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A small church office manager is running payroll for a part-time worship leader, a full-time youth pastor with a clergy housing allowance, and two seasonal camp counselors, all before Friday. Get the pastor’s tax status wrong and it’s not a minor fix. That’s the exact problem Brotherhood Mutual built its payroll division around, and it’s why anyone comparing Netchex vs. Brotherhood Mutual is really comparing two different starting points.
Brotherhood Mutual is an insurance company first. Payroll is something it sells through a division, not the reason the company exists. Netchex is a payroll, time, HR and benefits platform from the ground up. Payroll isn’t a side offering here. It’s the whole business.
Last updated: September 2026. Brotherhood Mutual information comes from the company’s own site and an independent third-party review. Netchex figures come from Netchex’s own customer data and G2.
The Short Version
Brotherhood Mutual is an insurance company based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a September 2025 press release says it’s celebrating 108 years in business. It sells payroll and HR through a division once branded MinistryWorks and now called Brotherhood Works, part of a 2025 rebrand. As of this writing, the old ministryworks.com domain redirects straight to the Brotherhood Works page, and MinistryWorks doesn’t appear on it anymore. The audience is narrow and specific: churches, Christian schools, camps and mission organizations. If that’s your organization, the clergy-tax expertise is real.
Netchex was founded in Louisiana more than 20 years ago for the businesses that keep America running: restaurants, hotels, dealerships, clinics. It builds and owns its own payroll, time, HR and benefits software, and one company handles both the platform and the phone. The US-based, FPC-certified support team answers 90% of calls in under a minute with first-call resolution, and customers rate that service 4.8 out of 5.
Company Overview
| Netchex | Brotherhood Mutual | |
| Roots | Louisiana, 20+ years | Fort Wayne, IN, insurer celebrating 108 years (its release) |
| What it leads with | Payroll, time, HR and benefits software | Insurance, with payroll and HR sold through its Brotherhood Works division |
| Who builds the payroll software | Netchex, in-house | Doesn’t name a platform vendor on its site |
| Who it serves | Restaurants, hotels, dealerships, clinics and other hourly, multi-location employers | Churches, Christian schools, camps and mission organizations only |
Netchex vs. Brotherhood Mutual on Payroll and HR
Brotherhood Works covers real ground. Per its own payroll page, that includes federal, state and local tax filing, W-2s and 1099s, time and attendance, HCM tools like onboarding and benefits enrollment, and Pay-Go workers’ compensation. It also sells background checks and specific insurance lines like mission travel coverage. We didn’t find a PEO option, an applicant tracking system, or earned wage access on its pages.
What’s missing is the plumbing underneath it. Brotherhood’s site calls its software “our easy-to-use payroll processing software” without naming who built it, and a search tying it to any named payroll platform came up empty. An independent FitSmallBusiness review scored its HR Features at just 2.5/5 and flagged “Few third-party integrations” as a con. Time and attendance and ACA reporting are listed as extra-cost add-ons rather than included.
Netchex runs everyone on one system it writes itself. Time and attendance and Scheduler sit in the same platform as payroll, so a youth pastor picking up extra camp hours in July flows straight into the next pay run without anyone re-keying anything. OneScreen Payroll pulls onboarding, overtime, benefits and taxes into one readiness view, and most teams finish a run in under 15 minutes.
| Feature | Netchex | Brotherhood Mutual |
| Payroll and tax filing | ✅ Built by Netchex | ✅ Federal, state and local filing, per its site |
| Time and attendance | ✅ Native, with Scheduler | ⚠ Listed as an extra-cost add-on |
| HR and onboarding | ✅ Netchex Recruit and onboarding workflows | ✅ Onboarding and HR document storage included |
| Third-party integrations | ✅ Works with your existing broker and CPA | ⚠ “Few third-party integrations,” per FitSmallBusiness review |
Clergy and Ministry-Specific Needs
Give credit where it’s due. Brotherhood’s team is built around the details that trip up a generalist: clergy dual tax status, housing allowances, and the paperwork that comes with a pastor who’s part employee and part minister for tax purposes. FitSmallBusiness scored its Church-Specific Features a full 5.0 out of 5, and that’s not a small thing to get right.
