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Payment Evolution

Payment Evolution

Canada Local product

What Is Payment Evolution?

Our mission is simple: provide the best payroll tools possible to small Canadian businesses.

We deliver simple, fast and affordable payroll to SMEs across Canada because they deserve the best.

With us, you can run 100% compliant payroll in under 5 minutes without busting your budget. Get back to doing what you do best - automate payroll deductions, remittances and taxes.

Because you didn't start a business to stress over payroll - but we did.

Who Uses Payment Evolution?

Canadian small business owners who are looking for simple, affordable and fast payroll software. We also partner with accountants and bookkeepers who run payroll for their clients.

Payment Evolution Software - PayEvo pricing
Payment Evolution Software - Pay summary screen.
Payment Evolution Software - Dashboard and contact info.
Payment Evolution Software - Select a pay cycle.

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Reviews of Payment Evolution

Average score

Overall
4.2
Ease of Use
3.9
Customer Service
4.4
Features
4.1
Value for Money
4.1

Reviews by company size (employees)

  • <50
  • 51-200
  • 201-1,000
  • >1,001
Mathieu
Mathieu
CDO in Canada
Verified LinkedIn User
Consumer Goods, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

From days to minutes to do the payrun

5.0 6 years ago

Comments: Time saver

Pros:

I like that it integrates with TimeSheet and Xero. All our employees punch in TimeSheet, than we export the data to PaymentEvolution. We run the payrun and then it is push to Xero in all the accounts. We save lots of time ! Also great customer service. I've never waited when I called.

Cons:

It's a little tricky to start with but with the help of the customer service we fixed everything. We do have a problem now with Xero that we are hoping to get fixed !

John Marc
Pastor in Canada
Religious Institutions, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Payroll Evolution - a big help!

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: We have been able to offer Direct Deposit payroll for all of our employees. We have also been able to integrate Payment Evolution with our existing accounting software making keeping track of payroll easy.

Pros:

We switched from in house payroll to Payment Evolution. The best parts of the software is the low cost, tax compliance, Quickbooks Online integration, and automatic generation and submission of T4's and T4A's.

Cons:

The initial setup took some time but overall it wasn't bad. We had only used Quickbooks payroll for a month before switching to Payment Evolution so there was a learning curve.

Stephen
Founder in Canada
Information Technology & Services, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Deeply flawed, too many costly mistakes

1.0 3 years ago

Comments: It started great, but straight-forward mistakes that a competent system would catch have eclipsed any potential savings. Just get some decent software. Maybe this will work for you, maybe it wont, but you won't know until it's way too loate.

Pros:

Easy to setup. Mostly friendly interface for the small business owner

Cons:

Way too many hidden fees. We signed up for the free plan (not a trial), 6 months later that plan must have dissappeared because suddenly we were forced to upgrade to paid plan. I wouldn't have minded, but our account was suspended and I was unable to process payroll until we upgraded. There were issues with the KYC which meant I was unable to process payroll for several weeks. It's very difficult to rely on something as critical as payroll if they lock your account -while- you are upgrading. The software also failed to remit to Revenue Quebec for employees who don't get direct deposit. On weeks where only cash-based employees were working, PE charged us the for remitting & then sent a $0 RQ. This year I was pleased to find automated submission of year-end files to CRA & RQ. Unfortunately, PE generated an invalid XML file and so the submission to RQ failed. I would be happy to do the submission myself - I could hand-edit the xml file to be correct - but there is no way to download the files. Support would be great, but it's only for paid plan. This would be fine, if PE didn't charge you for every action at every step of the way already.

PaymentEvolution Response

3 years ago

"Stephen T" - we encourage you to contact us directly with constructive feedback so we can continue to enhance our services for the community. "Gartner Digital Markets" / Capterra currently does not verify that reviews are from actual clients. All reviews on this site are subject to their "privacy" policy which encourages anonymous and potentially non-factual reviews. For verified reviews and honest feedback, please get in touch [email protected]

Courtney
Director of Administration in Canada
Religious Institutions, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Payment Evolution

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: It's made my life so much simpler, especially since it's my first time doing payroll!

Pros:

For someone, who has no formal accounting or bookkeeping education, this software has been pretty intuitive and easy to use.

Cons:

I don't like that in order to make changes to an employee's salary or information, I have to go through so many clicks to get there.I also do not like that when you enter in an employee's salary (when less than 40 hours a week), you cannot put the yearly salary that they would receive at 40hrs/week and the software doesn't adjust the number automatically to their salary at their number of hours per week -- which is how we account for salary base in our files.

