Best Software ‘ CPASoftware Products

When entering time, em-ployees are
grouped by category and then displayed
alphabetically or by employee code,
making it easy to find the employee
for whom you want to enter time.
The system effectively uses shortcuts
and defaults to increase data-entry
efficiency.

CUSTOMIZATION/ SCALABILITY/SECURITY – 4 Stars

CPAPayroll is designed to handle
a wide variety of payroll requirements
and provides you with the ability
to add up to 20 user-defined fields
for the employee file. Security
was limited to the original sign-on
screen, which then provides access
to all clients in the system. This
is likely a result of the fact that
the software is intended for use
in the accounting practice, not
in a business organization where
processing payroll can be much more
sensitive.

FLEXIBILITY – 5 Stars
The CPAPayroll application has an
extensive feature set including
some of the following more notable
features: ability to produce multiple
checks per employee, automatic time
entry, unlimited pay and deduction
types, direct deposit capability,
MICR checks, and a comprehensive
employee folder that can include
copies of scanned documents such
as SS card, photo, etc.

REPORTING & CHECK PRINTING – 4 Stars

The program offers a comprehensive
set of payroll reports including
federal and state tax forms. Checks
can be printed on blank check stock
or pre-printed forms with digitized
signatures. The report print dialogue
boxes allow you to easily define
the print parameters including date
range, sort order and report content.

INTEGRATION/IMPORT/EXPORT – 5 Stars
This package is one of the best
reviewed in terms of its integration
with other applications that would
typically be used in an accounting
practice. The client write-up system
is widely used by accountants and
the CPADocument Manager (formerly
Visual File Cabinet) allows you
to integrate document management
with the payroll application. CPAPayroll
also seamlessly integrates with
CPAPractice Manager (formerly Visual
Practice Management), exporting
employee hours entered in Time Entry
into CPAPayroll for payroll processing.

As well, the federal reporting module
allows you to generate all of your
payroll tax compliance documents
on laser-generated forms.

SUPPORT & UPDATES – 4 Stars

CPASoftware provides free support
for the first six months. After
that, an annual support contract
is available for $595 that includes
un- limited toll-free technical
support, software updates and upgrade
releases. An optional ‘update
only’ plan is available for
$425 annually.

RELATIVE VALUE – 5 Stars
The license fee for CPAPayroll is
$795. This price combined with the
support plan fee described previously
is a very reasonable price for the
breadth of features and functionality
provided with the software.

SUMMARY

CPASoftware deserves a high overall
rating because of the depth of its
functionality, the integration with
a core set of accounting practice
applications and a reasonable licensing
fee model. With the financial resources
behind the company through its acquisition
by Best Software, you should expect
continued development and improvement
in the software.

2004 OVERALL RATING: 4.5 Stars

Review Attributes
This review is intended to focus
on payroll software solutions that
accommodate accounting firms that
provide client payroll services
as a ’boutique style service’
as opposed to a high-volume payroll
service bureau model (see August
2004 issue.) The attributes that
we felt were most important to address
for these boutique payroll systems
include the following six areas:
Ease of Use/Data Entry, Customization/Scalability/ Security, Flexibility, Reporting/Check Printing, Integration/Import/Export, Support/Updates
and Relative Value.

One caveat: The vendors who submitted
their solutions for review made
their own selection as to which
category to be listed under, and
the distinction between the packages
in the two separate groups can become
blurred. Therefore, be careful not
to reject solutions in one review
or the other simply on the basis
of the category they fall within.

Due to the fact that these systems
are not necessarily intended for
a high-volume, payroll production
environment, the Ease of Use/Data
Entry attribute is extremely important.
It is likely that the system will
be used by one or more staff members
who will process payroll on a relatively
infrequent basis, perhaps only a
few times a month. Therefore, the
system needs to be very intuitive
and easy to work with. What I looked
for here is how easy is it to quickly
understand the system flow, menu
design structure, data-entry screens,
etc. The easier it was for me to
understand and work through the
system, the higher the rating in
this category. If I had to constantly
refer to the help screens, user
guides or contact the vendor for
support, the rating was lower.

Even though we are making the assumption
that the packages reviewed in this
article are going to be used on
a relatively limited basis, it is
important that they have the Customization/Scalability/Security
features to support a large volume
client, provide the capability to
be adapted to a unique situation
and offer secure access to sensitive
client data. After all, the primary
reason firms support a boutique
level payroll service offering is
often driven by demands from a key
client who may have a relatively
large organization, highly specialized
needs, or a high profile in the
business community and wants to
ensure that the accountant provides
the maximum level of protection
and confidentiality of sensitive
payroll information.

The overall Flexibility of the system
is another important attribute that
was evaluated. The emphasis here
is on the software’s ability
to handle a multitude of payroll
situations, including pay date frequency,
multiple pay types and deductions,
multiple states, etc.

From the accountant’s perspective,
the software’s Reporting and
Check Printing capabilities are
perhaps the most important attributes.
After all, the accountant will be
relying heavily on the reports generated
to make sure the payroll tax compliance
requirements are met and to generate
the GL entries necessary to record
payroll. He will also use these
reports to continually monitor and
analyze the payroll information
to identify any irregularities and
unusual situations to which the
client should be alerted.

The ability to extend the payroll
system’s functionality by
importing data electronically from
time clocks, checkwriting systems
(for after-the-fact payroll processing)
and exporting information to human
resource and GL systems as well
as other software applications is
rated in the Integration/Import/Export
attribute. The higher the rating
in this category, the better able
the system will support a more complete
payroll service for your clients
as well as streamline the data-entry
process to optimize staff productivity.

The vendor’s commitment of
resources to help you utilize the
system as efficiently and effectively
as possible and to make sure you
are kept current on tax withholding
tables and other tax compliance
requirements is rated in the Support
& Updates attribute. Other than
providing some specifics of the
vendor’s policies and pricing
model for these services, the real
assessment of this attribute requires
you to perform your own due diligence
by speaking with other accountants
who are using the system in order
to assess their experience.

The Relative Value attribute focuses
on the overall economics of the
program. While a high rating here
implies a relatively lower overall
cost, I would like to caution you
that, as accountants, we tend to
focus on costs and how to minimize
them. The point to keep in mind
is that the lowest cost system is
unlikely to be the system that provides
the highest ROI (return on investment.)
If a more expensive system can reduce
total payroll processing time by
30 percent as a result of a better
design, user interface, etc., the
impact on the overall profitability
of your payroll services can be
significant.