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PDS Vista

PDS Vista

Overview

What is PDS Vista?

Vista® is a human resource, benefits, payroll, recruiting, and self-service software. Functional elements include recruitment, staffing, position and training management, compliance, and performance and compensation.

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Pricing

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What is PDS Vista?

Vista® is a human resource, benefits, payroll, recruiting, and self-service software. Functional elements include recruitment, staffing, position and training management, compliance, and performance and compensation.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Features

Human Resource Management

Organizing, tracking and providing instant access to critical employee data, job profiles, transfers, promotions, and benefits information.

1.9
Avg 7.9

Payroll Management

Provides for pay calculation and benefit plan administration, in addition to managing direct deposit, salary revisions and payroll tracking.

3.2
Avg 8.0

Leave and Attendance Management

Streamlines communication between HR and employees and facilitates efficient management of employee leave including requisitions, approvals, balance calculation, and annual carry-forward.

1
Avg 8.1

Employee Self Service

Employee portal allowing employees to view and update their personal information.

2
Avg 8.1

Asset Management

Maintaining a record of assets such as laptops, pagers, cell phones, etc. issued to employees. Record typically includes asset type, number, serial number and date of issuance.

7.3
Avg 7.9

HR Reporting

Pre-built and custom reports, and integration with external data.

2
Avg 7.5

Onboarding

Employee onboarding is the process of orienting new hires to the social and performance aspects of their jobs so that they are able to function in their new roles as quickly as possible.

1
Avg 7.9

Performance and Goals

Goal alignment is the practice of ensuring that all employees have clearly defined goals in support of the overall corporate strategy.

2.8
Avg 8.0

Performance Management

Performance management is the process of ensuring employees meet pre-determined objectives and goals through regular check-ins and appraisals.

1
Avg 7.9

Succession Planning

Succession planning is the identification and development of internal employees with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the company.

2.3
Avg 7.8

Recruiting / ATS

Recruiting or Applicant Tracking Software is software used to manage the recruitment process electronically by handling job postings, applicant status, resume management, etc.

1.4
Avg 7.7
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Product Details

What is PDS Vista?

According to the vendor, PDS Vista is a comprehensive Human Capital Management (HCM) platform designed to offer personalized solutions for diverse industry requirements. The product encompasses various services such as recruiting, onboarding, human resources, benefits administration, and payroll management, thus serving as an end-to-end solution. By leveraging advanced technology and customization options, PDS aims to tackle complex challenges faced by businesses in this domain. Notably, the vendor emphasizes their commitment to customer satisfaction through personalized support provided by knowledgeable experts. While specific industries or professions are not explicitly specified, the vendor assures that the product suite caters to a wide range of organizations seeking HCM solutions tailored to their distinct needs.

End-to-End Human Capital Management Suite

The product is designed to streamline and automate administrative and payroll tasks, as well as offer strategic decision-making capabilities. Key features include workflow management, tax handling, recruitment support, training management, compliance with OSHA and workers' compensation regulations, performance evaluation and compensation tracking, employee and managerial self-service options, analytics, comprehensive reporting capabilities, among others. The vendor highlights their personalized approach and industry expertise to deliver a tailored experience for each customer.

Vista Analytics

The product is designed to offer a comprehensive analytics solution that prioritizes user-centricity. The vendor asserts that users can replace traditional printed reports with visually appealing graphics, enhancing stakeholder accessibility and comprehension of information. Users are granted real-time access to data and the ability to customize their dashboards through easy drill-downs and data exports at the click of a button. With an extensive library of predefined analytics, Vista Analytics enables organizations to effortlessly collect statistical data, analyze trends, and showcase key performance indicators (KPIs). Furthermore, it provides training courses covering graph analysis, setup procedures, usage guidelines, KPI utilization, and dashboard deployment. This toolset ensures effortless compilation of summarized data into meaningful charts or columns based on specific groupings. Additionally, it offers diverse dashboards for effective result presentation, auditable views and alerts for meticulous data management, secure user-specific dashboards, as well as workflow reports tailored for ROI analysis.

Workflow

The Vista Workflow engine is seamlessly integrated throughout the Vista product, offering automation of approval processes. The vendor asserts that their workflow features were designed to address the management of approval processes, transaction monitoring, and activity rerouting. Users can utilize tools like manager and employee time review and approval, as well as customize approval steps to align with individual process workflows. Through implementing consistent practices and automating approvals, PDS Vista aims to optimize HR operations, improving productivity while reducing administrative burdens.

