Netchex vs. Payroll Central: Which HR and Payroll Platform Is Right for Your Business in 2026?

Your pharmacy has eleven employees, two of them part-time, and payroll day always seems to land on the same afternoon a shipment gets held up at the loading dock. You don’t want to think about tax tables. You want someone to pick up the phone and just fix it. A lot of small businesses around O’Fallon and metro St. Louis have leaned on Payroll Central for exactly that kind of help for years. So if you’re weighing Netchex vs. Payroll Central, here’s what’s actually different underneath the two.

Payroll Central runs its payroll and HR on PlatinumPay Xpress, a platform built by a company called Execupay. Netchex writes its own software from the ground up and staffs its own support desk to go with it.

Last updated: September 2026. Payroll Central information comes from the company’s own website and public listings. Netchex figures come from G2 and Netchex’s own customer data.

The Short Version

Payroll Central grew out of Rickhoff & Associates, a family accounting firm in O’Fallon, Illinois. It launched as Total Business Solutions in 1998 and took the Payroll Central name in 2008, and Melinda Rickhoff, CPP, still runs it as president today, per the company’s About page. Its site says it serves more than 300 small businesses, mostly in the St. Louis metro, and promises the feel of "the friendly, personal service of a neighborhood mom-and-pop" alongside the tech of a bigger provider.

Netchex was founded in Louisiana more than 20 years ago for the businesses that keep America running: restaurants, hotels, dealerships, clinics. It’s one company from the code to the phone line. The US-based, FPC-certified support team answers 90% of calls in under a minute, customers rate that service 4.8 out of 5, and Netchex holds an 8.9/10 Quality of Support score on G2.

Company Overview

Netchex vs. Payroll Central on Payroll and Time

Payroll Central’s site lists payroll and tax filing, biometric and geofenced time clocks, background checks, HR support through a partner, 401(k) plan integration, employee handbooks, EEO-1 reporting, and pay-as-you-go workers’ comp. That’s a wide menu for a small operation, and it covers what most local employers ask for.

What it can’t change is who owns the software. Payroll Central configures and services PlatinumPay Xpress, but Execupay decides what the platform does and when it changes.

Netchex writes its own payroll engine and its own time and attendance module, and Scheduler lives in the same system. When a pharmacy tech picks up a Saturday shift last minute, the hours and any overtime flow straight into payroll without moving between two different companies’ products. OneScreen Payroll pulls onboarding, overtime, benefits and taxes into one readiness view. Most teams finish a run in under 15 minutes.

HR, Benefits and Compliance

Payroll Central’s solutions page says HR services and onboarding are handled "with a national HR company" it partners with, one it doesn’t name on its site. The client center also lists separate logins for time clocks, HR tools, background screening and file transfer, so a manager may end up juggling a few different portals over the course of a week.

Netchex keeps that on one employee record. With its in-house benefits solution, enrollment, ACA tracking, onboarding and hiring through Netchex Recruit share the same data, so a new hire’s details get entered once instead of copied across systems. ACA Central tracks hours and coverage offers across full-time, part-time and seasonal staff, and Netchex files Forms 1094-C and 1095-C directly.

Fewer logins. Fewer places for a detail to slip through.

Service and Support

Service is where Payroll Central leans hardest, and its own testimonials back that up. "In my opinion Payroll Central is the absolute best payroll provider! Our family owned business has worked with them for years and we have not one complaint," says one, credited to Marion Officer of Officer Funeral Home. Its About page also promises at least two people on your account: "At least two of us will be working with you and your staff." No G2, Capterra or BBB profile for Payroll Central Inc. turned up in a targeted search, so there isn’t independent review data to check that promise against yet.

Netchex publishes that kind of data. Ninety percent of calls are picked up in under a minute with first-call resolution, and every customer has a dedicated Account Manager who already knows the account before the phone rings.

Netchex has the best support of any service provider I’ve ever worked with. There aren’t any hoops to jump through with Netchex support.

– Mary Lang, Accounting and Financial Control Director, Atlanta Air Charter

Implementation and Switching

Nobody looks forward to moving payroll systems. What you actually want to know is how much of that work lands on your desk.

Netchex implementation is free and project-managed, usually wrapping up in about six weeks, with free data imports and a 96% implementation satisfaction score. One team owns it from the first data pull to the first live payroll.

Payroll Central doesn’t publish an implementation timeline on its site. If you’re comparing the two, ask for one in writing, and ask which steps its team handles directly versus what routes through Execupay.

Who Each Is Built For

Payroll Central may fit if: you’re a smaller St. Louis-area employer who wants a local, family-run firm behind your payroll and you’re comfortable with PlatinumPay Xpress as the software underneath.

Netchex may fit if: you’re growing past a handful of locations, you want time, scheduling and payroll living in one system, and you’d rather have one company own the platform and the phone line instead of a reseller relationship.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related: 5 Best Payroll Central Alternatives | Netchex vs. Paychex | Netchex vs. ADP

This guide reflects publicly available product information and independent reviewer data (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Reddit, Software Advice, GetApp) as of 2026. Feature availability may vary by plan. Contact each provider for current details.

Disclaimer: Any product roadmap or future plans provided herein are for informational purposes only. They do not represent a commitment to deliver any material, code, feature, or functionality. Plans may change without notification. The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described remain at the sole discretion of Netchex, its affiliates, and partners. Netchex does not give legal, tax, or accounting advice. You are responsible for ensuring your use of Netchex product meets your individual business and compliance requirements.

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