Your payroll isn't broken

Rippling doesn’t suck. Your configuration is busted.

When a workflow isn't working the way that you expect, it's easy to blame the software.

When I recommend a vendor (not just Rippling), I often have to overcome objections about "the online reviews.” 

I’ve seen these reviews, too. 

As someone who’s familiar with the tools and regulations/processes they manage, it’s painfully obvious that most of these complaints are user error.

Not because the user is incompetent. Because people underestimate the difficulty of driving an HRIS. 

Any HRIS.

Payroll and compliance are complicated. No software can take it all off your hands. Most complaints I see on Reddit are user error.

The other day I saw a Reddit post complaining about Rippling’s timecard workflow. 

You know the vibe. A fire-breathing step-by-step inventory of their complaints ending with: “Have they ever used their own product?”

I’ve used the product. Based on the description, I could picture the configuration. Everything they were complaining about was a setting.

I checked my Rippling demo environment. Sure enough, their complaints could have been addressed by checking two different boxes.

✅ Two checkmarks.✅

The problem wasn’t Rippling. It was whoever set up their time clocking.

Most HR software complaints are configuration failures. Not system failures.

You need someone who knows system design: what to turn on, what to test, and how the end user thinks.

That’s not a knock on your HR team. They weren’t hired to be systems architects.

Payroll and HRIS administration require UX taste, systems thinking, technical confidence, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the regulations being managed on the back end. 

Not every HR person has that. And they shouldn’t have to.

But before you trash your software vendor, check if your settings explain it. The support team's hear to help, but they're not mind readers. You need to ask the right questions.

If two checkboxes can cause this much anger, what else is hiding in your tech stack?

Is your payroll software driving you crazy? Before you complain on the review sites, get in touch.

Fix my payroll, please!