Automatic Scheduling and Calculation of Initial and Standard Measurements

The product offers automated scheduling and calculation capabilities, allowing businesses to streamline processes and ensure compliance with ACA regulations. This feature aims to save time by accurately determining initial and standard measurements for employee healthcare eligibility and stability periods. The vendor asserts that the automatic scheduling and calculation functionality of PDS Vista will enhance efficiency in managing healthcare plans within organizations.

PDS Vista Features

Human Resource Management Features

  • Supported: Employee demographic data
  • Supported: Employment history
  • Supported: Job profiles and administration
  • Supported: Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.
  • Supported: Benefits information
  • Supported: Organizational charting
  • Supported: Organization and location management
  • Supported: Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)

Payroll Management Features

  • Supported: Pay calculation
  • Supported: Support for external payroll vendors
  • Supported: Off-cycle/On-Demand payment
  • Supported: Payroll history for each employee
  • Supported: Benefit plan administration
  • Supported: Direct deposit files
  • Supported: Payroll tracking and auditing
  • Supported: Salary revision and increment management
  • Supported: Statutory form management

Leave and Attendance Management Features

  • Supported: Approval workflow
  • Supported: Email notifications
  • Supported: Balance details
  • Supported: Travel absence management
  • Supported: Annual carry-forward and encashment

Employee Self Service Features

  • Supported: Employee login
  • Supported: View and generate pay and benefit information
  • Supported: Update personal information
  • Supported: Request time off
  • Supported: View job history
  • Supported: View company policy documentation
  • Supported: View company news and information
  • Supported: Employee recognition

Asset Management Features

  • Supported: Tracking of all physical assets
  • Supported: Asset return

HR Reporting Features

  • Supported: Report builder
  • Supported: Pre-built reports
  • Supported: Ability to combine HR data with external data

Integration with other HR capabilities Features

  • Supported: Additional HR capabilities (talent management, LMS, etc.) supplied by same vendor
  • Supported: Additional HR capabilities (talent management, LMS, etc.) supplied by different vendor

Performance Management Features

  • Supported: Performance plans
  • Supported: Performance improvement plans
  • Supported: Review status tracking
  • Supported: Review reminders
  • Supported: Multiple review frequency

Succession Planning Features

  • Supported: Create succession plans/pools
  • Supported: Candidate ranking
  • Supported: Candidate search
  • Supported: Candidate development

Onboarding Features

  • Supported: New hire portal
  • Supported: Manager tracking tools

Performance and Goals Features

  • Supported: Corporate goal setting
  • Supported: Individual goal setting
  • Supported: Line-of sight-visibility
  • Supported: Performance tracking

Recruiting / ATS Features

  • Supported: Job Requisition Management
  • Supported: Company Website Posting
  • Supported: Publish to Social Media
  • Supported: Job Search Site Posting
  • Supported: Duplicate Candidate Prevention
  • Supported: Applicant Tracking
  • Supported: Notifications and Alerts

Additional Features

  • Supported: Natural Language Query Tool
  • Supported: Configurable Analytics, Dashboards and KPIs
  • Supported: Configurable Workflows
  • Supported: On-Premise or Cloud deployment

PDS Vista Screenshots

Screenshot of employee data, which is the heart of a corporate knowledge base. Within Vista, an organized database of employees, applicants, jobs, and positions can be created and maintained. The product’s flexibility allows users to structure corporate data as simply or as complicated as business needs require.Screenshot of Vista Payroll, which is designed to strike the perfect balance between power and simplicity. It is designed to process large volumes of data within tight time constraints, whether U.S., Canadian, or Caribbean.

Vista Payroll is focused on its main tasks of calculating pay, creating paychecks, producing payroll registers, and federal, state, local, and provincial tax reports.Screenshot of the included Vista Benefits features, which can include unlimited plans and coverage levels, automated benefits eligibility, auto-housekeeping of valuations and premiums.Screenshot of Vista Recruiting, which presents critical applicant information in an efficient manner for both human resources professionals and hiring managers, alike.

Vista Recruiting gives HR departments command over the entire hiring process for each department in every location while more easily tracking and controlling costs, improving applicant management, strengthening relationships with applicants, and reducing paperwork for the HR team.

