Likelihood to Recommend 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)
Read full review Namely is aesthetically very pleasing and navigates like other social media platforms which can be appealing to potentially a remote workforce who interacts more online than in person. Unfortunately, it did not serve our population well as we are primarily manufacturing where people are not as interested in utilizing the HRIS for interactions when they would rather connect in person.
Read full review Pros 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. Read full review Namely has helped with our COVID sick leave response. It has made a major difference both with the weekly payroll and the 941 tax filing Keeping track of our multiple PTO plans. Thank goodness for Namely, I have shredded my old PTO spreadsheets. Employees like the convenience of the cell phone app. As a payroll administrator, I like the Geo Tracking tool where I can see where some are when the clock is in or out. The flexibility inside of the payroll system both as you are finalizing an employee profile and when you are processing payroll is a major advantage. The reports I get out of Namely in Excel format work well for me. Read full review Cons 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. Read full review Limits to custom reporting No direct feed for Ohio Workers Comp (now a manual process on our end) No option to place an employee on Leave of Absence and exclude them from payroll while they are "inactive" No option to suppress certain deductions for certain pay types (i.e. allow 401K for commissions but block remaining deductions - also now a manual process to uncheck the suppress box for 401K for each commission check) Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review Administrators and employees love Namely. It is very easy to use and streamlined. Employees stay engaged with news feed updates and enjoy all the self service options. The time cards are very easy to access and clocking in and out for non-exempt employees is a breeze. Namely is part of our family.
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review It is very simple to use for myself, the HR team, and our employees. I find the payroll process very user-friendly. Reporting is simple to navigate and produce the required information requested. I know our employees enjoy the self-service feature and use it on a regular basis, which saves me time.
Read full review Reliability and Availability I haven't had any outages
Read full review Performance Very quick
Read full review Support Rating 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
Read full review Unfortunately, in more recent years we've had a lot of difficulty with Namely as they've undergone a lot of internal changes. It took 4 returned emails saying the person no longer worked at Namely to find someone to help me (I finally called payroll) and it took a while to get connected with a direct source of help. Namely now has set up their "pod" feature of communication which works well for the most part, but is different. I felt spoiled when we first started with Namely, but now it feels very much like working with most large companies' help centers. There is a system to go through and you do have the option to click "urgent". In general the help is efficient, but it still takes a few days and it's hard to speak with someone directly. It is all done via online communications and is difficult to actually speak to someone on the phone. This works well for most cases, but I do feel frustrated more often than I'd like to with this type of communication. (2019/2020)
Read full review In-Person Training Even if it wasn't in-person on location, we felt like we had our trainer in the room with us.
Read full review Online Training We had great webinars.
Read full review Implementation Rating 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.
Read full review Implementation was a bit complicated and our company had to carry most of the weight. It often felt like our implementation manager was giving us extra work that she did not want to do herself. It also took much longer than expected - I believe almost 2 months. I believe our company carried a bit too much of the weight.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review Namely has a robust suite of offerings, and fallows for a la carte selection of add-ons (rather than a single bundled option). This has allowed our company to save money by not purchasing options / functionalities that we dont need, but may drive up the cost for other companies who need more a la carte selections. In all, the size of the company, the size & capabilities of the internal HR team, and considerations like managed payroll and benefits should be key drivers in selection.
Read full review Scalability I've never had a problem with the system nor in finding the right information.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review When we were over 100, it provided a huge benefit to us due to the accuracy of payroll, benefits integration and management, and org chart and performance tracking. Having all of that in one place was a huge improvement from the former disjointed user experience. When we dropped below 100 due to covid, our insurance rates went up 93% to offer comparable plans, and we had to move over to a PEO for benefits which meant we also had to move payroll. It was hugely disruptive, and now our employees have a bad experience when trying to manage their HR lives in multiple places. It is confusing and, again, disjointed. Read full review ScreenShots