Roberto
Marketing Director in US
Food & Beverages, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Served the Purpose

4.0 7 months ago

Comments: It was a great experience using this tool, both payroll management and reporting worked efficiently and eased our accountant's tasks

Pros:

It is easy to use as it has no learning curve meaning it can be used by those without any accounting background

Cons:

You have to prepare for clicks before you get to where you want.

Isaac
Finance Manager in US
Utilities, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Useful Approach for Payment Processing

5.0 7 months ago

Pros:

Payment Evolution has all the processing solution, and it verify every business form of the cash acquired.

Cons:

Payment Evolution has no payment errors, and hence, determined.

Francesca
ICT Director in US
Information Technology & Services, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

It really Hepled in Employee Payments

4.0 7 months ago

Comments: It has helped with electronic payments and receipts management after employee payments are done.

Pros:

Their customer support is topnotch and the tool is very easy to install and use

Cons:

The only issue is that it has a learning curve especially for new users

Manon
Associate software engineer in Australia
Computer Software, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Efficient Payroll Solutions for Growing Businesses

5.0 4 months ago

Pros:

Running payroll for my employees is quick and error-free with just a few clicks.

Cons:

Navigating through different sections can be confusing and less intuitive.

Gikonyo
HR Manager in US
Information Technology & Services, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

My Experience With Payment Evolution

4.0 7 months ago

Pros:

It is smooth and handling payroll management is easy It makes payment processing easy

Cons:

It is all good with Payment Evolution. No complaints.

Ehsan
Ehsan
Director of Product Management
Verified LinkedIn User
, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: Not provided
Reviewer Source
Source: GetApp

A fantastic SMB Payroll and HR app

5.0 10 years ago

Comments: This is a fantastic app. It almost replaces a whole accountant for your payroll need and makes you independent. It is extremely user friendly, and doesn't need much CRA/Tax knowledge.

Pros:

- Easy of use. - Accurate. - Doesn't need much tax knowledge to work with. - Free tier for up to 3 employees.

Kerry
Bookkeeper in Canada
Accounting Software, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Good payroll program, overly complicated for smaller business

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: support is knowledgeable and can generally fix any errors made by bookkeepers or clientsPrice is going up, though, and smaller companies may decide to leave

Pros:

It is fairly easy to get set up and running, T4's & ROE's can be edited by the user

Cons:

bit of a pain to find a report with everything I want or need to see on it.can be Glitchy in exports to integrated programs

Cal
Owner in Canada
Food & Beverages, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Alternatives Considered:

Unnecessary fees / Long processing times

1.0 4 years ago

Comments: Honestly I wish there was another system I could use, but payment evolution will continue to get my money until something else comes along.

Pros:

Processes payroll pretty easily and stat holidays are easily inputted. Saves a lot of time on T4's. Employees get their own log in portal so they go there instead of to me directly for pay stubs.

Cons:

You only have a 1 day window to process your payroll so it comes out on the day you want. My pay period ends on Saturdays so I only have Sunday to do it for it to be deposited on Friday-Because it's an unnecessary 5 day processing time. This also means if there is a holiday on a Friday, the employees pay ends up being 3 days late. They also charged me $60 because an employees bank account was unknowingly suspended. Paying a pricey yearly fee and with having a large number of employees, this is not something that I should be charged for. I lost all trust in PE after this charge, especially when they only let me know AFTER I had processed another payroll for this employee so I actually got charged the fee TWICE- the employees pay wasn't even this amount before they charged me again. Super disappointed. Reports are a little over complicated as well. I create a custom report for payroll monthly and its usually missing weeks and makes life hard.

Kyle
Director in Canada
Education Management, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Biggest mistake was leaving Payment Evolution...but they took me back

5.0 8 years ago

Comments: Payment Evolution was my first experience with online payroll, and it beat the pants off Quickbooks! I halfed my payroll entry time, quartered my time spent on ROEs, and getting rid of cheque payments to staff while providing them with online record keeping all was good.
Then came the price restructuring and I found myself one staff member into the higher tier, and the competition offered a 'we'll match PE and save you another 10%'. WORST thing I have ever done was leaving PE. 8 month of inflexible software, overly complex user interface, errors, painful online reporting for staff, & customer service nightmare! I am so glad Payment Evolution was willing to take me back. Completely the opposite experience: support that knows what they are doing, that proactively offers assistance in a timely manner, intuitive software that is simple enough that I can usually find the answers I need on my own. They have written code just for me. I can't say enough good things about them.
My only pain (other than inconvenient for me pricing tiers) is that they haven't made their Business Payment service available to us Quickbooks offline folks yet. Yet.

Pros:

Intuitive. Everything is simple and straightforward. I can figure out 90% of what I need to do myself, and in those 10% situations the support forum has descriptions detailed enough to get me back on track.

Cons:

There is one text box that doesn't trigger when you press enter, instead you have to press the send button...grrrr...and its logout for inactivity is slightly too short for my liking.

