Optimum Solutions HRIS (discontinued) vs. Time Doctor

Optimum Solutions works very well for all our payroll needs. We run payrolls weekly, semi-monthly, monthly and yearly. The end of year process is lined out very well and webinars are available to go over any new regulations required. We haven't utilized the HR part of the software as much on the iSeries but are planning on changing that once we get converted to the Windows version later this year. The main reason for this is the HR part of the software on the iSeries is separate from payroll.

Incentivized

Time Doctor is well suited for certain businesses where some or many of the employees are now working remotely due to the pandemic and post-pandemic times. It is a good way for the employer to keep track of activity and (more or less) keep people honest. For businesses and employees where there are a lot of site visits, travel, etc., Time Doctor is a little impractical since it requires the employee to manually enter in whatever time was spent on tasks performed away from the computer. If an employer is hoping to track that activity, they still need to rely on the employees' honor systems to enter in times and tasks.

Incentivized

• The setup of Optimum HRIS was intense as the software comes as a basic shell and everything is personalized to our organization. All earnings codes, leave time, employee types, job codes, taxes, etc. are set up for each company. While this was almost overwhelming at the beginning, we have so much control over the set up and better grasp of the inner workings of the system.
• Tax updates come quickly and are easily applied. This is especially welcome at year end.
• The built-in reporting is robust and offers a lot of options, but the ability to dig in to the database using SQL and Excel allows for very powerful reports that are infinitely personalized.

• Tracked time both macro (categories) and micro (down to the project and the tasks)
• Reminded us when we went off task and got lured in via social media
• Provides us with detailed reports to share with joint venture partners, clients and more

• When exporting reports to Excel I found the formatting to be difficult to work with and having to reformat the reports can be a nightmare. My company's IT department created its own business tools to make the reporting format more user friendly.

Incentivized

• One thing I would love to see is integration with my cell phone. Time Doctor already has an app, but I want it to automatically capture the time I spend on my phone with clients. For now I have to manually enter in this time and must note when the call started and when it ended.
• Integration into Wave apps where I generate my invoices. I'd like to be able to select a project from Time Doctor in my invoice and have it automatically populate the time I spent on it and the dates I worked on the project rather than manually finding and entering this information.

Incentivized

This is user friendly and can be tailored to our business' needs

Incentivized

I use this daily and it is very simple to use. The setup is very easy and customizing the fields is simple enough. Editing it is also very easy to do.

Incentivized

The support was terrible! They never responded in sufficient time and their assistance was always super vague. I never felt like they had an actual solution to my concerns. They were nice, but I don't feel like they were trained in their own system. It felt like I was talking to a wall.

Incentivized

Other than we are happy with the way Time Doctor works for us, no key insights.

Incentivized

We evaluated some payroll services but found the ongoing cost greater than the initial cost of purchasing our own software and keeping the payroll process in house. Other payroll software was generally more expensive and we are satisfied with Optimum Solutions. I would say the main reason we stayed with Optimum Solutions, converting from their iSeries version to their Windows version, was because of their outstanding staff and support.

Incentivized

I still use Rescue Time for different reasons. I review my stats once a week by email. I think it's a totally different product. My egg timer keeps me more on task, but it doesn't record my times

Incentivized

• More accurate payroll processing
• More accurate tax payments and reporting

• It helps me to use my time more effectively.
• For a small amount each month I believe I get a huge return on investment in form of traceability of my hours spent. The major factor that made me choose Time Doctor was the price and the value. I don't think I would still be interested if it was more expensive.

Incentivized