thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts. I've passed along your feedback to the product team as we want you to love our mobile app as well <3.
Yuzo
Great Onboarding, Great Customer Service. Great Products
Comments: The biggest benefit is the time savings in comparison to when we used ADP and spreadsheets
Pros:
Rise's payroll system is super easy to use, reports are provided within seconds of processing, and the customer support for payroll is excellent. In terms of it's Hub/Time Off system, it has been great. No more spreadsheets tracking time off or vacation days!
Cons:
Tracking vacation days actually used in Time Off reporting can be a bit tricky when employees request, get approved, but then cancel that request.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your feedback, Yuzo. We are so glad to hear that our system is easy to use and that our customer support has been helpful. We have noted your comments on tracking vacation days actually used in Time Off and have shared your feedback with our product team for review. If you have any additional comments or feedback, we would love to hear from you. Please feel free to get in touch with us anytime using the contact details below. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Karin
A solid product but the database has many limitations
Pros:
Customer support/service! Submitting payroll is easy. I love how you can download a CSV and upload it again to each payrun.
Cons:
The YTD totals don't get rolled over at the calendar year so we've been caught a couple times with maximums (such as garnishment) that don't finish b/c the system hasn't taken into account deductions from the previous year...yikes! Also, the system doesn't automatically update vacation accrual to 6% after an employee's 3 year anniversary.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your review, Karin. We are happy to hear that you¿ve had a good experience with our customer support team. The maximums that you have noted can be set to roll over or zero out at the end of the year. We¿d like to help resolve this issue for you. Could you please contact our client service team so we can investigate and change the setting? Thank you for bringing this to our attention. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Mike
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
4 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.
carla
In the past I had a direct contact for customer support which was excellent! Disappointed in change
Pros:
Software is easy to use, and accessible as long as there is an internet connection. Shows multiple companies on the same profile, which makes it easy to approve for multiple companies
Cons:
The process is very manual for T4s, would be great to have this as a more automated process. I really liked having a point of contact who handled a lot of the issues I had in the past. Not having a direct line has resulted in inconsistent responses and delayed response times. Considering the price per employee I would expect more service.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your review, Carla. We are happy to hear that you¿ve found our software to be easy and accessible to use. Our team is working on continual improvements to automating our processes. We would be more than happy to work directly with you on addressing any questions or issues you have. Please feel free to get in touch with our client service team using the contact information provided below - we are committed to providing you with the personalized and dedicated service you need. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Steve
Have used Rise since it came to us. Some good things and Some not so good things
Pros:
Keeps track of most things for the people that work Monday to Friday. Able to write notes as to why that person had days off.
Cons:
I run a shop that works 24/7. Rise does not keep track of people working on Saturdays and Sundays. Hard to keep track of holidays and missed days.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your review, Steve. We're happy to hear our time-tracking functionalities have proven to be beneficial to managing your workforce. In regards to your feedback, our time off module is designed for a salaried workforce. If you use our Time & Attendance module, it includes scheduling, time off tracking for a variety of work schedules, attendance tracking, approval workflows, and more. Should you wish to request a walkthrough of these features, please feel free to reach out to our client services team using the contact information provided below. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Nona
Usually pretty good
Pros:
Live updates with changes etc. and access to reports of past periods for employees as well as company
Cons:
Duplicating data input for some stuff in Rise and Rise Hub. Also very slow updating reports for annual data.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your feedback, Nona. We're glad to hear your thoughts on our software. We are planning further enhancements that will reduce any duplication of data as you've indicated. If you have any further comments you¿d like to share, please feel free to reach out to us using the contact details below. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Jirtz
Satisfactory
Pros:
very handy and useful. It has most of the features I need to adequately control payroll and get things done.
Cons:
if I have 2 compensation policies assigned to an employee, i can't have full capabilities for both policies.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your feedback, Jirtz. We're happy to hear that you've found our services to be handy and useful for your payroll management processes. Our support team would love to assist you with any issues you may have. Please feel free to get in touch with one of our client service representatives through the contact information provided below. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Sara
Best intro to payroll ever!
Pros:
The customer service and assistance with setting up employees was amazing. The price is beyond fair and I was so appreciative that I didn't have to figure out all the CRA steps on my own. I'd be lost without them. Even the weekly payroll cut off reminders were helpful during busy months.
Cons:
Truly no complaints. I relied a little too much on the payroll cut off reminder and one time it didn't go through and we missed the deadline but a quick call to the customer service line rectified it immediately.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for sharing your kind words about your stellar experience with our customer service team, Sara! We're happy to hear that you are getting good value from our software and that Rise has been so helpful to you and your payroll management. We look forward to continuing to support your business. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Yeny
Good
Pros:
Good customer service, I usually get the response right away or if not the next day. The interface is user friendly. The import function is helpful.
