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FAQ=Payroll, HR Software & Employee Self Service

Capabilities of Sage Payroll and HR solutions

Sage offers a range of modular yet fully integrated solutions for HR, Payroll, Time & Attendance, Recruitment and Employee Self-Service. For a full list of features and benefits please refer to the Products page of our website or request for a DEMO PRESENTATION

How quickly can Sage Payroll and HR be implemented?

A typical Sage Payroll and HR installation can take anything from one (1) to six(6) months.  ‘Go Live’ is very dependent on a number of factors:

  • The number of software modules purchased
  • The implementation phases and the availability of resources from the vendor and the organization. User ownership has always been fundamental to the success of software implementation projects. It is therefore important that both parties provide sufficient resources to the project, and that these resources are available and knowledgeable.
  • Number of parallel runs required to confirm user acceptance and confidence. Getting Payroll right in Ghana requires that we take on opening balances for some payroll elements.

Key amongst these is the computation of bonus taxes. Bonus tax computation is indexed to annual basic salary and also current and previous bonuses paid during the tax year.  You certainly will require these cumulative figures if you want to get it right.

 

Secondly, the employer is required to present a tax certificate to the employee for all period worked during the tax year. Generation of these certificates can be a nightmare if your data is in two disjointed systems.

  • Complexities in the payroll formula especially when all the variables are in the payroll software.

Once the exact requirement is established, a detailed project plan/SIP (System Implementation Plan) will be put together detailing each stage of the project and anticipated timelines from installation to ‘Go Live’.

How will a business assess its requirements in readiness for Payroll computerization or system change?

There are many factors that need to be taken into consideration to establish your requirements prior to making contact with a vendor.

The key factor being your ability to define the challenge:

· Where are you experiencing the highest productivity loss and the highest number of errors in the current system?
· What information/reports are being requested that currently cannot be delivered
· The security issues with the current system , are you experiencing poor security and data validation controls
· Finally make a list of all you would like to do but are unable to do now.

In doing the above, you have to involve the following people:

· System Users
· System Managers
· System Customers
· System Sign Offs

Evaluate the supply options based on:

• Industry experience of the vendor and partners
• Scalability of the Product
• Speed of Installation
• Ease of use
• Size and formats of data fields
• Data validation capabilities of the product
• Security
• After sales support

Is training required to use the software?

As with any software package, a certain degree of training is required to ensure that you get the maximum ownership of the system. The amount of training that will be required to use our Sage Payroll and HR will be based on the number of modules you have purchased, how you intend to use the system and whether any non-standard configuration has been implemented to meet your requirements.

Your training needs will be discussed with you at the start of your project, so the amount of training and the cost of that training will be known prior to project commencement.

In addition to the training provided at the start of your project, you may decide that you require additional training, this could be for new employees who will be using the software (we do not recommend ‘hand me down’ training), refresher training or training on new functionality that may have been added to Sage Payroll and HR.

We also run other Software trainings for our Clients. Contact us for more details.

EMPLOYEE SELF SERVICE SOFTWARE FAQ

What is Employee Self Service?

Employee Self Service was originally conceived to streamline the process of updating employees’ personal data and remove the administrative burden on HR.

Employee Self Service software modules allow employees to complete timesheets, expense claims, leave requests and other absences online as well as initiate the workflow associated with their approval. It is this latest functionality which has had the most impact on organizations.
How will my employees benefit?

Employee Self Service software will empower employees to take control of their personal information and update employment records and contact details without having to ‘form fill’. The system will enable them to log in and review information held on them.
Employee Self Service also allows employees to make decisions on their HR and training needs. Employees can access historical training records and qualifications online without having to contact HR directly. Research has shown that by allowing staff access to their personal records promotes a more trusting and open working environment.

What functionality will employees be able to access?

Subject to security, employees will be able to:
· View and update personal data at any time from any place that has access to the network, whenever it is convenient for them
· View leave entitlement available and taken balances
· Request and approval of holidays and other absences e.g.: compassionate leave
· Enter personal timesheets
· Enter expense claims and monitor their approval
· View and/or print their current and previous payslips
· View training and qualifications data.

How will a manager benefit from Employee Self Service?

Self Service will enable managers to approve holiday requests quickly, analyze staff attendance and evaluate staff training requests at a touch of a button. They will also be able to check or input employee payroll data and approve employee timesheets, helping to improve and maintain the accuracy of data.

Is installing a new system disruptive to the business?

Not at all. We suggest that a small implementation team is set up to manage and introduce Employee Self Service. Our experience has shown that most of our clients want to ease their system gently with the minimum of disruption.

