With growth, comes the need to automate and streamline processes. One area that needed attention was payroll processing. “As we added new locations, the number of employees grew,” said Donna Gore, Medicine Chest’s accounts payable and payroll manager. “Each location would manually track their employees’ hours on a form then fax that form into our main office. From there, we would rekey the information into Sage Accpac in order to process payroll.” The entire process was becoming more and more time consuming, requiring two people to process payroll for it to be completed on time. It also led to duplicate data entry, longer processing times, and keystroke errors.
Hoping for a better approach, Medicine Chest turned to Terrell & Terrell, for a solution. Working together, Medicine Chest and the firm developed specifications for an online time entry system. Terrell & Terrell managed the development of the project, testing, implementation, and training. Once complete, they worked with Medicine Chest to roll out the application to the individual locations.
“Now at each pharmacy, employees launch an Internet browser and access a secure online system to enter their hours. From there, the on-site manager can review the information to ensure accuracy. When the timecards are approved, the data is ready for me to put it directly into Sage Accpac’s Payroll module,” said Donna. “I run payroll for 400 employees every two weeks. I can do the whole process in two days by myself. It used to take a lot longer than that, plus we no longer worry about data entry errors. Employees are paid correctly.”
Issues to be Resolved: Duplicate data entry, Keystroke errors, and Time spent on gathering payroll data Results Achieved: Streamlined payroll process, Reduced errors, and a System that is able to grow as we grow
