We have to agree.

Compared to the leading full-service online payroll service, SurePayroll, Paychex still has a ways to go in delivering an easy-to-use, affordable online payroll service.

It's a bit surprising given Paychex's strong track record as a payroll outsourcing company, but it's well known that the traditional payroll services have struggled to compete in the online payroll service niche.

Still, Paychex is a good offline payroll service.

On their website for small business payroll, Paychex says "Before you submit your payroll online, consider who's on the other end of the connection. With Paychex Online Payroll, the speed and convenience of our service is backed by our national payroll experience and dedicated support."

It's a good point. In looking at full-service payroll services, it pays to focus on industry leaders like Paychex, SurePayroll, ADP and Intuit's Quickbooks Payroll Service. These are payroll outsourcing firms that are in it for the long haul.

Like SurePayroll, Paychex Online Payroll system is a web-based solution that offers the flexibility of anytime, anywhere payroll processing. That's much more convenient than having to phone in or fax in your payroll data.

However, in its attempt to transport the merits of Paychex's offline payroll service over to an online payroll service offering, Paychex fails to simplify things. The end result is time consuming to set up and complex to use.

Whatever feature you want, it's probably there, but finding it is another thing altogether. Compared to other online payroll services, this one is slow to boot.

Given that small businesses generally outsource payroll to save time, it's a shame that this payroll service offering doesn't allow payroll to be processed efficiently.

Still, while it's not our favorite payroll solution, it can get the job done and they, along with ADP and SurePayroll, are worth talking to when shopping for a payroll service.

Semi-monthly payroll processing for Paychex payroll services will run you about $33.30 for five employees or $53.05 for 15 employees.

However, when a payroll service takes too much time to process a payroll, you'll also want to factor in the value of your time into the price.