New Manual Timecard Feature
We added the ability for employees to manually enter in their own punches in ESS. Previously, all punches had to be done through the web or hardware clock in real time. With this new feature, employees can manually enter clock in/clock out times for the current pay period all at once. This can be beneficial for salaried employees whose time needs to be logged solely for allocation purposes.
Note that this feature needs to be enabled under company settings (Company > Attendance > Company Attendance-Settings) as well as for the employees (People> Employee Profile> Attendance> Clock Settings) who are given permission to manually log their time.
Dynamic State-specific Tax Fields
State W4 requirements are now dynamically driven by state.
Our system has been updated to include custom fields that cater to the specific tax requirements of each state. For instance, Arizona now includes a new field that allows users to address withholding percentage options accurately.
View Schedule Page in Employee self-service Hub
Yes, you read that correctly! Now in beta, employees can now view their assigned schedule within ESS. Employers no longer need to print off or email schedules, freeing up more time while keeping employees in the loop of when and where they need to report to work. There will be many additional features added to scheduling on the ESS side in the next couple of months, so stay tuned!
IP Address Restrictions for Clocking in in ESS
Geofencing allowed employers to prevent employees from clocking in outside of their assigned locations; however, the same restriction could not be applied when employees clocked in via desktop. With this new improvement, employers can now limit clocking in and out on desktop to a specific IP address. IP addresses can be added under HR > Job Info > Locations > IP Address Restrictions.
Reimbursement Request Permissions Update
We updated user permissions for expense reimbursement requests. Previously, if this feature was turned on, it allowed all employees to submit requests for reimbursement. With the new update, you can enable it on an employee-by-employee basis so those who shouldn’t be submitting reimbursement requests... Aren’t.
This Setting is under Company> Rules & Alerts> Request & Approvals > Reimbursement.
Filter Missed Punch Requests by Pay Period
Missed punches holding you up? Stop sorting through ALL missed punches by filtering the missed punch requests by pay period. Previously, when viewing missed punch requests, all requests would populate regardless of the pay period. With the new update, you can filter to view only the missed punch requests that are holding up your current payroll. The rest can wait!
Export Pending Missed Punch Requests
Still waiting on missed punch requests to be approved by other users? With this new update, you can export missed punch requests from the pending requests page. Requests can be exported by assignee or all at once so you can notify other users as you see fit to prevent these pending requests from holding up payroll.
Move Unpaired Punches
You’ve approved all missed punch requests for this pay period, yet you still have unpaired punches that are now holding up your payroll. Previously, you had to chase down the employee in order to make the correction. With the new update, you can simply move the unpaired punch to the following week’s timecard to correct the missed punch at a later date and pay out on the next pay run.
Transfer Punches
Need to divvy up an employee’s shift for allocation reasons? With the new update, you can simply transfer the punch and allocate the employee’s time as needed. Previously, you had to manually add all new punches.
Default Earning Code to Reduce Attendance PTO Requests
For clients using Time and Attendance, an earning code can be set in an accrual bank to be used when employees request PTO in ESS or attendance.
Until now we had to set it in the back end- now it can be added within the bank setup.
Global Search Will Now Auto Select Text of Previous Search
In response to user feedback, we have enhanced the global search feature to strike a perfect balance between convenience and ease of use. In global search when you are searching for an employee and click into that employee, the current search is saved in case you want to navigate to a different employee with the same name without having to retype.
However, we understand that this feature made it harder to clear and initiate a new search. To address this, we have implemented a simple solution. When you reopen the global search, the current search term will be highlighted. If you wish to perform a new search, you can simply start typing the new search term, and it will replace the previous one without the need for manual clearing.
GL Report Update
Added option to change the format on date fields.
Benefits - Company Benefit Plan Name to be unique
We’re making some changes to allow even more companies to integrate with us- with this update, the plan names on the company level need to be unique (within each company and even if it’s the same plan just a different plan year). This change is a necessary evil. One small change for Benefits, one big step for integration partners!
Companies can select their industry
This field has been, and will be, used to customize features specifically for a company's industry needs.
Patient Name Field Added
Most recently we added a new Patient name field in pay entry that benefits HHA companies- this field is automatically available now for clients in this industry.
Bug Fixes
Like in every release, we’ve squashed some bugs. Here are some of the highlights:
- Time bug fixed for those not EST: Now shows the appropriate amount of time that’s lapsed since the employee clocked in, regardless of which time zone they are in.
- Scheduling Partial Shift bug: When updating an existing shift to a partial shift, the system created an additional shift and didn’t delete the original shift. Now, it works as you’d expect it.
- Onboarding non W-2 employee Error: When onboarding a non W-2 employee, state taxes showed as null. Because state taxes cannot show as null, an error populated. This has been addressed.
- FICA Tax Not Showing on Employee Level: Resolved an issue where FICA taxes were not showing on the employee level.
- Check and Direct deposit combo on GL: GL now supports and splits checks that have both direct deposit and net check.
- Workers Comp Start Date Error: Start dates on WC rates can now be edited.
- CC Field on Digitized Doc Not Populating: CC now populates on digitized documents outside of onboarding.
- State Tax Bug Resolved: Resolved validation issue for states that don’t require filing status and exemptions.
- Improved Timecard loading time- No more waiting around for your timecards to load. It’s supafast!
- Onboarding Direct Deposit name on account field length adjusted- Now it can be longer! Woohoo, more space!
- Improved PSD code fields to load quicker- Yet another item you don’t have to wait around for to load, because it’s (say it with me) supafast!
- In some cases, files sizes increased when flattened which caused issues when saving on employee- Destroyed that bug for good!
- Information tooltips fixed in ESS- Chrome still isn't informing us in advance when they update. Better late than never!
- GL - Inactive tax codes were always being calculated as EE tax. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. So it doesn’t work that way anymore.