Deel: Global Payroll & Options for Growth

About Deel Payroll

Deel's payroll software offerings include tools to address payroll, onboarding, tax compliance, integration, and other global HR-related tasks. Deel currently serves over 20,000 client businesses in the US and abroad. Their Global Payroll services allow you to pay your employees in over 150 other countries, promising to save you money and time spent on such administrative tasks while providing you with dedicated, country-specific support. They accept all types of businesses, from startups to large enterprises, and serve many industries, such as consumer goods, marketing and advertising, computer software, fintech, educational tech, IT services, gaming, e-sports, and crypto.

The company has recently introduced their US-based PEO services, which bundle their payroll features with other HR services such as benefits administration, risk management, and employee training while effectively co-employing your workforce and sharing compliance liability. Although their global payroll features are not as all-encompassing, they are more established and support you through your international business growth. Their features include the many aspects of payment processing, tax filing and compliance, and integrations, all in a robust, secure software solution. Their services bring specific value to all your company's team members, including those of your hiring managers, finance department, and legal teams.

In their relatively short life as a provider, Deel has positively impacted the industry. They have begun racking up some accolades, including being named on top G2 lists for their software and HR products. They are recognized by the Global Payroll Association (GPA), although it is unclear whether they are members. However, they are not accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and receive a B- rating.

Features of Deel Payroll

Deel does not offer payroll software as a separate product, and instead packages such functionalities as part of their payroll services solutions. Within that category of services, Deel offers a host of valuable features and benefits to serve your global team's payment and compliance needs. They are as follows:

• Platform: You can run your payroll on a single all-one-platform, accessible from anywhere in the countries they serve. It allows for automatic employee onboarding and payroll calculations via synced HR platform details and may be provided for free for businesses with less than 200 employees
• Payroll processing: As a managed payroll provider, they handle all aspects of your payroll processing, including calculating wages and taxes, generating and delivering pay stubs, and filing tax forms. They also manage paid time off (PTO) matters, visa support, and various related payroll expenses and concerns
• In-house experts: They make local payroll experts available to you should you need assistance with payroll or tax matters, and they may even assign you your own customer success manager (CSM). Their dedicated support is provided in-house, 24/7, to ensure that you have fast, efficient help when you need it
• Tax filing and compliance: Because they have local jurisdictional experts to aid with regional compliance with regulations, they can more reliably manage local tax calculations and filings as well as necessary employee benefits. They take into account those employee benefits and all salary deductions and ensure you are up-to-date with your taxes as well as onboarding and offboarding practices. However, depending on your country of operation, they may not always pay such liabilities but will, in such cases, provide you with the necessary files to expedite the process
• Employee self-service portal: Deel's employee self-service portal empowers both existing and new employees to manage their own development, training, and schedules. They can also enroll in available services or benefits and set up direct deposits. This facilitates better communication between employees and managers, enabling them to share information and real-time data seamlessly
• Integration capabilities: They boast the ability to integrate over 20 other applications to their platform, which include accounting and HRIS software like Quickbooks, Xero, and Slack. By interfacing with your existing software, you can synchronize employee details, vacations, expenses, and payment information to their system
• Reporting and analytics: You can compare employer costs, bonuses, and taxes across your entities with 'gross-to-net' reports in a standardized currency. Their payroll reports provide a comprehensive view of costs in a single currency, allowing you to identify and correct errors quickly
• Security and data protection: Deel prioritizes data security with SSL encryption, two-factor authentification, ISO 27001 cert, SOC 2, and GDPR compliance. They also have a dedicated team monitoring the safety of their systems at all times

You may request a free demo from Deel to see how these features look in practice.

Plans & Prices of Deel Payroll

Deel provides some pricing and feature information for some of their services, which start at $49 a month per contractor for managing and paying contractors globally. That being said, no costs or pricing models are available for their global payroll features, which are only offered as part of their full-service HR and payroll solution and not as stand-alone software, so you must request a quote by contacting them for a free demo. As previously stated, however, Deel offers Deel HR for free for businesses with under 200 employees, with no set-up fees, monthly costs, or hidden extras.

Keep in mind that some services will be considered add-ons, such as visa support, background checks, localized benefits, hiring employees without an entity, and so on.

Benefits of Deel Payroll

Choosing Deel for payroll and tax compliance automation has numerous benefits. Depending on your case, those may include:

• Direct 24/7 support: Deel's support representatives operate in-house, without the involvement of any third-party service providers. The company maintains that this helps them offer better compliance assistance, as well as faster and more personalized responses through 24/7 chat, phone, and email
• Dedicated account management: They assign a CSM dedicated to your account to know better your needs, who can connect you with the proper experienced in-house guides to support you through payroll taxes, labor, payment schedules, and regulatory compliance issues
• Payroll and tax automation: Their all-in-one software streamlines your administrative tasks, and handles everything associated with expense management, employee scheduling, time off requests, as well as onboarding and offboarding. They also take care of everything to do with hiring and paying contractors globally
• Employee self-service capabilities: Your employees and contractors can easily access their personal dashboard to enroll in benefits, manage payments, submit time off requests, and access support. This frees your company's HR and administrative staff for other matters
• Support many payment options: They support payroll payouts and contractor payments in many currencies via many methods, including direct deposits and digital payment processors. You may also choose to pay with crypto or bitcoin, or use their Deel card for contractors
• Free HR account: You can sign up for free for their HR services, provided you have less than 200 employees, and explore them as you would a demo. Of course, when you're ready to hire and pay employees internationally, you will be billed accordingly
• Robust security: Their application is GDPR-compliant and certified with SOC2 and ISO 27001, offering strong protection against cyber threats and ensuring the safety of your data
• Highly scalable services: The range of additional services they offer allows your business to grow locally and internationally while being similarly supported across locations and markets. For example, if you need to expand into a new country where you do not have an entity, you would engage their EOR services to hire international workers compliantly, hassle-free

