Sage HRMS/Payroll (V2014) vs Microsoft Dynamics GP-HR/PR (V2013): A comparison By Lisa Simpson

Transcription

1 Sage HRMS/Payroll (V2014) vs Microsoft Dynamics GP-HR/PR (V2013): A comparison By Lisa Simpson 5272 S. LEWIS, SUITE 100 TULSA, OK TOLL FREE:

2 I ve worked for years with Microsoft Dynamics GP HR/Payroll and now with Sage HRMS so, below, I m sharing some of the main comparisons I find between the two products. SQL thank you Sage HRMS for moving forward onto the SQL platform! It makes database management and queries so much easier to handle. Employee Management: Sage HRMS uses an Enterprise approach to employee management. Employees can be entered, monitored and reported across all Payroll Legal entities from one place. Transfers from one Payroll EIN to another is a simple process. GP requires separate companies (databases) be set up for each EIN (unless using a special multi-entity 3 rd party add-on). Employee movement in the Base is not allowed records must be terminated in one EIN company and added from scratch in the new one. Page 1

3 Sage HRMS has the ability to setup a customized checklist for adding new employees. This will walk you from desired window to window, setting up all the items pertaining to a new employee. Dynamics GP doesn t have this option. There are checklists where you could manually add line items but you will need to navigate to the windows yourself. The main GP employee window uses GOTO options which you must remember to select individually to move to each sub-window. Once Sage HR employee entries/changes are made, you must synchronize these over to the Payroll module. Dynamics GP allows you to set a synchronization ability at the user logon level which will pop open the Payroll Deduction/Benefit windows after you save the HR Benefit. Similar items: Certifications/licensing, training, performance reviews, I-9 tracking, OSHA reporting, FMLA tracking, Split distributions, shift differentials, Paid-time off accrual. Garnishments can be setup and tracked in Sage HRMS. For calculations Sage HRMS uses an add-on utility Delphia Garnishment. Child support deductions can create an ACH payment file. GP provides for the setup of limited garnishment calculations which can reduce the garnishment amount based on the employee s earnings related to the calculation (minimum wage, Consumer Credit Act). Any garnishment or deduction can create an Accounts Payable invoice in the AP module for vendor payments via check or EFT. Payroll Process: Time Cards: Sage HRMS allows entry to time cards for any Pay Period date which will remain out in the system until that pay period is identified for processing. GP allows you to create recurring timecards or an individual timecard for any pay period date. Only those timecards that are marked to be included will be a part of a Payroll Build. In Sage HRMS, you Open Payroll which synchronizes your HR setup over to Payroll (earnings, deductions, benefits). In GP, you Build your Payroll which loads temporary tables with the employee selection, codes and basic data for further processing. Each software then has you run a Calculate Payroll to get from Gross Wages to Net earnings. This step can be run multiple times until the desired result is achieved. In GP, certain changes such as to pay rates, timecards and taxes will require you to remove and recreate your Build. Sage may require you to manually add deductions to the Payroll side if you don t want to delete the calculation and reopen the payroll to synchronize records. Pay rate changes would need to be applied to time cards. Sage HRMS allows you to create custom payroll runs by selecting employees to include in the payroll. This makes paying certain employees outside of a normal payroll run easy if certain voids had to be processed and recreated, etc. In Dynamics GP, the only criteria to limit a payroll is the employee class or a range of Ids or names this can make selecting specific employees difficult and can result in having to run several mini-payrolls. Page 2

4 Both systems allow for a wide range of check output formats, multiple direct deposit lines of flat or percentage and ACH pre-note file creation. Sage HRMS gives you the opportunity to mark a particular pay as reporting on a separate check. This reduces the tax liability to the employee for large bonus payments without requiring you to run separate checks. GP only allows you to change the Federal tax rate to a fixed percentage on a particular pay code. Posting to General Ledger Sage GL is a separate software so an output file needs to be created and integrated into the desired Sage Accounting package. Accounts must be created in both GL and HRMS (you can import them into HRMS from Accounting). Cost center overrides can be setup to map any code to its desired GL account. If GP accounting is used, the integration is seamless and accounts are only created once in the GL. A Payroll Posting Accounts interface is setup to map department/code to the desired GL account. Higher level overrides than department are not easily allowed in GP unless special department codes are set up in Payroll to account for a dual segment override. Sage HRMS provides a Transaction History window to allow for manual changes/fixes to employee history when balancing issues arise. Dynamics GP requires you enter either a manual adjustment or manual check to make the changes depending on what needs to be adjusted, 5 or more transactions per check would need to be entered (one per earnings code, deduction, employer benefit, social security tax, Medicare tax, federal tax, state tax). Code Setup: For Benefits and Deductions, in Sage HRMS, you can create custom rate table expressions to calculate premiums. In GP, you are limited to the windows and options provided. Medical plans set up as such do not allow you to enter rates that change based on an employee s age. Life insurance plans are the only type of benefit that allows for an age-based table. When setting up tax options for an earnings code or deduction in Sage HRMS, you have to select/insert each tax on your code to which you want the tax applied. GP provides checkboxes for each tax on the pay/deduction codes to indicate whether or not the tax should be taken. Applicant Tracking: Sage uses a fully integrated Sage endorsed solution called Cyber Recruiter by Visibility which allows for online applications. Dynamics GP contains its own Applicant tracking module but is not by default accessible online. Reporting: All Sage HRMS payroll reports are written in Crystal which allows easy modification/report versions. Dynamics GP uses both a proprietary Report Writer and SQL Reporting Services. SSRS doesn t allow for very pretty forms output but reports are available outside the software user interface, not requiring a GP Page 3

5 concurrent license. Any report or query in Sage HRMS can be output to Excel at the time of printing. Dynamics GP has the capability to create a.csv file but these do not always format properly for Excel. Smartlists (internal GP queries) can output to Excel without subtotals. Quarterly and Annual Reporting: Quarterly 941 reporting is very similar simply run the desired reports. They re also completely re-runnable going back in time (though in GP you may have to change your system date to rerun for a prior year). Sage HRMS uses Aatrix for W2 electronic processing. GP can also use Aatrix or an internal electronic Federal file creation. Sage and Microsoft provide Tax updates for all Federal and State changes. Sage also provides local tax updates. In GP, Local taxes either need to be created from a service (Aatrix or Greenshades) or entered manually they are not provided in updates by Microsoft. Online Access: Employee Self Service in Sage HRMS and Business Portal ESS in GP are very similar, allowing employees to access their demographic information, request changes that require Workflow approvals and see check stubs from an online perspective. Online Benefit enrollment is NOT very similar. Sage HRMS allows the setup of groups into which new employees fall automatically based on their organizational status for Life Events. GP requires that you ADD an employee manually into a select group of benefits for the employee to see and choose from online. Bottom line, know your requirements when choosing your software. Review each option and your internal priorities to make sure you are making the best informed choice! Page 4