Overview In the last blog we have discussed the impact of Payroll Input Data on the payroll outcome, and explained if there are errors in the Payroll Input Data, the payroll process outcome will not be correct. In this blog, I shall explain why it is critical to have a Trial (Simulated) Payroll Process. The Trial Payroll (TP) Process enables the user to run the payroll in a simulation mode and to review the outcome of the payroll including the payroll register, pay slips, direct bank deposits, and payroll JV journal. And if the payroll process outcome is incorrect, the user can go back and make any required corrections to the Payroll Input Data, and rerun the payroll in a simulation mode again. And this trial payroll process run will continue until the desired payroll outcome is achieved. The objective from the Trial Payroll Process is to ensure that the...

Overview The Payroll process is used to produce employee paychecks/pay at the end of a pay period. There are a number of input variables (input data) that are used to execute the payroll. These variables, if not correct can negatively affect the outcome of the payroll (payroll process), how correct are the paychecks produced by the payroll process. The input variables to the payroll include employee timesheet during the pay period, leaves taken during the pay period, changes in compensations and/or deductions, and changes in tax status of the employee. As well as pay exceptions during the pay period, such as a onetime compensation or deduction.  The following is the list of variables/data that are used by the payroll process: Pay Period Type Change Employee Timesheet Employee Leaves Employee Expenses Compensation Changes Deduction Changes Organization Change Job Change Employee Name Change Address Change Tax Status Change Marital Status Change Onetime...

Overview Procuring and implementing the correct HRMS solution for your organization is costly. The total cost of ownership (TCO) of an HRMS solution needs to be justified to the senior management in term of the return on investment (ROI). If the ROI is not high enough, the budget/funding of procuring and implementing the desired HRMS solution will not be approved. Management is not interested in implementing new technologies and practicing new trend just for the sake of technology. Management is interested in solutions including technology based solutions comprising HRMS, when these solutions, (1) Increase the Revenues of the Company, (2) Reduce Company Expenses (Savings), (3) Improve Products and Services Quality, and/or (4) Improve Client Satisfaction. Unlike other systems/solutions such as Sales Management Systems, Customer Relation Management Systems, Manufacturing Systems, Financial Systems, Procurement Systems, and others, HRMS does not directly deal with the company’s customers/clients, products, and services, and finances of...

Overview In the last blog , we have described HRMS contents and its classification, sources, format, and what type of contents can be generalized and which cannot be, and derived which content can be part of HRMS Built-in-Contents. In this blog, I want to discuss the relationship between Contents and HRMS Implementation Time as I have been asked many times in the past, how long does it take to implement Interact HRMS. The answer to this question is not straightforward as it depends on many variables/parameters, and most of all the Complexity of HR and Payroll Content and its Quality. Thus, Implementation Time of HRMS is a direct function of Contents Complexity and Quality. Thus, the more complex is the contents, the more time it will be required to implement HRMS. Similarly, the lower the quality of the contents the more time will be required to Implement HRMS. In this...

Overview Research has shown that employees’ procrastination cost companies billions of dollars per year. Further, research has shown that on average, employees waste 1.5 hour per day procrastinating. So, let’s assume that your company has 100 employees, and each employee is wasting 1.5 hour per day (7.5 hours per week per employee), that is a total of 750 hours (7.5 x 100) of lost time per week.  Assume that the average pay rate per employee is $18.00 per hour, so the company is incurring a loss of $13,500 per week, which translates to an annual loss of approximately $702,000. This loss addresses the loss resulting from lost time, where employee delays doing his/her work by doing something that is irrelevant to his/her work and to the company business such as checking his personal emails, facebook, twitter, chatting with friends, etc. The impact on the business in term of loss of...

Overview In our previous blog, we have explained the main challenge in implementing a Global HRMS such as Interact HRMS, and this challenge is the Contents. In brief, we have explained that HRMS Software is the Container while Labor and Tax Laws and the Company Policies for which the Global HRMS is being implemented is the Contents. Further, we have explained the difference between Country-Specific HRMS and Global HRMS, and this difference is mainly in the Contents. While Country-Specific HRMS come with Built-In Contents, Country-Specific HRMS comes with the Labor and Tax laws build-in in the software for the country that software is targeting, and this is out of the box. No need for any setup except for the company’s specific polices. While a Global HRMS, comes with no country-specific contents. The reason, for the later, is that a Global HRMS is designed for use by every country and provide...

Overview The challenges that we face when implementing a Global HR and Payroll System (Global HRMS) are significant, but not insurmountable. A Global HR and Payroll System is defined as an HRMS that supports the labor and tax laws of every country and industry. And since every country has its own labor and tax laws, the said global HR and Payroll system must comply with these laws. The technology to support these laws is available in most enterprise HRMS systems provided you are ready to define these laws to the system, meaning to do the setup of every policy and/or law applicable to the said country, state, province, county, and city. The challenge at hand is not the technology, but the Contents. The technology (HRMS) is the Container, the Laws and Policies relevant to each country, state/province, county, city, and client are the Contents that must fill the Container is...

Overview Interact HRMS is pure Web/Internet application comprising more than 70 integrated applications that cover all aspects of Foundation Management, Core HR, Leave & Time Management, Payroll Management, and Talent Management. Interact HRMS uses layered software architecture, built using open source software development tools and database.  Development technologies used to implement the said architecture include PhP, DHTMLX, CSS, XML, Smarty, HTML, Ajax, and MySQL Database. Object Oriented Design and Programming is extensively used to share components and optimize code for performance and efficiency, and Rapid/Agile Development, Testing, and Deployment.   Figure-1: Interact HRMS Architecture Architecture Layers As shown in figure-1 and figure-2, Interact HRMS Architecture consists of the following layers: Presentation Layer Security System Layer Application Business Objects Layer Workflow Layer Database Access Layer  Figure-2: Interact HRMS Architecture Presentation Layer – This layer is used to implement the User Interface to communicate between the User and the Application. The presentation...

Overview Interact HRMS including Core HR, Foundation Apps, Time and Leave Management, Payroll, and other applications can be Implemented and Deployed in support of single employer or multiple employers within a single enterprise. And Enterprise can be viewed as a group of companies, where each company is considered a single independent operating unit with its own organization, financial, operational and management structure. Figure-1: Enterprise Structure Each company within the enterprise is considered a separate employer as each company can have its own hiring, time and leave, and payroll policies. Example of an Enterprise, J&J Corp, which is a global diversified company, that owns four separate companies including J&J Retail, J&J Consulting Services, J&J Oil & Gas, and J&J Construction. Each of the four companies will have different structure and different HR and Payroll policies as their line of business is different. You can support such an enterprise in Interact using...

Overview Interact HRMS is an enterprise system with more than 70 Integrated HR, Talent Management, Time and Leave Management, and Payroll management applications. Interact HRMS is a pure web applications that is deployed using Apache, PhP, and MySQL Database. Interact HRMS can be deployed in the Cloud, Hosted, or On-Premise. The configuration of the servers to support Interact HRMS for optimal performance depends on many variables. To name few: Number of Employees that will be supported by the system? How many Interact Applications will be deployed? How many Self-Services users will be accessing the system? How many Internal Users will be accessing the system? How many External Users, users accessing the system using the Internet? Distribution of Internal Users by application? Employees Baseline Database size? Database Growth Rate? Online and Batch Transactions usage distribution? Batch Processes (e.g, Payroll), Cycle and Frequency? Once the above variables/parameters are defined, then you can...