Netchex doesn’t specialize in clergy tax handling the way Brotherhood does. What it offers instead is depth everywhere else. Its in-house benefits solution keeps enrollment, ACA tracking, onboarding and hiring through Netchex Recruit on one employee record, and ACA Central tracks hours and coverage offers across full-time, part-time and seasonal staff, which matters when a camp roster swings from 10 people to 60 every summer. Netchex also files Forms 1094-C and 1095-C and works directly with the CPA and benefits broker your organization already trusts.
Service and Support
Brotherhood’s site describes “Personal payroll specialists” and “1:1 service,” a model FitSmallBusiness lists as a genuine pro. For a small church office with one person handling payroll on top of everything else, a specialist who knows your account by name is worth something.
So is knowing who owns the fix when something breaks. Brotherhood’s own reviewer scored its overall Ease of Use at 3.4 out of 5, and “Pricing is not transparent” was listed as a con. Ask what happens if your specialist is out sick during a payroll week.
Netchex keeps that chain short. The people who answer the phone work for the company that wrote the code, not a specialist layered on top of software from somewhere else. Ninety percent of calls are picked up in under a minute with first-call resolution, and every customer has a dedicated Account Manager.
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
We didn’t find a published implementation timeline on Brotherhood’s site. If you’re comparing, that’s a fair question to ask them directly, along with what the in-house paper-check printing actually costs, since FitSmallBusiness flags that it isn’t free.
Netchex implementation is free and project-managed, usually about six weeks, with free data imports and a 96% implementation satisfaction score. A dedicated team walks a church or school through setup so the office manager isn’t carrying the whole switch alone.
Who Each Is Built For
Brotherhood Mutual may fit if: your organization is a church, Christian school, camp or mission organization, clergy tax handling is your hardest payroll problem, and you’d like your insurance carrier and payroll specialist under one roof.
Netchex may fit if: you need payroll, time and scheduling built for hourly and seasonal staff, you want deeper HR, benefits and ACA tracking than a payroll add-on typically offers, and you’d rather work with one company that owns its own software. Multi-location and multi-EIN organizations, like a diocese or school system with several campuses, work from a single login. One honest limit: Netchex doesn’t offer global payroll. For a look at how Netchex compares against a broader HR platform, see our Netchex vs. Paylocity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not primarily. Brotherhood Mutual is an insurance company, and it sells payroll and HR through a division once called MinistryWorks and now branded Brotherhood Works. Payroll is one part of a larger insurance business. Netchex is built the other way around, with payroll, time, HR and benefits software as its core product.
Yes, per its own site, Brotherhood Works serves churches, Christian schools, camps and mission organizations specifically, with real expertise in clergy tax handling like housing allowances and dual tax status. Netchex serves a broader range of hourly and multi-location businesses, including restaurants, hotels, dealerships and clinics, and doesn’t specialize in clergy tax rules.
Its site doesn’t name one. It describes its own “easy-to-use payroll processing software” without identifying the underlying vendor, and a search tying it to a named payroll platform didn’t turn up an answer. Netchex builds and owns its payroll, time, HR and benefits platform in-house, so there’s no separate vendor to track down.
Yes. Netchex works directly with a client’s existing benefits broker and CPA, so switching payroll doesn’t mean switching who places your insurance. Its in-house benefits solution keeps enrollment, ACA tracking and onboarding on the same employee record as payroll, and ACA Central tracks hours across full-time, part-time and seasonal staff.
Ready to Compare Netchex and Brotherhood Mutual for Your Organization?
See how Netchex runs payroll, time, HR and benefits on one platform, with a dedicated Account Manager and a team that owns the software it supports.
Related: 5 Best Brotherhood Mutual Alternatives | Netchex vs. Paylocity | Netchex vs. Gusto
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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