PaymentEvolution Response

7 years ago

Thanks for the feedback Kyle! We're really to happy to have you back and appreciate the feedback you've given us on pricing plans. QuickBooks (desktop) integration is available for payroll but not for business payments as you've pointed out. We're continuing to look at the business case for supporting QB desktop for business payments - it's a bit of a challenge given the offline nature of the product. - Kinga Jasek

Travis
Founder and designer in Canada
E-Learning, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Great product idea  needs serious design investment

1.0 8 years ago

Comments: It's great that you guys have this service, but to be honest, I feel very uncomfortable actually using it and sort of regret paying for a year (we haven't done a full payroll yet, despite nearly completing the process several times). The main issues for me are the overall user experience, buggy/sloppy interface, and confusing flow. It really feels like you don't care about the design of the interface, which reduces my trust in the system. Also some big functional oddities, like requiring separate accounts for the admin and their own employee account, is a huge pain. There's also little explanation of how the flow needs to work, and which info is required before you start the payroll process. And lastly, having to run payroll a few days in advance makes it awkward to get started if you're accustomed to doing it the day before which may be a bad habit on my part, but does prevent me from committing to PE. If I were you, I'd suggest investing in some great UX and UI design. It would really make all the difference in the world for us. It HAS to be better than our current method of running payroll (have our accountant help us with the proper deduction amounts and manually paying everything via our online banking) which actually isn't that bad. Even a tightening of the UI would go a long way. I have to be honest, I can't see us renewing again. I wish there was another alternative we could use in Canada, but unfortunately, we'll probably just stick to what we do now.

Pros:

The actual function of running payroll and calculating deductions is a great and useful idea.

Cons:

The design needs some serious polish and improvement. (not just the aesthetics, but the overall userflow, experience, etc)

PaymentEvolution Response

8 years ago

Thank you Travis for your review. We are grateful that many of the features of our service benefit your business and have saved you time. Our goal is to ensure PaymentEvolution is one of the easiest and most robust services to automate your back office. We appreciate your candid remarks about the UI not being as intuitive for you and our team is looking at how to make the process even better. We'll be in touch shortly to get some specific recommendations from you. This and the requests we receive in our public help forums drive the development of our services. Again, thank you for your feedback - we love hearing how we can do better.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source
Source: GetApp

Use a different payroll software

2.0 6 years ago

Pros:

They will remit your taxes for you if you pay for that option. In terms of use for running the payroll it is fairly easy.

Cons:

I've had it with PE's program. My last straw was just pulled. I spent the last 2.5 hours entering T4A's manually thinking it was saving each one each time I hit save and it said it was saved. It didn't save any of them. This is stacked on the fact that their software had a glitch and showed bills weren't paid when the payment actually did go through the first time. This technological error resulted in a substantial double withdrawal from the bank account. I also think it is a ripoff that it costs money any time you have to make a change. With other payroll software where the Bookkeeper is in charge you can amend and delete things without it costing $30-$100 each adjustment. Overall, I think there are way better options out there, and I know because I have used them. Just having 2.5 hours of my work go down the drain when I still had another 3 to go is my final straw. I will be using other software for clients going forward. I had come to this conclusion years ago, but was forced to use it again when a client had already been signed up with PE.

Nancy
Operations Manager in Canada
Architecture & Planning, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Great Product and Service

5.0 8 years ago

Comments: We have been using the software for a few years and it is very easy to use. We appreciate the helpful emails with online seminars for generating T4's at year end. The customer support staff are very friendly and always so helpful.

Pros:

It is an easy software to use for those just starting up a business. It also provides a lot different reports that are helpful.

Cons:

I think the only con would be the section where you have to close off a month when generating payroll. It sometimes gets confusing and it splits out the source deduction amount by pay rather than month. We pay per month, so it would be beneficial to have the total of the 2 or 3 months deductions noted in one amount for submission.

PaymentEvolution Response

8 years ago

Hi Nancy! we are always looking for ways to better our product. Closing a period can get confusing and because everyone has a different way as to how they would like their period closed, we are working on a way that works for everyone. Thank you for your feedback!

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Individual & Family Services
Used the Software for: Not provided
Reviewer Source
Source: GetApp

I am very pleased with this product

5.0 10 years ago

Comments: After using a PC based software which was difficult to use and didn't report the way we needed, this is a dream! We had an accountant and Point of Sale system and just needed a payroll component. This really fit the bill and so far, is working beautifully. It's so automated and yet, there are many ways to customize it (for example, vacation pay calculations for your province). I haven't found a way that it will calculate stat pay though. Remittances were a breeze with this easy app.
Each employee is sent the pay advice into their email or it can be printed for them.
As one starts the payroll run, all the information is filled out: the pay period dates, the hours if the employees are paid the same every pay period (so just change it to the hours they actually worked), their pay rate, etc.
Since it is cloud based, it can be run from anywhere around the world.
I am very pleased with this product. I actually look forward to payroll now.

Pros:

Easy to use. Product support was amazing for the couple of questions I have had. Cost effective at $17/month (no hidden add-on fees) Communicates payroll effectively with employee

Cons:

I couldn't find a way to export employee information from my software to Payment Evolution, so had to enter it manually. With 10 employees it was fairly simple and just had to enter YTD amounts along with employee information.

Tina
Office Manager in Canada
Financial Services Software, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Excellent software and great customer service

5.0 8 years ago

Comments: I have had an excellent experience using Payment Evolution for the last year for our companies payroll. The system is beyond easy to use. They are always offering webinars to help with common questions or issues. Their customer service is absolutely amazing. They are fast and I have never had an issue they couldn't help me resolve.

Pros:

Easy to use Great resources on site to help with problems or issues Great customer Service

Cons:

Reports are not the easiest to interpret and some critical reports are not offered

PaymentEvolution Response

8 years ago

Hi Tina, Thank you for the kind words. We are happy to hear that PaymentEvolution has been helping you with your payroll! Thank you also for your feedback. We will definitely be looking into ways to make our reports more accessible to our clients.

Kelly
office manager in Canada
Medical Practice, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

payment evolution

5.0 6 years ago

Pros:

This software is a great way to prepare and keep track of all your year end and day to day payroll needs.

Cons:

Can take a bit of time to learn how to properly use.

Tina
HR Coordinator in Canada
Insurance Software, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Payroll Made Easy!

5.0 8 years ago

Comments: Our business has used Payment Evolution as our payroll provider for over a year now. We love the platform because it is so sophisticated yet easy to use - we save time, money and appreciate how simple it is to pay our employees!

Pros:

I like the look, cost, customer support

Cons:

Wish the reporting function was more detailed. Looking through pay stubs needs to be updated - there should be a drop down menu instead of a click to go to the next employee

PaymentEvolution Response

8 years ago

Hi Tina, We are happy to hear that you love our platform and that we are saving you both time and money! Thank you as well for the feedback that you have provided. We will definitely be looking into our reporting to help make accessing payslips much easier. Look forward to working with you!

Todd
owner in Canada
Retail, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Payroll needs too many days notice to run with direct deposit

1.0 6 years ago

Comments: wouldn't recommend, there has to be an easier, and more cost effective way to do payroll, I'm thinking of going back to cheques because it is easier. I don't see any benefit of this system over a standard system like QuickBooks.

Pros:

does the taxes... allows direct payments to vendors, however, I would NOT recommend the service, you have to pay for a setup fee, the transaction fee is the same or more than the bank.

Cons:

need to submit payroll too far in advance to allow direct deposit to work. popup after every change slows the entry process cant change multiple items then click save reporting is clumsy all of naivgation is clumsy not very good instructions on how to run a payroll or hoe to set up properly, maybe better for an accountant but not for a general business owner

Alan
Alan
Co-Founder
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source
Source: GetApp
4.0 9 years ago
DeeDee
CFO in Canada
Fund-Raising, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Easy Payroll

5.0 8 years ago

Comments: Thank God for Payment Evolution. It has made our payroll and T4 time much more effective. Our payroll takes about 1/2 the time. Every support email has been addressed quickly. I have always been satisfied with this system.

Pros:

How easy it is to do payroll.

PaymentEvolution Response

8 years ago

Hi DeeDee Thank you for your review! We are happy to hear that we helped cut your payroll time in half! We hope business is going well and look forward to continue to work with you.

Helina
Helina
CFO, Management Consultant in Canada
Verified LinkedIn User
Management Consulting, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Great Payroll App from an Awesome Company

4.0 7 years ago

Comments: Easy payroll runs.

Pros:

Easy to set up and run payroll. The team is very open to feedback and making the product awesome for its users. Vendor payments are simple too. Integrations with accounting software make our lives easier: no manual journal entries!

Cons:

Stat holiday pay is not handled in the app yet. The data table for entering the payroll hours, etc. for the pay period is clunky and needs to be flipped vertically.

Alexander
Tax Professional in Canada
Accounting Software, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Very good decision for Payroll for small business.

4.0 7 years ago

Comments: No problem with Payroll (at all) + direct deposit + XERO integration.

Pros:

Super Payroll software for small business firms. Free version for simple payroll till five (5) employee! Free XERO integration.

Cons:

Really I don't know. May be it has some inconvenient things for difficult (complicated) Payroll, but for simple Payroll - it is great!