FMLA changes include:

Exigency leave – up to 12 weeks of leave for urgent needs related to a reservist family member’s (spouse, son, daughter, or parent) call to active service. H.R. 2647 expands the exigency leave benefits to include family members of active duty service members. Under current law, only family members of National Guard and Reservists are eligible for exigency leave.

Caregiver leave – up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave to an employee to care for a family member (spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin) who is injured while serving on active military duty. H.R. 2647 expands the caregiver leave provision to include veterans who are undergoing medical treatment, recuperation or therapy for serious injury or illness that occurred any time during the five years preceding the date of treatment.

Mark Dresser, president of Dresser & Associates attributes the firm’s continuing success to its deep commitment to its clients. “Our customers recognize that the features and functions of an HRIS system are important, but what is most important is the business relationship with the company that supports their solution,” he said. “Our experience and expertise both with the software and with HR and payroll best practices allow us to share ideas and techniques our clients can use to leverage their software investment. We see our role as reaching beyond that of a software vendor; we hope our clients think of us as trusted business advisors sharing in their corporate missions.”

Mark Isenburg, vice president of workforce development and technical services at ABCD, a community development organization in Boston, and a client of Dresser & Associates, praised the company’s commitment to service. “Dresser & Associates impresses me. They are professional yet friendly – experts in the product and in general payroll practices,” he said. “A critical part of the success of our project was Dresser & Associates’ ability to quickly understand our needs and translate those needs into a solution.”

“The service we receive from Dresser is just outstanding. They approach a support issue with the attitude that my problem is their problem,” said Lisa Jones, controller at Eagle Rock Distributing, an Atlanta-based beverage distributor and also a client of Dresser & Associates.

Dresser & Associates continually invests in its own infrastructure to better serve its client base. The company’s Web site offers industry news and events, Sage Abra product tips, and online training. Frequent seminars and user groups cover topics of interest to clients and encourage collaboration. Most recently, the company helped form a LinkedIn Group, the Alliance for Workforce Management – Sage Abra HRMS, to better inform and educate the Sage Abra user community.

“Our organization is built on relationships, and Dresser & Associates fits right in to that model,” added Isenburg. “It is apparent that they consider their role to be helping us make our organization function better. I consider this a long-term partnership.”

The Children’s Health Insurance Program Re-authorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) was one of the first pieces of legislation passed by the 111th Congress and signed by President Obama. The legislation extends and expands a program – the State Children’s Health Insurance Program – that was initially implemented a decade ago, and will now extend to 2013.

Funded by new tobacco taxes, CHIPRA adds $33 billion in federal funds for children’s health insurance over the next 4 ½ years, covering to 4.1 million children who are otherwise projected to be uninsured by 2013.

Among its provisions to improve medical care for low income children, CHIPRA streamlines enrollment procedures for health coverage; allows for dental coverage and mental health parity; provides states with increased flexibility in covering pregnant women and (legal) immigrant children; and phases out the coverage of adults.

CHIPRA also begins the movement of low income children from state CHIP plans to less costly employer sponsored plans. The two provisions of the legislation targeted to accomplish this, and which are most relevant for employers, are 1) the premium assistance programs which states can now offer, and 2) the requirements around special enrollment rights and employee notices.

Premium Assistance

The Premium Assistance programs are governed by the state in which the employee lives. For those employers whose only employees live in Georgia, premium assistance requirements will not apply until and unless Georgia enacts future legislation to participate.

CHIPRA allows states to provide premium assistance subsidies to participants who want to expand their single coverage to include coverage of their CHIP or Medicaid eligible dependents. The subsidy amount is essentially the difference between the employee portion of the group health plan’s “single” premium and the “employee + children” premium. While not intended to be exhaustive, an employer who has employees living in a state that participates in premium assistance must meet the following requirements:

• Provide notice to existing and new employees in all states that have adopted premium assistance programs;
• Provide requested information to the state(s), allowing for a determination of whether the group health plan is qualified for the program;
• Determine whether to accept the direct subsidy or withhold it from wages and have it reimbursed to the covered employee;
• Develop procedures to post and track subsidy payments; and
• Update all Plan documentation to include the premium assistance provisions.