Why You Might Not Choose Deel Payroll

Automating your global payroll and tax tasks with Deel promises to save you a lot of trouble, but there are some potential cons that you should consider. Before deciding if they are the right fit for your business, it is important to carefully evaluate these drawbacks, which are:

• Service limitations: Deel boasts many compelling services across a high number of countries, but these services are not available in all countries, or to all companies, they serve. For example, their visa support may only be available in 21 countries, and they may not provide you with your dedicated CSM if they deem your business too small. If you do contact them, you should clearly ask about every feature you care about, and any limitations or exclusions it may have
• Features as paid extras: Many of their useful, or even necessary, features may be treated as optional, paid add-ons. These include running background checks on applicants, benefits, and global workforce payments
• Limited integrations: They don't integrate natively to as many HRIS and cloud computing applications as their top competitors, although they may be adding more application support with time
• Workforce misclassifications: Reports from former employees and insiders allege they were misclassified as contractors with the HR startup Deel, prompting Senator Padilla to request the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency to investigate the Deel team and their CEO. This may not bode well for their ability to compliantly hire direct employees and contractors on your behalf

The Deel Payroll Customer Experience

Deel has been receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback online, and surprisingly, they have managed to gather a considerable amount of customer reviews despite being a relatively young company. On G2 and GetApp, they have managed an impressive review score of 4.7 out of 5 stars. Their Trustpilot score is even higher, 4.8 out of 5. However, on TrustRadius, they have a slightly lower score of 7.0 out of 10, albeit from much fewer reviews.

Usability

Deel receives much praise for their platform's ease of use and straightforward setup process. The automation of compliance documentation with location-specific data is a relief to many, as are simplified employee payment, time tracking, onboarding, and contract management procedures. Users generally appreciate the platform interface, with some explicitly highlighting the cloud-based payroll functions for their simplicity and intuitiveness, resulting in accurate and timely payments with thorough records. Administrators in global businesses appreciated the time saved when opening local bank accounts, completing tax forms, and creating contracts using Deel's system.

Users who have criticized the system's usability sometimes called them minor disadvantages. Those include the absence of a mobile app, limited third-party integrations, or a lack of customization options for the software and reports. However, one customer had an issue with an employee not being paid despite a pay stub being issued on the system. Also, it has been reported by some clients that Deel's payments and benefits coverages can occasionally get delayed due to document and transaction record loss. This can result in strained relationships with contractors and vendors.

Although these experiences are relatively rare, they are worth noting as they suggest that certain areas of the company's services require further refinement.

Support

Deel's client support and dedicated CSMs are among their most praised aspects. A few customers who had issues with the platform were otherwise very satisfied with the always-available representatives and said all their inquiries were answered. In fact, many find the customer service team to be genuinely caring, polite, and patient and provide timely assistance. One user even mentioned receiving a call back in less than 10 minutes after requesting it. The company offers various methods to contact their support representatives, including WhatsApp, which many users found very convenient and helped resolve their issues quickly.

However, some customers have criticized the customer service. One user had to wait over a month to resolve an issue with their payslips. During this time, they had to deal with an unresponsive AI chatbot and unhelpful emails. Another reviewer stated they no longer respond to inquiries and redirect phone support requests to email.

Overall experience

Deel has a satisfied customer base overall for their platform's ease-of-use and customer service, but a few international reviewers have reported issues with their HR services. One reviewer had to submit the same immigration-related paperwork multiple times without any results. Another reviewer felt that their security measures were excessive, caused unnecessary delays, and almost resulted in losing access to services.

Most customers seem to be generally satisfied by Deel's costs, as they are with most of Deel's services. However, one customer stated that Deel will charge you for the entire month no matter what day of that month you joined, regardless of whether or not you benefited from their services. 

They don't have reviews on the BBB and have only had a handful of complaints against them there. They have replied to half of those complaints but seem to have done so privately, so we cannot comment on the quality of those replies. They also sometimes respond to reviews, though mostly positive ones, with short messages thanking the reviewer for their feedback.

Customer Service at Deel Payroll

If you need to contact their support, you are best served by logging in to the company's system and utilizing the chat option. Additionally, the company has a support hub that contains many informative articles for businesses and employees.

Though current clients can communicate with their assigned support personnel through various means such as phone, email, WhatsApp, and more, this information is not available on Deel's website. You can also communicate with them on their social media pages, which are linked to on their website. 

Final Verdict on Deel Payroll

Deel's payroll offerings have acquired a lot of praise over the past few years since the company's founding. The company supports you in many countries, keeping your business compliant across jurisdictions while automating payroll tasks for all your workplace locations. Whether you have workers in Canada or Croatia, their software helps you keep track of all your tools and data in one place. At the same time, their highly-lauded customer service representatives aim to support you efficiently and thoroughly wherever you are.

While some have highlighted minor disadvantages, such as the absence of a mobile app, limited third-party integrations, and a lack of customization options, the company's client support and dedicated CSMs have received widespread praise for their availability, responsiveness, and genuine care in dealing with any issues. That being said, if you have a smaller company, you may not be assigned such dedicated support personnel, and the fact that you must pay for many features as add-on options might prove prohibitive in your case.

As always, we recommend you do your due diligence before selecting a solution. Read up about the top payroll providers, and use our comparison tool to pit Deel against its competitors. We also recommend you regularly visit our blog page, as we are continually adding useful articles to help you navigate everything to do with payroll management and services. Our goal is to make choosing the right provider a stress-free and straightforward experience for you!

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