By gaining confidence through a ‘read only’ access area, where name and address details can be checked, employees and managers will build up their confidence quickly and learn to trust the system. From here they can progress on to accessing and changing simple data to finally being able to use all of the system’s functionality.

You can read more details about what’s involved in implementing Employee Self Service Software here.

Kindly let us know your comments on FAQ via the comment section or better still you can email us info@multisoftgh.com.
Management Information Systems

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Why “Cheap” Payroll Software is Usually More Expensive

 “Good work ain’t cheap, cheap work ain’t good.” –Norman Sailor Jerry Collins

In a buying decision, we all have a tendency to apply a higher weighting to the price factor than to quality.  Occasionally we can get away with the cheaper price, but more often than not, it can get us in trouble, especially big ticket items like automobiles, houses and software.

FREE EBOOK: 20 Cash Management Tips from Fast Growing Companies

I recently received a call from a highly respected client –a complete A-lister in their area of expertise informing me of their decision to go in for a cheap local payroll software instead of renewing their Sage payroll license. As I write, the project is six months late, out of scope and out of budget.

In an effort to be budget-conscious, this client decided they could no longer afford a seasoned pro and hired a much less experienced (but enthusiastic) individual to do the job. In their mind, it would probably take a little longer, but, hey, it was cheaper!

Well, things have spiraled out of control, and they find themselves at the verge of losing key accounts and not an inch closer to where they needed the development of the new software to be. To twist the knife, resources expended on the project could have been used in raking in more clients.

With all best intentions, this investor had just paid a huge amount of money to a cheap provider probably with no returns. Good news, they are still on Sage but has learnt this experience the hard way. Sadly, this story is a common one!

We want to share with you why buying cheap softwares can ultimately cost you more.

First and foremost, there is always an eventual cost to company for non-compliance. Most companies are being slapped with fines for unfulfilled tax liabilities. These cheap software’s are most often not certified as being tax complaint and do not have a research team backing them to ensure continuous compliance. They will often rely on you to tell them what is changing and where these changes are taking place.

While businesses typically strive to stay updated with regulatory changes that may occur, too often the overwhelming amount of information leads to compliance gaps. Most payroll software giants like Sage have a whole legislative team who are experts and always up to date with income tax changes for every country. This is mostly not the case with cheap payroll software developers.

Secondly, a research conducted shows that most cheap payroll software developers either outsource the development process or use poorly remunerated staff resulting in high labour turnover. This goes a long way to affect the quality of the product and the after sales support.

Technically, it takes approximately 6 to 12 months to know all the functionalities of a payroll software in order to render the necessary support to your clients. Not getting the needed support from the right person could be very time consuming, frustrating and could eventually impact quality. It is always better to deal with suppliers with good staff retention rates and solid control over your historic support issues.

Thirdly, a research carried out by Nathan P. Kropp, Philip Koopman and Daniel Siewiorek past students of Carnegie Mellon University revealed that most cheap software are very vulnerable to attacks by viruses and hackers. Viruses can wipe out all your data without a trace while hackers can tap into your database and get away with confidential information. This also makes it easy for users to manipulate figures and hence use dubious means to make extra money from the weakness of the software.

Cheap payroll software developers do not have the resources to fund the cost of regular penetration testing that will give you the comfort against these vulnerabilities. A business could lose a lot of money if these acts go unnoticed.

Fourthly, the absence of annual renewal cost makes these payroll look cheap. The absence of annual renewal cost means the software would not see any upgrade nor further enhancement to the features of the software in subsequent years. This makes the software a “monster” and eventually obsolete rendering it difficult and less exciting to use. No new statutory reports (tax, tier1 and 2) would be implemented to reflect the changing trends, this means users would have to spend a lot of time manually producing such reports in excel. This human interface could cause a lot of omissions and fraud.

In conclusion, if you are in the business of processing payroll always insist on using quality, tried and tested payroll software such as Sage Payroll Software. Insisting on quality means you would be equipped to work more efficiently, safely and enjoying the support of dedicated and experienced consultants.

“If you’re running a business and—for whatever reason—you decide that an arbitrary markup of your merchandise/cutting corners on quality is OK, you can bet that customers will find somewhere else to spend their money.” Frances Cole Jones

Sage Payroll and HR Software offers you the power to drive your business within a single integrated package

Ease of use

  • Faster, easier processing through our real-time design
  • Colour-coded mandatory fields that make it easy to add new employees

Smooth capturing of employee information

  • Link employees to departments, projects, sites, cost centers, etc., for costing
  • Make electronic payments to third parties and garnishees
  • Attach photographs to employee records
  • Process-driven system that follows a systematic HR approach
  • Streamlines HR processes with paperless employee tools
  • Convenience of on-screen payslips
  • Online payslip capturing or bulk input (batch processing)
  • View the payslip in real-time and adjust the net salary while you process
  • Do net-up calculations with dummy payslips

User-friendly reporting

  • Powerful, user-friendly report-writing tool and standard industry reports
  • Report writing tool for statutory, standard, and company-specific reports
  • Company-specific reports written especially to suit your business.
  • Unlimited telephone and email support

Your payroll department will value the  high levels of efficiency and security. HR will really appreciate its range of smart tools.