Special Enrollment Rights

HIPAA already provides for special enrollment rights for major life events such as marriage, or the birth or adoption of a child. CHIPRA expands those rights to allow employees and dependents who lose eligibility for Medicaid or state CHIP coverage to enroll in the group plan within 60 days of the qualifying event. In states offering premium assistance, a similar right is afforded those who become eligible for Medicaid or CHIP subsidies. To meet these special enrollment rights for eligible participants, employers will need to:

• modify plan documents to reflect the special enrollment rights;
• be prepared to allow mid-year enrollment for CHIPRA qualified participants, effective April 1;
• provide notice to existing and new employees of their rights to special enrollment under the legislation; and
• modify systems as necessary to allow tracking of dual “windows” — a 60-day period from the qualifying event for CHIPRA, and a 30-day period for other life events.

The CHIPRA legislation provides for penalties of $100 per day, per violation, for failure to comply with the notice requirements and failure to disclose requested information to the states. Ancilla Consulting Solutions can answer questions regarding relevant notice deadlines, and help you to quickly implement procedures to satisfy the CHIPRA requirements.

Lida J. Bayne
Ancilla Consulting Solutons, LLC
770-403-6183

• Bonus Depreciation: A 50% immediate depreciation is available for this year for new equipment.
• Small Business Expensing: A write-off of up to $250,000 of capital equipment is available.
• Expanded NOL Carry Back: It is now 5 years for businesses with less than $15 million in average gross receipts.
• AMT Patch: The exemption is increased from $46,200 to $46,700 for single filers and from $69,950 to $70,950 for joint filers and surviving spouses.
• S Corporation Reduction: If a business converts from a C Corporation to an S Corporation in 2009 or 2010, the S Corporation must hold its assets for only seven years, down from ten years, in order to avoid a tax on any built-in gains that existed at the time of conversion.
• Delayed Recognition of CODI: The Certain Cancellation of Debt Income will be allowed over 10 years (Check with your CPA on details).
• Estimated Tax Payment Relief: Individuals operating small businesses may be permitted to make lower quarterly estimated tax payments to the IRS in 2009.
• Government Withholding One-Year Delay: The law requiring a 3% withholding from contracts and other payments is delayed to 12-31-11.
• New Employee Tax Credit: The Work Opportunity Tax Credit is expanded to include unemployed veterans and disconnected youth. This now makes a total of eleven different groups of new hires that are eligible for this credit. This credit ranges from $2400 to $8500 per qualified new hire.
• Research & Development Tax Credit: Eligible expenses have increased from 10% to 14%. Most Printers, since they are classified as manufacturers, qualify for this credit, which is both a State and Federal credit.
• Federal Location Tax Credits: Businesses that are located in certain Federal location areas and have employees that live in that area can be eligible to receive tax credits from $1500 to $3000 per employee per year. The Bill extended this credit through 2011.

Each State offers Tax Credits, Grants, and other Incentives for qualified activities by business, while the Federal government offers over 25 different incentives. These programs, enacted into law, can help sustain your business and increase your profit. Now is the time to act!!

Terry McMillian, President

McMillian & Associates, Inc.

LaGrange, Georgia

Can you dramatically cut your company’s payroll costs without sacrificing jobs or employee satisfaction? You bet.

Bring payroll in-house while outsourcing your tax filing and compliance and watch your savings add up. Some of our clients save tens of thousands of dollars each year with this strategy and improve the accuracy of their payroll, too. Add a payroll card option to your direct deposit capabilities and you can save even more by eliminating paper paychecks.

Payroll processing expenses reduced by 70%

At Dresser & Associates, we implemented a hybrid payroll strategy for a Henley Enterprises, Inc., a 600-employee, multi-location client who wanted tight control over payroll information, but needed help with the complexities of tax filing and W-2 and 1099 printing. Henley Enterprises operates 65 auto care franchises on the east coast and had been spending in excess of $100,000 per year to outsource payroll processing. They were still doing 90% of the work and sometimes the payroll wasn’t even accurate – a real hassle for employees.

We implemented Sage Abra Payroll and reduced Henley Enterprises’ payroll processing costs to just $30,000 per year. It wasn’t long before our client had recovered the cost of the software and could enjoy more than $100,000 per year in savings , even after paying to maintain and support the Abra Payroll system.

