Ultimate Software (Nasdaq:ULTI), a leading provider of human capital management (HCM) solutions in the cloud, announced today that SMS Equipment, a one-stop supplier of a broad range of equipment, production attachments, as well as parts and service, is using UltiPro’s reporting functionality to transform the roles and responsibilities of the Payroll department.

With locations across Canada, SMS Equipment, the largest dealer of Komatsu equipment in North America, serves customers in various industries including construction, forestry, mining, and road & mineral. Prior to UltiPro, the company was experiencing poor access to payroll data and analytics, and a lack of direct control over its payroll process. In addition, the company’s HR system relied heavily on spreadsheets, and there was no consistent process for HCM across the company’s 40 locations. SMS Equipment chose UltiPro to serve its needs as a growing company with over 2,000 employees, and went live in November 2013.

“Once we switched to UltiPro, our data-integrity challenges virtually disappeared as we built reports and configured alerts to pinpoint errors immediately,” said Jen Sutter, Manager of Total Rewards for SMS Equipment. “UltiPro’s robust reporting transformed our payroll process with both standard reports and the ability to easily configure reports that are specific to our business. Now, we are able to design our payroll processes to drive accuracy proactively, including an effective pre-audit process, and multiple checkpoints that elevate our department’s role from administrators to analysts.”

UltiPro’s reporting has been particularly useful in managing the company’s complex payroll. SMS Equipment has many employees that work in shifts of consecutive weeks on, followed by consecutive weeks off, which complicates allowances that need to be tracked especially upon leaves of absence. In addition, employees frequently transfer from one business unit to another, which also impacts their pay structure and requires changes to the employee’s system profile.

“In some cases, we pay allowances by lump sum, rather than by hours worked, which before UltiPro created the potential for errors,” said Sutter. “With UltiPro, we’re able to run detail reports for processes such as auditing profile set up, earnings, deductions, tax details, arrears and ROE (record of employment) pay dates. We also created a combined payroll and status-change report that includes fields such as transfers, salary and rate changes, pay-group changes, new hires, and scheduled terminations, so we can proactively monitor employee changes.”

SMS Equipment also created post-payroll reports that can be run and exported directly into the systems of the company’s benefits carriers, such as retirement plan providers. According to Sutter, UltiPro has cut company processing time for this action substantially. Seeking to maximize the solution’s potential, SMS Equipment has even leveraged UltiPro to support the company’s business continuity planning for payroll.

“Because our nationwide footprint makes our offices vulnerable to disasters from building damage, wildfires, earthquakes or hurricanes, our executives mandated that every department have a business continuity plan,” said Sutter. “Payroll is obviously a critical business function for salaries and benefits. We have configured UltiPro to email the Manager of Payroll and myself a report every two weeks showing each employee’s set up details including banking information and the average four pay-period earnings. We also have delivered by email an emergency contact and phone lists. We used some of these reports during a recent fire-related evacuation, and I sent the relevant reports to operations managers when we saw emergency conditions develop. Managers also have access to run these reports on their own, but having the reports emailed allows us to access the data in the event our servers may be down. Disasters can unfold rapidly and having the ability to access information quickly to reach your employees is key.”

“SMS Equipment’s use of UltiPro to transform its payroll operations is a demonstration of how businesses can benefit from a strong HR and payroll solution that includes sophisticated reporting capabilities,” said Greg Swick, chief enterprise sales officer at Ultimate. “I am also pleased to see how UltiPro supports the organization’s business continuity plan, helping SMS Equipment take care of their business and their people.”

About Ultimate Software

Ultimate is a leading provider of cloud-based human capital management solutions, with more than 37 million people records in the Ultimate cloud. Ultimate’s award-winning UltiPro delivers HR, payroll, talent, and time and labor management solutions that connect people with the information they need to work more effectively. Founded in 1990, Ultimate is headquartered in Weston, Florida, and employs more than 4,200 professionals. In 2018, Ultimate ranked #3 on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list, its seventh consecutive year in the top 25, and #1 on Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Technology list for the third year in a row. In 2017, Ultimate ranked #7 on Forbes’ list of 100 Most Innovative Growth Companies; #2 on People’s 50 Companies That Care list; and the National Customer Service Association named Ultimate Service Organization of the Year in the Large Business category. Ultimate has more than 4,100 customers with employees in 160 countries, including Bloomin’ Brands, Culligan International, Feeding America, Major League Baseball, Red Roof Inn, SUBWAY, Texas Roadhouse, and Yamaha Corporation of America. More information on Ultimate’s products and services for people management can be found at www.ultimatesoftware.com.

UltiPro is a registered trademark of The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.

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