Switch from Payworks: A 9-Step Plan

Switching payroll providers is a sequencing job: read the contract, export the data, run one parallel cycle, cut over. Done in that order, it is a project your payroll team can run alongside the day job.

Disclosure: Workzoom wrote this comparison and sells one of the two products compared in it. Payworks and Workzoom appear alphabetically, without scores. Every fact about Payworks comes from payworks.ca, carries one source link, and was verified on October 7, 2026. We did not test Payworks. Read our comparison methodology.

Which path fits your situation?

• You want a Canadian provider that submits remittances for you: compare Payworks's stated managed payroll and remittance service with the same service from any alternative, and record who submits, funds and reconciles each output.
• You want payroll, HR and time on one employee record: test the same employee change, approved hours and correction with each vendor, and include every required module in the price.
• You need payroll outside Canada: check each vendor's stated country coverage. Workzoom runs full payroll in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas; Payworks's payroll page says it is built for Canadian employers.

Payworks and Workzoom Compared, Capability by Capability

If you have landed on this page, you are probably weighing whether to move payroll, HR and time onto one system or to stay where you are. The table records what each vendor's own pages state. "Not stated" means the page reviewed does not describe the capability, not that the product lacks it. Bring any row that matters to you into a live demo with both vendors.

Scroll sideways to compare all columns.

Workzoom is not the right fit if your payroll is simple, runs in one province for a small team, and you only want payroll: the monthly minimum of $400 for one suite can outweigh the per-employee rate, and you would be buying HR, workforce and talent capability you do not use. Payworks's pages state that its service handles remittances and ROE submission, and Workzoom prepares those outputs for your team to review and submit, so decide which responsibilities you want to keep.

Understanding Your Payworks Agreement

Contract Terms

Before you start shopping, read your Payworks agreement. Payworks does not publish client contract terms on the pages reviewed, so your own agreement is the source for the notice period, any auto-renewal clause and any termination fee. Missing a cancellation window can extend a term, so find the dates first.

Check for:

• Cancellation notice period and how notice must be given
• Auto-renewal dates and opt-out windows
• Early termination fees, if any
• Data retention and export obligations after cancellation
• Whether year-end processing (T4s, ROEs) is included through the end of your contract or billed separately

Get everything in writing. Contact your Payworks account representative, confirm the exact steps required to cancel, and ask them to email you those steps. Verbal confirmations are hard to rely on later.

Key Questions to Ask Before Cancelling

Before you give notice, get clear answers to these five questions:

1. What format will my data export be in? CSV, Excel, PDF reports? You need machine-readable formats, not PDF printouts. Payworks's pages reviewed do not describe a data export process, so ask.
2. How long will I have access after cancellation? Some providers cut access immediately. Others give 30-60 days. You need enough time to verify your data landed correctly in the new system.
3. Will Payworks process my final CRA remittance? Confirm who is responsible for the last remittance. A gap here can mean CRA penalties.
4. Who handles year-end if I leave mid-year? If you switch in July, who issues the T4s in February? You or Payworks? Clarify this before you sign anything new.
5. Can I get historical payroll registers going back 7 years? CRA generally requires records for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, with exceptions. Get everything before you lose access.

Your Payworks Data Export Checklist

This is the part most teams underestimate. Your data is the one thing you control in this process. Export everything before you cancel, not after.

Payroll Data

• Complete employee master list (names, SINs, addresses, birth dates, hire dates, termination dates)
• Current pay rates, salary schedules, and pay frequencies for every active employee
• Year-to-date earnings by employee, broken down by earning type (regular, overtime, vacation, statutory holiday)
• Year-to-date CPP and EI contributions (employee and employer portions)
• Year-to-date federal and provincial income tax deducted
• All active deductions: benefits, garnishments, union dues, RRSP contributions, charitable donations
• Direct deposit banking information for every employee
• Historical payroll registers for the required CRA retention period, with a seven-year archive as a recommendation
• TD1 federal and provincial personal tax credit forms on file

Tax and Compliance Records

• T4/T4A slips, summaries and supporting records for the complete required retention period
• Records of Employment (ROEs) issued, with serial numbers
• Provincial remittance history (Quebec employers: both CRA and Revenu Québec records)
• WSIB/WCB account numbers and rate groups by province
• EHT (Employer Health Tax) records for Ontario employers
• CRA payroll account number and current remittance frequency
• Any CRA correspondence or assessments related to payroll

HR and Time Data

• Vacation and sick leave accrual balances for every employee
• Time and attendance records (if using Payworks time module)
• Employee self-service documents (uploaded tax forms, signed policies)
• Custom fields and employee notes
• Benefit enrolment records and coverage details

Step-by-Step: Switching from Payworks

Nine steps, in this order.

Step 1: Audit your current state Document every pay group, earning code, deduction, and benefit plan in Payworks. Write down the workarounds your team uses: the spreadsheets, the manual steps, the knowledge no one has written down. This becomes your configuration blueprint for the new system.

Step 2: Select your new provider Evaluate based on what matters: Canadian payroll depth, scope across HR, time and payroll, implementation cost, and contract flexibility. Ask every vendor the five questions from the section above and ask each to describe its parallel payroll approach in writing.

Step 3: Give Payworks written notice. Send cancellation notice per your contract terms. Request a complete data export in machine-readable format. Confirm final remittance responsibilities and post-cancellation access timeline. Get confirmation in writing.

Step 4: Export and verify your data. Pull every item on the checklist above. Verify employee counts, YTD totals, and benefit deductions against your most recent payroll register. If anything looks off, resolve it with Payworks before you leave. Cleaning up data errors after cancellation is significantly harder.

