3 min read
James M., Administrator, Wayne Manufacturing, LLC
The Fuse system is probably the most powerful solution in the market.
With Fuse, Time and Attendance and Payroll are integrated into one solution. With a minimal local software footprint (a small monitoring application for the time clocks) we were able to integrate our existing timeclock hardware with the Fuse system. The rest of the system is web-based and very powerful.
With their task-based approach, the people at Fuse have made processing payroll nearly fool-proof.
There are multiple places in the process where potential issues with timecards and/or deductions are highlighted for acceptance or correction. Once payroll is processed, we are able to send our employees notification via email that their check remittances are available for viewing (or for those without email, the remittances are emailed to us for printing).
The system also handles our vacation accruals, attendance points system, and benefits administration. We are also able to give the employees more information on their vacation and points balances without investing time into creating manual reports or interruptions from looking information up on an "on demand" basis.
The Fuse system is probably the most powerful solution in the market for hosted payroll, time and attendance, and human resource management.
This power comes from the flexible nature of the software and the direct access to the programmers that the support team enjoys. We have had several situations that required customized solutions, and the team was very responsive and had solutions within hours, not days or weeks.
For example, under our previous system, we had a daily report that was emailed to the managers that showed the attendance exceptions for the prior day. Fuse did not have a report like this, but they were able to put together an online "attendance dashboard" that greets users when they log into the system. The dashboard can show us everything we had on the previously emailed report, and it is updated real-time as issues are addressed.
Speaking of the support team, they are probably the best feature of Fuse. From the onset, the team was deeply involved with the setup of our system, from establishing work rules to importing historical data. As the customer, I was initially concerned that I would be handed the new system and told: "Here, make it work." Nothing could be farther from the truth. After providing them with the data, the team took over and built the system we needed. When we come across a new feature we would like to implement, we contact the same team that initially set up our company on Fuse. When we call, they know our names and how our system is constructed. They offer real solutions that address the needs, and in those rare instances where a solution does not exist, they huddle with the rest of their team to find one. Customer service does not get any better than this!
Previous to Fuse, our payroll and time & attendance platforms were separate, meaning someone had to get the data from time & attendance to payroll every week in order to process paychecks. This usually meant hours of keying of numbers. With the integrated solution Fuse provides, we no longer have this time sink every week.
Another time-intensive activity was the constant reporting and handling of vacation days and points balances for employees and managers. Previously, there was no mechanism that allowed us to communicate balances of vacation and points to managers and employees short of looking them up, creating a report, and posting it for (all) the employees to see.
With Fuse, we were able to move that information onto their weekly pay remittances, which puts that information in front of the employee on a weekly basis, and doesn't require manual reports to be produced and distributed. It also keeps employees on the production floor instead of in the front office asking for points and vacation balances.
Speaking of benefits, our previous solution didn't have "plan enrollments," at least not the way that Fuse does it. When enrolling a new employee in benefit plans, we are able to select the coverage the employee wants (ee, ee+s, ee+c, family) and the system takes care of setting up the right deductions based on the level of coverage. Fuse also has expertise with garnishments and support orders to the point where and when we receive a court order, we simply send it to them and they process it.
Both of these solutions have reduced our errors involved with benefits and deductions to zero.
Oh, and it doesn't hurt that Fuse's fees are lower than our previous provider, who seemed to always find new ways to increase their fees.
