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Paychex company history timeline

1974

The impetus to expand the company came from two friends of Golisano, who approached him independently in 1974.

1979

By 1979, it began to be apparent that there were problems with the looseness of the organization.

1979: The firm incorporates as Paychex Inc.

By 1979, he had 17 partners, 11 of them joint ventures, and six franchises.

1982

By 1982, the average salesperson was bringing in 100 clients a year.

1983

In 1983, Paychex went public and began trading on The NASDAQ Stock Market.

1985

He created the Golisano Foundation in 1985 and through it has donated billions to different projects across upstate New York.

1986

They met in 1986 — the year after Golisano had won a prestigious entrepreneurship award at Rochester Institute of Technology.

1987

Some of the growth came from acquisitions, such as the 900 clients acquired when Paychex bought a Minneapolis company, Purchase Payroll, in 1987.

In 1987, Paychex opened a division of Benefit Services, to keep track of clients' employee benefit plans.

1989

There wasn't a drop in profit until September 1989.

By 1989, ADP had 400 sales representatives in this division, versus Paychex's 310.

And Paychex began offering a new service called Taxpay in 1989.

In 1989, the company brought in $101 million, from its client base of 115,000 accounts.

1990

By 1990, Paychex had 335 sales representatives and around 125,000 clients.

1991

In 1991, the company formed a Human Resource Services division, offering clients a package of employee evaluation and testing tools, employee handbooks, insurance services, customized job descriptions, and other benefits.

In 1991, there were around 26,000 Taxpay customers.

1991 saw record sales of $137 million, as well as record earnings of $9.6 million.

1992

In 1992, Golisano pushed for a third national political party along with other prominent businessmen across America.

1993

At this time the company had around 26,000 Taxpay customers, and that number rose to over 50,000 by 1993.

The company then introduced Paylink in 1993.

1994

According to CEO Golisano in a June 13, 1994 Barron's article, Paychex aimed to expand its client base by 11 to 12 percent a year, to keep revenue growing at close to 20 percent annually.

In 1994, Paychex added a similar service, Reportlink.

And though there were still in 1994 more than 4.6 million businesses with fewer than 100 employees, more than 60 percent of these had only one to four employees, and so were too small to be likely potential clients.

1995

In 1995, the company increased its client base by 11.8 percent, exactly as Golisano had wished.

1996

In 1996, Paychex acquired California-based Olsen Computer Systems Inc. and National Business Solutions of Florida.

1997

By 1997, the company had secured five consecutive years of over 30 percent earnings growth.

2000

In fact, during the year 2000, 5,000 employees were trained at the University of Paychex, and 750,000 hours were spent on field training and ongoing training programs.

2001

In fiscal 2001, the company posted its 11th consecutive year of record revenues and net income.

According to the company's 2001 annual report, the firm was dedicated to achieving success in the future by focusing on its growth strategy which included increasing its client base, obtaining higher utilization of ancillary services, developing new services, and leveraging its infrastructure.

2004

Golisano stepped down as Paychex CEO in 2004, leaving behind a company that today has added more services and even more customers.

2013

In fiscal 2013, Paychex revenues exceeded $2.3 billion.“

2014

Paychex and IHS Markit launched a Small Business Jobs Index in 2014 that measures the health of businesses employing 50 people or less.

2017

Oasis, a professional employer organization (PEO) brought 8,400 PEO clients, 1,100 employees, and an annual revenue that exceeded $9 billion in 2017.

2018

In December 2018, Paychex closed on its acquisition of Oasis Outsourcing Acquisition Corporation for $1.2 billion.

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Founded
1971
Company founded
Headquarters
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Founders
Blase Thomas Golisano
Company founders
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Paychex competitors

Company nameFounded dateRevenueEmployee sizeJob openings
Intuit1983$16.3B10,6001,044
Fiserv1984$20.5B44,000556
Morningstar1984$1.7B7,97973
Morgan Stanley1935$3.0B68,0971,110
Square2009$24.1B3,8358
Broadridge1962$6.5B10,000847
Kronos Incorporated1977$1.4B6,0003
Aetna1853$60.6B47,9509
MicroStrategy1989$496.3M2,52831
Workday2005$8.4B12,500134

Paychex history FAQs

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Paychex may also be known as or be related to Paychex, Paychex Inc and Paychex, Inc.