ADP WorkForce Suite Reviews & Insights

We utilized WorkForce Suite primarily for timekeeping and tracking KPIs.

Functionality is lacking for anything beyond basic clock in/clock out features. Job costing, scheduling, etc. is clunky and requires high level configuration, and still does not always work as intended. The number of steps required to get data from one location to another is over complicated - should be more streamlined and simple.

WorkForce is utilized by my company for timekeeping. It has addressed and fixed an issue with the prior system we used called "Deputy", that did not keep track of any time off allocations, so employees had to do math to ensure that they coded time off correctly and that they had enough. I manage a team of 18 employees and audit timesheets, while working with other managers when they have issues with the system.

WorkForce has some work on the backend of the operating system to do, but overall, it is a good timekeeping system.
Pros: Easy to correct mistakes made when clicking in or out, when location services do not work correctly, etc. Time off balances are reflected accurately
Cons: UI is not user friendly, whether on app or desktop. Changes made to availability and time off requests usually take several days to register, when they should be instantaneous after they are approved

Corporate implemented EmpCenter in order to make timekeeping smoother for payroll processing. The software has been rolled out incrementally throughout the company. EmpCenter is a more user friendly software allowing employees the ability to record their own time as needed. This means workers who are called in on a weekend may better ensure their time is entered rather than relying on payroll personnel. In addition, payroll administrators are better able to track employee hours and ensure that when an employee is missing a clock in/ out, for example, that the error is corrected and the employee is paid accurately.

I believe the system is well suited to office workers. EmpCenter is not particularly helpful in remote locations with poor internet and phone services. If better remote location access is available it could also work well for those who frequently travel outside a main office building.

Until a year ago we still used paper time sheets and each month hours were manually entered into Banner for our University to pay our employees. We decided it was finally time to start using an electronic system for employees to keep track of work time and paid leave.

We began using EmpCenter about 1 year ago and rolled it out over 6 months to all of our employees. Our payroll is confusing because we have Classified (Union) employees, Faculty, Students, etc., so many types of employees with various levels of eligible leave and overtime rules. We had to find a system that work for all of these types of employees but was still affordable (we are a State university) and easy for our end users and worked with Banner.

So far EmpCenter has been a work in progress. Many of the things we thought would be easier have become easier over time. Although the implementation has not been as smooth as we wanted and some of the items we were told would be easy to program have not been as easy as we thought and have cost us more money. Although, overall, it has been a system that is more accurate in recording time than our previous paper time sheets and makes us more compliant with things like overtime eligibility.

For a company with standard employees who all have the same leave accrual and overtime rules I think EmpCenter would be an easy system to implement and use.

EmpCenter was implemented across our entire campus to serve as a time keeping system for all employees. This system allows for us to keep time electronically and load the reported work hours into our payment system. Previously we were using a home grown timeclock program for parts of campus and only some employee types, student employees. This has allowed us to move away from paper processing of time sheets to an electronic web based system.

EmpCenter is really well suited for companies with minimal variety in time keeping needs. Certainly somewhere that has fairly regular work schedules and operational needs the system would be programmed for and meet those needs quite well. I think they assert themselves as a product specifically for those more complex companies, and I believe it is one of a few products available for companies with many employee types and complex work schedule and pay needs, but because of those complexities each have their own specific customizations I feel it is difficult for the company to then manage the different products that end up existing. Each ends up being unique so applying large scale changes doesn't work well as something we may request and need if applied over EmpCenter in general may cause problems for another company. Therefore everything has to be done on an individual basis and is more time consuming and costly.

Empcenter was deployed across the entire organization. We implemented SAP from a legacy system and due to the complexity and diversity of our hourly work rules, we needed a time and attendance system that was more agile than SAP to change rules. We researched half a dozen different products and landed on Empcenter as the best fit. We have 33 distinct payroll areas that had different rules to be applied. Due to aggressive acquisitions in the past, the company had those business units grandfather their rules when they were purchased. We need the flexibility of Empcenter rule writing to accommodate that diversity of rules. We also had very robust reporting requirements which were in part satisfied by their "canned" reporting but was extensible via the crystal reporting that was included.

The entire selection through implementation lasted about 18 months with a good solid year on the implementation. We used Workforce as our implementation partner to help us configure everything. They did the majority of configuration but worked with us in the knowledge transfer moving forward so we could make changes as needed in the future. Overall the system performed as we expected and were quite happy with the implementation and functionality. We purchased 150 physical time clocks as part of the package and we had very little problems getting them deployed across the enterprise. I would say that the only thing that was surprising was their internal table structures made it difficult (not impossible) to create custom reports at times. Our staff was used to writing query statements but some got quite involved when getting a lot of disparate data. This can certainly happen in other systems as well.

Overall our users took to the system quite well. They were used to coming from a system that had been highly customized for them so we were afraid of some change management issues. However, the old system was more green screen like and since we lost little if any functionality, the training and change management went quite well.

I would not suggest this to a small company with fairly easy time and attendance rules. This is geared for more complex implementations. If unsure of where your company fits into that scheme, ask about how long the implementation timeline will take overall. Try to get a general sense of administration after the fact. You need a fairly high level of technical acumen when configuring this product so its probably not a set it and forget proposition.