APS Payroll vs. Betterworks

I think that APS Online is scalable to any organization. It's a wonderful product and I have had so many managers that work with me that feel the same way. We haven't been with them quite a year yet but since we've started it has made a world of difference for us. Things to ask about- 1- Do they specialize in or can they accommodate states that you are working in and their various rules? 2- What type of customer service? Do they have a call center or do they have a designated person like APS? 3- How long do your reports stay in the system? (ADP "archived" theirs after a year so we couldn't reach them)

Incentivized

BetterWorks really helps keep track of quarterly objectives, as long as the entire company follows the OKRs framework. The objectives and key results of each employee can be linked to the general objectives of the organization and that really helps align on the same mission. I wouldn't recommend using BetterWorks as a standalone platform to follow up on objectives if the rest of the organization is not on board with the OKRs framework.

Incentivized

• It's fast and intuitive. Our previous contractors were ADP and Paychex and neither were intuitive. Our payroll runs have less errors now than with previous vendors. Payroll prep time is down from 5 hours with ADP to 2 hours with APS for the HR Manager.
• The limiters are great. I'm always afraid of that error that no one caught. Let's assume that you add a $200 limiter to overtime. Any time that a staff member is about to receive more than $200 in overtime for that pay period, a red flag goes up for the HR manager to double check.
• We have 3 programs in public schools that block certain ports. APS has a 2nd feature using GPS so that staff can only check in for their shift while they are in the designated GPS range. Great for someone who has to report to a remote location. Just add the GPS coordinates and they can't check until they get to the project.

• Web based platform with everyone being able to access it anytime anywhere
• Allows for company wide OKRs management and promotes transparency
• Has some reporting functionalities

Incentivized

• Reporting - We have six different business units and the reporting is separate for all three. Most reporting I do requires information from all business units so am running six reports and then copying and pasting to get the report I need.
• Multi-state taxes - We have a number of employees who live in New York and work in New Jersey. APS OnLine is designed to accommodate one state withholding so ability to have "worked in" state and "lived in" state taxes withheld went away. This was a shortfall.
• The Carrier connection setup took much longer than expected. After a year, we are still having some issues with some items transferring over to the GL.
• The CA overtime calculation does not calculate after 8 hours per day, only on the 40 per week so we override each week.
• Reporting - when running Benefit reports, it recognizes employees who formerly carried the plan but may have dropped it. To get around this, we have to delete off the employee's record so the history is not readily available.

Incentivized

• It's sometimes hard to see ONLY your milestones and goals
• Having more default units of measure might be nice (or being able to save your own custom ones)
• Native integrations with software (like HubSpot) would be great

Incentivized

I have been using the system for over a year now and feel more comfortable with the functionality of it. I have just recently implemented the benefit administration portion.

Incentivized

We've been using it for going on four quarters now and it's become part of how our team plans our work for the quarter, holds ourselves accountable, and decides who is doing what work and why. Without it we'd certainly have to replace it with something else - plus it's so nice to see the other departments and top company goals so easily.

Incentivized

In general, it's a great system to use. We were looking for simplicity and ease of use and have received raves from our employees in their ability to access and make use of the system. There is still so much more that we have yet to gain as we continue working through each of the modules.

Incentivized

Overall the platform is clean and easy to use. It's quick to learn and not unnecessarily complex. While a few specific filtering features can be wonky it's nice that it's simple and clean. There are a lot of icons where words may be more appropriate in the navigation but otherwise the platform is easy to use and quick to hop into and check in.

Incentivized

I haven't had any outages

Incentivized

Very quick

Incentivized

I had to learn APS on my own, and the support team held my hand. They are still there when I have an occasional question. Anytime I need support, I can call my rep or send an email and help is on the way, without failure. The support team is awesome

Incentivized

Even if it wasn't in-person on location, we felt like we had our trainer in the room with us.

Incentivized

We had great webinars.

Incentivized

It would have been helpful to understand the phases of the implementation up front so I could have prepared differently for enrollments, billing, and transfer of information to payroll. At the end of the day, I'm happy with the selection and the system and anticipate I will like it better as we go along. We have done a number of other system implementations in the past few years, and this has been pretty painless, however, I've had a few surprises.

Incentivized

I have used ADP for many years and always found the system to be restrictive in ADP's resistance to building rules that matched the organization's needs rather than asking the organization to modify its policies to match 'canned' rules already built within ADP. Bamboo and several other newer systems really cannot support the many separate EINs under the corporate umbrella. And, finally, the other products are simply too costly for this organization.

Incentivized

I have used Asana, Jira, and VersionOne. I find BetterWorks the most intuitive and organized. It is fairly easy to use and learn, as long as everyone else does the same. Since the team implemented the quarterly reviews and stayed on top of using it, it has been successful so far.

Incentivized

I've never had a problem with the system nor in finding the right information.

Incentivized

• APS OnLine has helped us streamline the payroll process by freeing up our time of not having to personally cut and sign weekly paychecks. We don't have to rely on check signers to be present which has helped our timeliness as well.

Incentivized

• A tool like this was highly viewed by the new hires as it shows the company's commitment to track everyone's contribution to corporates goals
• Provides transparency into what each team does
• The implementation was a big effort

Incentivized