And your top executives will prize how it cuts administrative costs, and the actionable insights it brings to strategic decision making.

Our system also integrates with time and attendant softwares.

For more information please contact us:

+233-(0)302-235-149/ +233 (0)244 263353

info@multisoftgh.com/ payroll@multisoftgh.com

www.multisoftgh.com

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The Three Ways to Manage the Payroll Accounts of Your Staff

As they say, “Business is all about people. And your people are your most important asset.” Managing the people who work for you is one of the most challenging activities in business, talk less of their payroll. If this intrigues you, we want to talk look at the three ways to manage the payroll account of your staff!

A business owner must develop a very effective compensation system that rewards employees and encourages high levels of productivity. To be effective, the system must be accurate, reliable and consistent in its handling of the compensation processes and calculations.   If you don’t manage your staff’s payroll well—you know what will happen to you!

Multisoft Solutions Limited has played a frontline role in the rollout of such systems and has over the last decade, helped hundreds of Ghanaian business resolve the challenge of payroll accounting.

If you are new to the terminology, you might be asking, “So what is payroll accounting?”

Payroll accounting is the specific accounting discipline concerned with the calculation and disbursement of compensation for employees covering salaries, overtime, bonuses and allowances that have been earned by its employees and withholding the appropriate statutory deductions   such as PAYE taxes and Social Security deductions.

Image: Pay Chex

There are four -jobs you need to accomplish when “doing payroll”:

  •        Calculating the earning
  •        Calculating the deductions
  •        Paying the employees
  •         Filing the statutory returns, PAYE and SSNIT

1) Calculating the earnings: Do you summarize and pay them every week, fortnightly or every month?  This part of the job requires you to add up employees’ hours and value it at the contract rate and where there is overtime at the overtime rate.

2) Calculating the statutory deduction: When doing payroll, you need to deduct the correct amount of taxes based on the legislative instruments enforce during that pay period. The government needs taxes to pay for critical services.

3) Paying the employees:  You can pay cash, cheques or electronic transfer.

4) Filing Tax and SSNIT Forms: The returns to government are supported by PAYE return forms   and you’re required to fill and submit all of these forms in a timely manner.

Does this look cumbersome?

Yes it does, there are basically 3 ways to manage the payroll accounts of your staff:

  •        Managing the payroll accounts manually
  •        Investing in a payroll accounts software
  •        Subcontracting to a payroll accounts management firm

Managing the Payroll Accounts Manually

 

One of the ways by which small-to-medium enterprises manage their payroll is by doing it manually. It is often referred to as “table top payroll.” The staff signs and their money is given to them by cash, no deductions and no filings.

This form of payroll management can lead a business into trouble, you can never outwit the long arm of the law.   But you know what? It is amazing the number of companies in Ghana still hooked up to this way despite the enormous exposure!

Investing in a Payroll Accounts Software

Payroll accounts software packages make the process of calculating payroll for employees and withholding of taxes a simple process. The software can also be used to automate the process of making electronic funds transfers from the payroll account to the bank accounts of the employees.

In order to ensure efficiency and accuracy for the long term, your company has to be very careful in selecting payroll management software. “Cheap” payroll software can be expensive for the long term!

Consider Reading: Why “Cheap” Payroll-Software is Usually More Expensive

Subcontracting to a Payroll Accounts Management Firm

One of the best ways to run business smoothly is to identify what you can do well and then outsource your weakness to firms that can do it better. This will enable you to be the best in what you do!

When it comes to payroll management, you can also outsource your payroll function to a credible firm to manage for you. This will enable you to concentrate on the most important things such as managing and leading your team to achieve your business goals and objectives.

Consider Reading this if you want to subcontract your payroll: Why Payroll Is One Function You Should Outsource.

Which is your choice now? Which of the “3 Ways to Manage the Payroll Account of Your Staff” are you using? Are you also planning on upgrading and developing your payroll management system?

For more information please contact us:

+233-(0)302-235-149 / +233 (0)244 263353

info@multisoftgh.com/payroll@multisoftgh.com

www.multisoftgh.com