Cons:
Some of the report is not user friendly and require more work to use the report which is not efficient.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your feedback, Yeny. We are happy to hear that you have been satisfied with our customer service and have been receiving a good response time! Thank you for your comments on the user friendliness of our interface. We also appreciate your feedback on our reporting feature. We are currently reviewing our Payroll reporting feature for ways to improve. If you have any specific comments you¿d like to share, we¿d love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact us using the contact details below anytime. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Alex
Excellent customer support and team
Pros:
They make payroll and HR so easy. Great UX and backend. Very knowledgable team and support. They're able to answer all my questions quickly.
Cons:
No Xero integration for easy payroll reconciliation. I wish I could easily generate a payroll report to be imported into Xero.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your feedback, Alex! We're happy to hear about your great experiences with our services, product, and customer support team. In regards to Xero integration, this feature is currently in progress with our development team. Please stay tuned for further updates! All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Johwanna
Saves me time and money
Pros:
I love that this files and track my government remittance. I like the built in forms and auto fill. It made my year end and T4s super easy and helps when I don't know how to fix remittance errors.
Cons:
It has a beta feel, things don't always flow well and you have to click the FAQ for answers or call support.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your feedback, Johwanna. We are glad to hear that our software helps make your remittances and year-end process easier. We are continually striving to improve our software and welcome any comments or feedback you may have. Please feel free to get in touch with us using the contact details below to share your thoughts anytime. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483

Jennifer
In my 20 years of payroll experience, this is the most user-friendly platform and service I've seen.
Comments: Significant time saving in preparing software. Proactive and timely information provided to the payroll staff.
Pros:
Overall, it is very intuitive, with a clean and simple format. There is a very prompt reply to queries for help from customer service. Staff take the initiative to reach out to us and provide useful information - solving our problems before they arise (by offering e-books and webinars).
Cons:
There is some minor redundancies in the system I feel could be eliminated. However, overall it is far better than other systems I've used.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your review of our product and services, Jennifer! We're very happy to hear that you've had a great experience with Rise. Providing top-notch customer service to our clients is of utmost importance to us, so we are delighted to hear that our team has gone above and beyond in supporting you. We'd also love to hear your recommendations for improvements to our software. Please feel free to connect with our support team using the contact details provided below. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Stacey
This software is OK but I still need assistance with reports as they are still not built myself
Pros:
I like the export and import of info. I like the way new employees are built in the system as it is a nice flow
Cons:
The need for me to contact them for my reports and I do not like how they took over a year to respond to me about building our payroll system.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your review, Stacey. We are glad to hear you have been enjoying the ease and flow of our system. If there is anything further we can do to help you with your reports or if you have any more comments or feedback, please let us know as it helps us to continually improve our software and service. Please feel free to reach out to us anytime using the contact details below. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483
Verified Reviewer
Steer clear of Rise
Comments: We were brought on pre-pandemic and things at first were great! The onboarding, service and success teams were all fantastic. COVID hit, and they let go of all of their staff. It is impossible to get any kind of support or service from Rise. Which is compounded by the amount of errors that their system makes. BIG payroll errors. Government reporting errors. Vacation pay errors. We are embarrassed to be using this product because it reflects poorly on our brand to our employees. Do not buy Rise.
Pros:
The benefits admin is fairly straightforward. This is the only decent feature of the system.
Cons:
Mistakes, no service, billing errors, government reporting errors, cannot get a hold of anyone.
Rise Response
11 months ago
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We're disappointed to hear you've had such a poor experience lately. We understand your frustrations with payroll errors and this should definitely not be the case. We would love the opportunity to make this right, please reach out to me [email protected] so I can followup directly.
Dolly
As a new business owner, I have had an excellent experience so far using Rise for my payroll.
Pros:
Customer support - they are very responsive and have always answered any questions I have. I love that I'm able to send an email or make a phone call and talk to a real person. I also like how using the software makes payroll seem less intimidating.
Cons:
The interface could be more descriptive and intuitive for users without a payroll background. I'm not familiar with many of the terms but your FAQ and help topics are very helpful for learning the language.
Rise Response
5 years ago
Thank you for your review, Dolly. We¿re delighted to hear about your great experience with our customer support team and related support resources. We appreciate your feedback on how we can improve upon our software interface and will certainly keep your suggestions in mind as we continue to refine our product for the benefit of our customers. All the very best, The Rise People Team [email protected] 1-888-393-3483