Live · field notes

Field notes from the
mid-market HCM desk.

Short, vendor-neutral takes on the platforms HR and finance teams actually evaluate. Published Monday through Friday. No fluff, no sponsored slots, no "10 reasons you should pick X."

Third-party HCM Platform Fri · May 22, 2026

Paycom BETI: what "employees run their own payroll" actually changes on day one.

The promise is real. The day-one reality is narrower than the demo. What lands in week one, what doesn't, and the demo method that surfaces the difference before signing.

Read the note
ADP PEO Framework Thu · May 21, 2026

ADP TotalSource is a PEO. WFN, Run, and Vantage aren't. Mid-market keeps confusing them.

The single most common framing error in mid-market HCM evaluations — and the clean question that puts a buyer back on the right track before they compare quotes.

Read the note
Third-party HCM M&A Wed · May 20, 2026

Paychex bought Paycor. Two HCMs, one parent, two very different buyers.

The $4.1B deal closed April 14, 2025. Paychex Flex and Paycor are running as separate products with separate sales motions — here's what each platform is really for in 2026, and which one fits which buyer.

Read the note
ADP Platform deep-dive Tue · May 19, 2026

ADP Run customers outgrow it 6 months too late — what the 50-employee cliff looks like.

Run is the right product for a 12-person team. At 55, it's already past its window. The graduation problem isn't pricing — it's that nobody owns the call until something breaks in a board meeting.

Read the note
Third-party HCM Pricing Mon · May 18, 2026

Rippling's pricing model is genius for some companies — and a trap for others.

The pitch is honest. The PEPM math is public. So why does almost every year-two Rippling invoice land 80–100% higher than the original quote — and what are the two questions to ask the rep before you sign?

Read the note

New field notes in your inbox.

Published Monday through Friday between noon and 1pm. The kind of thing you'd want before your next vendor renewal.

Subscribe