Step 5: Configure your new system. Import employee data, set up pay rules, configure deduction schedules, and establish CRA remittance settings using your existing payroll account number. Do not open a new CRA payroll account unless the CRA specifically instructs you to.

Step 6: Run parallel payroll. Process one full pay cycle in both Payworks and your new system simultaneously. Compare every line: gross pay, CPP, EI, federal tax, provincial tax, benefit deductions, net pay. If any number differs by even a cent, find out why before going live.

Step 7: Communicate with employees. Tell your team what is changing. Payday stays the same and direct deposit stays the same. The pay stub will look different. Give them a contact person for questions.

Step 8: Go live. Run your first live payroll in the new system 3-5 business days earlier than normal to catch issues before deposit day. Verify every employee's net pay. Confirm CRA remittances are submitted on time.

Step 9: Confirm and close. After two successful pay runs in the new system, confirm Payworks cancellation is complete. Download any remaining historical data. Archive your Payworks exports securely for CRA compliance.

Timing Your Transition

January 1 is the cleanest target for most payroll switches. Agree who prepares and submits the prior-year T4s; the employer retains filing responsibility. Your new provider inherits a clean slate with zero year-to-date balances, and nobody is reconciling split-year figures in February. If you can wait for it, it is the path of least resistance.

If you leave Payworks mid-year, document the T4 preparation and submission handoff before cancellation. The employer remains responsible for filing, even when a provider prepares or submits the return, and complete YTD data is essential to avoid duplicate reporting.

Start of a quarter is the second-best option. April 1, July 1, or October 1 give you a natural cut-off for quarterly reconciliation. The YTD transfer is still required, but you carry over round quarterly figures rather than mid-cycle totals.

Mid-quarter is possible but more detailed. You will need per-employee, per-pay-period breakdowns of everything. CPP and EI contributions need to carry over exactly, or employees can be over-deducted for the rest of the year and their T4s will be wrong.

Leave room for delays. The buffer covers a delayed data export, a configuration question that takes a week to resolve, or an employee with a complicated garnishment that needs special handling.

If you are targeting January 1, finish setup, configuration, and parallel testing before year-end so the first run is clean.

Cost Comparison by Company Size

Payworks does not publish a price list (see the table above), so this guide cannot compare totals. Here is what Workzoom costs at different employee counts, using all four suites (HR + Workforce + Payroll + Talent) and using HR and Payroll only:

No initial setup fees. No annual commitment. Month-to-month at $4 CAD per employee per month per suite. To compare, ask Payworks for a written quote for the same modules and headcount and put both totals side by side.

Who Should Stay with Payworks

Some companies should stay.

Your payroll is simple and it works. If you run straightforward payroll for under 100 employees in one province and your current setup handles it, switching for the sake of switching is not worth the effort. "It works" is a valid reason to stay.

You do not need HR, workforce, or talent tools beyond what Payworks describes. Payworks lists payroll, HR, time and attendance, scheduling, absence management and recruiting on its own pages. If those cover your needs, a dedicated provider that meets them is a better fit than a broader platform you will not use.

You want the provider to submit remittances for you. Payworks states that it submits tax remittances and ROEs on your behalf. If that service model is a requirement, put it in writing with any provider you compare.

You are mid-year-end. If you are in November or December, finish the year with Payworks. Confirm who prepares and submits the T4s, while retaining employer responsibility, and start fresh with a new provider on January 1. Switching during year-end processing adds risk you can avoid by waiting six weeks.

Your team does not have bandwidth for a transition right now. A payroll switch takes real effort from your payroll and HR team. If they are already stretched, wait for a window where they can give it proper attention.

The right time to switch is when the cost of staying, in workarounds, manual processes and missing capability, exceeds the cost of moving. If you are not there yet, bookmark this page and come back when you are.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to switch from Payworks?

Plan around data exports, notice periods, configuration, and parallel payroll testing. How long it takes depends on size, scope, data readiness, and how quickly your team can meet and decide. A January 1 switch needs the notice, export, and parallel payroll steps finished before year-end.

Can I switch from Payworks mid-year?

Yes. Mid-year switches require transferring year-to-date CPP, EI, and income tax figures for every employee. Get per-employee YTD breakdowns from Payworks, import them into your new system, and verify totals match before running your first live payroll. Start-of-quarter transitions are cleaner than mid-quarter.

Will I lose my payroll history if I leave Payworks?

Not if you export it before cancelling. Request complete payroll registers going back at least 7 years from Payworks in CSV or Excel format. Download and archive these files before your access is terminated. CRA generally requires records for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, with exceptions that can require longer retention. A seven-year export is an archive recommendation, not a separate CRA minimum.

What happens to employees' direct deposit when switching from Payworks?

Nothing changes from the employee's perspective. Their banking information transfers to the new system. Payday stays the same. The only visible difference is the pay stub format. Communicate the change in advance so nobody is surprised when their stub looks different.

Who handles T4s if I switch from Payworks mid-year?

Clarify the operational handoff with Payworks before cancelling. Payworks's payroll page says it files tax forms on clients' behalf, and the employer retains T4 filing responsibility even if a provider prepares or submits the return. Document who prepares the slip, load complete YTD data, and prevent duplicate income reporting.

Does Workzoom charge implementation fees for switching from Payworks?

No. Data migration, system configuration, and parallel payroll testing are all included. Workzoom charges $4 CAD per employee per month per suite with no initial setup fees and no long-term contract.