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...

Overview Timesheets are used to record and report time worked by employees. The purpose from recording and reporting time is to pay the employee for time worked including regular hours and overtime hours for hourly employee and to track attendance. Additionally, it is used for client billing and project management and labor distribution for labor costing. The timesheet applies primarily to hourly employees as hourly employees are paid by the hour and expected to be paid for overtime work. On the other hand, salaried employees, in most cases, do not submit timesheets as they are not paid for overtime. However, in some instances, salaried employees submit timesheets for client billing and attendance tracking and labor distribution and costing. Additionally timesheets may be used to record specific allowances such as travel allowance, food allowance, and leave time, both paid and unpaid time-off. The timesheets captures critical time data which is processed...

In a recent Wall Street Journal article titled “Why There Is No Science In Your Salary.”, Lauren Weber writes: “Only 38% of employers have a formal compensation structure or philosophy guiding their pay decisions, according to PayScale Inc., which examined data from some 7,600 firms, mainly from the U.S., Canada and United Kingdom. The issue is especially acute in salaried roles, say compensation experts, because managers have more leeway to put a figure on an employee’s skill, experience and performance than they do with hourly positions. Yet as the labor market improves, and as fair-pay laws in California and elsewhere put a spotlight on corporate pay practices, firms are starting to rethink the way they set salaries. Among employers with no formal strategy in place, PayScale found that 34% are developing one.” Pay equity has always been an important element in employee satisfaction, isn’t it surprising then that so few...

  In the article, The Payroll Miracle, I have provided the definition of Payroll processes, and provided the calculation method of the employee Net Salary as well as the variables and functions used in calculating the net salary and the payroll data types, and sources. In this article, I shall describe Interact Payroll System Framework as it relates to the Payroll Definition described in the previous article. It is important to understand that each payroll system has its own framework and not all payroll frameworks are created equal. Some payroll frameworks are rigid and limited, while others are flexible and agile as they provide more flexibility accommodating multiple types of payroll setups to support specific payroll requirements of the organization, industry, business type, and country. Interact Payroll System Framework is highly flexible, it is policy driven, where all payroll rules and associated calculation methods are defined as policies during the payroll...

  The other day, I read an article that states that a new HR Company has developed a Payroll System in 60 days that runs the payroll by itself without any user intervention and it does it by using HR data with the click of a button.  Well, well, I said to myself, this is really genius and magic. If someone can do that, that is not only disruptive, but revolutionary – that is like saying that I have developed a magic stick that you can put in the ocean and it will turn ocean salt water to drinking water in a second. Wow that is incredible and miraculous. Since I have spent most of my adult life dealing with payroll and the intricacies of payroll in many countries, I said to myself I should write this blog to explain the payroll, its meaning, and its complexities, and why it cannot...

  Before you commence Interact HRMS implementation and setup, you need to understand the Implementation Framework and Stages of Interact HRMS as this understanding is very critical to conducting a successful and timely implementation. This section describes the Implementation Framework and Stages of Interact HRMS. Implementation Framework Interact HRMS Implementation Framework is defined by the components that need to be defined in order to implement Interact HRMS. These components are defined as follows and as shown in figure-1: Figure-1: Interact Implementation Framework Foundation These are the business entities of the company/organization within which Interact HRMS will be implemented and to which the company HR and Compensation and Payroll policies will be applied. These business entities or foundation elements consist of the following: – Enterprise – Employers – Organization Units – Employee Groups – Job Classification – Cost Centers – GL Accounts – Chart of Account Structure – Fiscal Year and Periods...

Ease of Use is a key concern for us at 2Interact and we make sure that while we offer very sophisticated functionality that is global and therefore highly configurable and generic, we also keep a laser focus on simplicity and ease of use.   Many software providers take the easy road by creating unlimited screens and forms for every feature under the sun and thereby drown their users in complexity.  It’s much harder to design an enterprise Payroll that not only has depth and breadth in its functionality, but is also simple to use.  In other words… you shouldn’t need a PhD to run a Payroll in a good enterprise system. That brings us to the different pay cycles and different types of payroll.  Interact HRMS supports any Pay Cycle / Pay Period you can dream of (Weekly, Biweekly, Semi Monthly, Monthly, Quarterly or custom-periods), these Pay Cycles/Periods can of course all be managed...

Interact HRMS – Guiding Principles   Simplicity.  Interact HRMS solutions are designed to be simple in everything they do.  Whether your needs are sophisticated or very basic, there is always a beautiful and simple way to deliver on them, and that is what we strive for. Ease-of-Use.  Simplicity leads to Ease-of-Use.  The biggest challenge in the industry is that enterprise applications become so complex that users require constant training just to be able to perform regular tasks.  Our mission at 2Interact is to make sure that users of any level can quickly learn their specific tasks and perform them on their own.  Due to the powerful self-service capabilities, all transactions can be performed by those users who are closest to the particular data (i.e. employees can fill in their benefit enrollment forms, leave requests, training requests, address change, etc.) instead of having this done by HR users. No dual entry. ...

Interact HRMS is a unique solution in the global market of HRIS applications for a number of important reasons:   70 modules all in one.  Interact HRMS consists of 70+ modules in HR, Payroll, Time, Benefits, Talent and Risk management.  It’s not a collection of loose modules, nor a combination of different systems cobbled together from different vendors.  No, Interact HRMS is a complete solution that caters to all needs from “hire to retire” through a single portal. Original Developer. In the HRIS world, you’ll find that many software providers did not develop themselves the software they are selling you and sometimes don’t even own the rights to it (they acquired software companies or they have an OEM licensing agreement with another software provider).  This is not the case with Interact HRMS.  All the software offered by 2Interact is originally developed and owned by 2Interact, which means support will be guaranteed and...

Implementation Goals The primary goal of an Interact HRMS Implementation is the setup of Interact HRMS software to reflect the organization structure, operation, and its HR and Payroll policies to enable the end users to process HR Actions and transactions and to run the payroll for its employees. Such a setup needs to be conducted in accordance to specific quality standard including: Timeliness – Keep in mind that the implementation is successful if it meets specific predefined timetable that meets the client and provider expectation. Effectiveness – The implementation is successful if the outcome of the implementation is effective in a sense that it meets and exceeds client’s expectations in terms of capturing the organization structure and its policies and the ability to process all HR actions, leave, time and attendance and payroll transactions without major effort as well as enabling the client to comply with local, state, and federal labor...

Interact HRMS is an enterprise HRMS software with more than seventy (70) integrated applications that cover all aspects of HR and Payroll business within an organization. Interact HRMS software can be implemented for a single employer/company in a single country or for multiple employers across the global. Interact HRMS is a Ready-Made software, and is not custom-built application. Interact HRMS is flexible enough to support most client policies using setup parameters, however, and since it is Ready-Made, it is not going to mimic what the client does. It is important to understand the difference between “What Is Suppose to be Produced, the end Result”, and “How the result is Produced”. Interact HRMS Implementation scope depends on the configuration of the software as purchased by the Client and the number of companies and countries in which the software is to be implemented. Our basic philosophy is to keep things “Simple” and...