TimeFiler: saves 15 hours per month, and
it's easy to use

No more manual timecards, no more manual processes, no mistakes.

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When IMS Payroll customer, Apex Engineering Ltd, realised how many hours they were wasting each month manually creating rosters, comparing timecards from a growing team of variable shift engineers and calculating complex pay details, they decided to find a new and automated solution. They also wanted it before Christmas 2010, which like the year before, was due to fall on a weekend and create another payroll headache for everyone. In the nick of time Apex found and implemented IMS Online, powered by TimeFiler. Not only did the solution make the Christmas payroll a much smoother experience, Apex calculated that IMS Online is also saving them 15 hours a month on payroll, leave and roster management.

Before automated rostering with IMS online

Apex Engineering Services Ltd is an engineering practice based in Auckland, Havelock, and Mt Maunganui. The company provides mechanical
and process design, as well as on-going maintenance and plant operation work for
leading brand clients in the food, beverage and dairy industry, including Progressive Enterprises, Heinz Watties, Food Cap International, and MCFI.

Founded by Richard Lowe in 1990 Apex today employs 30 staff, most of whom work variable shifts both on and off-site, and complete their timecards by hand.  At the end of each month the timecards are sent to the Havelock branch for payroll processing.

Before implementing IMS Online, accounts clerk, Carol Houghton, used to enter the timecard data into Excel spread sheets, including start and finishing times, which client the engineer was working for, and so on. All the while she would check the hours entered on the timecards with those on the timesheets collated in Excel by engineering manager, Ray Petty, and adjust accordingly.

“Ours is a 24/7 hour operation, and with variable shifts things can get very complicated,” says Richard. “We wanted to get our payroll as accurate as possible.”

“We learned of IMS Online – powered by TimeFiler - at an IMS event in November 2010, and the very next day we met with Meredith Crone in Hastings for a demo. We really liked the roster and automatic uploading into our IMS payroll system, which we have been using for the last few years. We did look around on the Net for other automated roster systems, but none appeared to suit our requirements as well as IMS Online. We also liked that TimeFiler is a local supplier, as being able to talk to someone locally is important. It’s much easier to just pick up the phone direct to Jo or Meredith at TimeFiler, than to have to deal with an overseas call-centre, or an online helpdesk.”

The race to implement IMS Online before Christmas 2010

Apex purchased IMS Online in early December, and the team at TimeFiler immediately set about customising the software in time to tackle its first test – the Christmas 2010 payroll.  This included creating a roster to resemble the Excel versions that Apex were using, with different colours for people and for weekends. “The colours make the rosters more presentable and easier to read for the staff,” says Richard.

“After spending the initial few weeks learning and setting up the automatic templates with rules, we were very happy with our new system. The Christmas 2010 payroll went much more smoothly than the previous year,” he says.

Jo Smith Operations & Marketing manager at TimeFiler says, “A key requirement for Apex Engineering was to implement their new IMS Online system on time for the Christmas and New Year public holidays over 2010-2011. With variable shifts being worked, their public holidays were complex. They needed a system that could determine which day is the public holiday for each employee, i.e. is it the day on which it falls, or is it the ‘Mondayised’ day? The system also had to calculate the hours worked over midnight in and out of public holidays, and determine which hours in the shift are paid as public holidays, and which are paid as a normal day or leave.  We were able to help Apex get their new system set up before Christmas and save them the worry that they had the previous year.”

Richard says, “With IMS Online we can now compare our timecards against the new electronic rosters and check that the theoretical hours on roster equal the hours that the staff actually worked. It allows us to guarantee that the pay is correct when it comes to public holidays, days in lieu, leave, and time and half. It is also good that we can update the rosters at any time.”

Saves 15 hours administration every month

Combining IMS Payroll with IMS Online has made
a big difference for Apex Engineering. Not only have they improved payroll accuracy and automated the rostering, but they’re saving up
to 15 hours of administration every month as
well.

“It used to take our part-time accounts lady half her time - about 16 hours a month - to do the
payroll. IMS Online has reduced this to just 4 hours a month. We’ve also taken on a lot more work in the last six months, so thanks to IMS Online Carol has been able to accommodate the increase in demand and help take on other accounting and invoicing work as well. IMS Online has made us much more efficient.”

“Furthermore, the new system is also saving our engineering manager, Ray Petty, up to three hours a month previously spent generating and copying the next month’s rosters. By simply selecting a date field the system now automatically generates the rosters for him. It’s that easy!”

“We’ve been very happy with IMS Payroll so it was important that our new rostering system could be integrated with it. The staff really like the combined IMS Payroll and IMS Online solution. Not only can they see their payslips online knowing that their pay is accurate, but they can also apply for leave online and managers can quickly view the leave KPI reporting at their fingertips. It’s a great solution all round.”

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