PDS Vista Video

PDS' Vista - HCM

PDS Vista Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Mobile Web
Supported CountriesU.S. & Canada
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Frequently Asked Questions

Vista® is a human resource, benefits, payroll, recruiting, and self-service software. Functional elements include recruitment, staffing, position and training management, compliance, and performance and compensation.

ADP Vantage HCM, UKG Pro, and Workday Human Capital Management are common alternatives for PDS Vista.

Reviewers rate Reimbursement management highest, with a score of 8.2.

The most common users of PDS Vista are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).

PDS Vista Customer Size Distribution

Consumers0%
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)0%
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees)27%
Enterprises (more than 500 employees)73%
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Comparisons

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Reviews From Top Reviewers

(1-5 of 23)

PDS Vista can do almost anything!!

Rating: 9 out of 10
December 25, 2015
CS
Vetted Review
Verified User
PDS Vista
3 years of experience
We use Vista to store all of our employee demographic, benefits and payroll information. And on a bi-weekly basis, we process payroll for over 600 employees across 4 pay companies. Most of our employee-related reporting is produced through Crystal by querying the Vista database.

By utilizing a fully integrated HR/Payroll database, we have reduced data entry time, enhanced payroll accuracy and streamlined the entire HR/Payroll function.
  • Ability to customize. Many programs we've used previously do not have the ability to customize to the specific user's needs. Vista is extremely flexible and customizable, which has served our company well.
  • Automation of data entry. Many of our payroll adjustments impact multiple employees, so the ability to upload time card entries is a real time-saver!
  • Ability to interface easily with our Accounting software. Updating our General Ledger with the bi-weekly payroll amounts is a breeze!
Cons
  • Troubleshooting problems that cross modules (e.g.: HR/Benefits/Payroll) can be difficult, since each area has it's own specialist...who oftentimes is not proficient in the other modules.
  • The Help Screen within the program is not always updated, as new enhancements and upgrades are added. This makes it difficult to independently troubleshoot issues that may occur.
  • Some of the Vista reporting is a bit outdated. I would love to see the Payroll Registers updated, so they could be easily exported to Excel for sorting and manipulating.
How complicated is your payroll?
How much flexibility do you need?

CPP has used Vista HRMS for payroll for over 18 years

Rating: 10 out of 10
February 13, 2017
BB
Vetted Review
Verified User
PDS Vista
18 years of experience
Vista is the HRMS we currently use to produce our bi-weekly net payroll and W-2s. Everyone in the company has access to review individual payroll information. Payroll has enhanced reporting and interface capabilities that produce post processing journal entry interfaces, documentation to support account balances in our general ledger and all data necessary to stay compliant with federal and state agencies.
  • Vista allows us to have different "Distribution" areas within each FEIN. These distribution types sort and subtotal by type and then provide a grand total for the FEIN. We can organize more efficiently and have subtotals by distribution available to management in a very timely manner.
  • Navigating through Vista is extremely intuitive. You don't have to memorize screen names, labels or numbers to find information.
  • The standard report process quickly and can be save in excel for sorting and analysis.
Cons
  • Due to our established SOX requirements, we do a lot of screen prints. There are many screens that have a printer icon facilitate this process. There are instances in which we need to drill down and require a screen print from a different level, the printer icon is there, but it prints without the employee's name or number which is not adequate.
  • There are times we would prefer to key specific information rather than choose a validated item from a drop down screen.
  • We have multiple FEINs, companies, districts and distributions. There are a few areas/screens where it is difficult to see exactly what company, etc you are working on in the table set ups. We have gotten in the habit of triple checking the company.
It is well suited for any size organization. It has employee self-service capabilities that will allow an employee to view payroll details, W2s, change their individual addresses, change direct deposit information and make W-4 elections.

