PenSoft – Payroll Plus Accounting Edition

DATA ENTRY & KEY FEATURES:
Client and employee setup functions are fairly intuitive, with tabbed entry
for company data forms allowing movement through various basic and payroll-related
areas, including federal and state tax settings, departments, job codes, retirement
plans, contact information and notes. Similar forms are used for employee setup,
with tabs for entering direct deposit accounts, pay rates, tax data, deductions,
benefits, assigning employees to departments or jobs, tracking education and
training, and managing EEO-related human resources data. PenSoft Payroll also
includes custom fields for tracking miscellaneous information. Users can create
default employee settings that copy basic data across to new entries.

The program’s primary interface is a blank, slate grey window that offers
menus for system functions, as well as button-style links to specific payroll
activity areas, including bringing up client and employee selection screens,
running payroll, managing deposits, processing checks, reporting, export functions
and the backup utility. Client and employee selection lists allow sorting by
various criteria, including name, department, job code and even ZIP.

Employees can be assigned any number of standard or custom deductions, including
benefits like cafeteria plans, health savings accounts and 401Ks, and other
deferred savings plans. Other deductions, such as garnishments, planned giving,
loan repayments and union dues can also be applied to employee pay. The system
can handle any type of employee, including hourly, salaried, tipped and commission,
with overtime and double overtime, as well as various other pay benefits such
as meals and advances. The program automatically makes all calculations during
data entry, along with computing state and federal withholding. Accruals for
paid time off (vacation, sick, personal) can be set by the user.

When processing payroll runs, users can enter and edit employee hours and
other payroll data from detailed single-employee screens, which include YTD
and net summaries at the bottom, or data can be entered in batch mode for the
client, with the selected workers all appearing in a single spreadsheet data-entry
form. Users can also duplicate previous payrolls and make edits, if necessary,
or access employee timesheet data from the payroll screen. PenSoft’s TimeOnline
utility offers web-based attendance and time entry for employees, giving them
access to their payroll information. A Remote Client add-on is also available
that allows client businesses to remotely submit payroll data to the firm. Payroll
debit cards can also be used as an alternative to checks or direct deposit for
unbanked employees.

REPORTING CAPABILITIES:
The reporting utility in PenSoft Payroll opens to another tabbed screen that
groups the system’s large collection of reports into more than a dozen
categories that include options for payroll summaries and details, taxes, deductions,
departmental/job costing, timesheets, leave, combined and managerial reports.
Reports can be customized and saved in report groups, and can also be made available
for remote access, but they cannot be output into PDF or Microsoft Office formats.
The system can generate all federal and most state quarterly and annual reports
and forms, and can also e-file forms 940, 941 and 944.

INTEGRATION/IMPORT & EXPORT:
PenSoft Payroll Accounting Edition includes built-in export capabilities that
allow users to produce data files for import into QuickBooks, Peachtree, Quicken,
Business! and other GL programs. Employee time data can be imported from time
clock programs, as well. The addition of PDF output would be valued.

RELATIVE VALUE:
PenSoft Payroll Accounting Edition offers professionals a capable multi-client
payroll management system that includes great employee management functions,
benefits tracking and reporting options. Payment by debit card is available
for unbanked employees, but direct deposit is offered as a third-party add-on.
The system includes remote access features for employee and client business
data entry.

2009 Overall Rating: