The Good and the Bad!
We use Ascentis HR for our "system of record", ESS, open enrollment, etc. We are just starting to learn and use Performance Management, …
Overview
What is Ascentis (discontinued)?
Ascentis HR uses web-based management programs to help automate complex HR processes. Ascentis’ other services included customizable payroll, time and attendance and recruiting modules. Ascentis was acquired by UKG in March of 2022, and will be discontinued.
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Popular Features
- Update personal information (151)8.686%
- Pre-built reports (142)7.575%
- Employment history (140)7.373%
- Report builder (144)7.070%
Pricing
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What is Ascentis (discontinued)?
Ascentis HR uses web-based management programs to help automate complex HR processes. Ascentis’ other services included customizable payroll, time and attendance and recruiting modules. Ascentis was acquired by UKG in March of 2022, and will be discontinued.
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- No setup fee
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- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Unavailable
What is ADP Workforce Now?
ADP Workforce Now is a cloud-based HR platform for mid-sized businesses. It features customizable modules of various HR services that businesses can tailor to their specific needs, as well as regulatory monitoring and alerts to help businesses remain compliant.
What is Rippling?
Rippling gives businesses one place to run HR, IT, and Finance. It brings together all of the workforce systems that are normally scattered across a company, like payroll, expenses, benefits, and computers. This enables users to manage and automate every part of the employee lifecycle in a single…
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- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Ascentis (discontinued)?
Ascentis was an a-la carte full suite workforce management (WFM) technology platform and human capital solutions. Ascentis WFM provided time and attendance solutions that provided clients with scheduling, compliance, complex calculations, and time collection options. The HCM suite, included a fully a-la carte solution.
Ascentis was acquired by UKG in March of 2022. The service will be discontinued.
Ascentis was acquired by UKG in March of 2022. The service will be discontinued.
Ascentis (discontinued) Screenshots
Ascentis (discontinued) Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Ascentis HR uses web-based management programs to help automate complex HR processes. Ascentis’ other services included customizable payroll, time and attendance and recruiting modules. Ascentis was acquired by UKG in March of 2022, and will be discontinued.
Reviewers rate Direct deposit files highest, with a score of 9.2.
The most common users of Ascentis (discontinued) are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(323)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-4 of 4)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
February 05, 2021
Ascentis--once you get past the learning curve, it's great
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Ascentis in the HR department as well for our employees (as a timekeeping system).
- Ascentis helps out when I don't understand something with the system and need help figuring it out.
- They are good at responding back.
- I like the Ascentis community. It has a lot of useful information for its users.
- I think the time responding back could be a lot quicker than it has been.
45.71428571428571%
4.6
22.857142857142854%
2.3
26.666666666666664%
2.7
36%
3.6
70%
7.0
60%
6.0
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
70%
7.0
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
- I think the employees like this system. It is fairly easy to use.
NA
63
The employees use the system to clock in and out.
We contact Ascentis support if we have any problems.
- Reports
- Time system
- HR administration
- Payroll
- Taxes
- Creating reports the way we would like them created
- New graph chart
- Being about to access information without logging into the admin side
- To create reviews for managers and employees
Yes
Tracksmart
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
No, this was in process when I was hired.
- Implemented in-house
Change management was a major issue with the implementation
My boss handled everything. I was handed down information about everything from her.
- Timekeeping system not working properly
- Errors when logging in
- Online training
There are somethings that I have had to learn on my own, which was not a problem. For example: the report, I had how to make myself comfortable creating them how I needed to create them to meet whatever need I needed at time.
Not Sure
No
They always provided exceptional support to my boss.
- Logging in and out
- Accessing employees' information
- In the beginning, creating the reports
Yes, but I don't use it
NA
NA
December 01, 2020
Robust menu of a la carte subscriptions
We use Ascentis across the entire organization. We have the Human Resource, payroll, time and attendance and performance modules.
- Customer Service
- Updating according to changes in regulation
- HR Module easy to use
- NOVA time
- Time Keeper Hard to Use
- Time Keeper terrible FMLA Module
- Time Keeper confusing configuration
- Would like to have a dedicated customer service support person, instead of a call center
80%
8.0
58.57142857142857%
5.9
80%
8.0
80%
8.0
N/A
N/A
60%
6.0
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
50%
5.0
N/A
N/A
40%
4.0
- Positive having personal and payroll data in one system
- Negative, every enhancement a la carte comes with a hefty cost
250
HR
Production
Finance
Customer Service
Sales
Production
Finance
Customer Service
Sales
10
- na
- Connecting the organization
- unsure
Yes
ADP workforce
I would evaluate 3 plus sources
- Implemented in-house
Yes
Change management was minimal
- Incorrect set up in the NOVA time module had to resort to the VP of the division
- Online training
No
Yes
No, it took multiple attempts to correct. (still unsure if its corrected)
The overall support is great.
- Recruiting
- Human Resource
- Nova Time
No
- na
- no
na
na
none,
na
Yes
smooth
- na
- na
No
March 29, 2018
OK Computer...You Didn’t Learn That In School
We are currently using Ascentis HR across our whole organization. However, for the majority of our employees, they are mainly using only the Employee Portal/Employee Self-Service site so that they can see their paychecks, make simple changes to demographic information to their HR records, and changes some of their payroll information such as W4 withholdings as well as direct deposit changes. Our managers are granted a bit more access and can see some basic demographic information as well as compensation and job history. This aids them when doing reviews, job transfers, and in essence, gives them a little more information at their fingertips without having to dig through files or try to remember at the top of their head the history of each employee. Our payroll department utilizes it somewhat; however, not nearly as much as our HR department which is the department that accesses it and engages in it every day.
- Ascentis HR is particularly helpful in keeping a record of past jobs and/or managers. If you have an organization that lets employees move from one department to another fairly often, this software has a tool that will help you keep track when Employee "A" moved from Supervisor "X" to Supervisor "Y" as well as from Department "B" to Department "F" without having to restart that employees length of service.
- Ascentis HR also has a number of ways that you can customize tabs. If you want to keep track of something for your organization that you don't see on one of their prefabricated tabs or screens you can make one of your own. We have made several different ones to help us keep track of different information such as driver's licenses and expiration dates as well as specific training and/or orientation tasks that we want supervisors to accomplish with their new employees.
- Ascentis HR lets you upload documents (particularly pdf) to employees files, which is particularly helpful. Additionally, you can mark these so that the employee can or cannot see them when they log onto their side of the Employee Self Service. One of the things I particularly like about these uploaded documents is that each part cluster of tabs has its own tab for attachments. When you open the "Employee" section where you find information about the employee and his/her personal information as well as job information, you will also find a tab where you can put attachments for personal and/or job-related information - such as a job description sign off or something of the like. When you open the "Compensation" section you will find another tab for attachments, and this might be where you decide to upload copies of direct deposits if you require them or wage changes.
- One of the biggest issues I have had with Ascentis HR is that it lacks updates. We started using it four years ago. We stopped using it because we were trying to piecemeal three different systems together. We tried another system for two and a half years. That didn't work out any better. We decided to give Ascentis HR another try. I was hoping that there would be a few upgrades, but the system was largely the same. On the one hand, I admit it was nice because there was not a steep learning curve, but on the other, the technology was behind a lot of the other systems that we were presented with.
- The complaint that I hear the most from my employees is that there is no app for the program and that it is extremely hard to use on any mobile device. The Employee Self Service/Portal is set to be used on a computer or laptop - not a small mobile device. With so many people using their phones as the main internet source, it does make it difficult for many of our employees to access their self-service portal outside of the work environment.
- Because it is an older system, some of the things can be a little trickier to set up. Benefits are one of them. There are multiple screens that need to be gone through and rules that need to be built. It can seem a little like a choose-your-own-adventure at times. If you don't hit the correct button on the right page, you may miss out on options down the road. There is no real safeguard built in and no particular view mode to see if things were done correctly. You have to make things "live" in order to see if your rules and the benefits worked. In addition, once the benefits have been set up correctly for the employees, it still has to be mapped and moved over for payroll to be able to see things.
- Currently, we are using their remote desktop service which requires us to move anything we want to put on our Employee's Self Service Portal from our desktops to their remote desktops and then copying the correct path to bring it back to our online version of an old MySpace page. I know that they are trying, but it seems as though it is a lot of work for something that should be a lot easier to do with a few more layout and posting options.
- Although they do have some canned reports, most of the reporting functions take time to learn and is best done when one understands how to write Custom Reports to get the information that one is seeking. The Customer Service Reps are usually more than happy to help, but it does take time to explain just what you are looking for and how to make it into a report that would help you. Overall, I think that the structure of the reporting function is solid; however, the user-friendliness of it is not.
70%
7.0
63.33333333333333%
6.3
N/A
N/A
68%
6.8
N/A
N/A
50%
5.0
N/A
N/A
54%
5.4
N/A
N/A
55%
5.5
57.5%
5.8
55.71428571428571%
5.6
- We have been running reports from Ascentis HR to identify our new hires after 30 days and then send them a follow-up survey to see how they are adjusting to the culture. From the results of the survey, we have been able to identify changes that needed to be made in our recruiting, orientation, and hiring practices so that our turnover is not as quick as it once was and that our new hires are better prepared for the jobs ahead of them.
InfinityHR and Ascentis HR are fairly similar in look and feel to the employee. I would say that the biggest difference is how they are for the HR team on the backside. Unlike Ascentis HR, InfinityHR gives a few different employee portals modules for the HR team to choose from and lets them customize it however they would like within certain limits. InfinityHR is also a web-based system, not a remote desktop like Ascentis HR. One of the more difficult things with InfinityHR though is that they performed an upgrade and it screwed up our security settings for the managers in the company. Ascentis HR most definitely has clearer cut security settings and way to track who has what and when. Another one of our issues with InfinityHR was that we could not attach documents or create any additional fields that could just hold text - any blank fields had to be drop down boxes.
We have a fairly complicated pay structure as we deal with 32 departments and different shift differentials within each of those departments. As we were trying to figure out how to get all of those coded into our Ascentis software so that they would match up with our timekeeping software and still make sure that everyone gets paid correctly. Needless to say, this was giving us a major headache and we weren't sure what to do about it. As we were trying to figure it out, one of our Ascentis reps took it upon himself to call and talk with our time clock software vendor (not Ascentis). The two of them worked it out so that the pay codes and shift differentials could stay in the timekeeping software and that the information needed for payroll would flow from that system back into payroll as needed. Problem solved. It may seem rather simple, but that simple gesture meant a lot to all of us.
350
2 Users with Admin Profiles
4-5 Users for the HR functions (recruiting, HR, payroll)
15 Users with Manager Profiles (to do reviews and whatnot)
3XX Users for Self-Service Functions Only
4-5 Users for the HR functions (recruiting, HR, payroll)
15 Users with Manager Profiles (to do reviews and whatnot)
3XX Users for Self-Service Functions Only
1
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught
If the user is fairly well versed in computers and HR products, I think that Ascentis HR would not be tremendously difficult to learn without training. There are definitely some areas that would require a little more concentration and where some background knowledge would be helpful; nevertheless, with some trial and error, I do think that one could learn Ascentis HR without training. However, I personally would not recommend this approach to others as the areas in which I believe the training would be of more benefit include the benefits section as well as the reporting section - both of which are large players in an HRIS software.
No
I believe that support is included in our contract. We have a dedicated support specialist with each one of our areas - payroll, recruiting, HR. If that specialist is not available when we need him/her, we always have the option to go to the main customer support line where we can have a general customer support service representative try to assist us with our issue. We have always found that they seem to be rather knowledgeable about their products as well as the industry in general and have been able to assist us with the issue at hand.
No
- Updating employee data such as personal information, employment history, compensation
- Terminating employees through the termination wizard
- Transferring employees from the application side to the HR side - through the Orientation/New Hire set up
- Sending e-mails through the correspondence wizard
- Doing Open Enrollment and setting up the actual benefits
- Adding pictures to the employee's profiles - actually, adding any document to the employee's profile is a bit cumbersome
- The Employee Self-Service Website - not having it set up for a mobile interface makes it difficult for the employees. Also setting it up can be cumbersome for the HR professionals who are setting it up.
No
April 08, 2015
Ascentis - The most cost effective, robust, and fully customization software on the market.
MultiLingual Solutions utilized Ascentis to streamline the process from recruiting, hiring, and paying an employee. It was also used for benefit administration. The system was being used by the organization as a whole. The business problem the software addressed was the time consuming manual process for all the various functions that the system was being used. It took away the need for spreadsheets and not only reduced man hours to manage these processes manual but also saved time by not having to complete double entries and reduced errors.
- Benefit Administration - The system fully automated the benefit elections at on-boarding and open enrollment. The carrier connections made life so much easier as it eliminated the need to access multiple benefit carriers to do simple tasks.
- On-boarding - The system allowed the organization to utilize and change processes to meet the need of the organization by providing additional documents during the on-boarding process to only the employees who were required to complete them.
- HRIS - The HRIS system was so easy to use and allowed the organization to almost eliminate the need for hard copy employee files
- Reporting - the report writer system was fantastic. It allowed me to develop custom reports that were necessary in my day to day functions. It also allowed me the flexibility to run the reports quickly when requested by management.
- Recruitment - when setting up the recruiting module some information was not clearly defined which required the organization to pay Ascentis to fix the issues within the module. If it was clearly articulated by Ascentis that they could complete the customization at the time of implementation it would not have cost the organization a fairly significant amount of money to fix the issue 2 years later.
77.14285714285714%
7.7
78.33333333333333%
7.8
N/A
N/A
80%
8.0
100%
10.0
63.33333333333333%
6.3
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
- Overall, the system allowed for me to provide quick on the spot answers to employee questions as well as ad hoc reporting to the management team.
- The system is so robust it addressed the need to for additional processing time when it came to benefits administration and payroll.
- Xtensia
Xtensia would not allow for customization to meet the needs of the organization. It also did not allow for the administrator to create workflows or update data as needed. We terminated the contract within the first 60 days of deployment due to the negative experience in using the system.
5
Accounting, Recruiting, Human Resources
2
A good overall understanding of the processes for the functional area so that Ascentis personnel can easily support the needs of the organization.
- Payroll
- HRIS
- Recruiting
- To reduce man hours and overall errors when completing full life-cycle employee processing from recruiting, on-boarding, conversion to an employee, benefits, and payroll.
- Performance Management
No
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
The single most important factor was the ease in customizing the entire system to the needs of the organization. The company recruiting and hired in a niche market, language instructors for government contracts, and the system allowed for the build out to capture the additional information that was needed during the recruiting process as well as customize the HRIS system for capturing the additional information.
I would not change the evaluation and selection process. We utilized a third party vendor who researched the systems on the market that would be best suited for the needs of the organization. Through their analysis of our needs, the top three systems were selected and from there the organization viewed demos which provided valuable insight into the functionality of the product.
- Implemented in-house
Yes
The HRIS system was implemented first in under a week in order for the Recruitment module to be stood up at the beginning of the Affirmative Action Plan year. This way the details and data captured would coincide with the AAP and not be broken. The Recruitment module's implementation took a little longer as there was significant customization and build out that was needed in order to fully capture the data necessary for the organization's hiring process.
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled
The organization needed to make a change from the paper processes that were currently occurring to include the massive spreadsheets the recruiters were using for their hiring and tracking of candidates. This information made it very difficult to complete an accurate Affirmative Action Plan until the change. Each party involved in the process was very accepting and wanted the change to occur since the process improvement would also reduce their time in the recruiting and HR arena.
- The recruiting module was not clearly defined on what could be implemented and customized. There was a feature that could have been added at the time of implementation to capture additional necessary data; however, it was not provided to the organization until well after implementation at a cost. There would not have been a cost to the company if the customization took place during the implementation.
- HRIS - the only issue was the short time table to collect and analyze data.
Yes
Yes. Only a few times did the recruiting portal go down. As soon as it was identified to Customer Support they would immediately work on the issue and find a resolution. The resolutions were completed fairly quickly and to our satisfaction.
Jen Norton for Carrier Connect was able to assist me in the process of our Open Enrollment that did not go as smooth as wished. The issue was the carrier did not provide the rates or specs for the feed until the week before Open Enrollment was to begin. I contacted Jen and she was amazing. Jen immediately started working on our issue and said the process would normally take two weeks to fix, but would do their best to complete it sooner. Jen and her team were able to turn a two week process into a four day fix. I cannot speak more highly of a person at Ascentis than Jen Norton.
- Benefit Administration - the flow of information to the carriers
- HRIS - I was easily able to pull data when needed
- Recruiting/On-boarding - the flow of information was easy and the system provided prompt notifications when a person moved from one status to another in the system.
- Some report functions could be cumbersome when trying to determine what the actual data is needed. The fields were not always as user friendly as I would like.
Yes, but I don't use it