In addition to the reduction in costs, Abra Payroll also provides Henley Enterprises with the flexibility to run unlimited trial payrolls, cut paychecks on demand, and process checks and direct deposits. By eliminating redundant, manual data entry, the payroll team saves one full day of labor each week. With complete control over sensitive employee data, they feel better able to produce a reliable payroll every time.

Tax compliance made easy

Next, we made sure that the accounting manager and HR manager at Henley Enterprises wouldn’t need to stress over complex payroll tax filings. To avoid potentially costly mistakes or penalties, we set up Henley Enterprises on Sage Compliance Services. This tax filing and payment service supports all filings, including federal, state, and local payroll taxes; SDI and SUI filing; and provides other services, such as W-2 and 1099 printing, and W-2 electronic filing. Best of all, our clients spend only about $1,000 per month on this service – compared to the $4,000 per week they used to pay for payroll outsourcing!

In total, Henley Enterprises estimates that it saves $15,000 every month with hybrid payroll. The staff there continues to be pleased with their decision to bring payroll in-house with Abra Payroll while outsourcing tax filing and payments with Sage Compliance Services.

Payroll cards save another $1-2 per employee, per pay period

When you move employees from paper paychecks to electronic payment, your company saves a lot. NACHA Electronic Payments Association estimates direct deposit electronic payment to cost approximately $.60 per transaction. Printing and distributing a paper paycheck can cost $1-2 per employee, per payroll, according to the American Payroll Association. Need to reissue a check that has been lost or stolen? That’s another $10-12.

You probably already utilize direct deposit to pay some, or even most, of your employees. But up to 25% of Americans don’t have a bank account and therefore cannot participate in direct deposit. To increase the number of employees on electronic payment, consider adding a payroll card, such as Sage Payroll PayCard.

Sage Payroll PayCard works just like a debit card and carries the Visa® brand, with funds protected by Visa’s Zero-Liability policy. Sage Payroll PayCard is a perfect way for employees without bank accounts to receive their pay automatically, without the hassle and expense of check cashing services. For many companies, paycards significantly lower payroll costs by further reducing or eliminating the need to print paper paychecks. You can calculate potential savings with our Sage Payroll PayCard Savings Calculator.

Free Hybrid Payroll Webinars

Find out how your company can realize big savings with in-house payroll and outsourced tax filling. Join Dresser & Associates for a FREE Webinar that demonstrates how bringing payroll in-house can cut costs and deliver total control over payroll to your organization. Click one of the dates below to register.

March 25, 2009 at 2:00 pm EDT
April 30, 2009 at 2:00 pm EDT

Read full MaineBiz article by Mark Dresser

Grim economic news haunts the headlines week after week. With corporate profits lagging and unemployment rising, my knee-jerk instinct as a business owner is to conserve cash at all costs. My “panic brain” wants to hold off on all spending.

But my other brain — the “strategy brain” — sees ways to gain competitive advantage during the toughest economic downturns. As a business software consultant, I know that not all capital expenditures are the same. Instead of an across-the-board spending freeze, we need to focus on smarter spending — investing in tools that improve financial stability and competitiveness.

This recession hit faster and dropped steeper than recent downturns, so it’s already apparent that some companies will not survive. That’s a wake-up call to the rest of us to get lean, productive and efficient. Companies that do will gain a competitive advantage and be ready to expand market share when other firms fail.

If your company hasn’t updated business management software in a long time, your legacy technology could be sapping productivity and dragging down your bottom line. The right business software, paired appropriately with your company’s needs, can eliminate some expenses and boost productivity. While you may hesitate to plan purchases in a recession, there are numerous reasons why companies who invest now will get more bang for their buck:

• Your company may get a better deal on software and services

  While your competitors hunker down, you can take advantage of the downturn to negotiate a better deal for the software and services you need. If you will need implementation assistance, your company will enjoy much more attention and responsiveness from consultants than you might in busier times.

• You can take advantage of special tax savings

  The current stimulus bill contains increased Section 179 limits, as well as bonus depreciation for business capital expenditures, including computer software. Consult your tax advisor to see how these provisions can benefit your organization if you purchase business software in 2009.

