Introducing "Paths": Customized Task Series for Employees"
Introducing Paths, a powerful new feature that streamlines workflows and improves productivity by allowing you to create customized task series for your employees. With Paths, you can easily manage and organize tasks, ensuring that all necessary steps are completed efficiently.
These tasks can include anything from watching a video, uploading a document, and reviewing and signing company policies. Paths provides a clear and intuitive interface for employees to easily follow, making it simple for them to stay on track and complete all tasks in a timely manner.
Examples of Paths include "New Hire Orientation," "Employee Training," and more.
With the ability to build a custom Path, you can tailor the experience to best fit your organization's needs.
Paths can be set up under "Company" > "Paths". Once a path is created, it can be included in an onboarding template under "Company" > "Onboarding Templates". This allows for easy integration of the path into the onboarding process for new hires
See the example below to learn how to build a "New Hire Orientation" Path.
And now let's see what it looks like for the employee:
Accelerated Direct Deposit Prenote Process for Faster Account Activation
We've made a significant improvement to the direct deposit Prenote process. For those unfamiliar, Prenote involves sending a test transaction to verify the accuracy of new direct deposit information before it's activated. Previously, new accounts were only sent to Prenote when an employee was paid, which resulted in a longer wait time for the account to take effect. With this update, new accounts entered before 5 pm are sent to Prenote on the same day, allowing them to take effect much sooner.
Please Note! This enhancement only applies to companies that use the Prenote feature.
Enhanced Payroll Calculation for Overtime and Premiums
We are excited to announce an update to Empeon's payroll calculation for overtime, overtime premiums, and spread of hours. The system now cross-references all checks, even within the same payroll process, providing a more comprehensive calculation of overtime, overtime premiums, and spread of hours. This ensures that all relevant hours and dollars are included.
For example, if an employee has two separate checks within one payroll process, one for 40 hours and the other for 5 hours (for the same workweek), the system will correctly calculate overtime, despite the hours being in two separate checks.
Such calculations are generally calculated on the Time & Attendance side. Empeon's powerful solutions enable such calculations to also be performed on the payroll side, providing a more comprehensive and efficient approach.
Note - This new feature only works with the new Empeon calculation settings. Check with your support team to see what calculation methods your company uses.
Images in ESS Messages
Introducing a new and exciting enhancement! With this release, clients can now include images in their ESS messages, adding a whole new level of visual engagement to their communications. The feature can be accessed through Actions > ESS Admin > Messages, where clients can compose new messages and attach images or graphics.
Employee Onboarding Updates
Job Titles in the Candidate List
In the Onboarding invite page, we are now displaying the job title of each candidate. This makes it easier for clients to identify and track candidates for specific roles during the onboarding process.
Exclude the Direct Deposit Option from an Onboarding Template
Employers now can exclude the Direct Deposit option from an Onboarding template or include it as a field for the employer to complete. This update allows employers who do not offer Direct Deposit as a payment option to remove the option from their template, providing more flexibility and control over their Onboarding process.
Employers Can Now Set Records as Required
Employers now can specify the number of records required for submission. For instance, an employer may mandate that an employee must provide a minimum of two emergency contact records.
This setting is found under Company > Onboarding > Onboarding Templates.
PTO Balances Now Reflect Outstanding Requests
With this release, we have enhanced the display of PTO balances in employee profiles. When an employee requests Time Off, their PTO balance will now reflect the change immediately, even before the request has been approved or paid out. This will provide employers with an up-to-date view of employee PTO balances (before this release the balance was updated instantly only on the employee side in ESS).
Additional Updates
Download Multiple Employee Documents at Once
Users can now download multiple employee documents at once. The documents will download into a zip folder.
ACA Dashboard Column Chooser
The employee list in the ACA Dashboard now has a column chooser so users can add additional columns to the view.
Default Clock-In Time in Payroll Entry
Before this release, when entering a Clock-in or out in a check, it would default to the current time. Now it defaults to 12:00 am.
Company Settings Search
We added a "Go to" under company settings so users can easily find a card.
Shortcut from Payroll to Timecard
Added a shortcut from payroll to the employee Time Card.
Copy General Ledger Configuration
GL configuration settings can now be copied from one company to another.
Import Company Job Info Codes
Users can now import Company Job Info codes such as departments, positions, etc.
Timecard History Calendar Dropdown
The timecard history calendar dropdown is now unlimited. Previously it was limited to 20 check dates.
Empeon User Registration no Longer Requires the User to Enter Their Name
Prior to this release, when a new Empeon user would register their account they would be prompted to enter their name. This is no longer the case. The system now takes their name from the invite.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed: In some scenarios, live reports with a large amount of data would error when the user would try to filter a column. This is now fixed.
- Fixed: The auto-populated "Full Name" field in documents would add a comma between the first name and the last name. This is now fixed.
- Fixed: Benefit Deductions are calculated based on Pay Frequency. Before this release, at times the system would look at the check Pay Frequency. Now it looks only at the employee Pay Frequency.
- Fixed: In ESS, when uploading a pdf attachment with the extension in all-caps (.PDF), the system would return an error that the file type or size is not allowed. This is now fixed.
- Fixed: This release ensures that changes made by an admin to a document already completed by an employee will not affect the employee's ability to submit the new hire application.
- Fixed: Before this release, accrual balances were not showing in the employee profile (for legacy accruals) if the bank was inactive on the company level. This is now fixed.
- Fixed: Before this release, terminated managers would show in the employee Org Chart. This is now fixed.
- Fixed: When importing employees, if the company is utilizing union automation, the import process would result in an error. This is now fixed
- Fixed: Employee Import warnings and errors excel export was not working. This is now fixed.
- Fixed: In some scenarios, when saving a manual check with a 401K match, it would calculate the 401K match amount twice. This is now fixed.
- Fixed: In payroll, when entering a tax pay entry line item using a tax code that doesn't exist in the employee profile, the system returns an error. Before this release, the error wording was not clear. This is now fixed.