Tuesday, June 26, 2007

FLUSH PAYROLL!

I must sound like a broken record, but I know of no other way than to keep harping on how inadequate current Payroll & Human Resource packages are.  These packages should be flushed, and let’s just start over from scratch!

Of all of the financial applications that we run today Payroll requires more work-arounds than all the rest.  Current payroll packages FAIL in the following primary areas:

1. Unable to RECORD and MAINTAIN HISTORY of ad hoc payroll EARNINGS.

2. Unable to RECORD and MAINTAIN HISTORY of ad hoc payroll DEDUCTIONS.

3. LIMITED REPORTING capabilities.

4. DIFFICULT for payroll clerk to use.

Pertaining to the first 2 items, if developers didn’t provide for a specific pay type or deduction, you can’t add your own, especially if complicated calculations are involved.  This results in payroll departments maintaining spreadsheets outside of the payroll application.  These are dangerous as they are usually undocumented, usually not audited, and can lead to serious errors. 

The third item is somewhat self-explanatory and usually requires hours of IT time to develop outside applications that provide the needed reports.  Again, these can be dangerous, as they must be maintained whenever payroll packages change. 

The fourth item is hard to quantify.  But if any clerk has to activate more than one program to perform a simple function there is a loss of performance.  Stepping through several screens the operator can make mistakes.  Only an intuitive and experienced operator will remember the multiple application screens needed to perform a specific function.

As a manager I spent more time bailing out the payroll department than anything else.  Do you think anything will EVER be done?