• As the recession eases, your company is using better technology than competitors

  While other companies in your industry struggle to update their systems and take advantage of new technologies, your company will already be a lean, mean, competitive machine when the economy turns around. That’s because you invested in the right technology — and became proficient in it — while you had the proper time to devote to the project.

• How to update wisely

  During a slow economy, you might be tempted to let technical support and maintenance services for your software lapse. This could be a mistake, especially if it means the usefulness and value of software you already invested in decreases.

A support plan lets you focus more on your business, and less on your software. Your vendor’s support specialists can help you streamline workflow, perfect a report or ensure compliance to regulatory entities.

Read full MaineBiz article by Mark Dresser

With this in mind, Steve asked me:  “How do you change the culture of an organization so that every employee looks at other employees with the same respect and courtesy they give their best friend? That they are willing to stop what they are doing to help another individual?” This is the answer I gave him. 

First, changing the culture starts at the top.  The very top levels of management, or the organization’s sponsor, must buy into the idea that the culture must change. They must take an active role in this change.  

Starting with management, the organization must begin to rethink how each individual works or fits into the organization. If management is the brains of an organization, and the staff is the body, just chagrining the brain will not affect the body without a good nervous system. The nerves are the lines of communication that deliver the messages needed to make the body move and perform tasks.                       

In the days of old, these nerves were middle management. In today’s world these lines of communications are handled by technology or senior staff members who have taken the place of middle managers. 

The spine of the organization is Human Resources. Human Resources will need to review such things as, promotions, pay administration, performance reviews and recruiting to make sure they are aligned with the desired culture. As an example, you cannot just reward individual performance if the requirements of your organizational culture specify team work.  Also Human Resources would arrange and track training through communication with department heads. 

The organization as a whole must have its focus changed from doing the task at hand to being customer driven. Doing the task at hand may get the job done, but does not serve all the customer needs. Serving customer needs increases the bottom line, both for the organization, and personally. This retraining/rethinking starts with the teaching of the Golden rule of Customer Service (”Treat every customer the way you (or your best friend) wants to be treated”) and Continuous Improvement. These two simple ideas can completely turn a culture around if totally supported and promoted by management. 

Let us begin with Continuous Improvement. This is the idea that every task or process can be improved on or eliminated to increase efficiency and reduce costs. There are many ways to implement the idea of working to improve the processes in an organization (too many to discuss here). What I will say is that from the top down the focus must be changed to look for ways to improve the processes and find duplications of effort. 

Secondly, the Golden Rule of Customer Servicemust be taught. Sounds simple, but the retraining/rethinking is to identify all your customers. That takes some thought. We have to be retrained to identify and think of every person we interact with as a customer. Internal and external customers must be identified. You have to be able to relate an interruption by a co-worker the same way you do when an external customer calls to order a product, for instance. This also requires team work, team spirit, or my favorite phrase, “esprit-de-corps”, a spirit of pride in the organization as a whole. 

With a management commitment to build a new culture for the organization and training the members of an organization to recognize the customer, an organization can establish harmony and efficiency. 

Ed Reiter, VP of Customer Experience, CAASPRE Consulting, Tampa, FL

• Dresser & Associates, Inc. in Scarborough, Maine
• HRMG Solutions, Inc.,  in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania
• CAPlus, Inc., Toronto, Ontario Canada
• Rising Sun Consulting, Atlanta, Georgia
• One Solutions, Inc., Miami, Florida
• HR Pay ‘n’ Time, Seminole, Florida
• People Sense – Chicago, Illinois

The premise behind the alliance is that HR and Payroll professionals can utilize technology more effectively to help reduce costs and maximize efficiencies, practices which will be especially critical in the troublesome economic times ahead. In addition, HR professionals need to become more strategic in their thinking with respect to technology and the overall objectives of their respective organization, and the members of the Alliance look forward to collaborating to assist the growth of this kind of thinking.

As companies cut costs, they become more vulnerable to losing their precious assets — their best and brightest employees. Companies need to begin looking at ways to restructure benefits to better reflect the demographics of their workforce. The Alliance for Workforce Management is designed to make better use of technology for human capital management, as well as allowing consultants dedicated to assisting the Abra community to find the necessary resources to customize benefit plans.  This gained efficiency will control benefit costs while allowing companies to continue to attract and retain their best employees.