Vista HRMS

Rating: 8 out of 10
January 17, 2015
Vetted Review
Verified User
PDS Vista
6 years of experience
Vista HRMS is used for payroll and as a central employee information database. It is used by our payroll department, human resources, health and safety, and training. In addition to payroll and basic HRIS, we use it to track training courses and occupational injuries. Our supervisors and managers all use it very minimally to record employee hours.
  • Vista HRMS tracks benefits accurately.
  • It allows us to provide accurate payroll to all of our employees with minimal resources.
  • As a US-based company, PDS supports Canadian clients very well. There are Canadian technical specialists and Canadian legislation is accommodated across all provincial jurisdictions.
Cons
  • Our company has struggled with upgrades in the past. We have worked with PDS to develop custom code but this has created issues in staying up to date. But to be fair, PDS has been willing to work with us to correct this.
  • We use Vista to track training courses in a basic way. However, as a LMS its functionality is limited. It specializes in payroll/HRMS.
  • In general, reporting could be more user-friendly. Basic functionality requires knowledge of Crystal Reports to prepare any kind of robust reporting. However, there have been imporvements in this regard in recent years.
We are a mid-sized company so the functionality and costs are suitable. I suggest asking if you are smaller or larger.

Also, I would ask about in-house technical resources needed. There are options to have the data hosted in-house or hosted centrally by PDS. I would explore both options.

PDS is money in the bank!

Rating: 10 out of 10
November 29, 2017
CP
Vetted Review
Verified User
PDS Vista
1 year of experience
It is used across the whole organization. It provides more detail to our users for payroll and benefits. It also allows us to use the data and integrate other data from other systems to report out information and tie in employment and demographic information. It allows our admins to spend less time manually updating data as well.
  • Security - flexibility to a wide variety of types of users.
  • Expansion - When acquisitions happen it was quick to add a company.
  • User Exp - Users find it easy to navigate and find what they need.
Cons
  • Job History - Too many areas that dates populate.
  • ATS - There is a lack of flexibility for applicants when applying for multiple jobs.
  • Searching - The functionality is a little limited, would be nice to type in any information on a person and search.
Vista has been great for our business as we expand and have to add in other company information but yet still be able to provide the tailored experience for the new company. I previously worked in ADP and Paylocity, having the ability to get in on the back end and make changes is a big plus.

Established user perspective

Rating: 9 out of 10
January 27, 2015
PM
Vetted Review
Verified User
PDS Vista
7 years of experience
Vista HRMS integrates our HR and Payroll functions nicely and has been used throughout the organization for over 15 years. While our benefit and timekeeping systems are handled by other systems, the control of our data through easily customizable interfaces allow these systems to be seamlessly integrated into our enterprise. Self-service allows our managers and employees access to information and key job functions and the Recruiting module will be implemented soon.
  • The core HR and Payroll functions work very well together out of the box but they can be modified to answer any business process. The system is completely configurable and will allow any number of custom fields not only to be created to capture data points, but to be used in custom procedures, wizards and reports. In the 7+ years I've been working with Vista HRMS, we have always been able to customize the application to meet our needs.
  • Custom reporting from the Vista HRMS database is easy and can be completely integrated into the front end user interface. We've gone from hundreds of custom reports stored on back office computers to a few dozen reports accessible by managers and employees directly through the application.
  • Interfacing with other systems is seamless and allows Vista HRMS to be our system of record. As of now, Vista HRMS is supporting 8 other business or 3rd party applications.
  • I manage several systems and the support we get from PDS is like no where else. The entire phone support team is great and we've got to know many of them on a first name basis. PDS expends a great effort on their Users Conferences which are highly valuable to the organization. The intimate gatherings are a great place to let them know what you think of their software and they listen by regularly adding in our suggestions.
Cons
  • We currently use another vendor for timekeeping and tracking. Our organization requires complex pay processing rules to handle both union and non-union employees and provides a scheduling component suitable for a 24hr healthcare facility. I understand that PDS has partnered with a vendor to provide a better timekeeping solution, but a few years back it still was not adequate for our needs. For the amount of time and investment it would cost to switch vendors and applications, the PDS offering would have to be spectacular.
  • We also outsource our benefits and online benefit enrollment. We had used the PDS Benefits module for two years (2010-11) but with limited online enrollment functionality, changing benefit plans each year, and bundled enrollment processing from our benefit vendor, it became too time intensive for us to manually build and change the configuration each year and reconcile charges monthly. I have heard of significant improvements to the Benefit module and the online enrollment capabilities in recent years but plan to stick with what we have for now.
For the most part, the Hosted version has all of the same benefits as the on-premise version. As a hosted client, we have direct VPN access to the database. Although access is read only, this is a huge benefit over most other SAAS or hosted applications. Bulk inserts and updates to the database are allowed, as are changes to the web front-end, you'll just need to submit your code to the hosting dept and have them review and execute it for you. The support team and hosting department are great and will help you do what you need to do.
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