Though HR professionals face an unprecedented set of challenges, the Alliance for Workforce Management will give them the support they need to face the road head on, as well as create a new way of thinking to support their respective organizations more strategically.

GENERAL TIMELINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION

A common misconception of implementing an HRIS is the time it takes to get your system up and running. This time includes installing the system, preparing and converting data, training users on how the system is used and trouble shooting to ensure users can be off and running after the system is installed. A typical install usually takes an average of six to eight weeks with a technician spending six to eight hours a day, one day a week. It is important that a timeline be established before the process begins and all involved in the process follows the timeline as closely as possible.

WHAT IS THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS?

1. Discovery: In the discovery session, a project manager, consultant and your team drill-down on the information gathered during the Business Process Audit and discuss in detail your requirements, structure and the steps necessary to successfully integrate the solution into your environment. This is also the start of creating the timeline and assigning responsible parties for each step of the project. After the meeting, a finished timeline with dates is forwarded for your approval. It is important that these dates be carefully reviewed, as future changes can cause delays.
2. Installation: Depending on the solution, installation is performed by your IT department, consultant or both. Some of the products may require skill sets that might require a consultant to do the installation.
3. Data Conversion: Implementation of relevant HRMS data from your current systems. After core data is implemented, setup and configuration continues to complete this phase.
4. Review and Testing: An important step in implementation is confirming that the information is accurate and business rules are working properly.
5. Training: Training sessions should begin with an overview of the system. Through the knowledge gained during setup and review, time is needed to refine the steps required to use the system to match your internal processes. Training should be focused on the core aspects that prompted the purchase. During this entire process, be sure that your consultant records their observations regarding the need for additional training and implementation assistance.
6. Going Live: This is the day your investment begins to pay dividends.
7. Post Implementation Review: Some time after the go-live, a review of how the system is being used is necessary. Often, valuable functions are not being used most effectively or not at all. At this point, be sure your consultant provides guidance and remedial training to ensure that you obtain the full value from your investment.

THINGS THAT CAN TYPICALY GO WRONG DURING AN INSTAL

• Old system data is in an unstable format
• Old system data can not be found
• Unclear expectations
• Prep work has not been done or is incomplete

HOW TO PREVENT ISSUES FROM ARISING

Have a clear timeline – Realize it is going to take as much time to implement the system as it is going to take to prepare for implementation. Users and consultants should be working as a team to ensure the deadlines that were set before implementation are being met and followed.

Team effort- Users should be reading the manual at each step of the implementation to ensure all questions are being answered before they become an issue. Data that needs to be transferred from the old system to the new should be accessible and ready for the consultant. In most cases, this data is entered into the new system by the users, so be aware that this can take some time.

Clear expectations – Understand that the new system is not the old system. It is going to get some getting used to and some training for users to familiarize themselves with using the new system. The new system should not be used the way the old system was, this defeats the purpose of the new system.

Here are some things to consider before purchasing your software:

Does your HRIS software provider offer technical support?

Before calculating the cost of your new HRIS system, be sure you’re adding the implementation costs as well as the yearly technical support fee to the cost of the system. Do not underestimate the importance of technical support.

24/7! How often is support available?

If you have a technical problem with the system, you can’t afford to wait until the next business day before the problem is fixed. Problems with hardware, software or databases should be resolved as quickly as possible, especially, when issues tend to arise during mission critical times.

How are technical issues resolved, via phone or remote session?Sometimes talking someone through a technical issue is not as effective as actually walking someone through it. The ability for a support technician to access your data and remote in to your problem is far more effective and less stressful than simply trying to explain the solution.

What modules do your software providers’ technicians specialize in?If you only need two modules, ask to see the resumes of all the technical support people for those modules. Having trained, experienced, technicians is far more important than having just anybody attempting to solve your problems.

Specific Service Level Agreement

This should include uptime, security, and customer service metrics. If you have a problem, and your issue is not resolved in a reasonable manner, this could cost your company big bucks and higher expenses.

Bottom line

In most cases, HRIS software is only as good as the people behind it. Without the proper support, the software usually becomes obsolete. It is crucial that a software provider offer on demand technical support that users feel comfortable contacting and issues are quickly resolved.