Sage Abra SQL HRMS Version 10.1

Sage has released a new version of Sage Abra SQL HRMS, Version 10.1. This release is packed with new features. Payroll enhancements and support for Canadian Payroll are a big focus, along with added control, flexibility, and security for workforce data. Let’s learn more.

Customer-Requested Enhancements
Sage Ideascope, the product feedback option on the Help menu, allows customers to directly connect with the product management and development staff at Sage. As a result, 16 customer-requested enhancements are included in Version 10.1. The customer-requested enhancements implemented include: allowance for exclusion of waived benefits; more HR fields in the Employee Profile; reordering of steps for the on-boarding process; and a drop-down list with job titles in Employee Find.

Canadian Payroll Added
With support for Canadian payroll added, you can designate a Sage Abra HR company as Canadian, U.S., or both. When you install the payroll module, all Canadian payroll tasks, processes, reports, and setup information are added to your system. The Payroll items will appear in the Navigation Pane and the Main Menu.

Enhanced Payroll Capabilities
The Payroll module has been enhanced in the areas of usability, reporting, and security. Many functions have been moved to more intuitive locations to save you time across your most common payroll processing tasks. For example, the labels and placement of some items on the Open Payroll window have been added and changed to provide more clarity and ease of use. To make it easy to test the new features and see how they work before implementing them on your live payroll, sample data has been added for both U.S. and Canadian payroll. Group-level security is added to make sensitive payroll information even more secure.

General Ledger functionality now is included in Abra Payroll, allowing you to perform allocations and use cost center overrides for general ledger posting. You can allocate benefit deductions (such as medical, dental, and life insurance) with a flat calculation type to the same accounts as the associated earnings.

A new menu item, Common Deduction Limits, has been added to Payroll Setup. Using this new feature, you can associate multiple deductions based on a single limit and ensure that employee deductions do not exceed defined annual maximums or lifetime maximums. This means you no longer need to manually calculate group limits for multiple deductions such as union dues, garnishments, and retirement plans. A Common Deduction Limits report also has been added.

Improved Ease Of Use
A number of changes have been made to simplify processing in Sage Abra HRMS. To help HR and payroll staff become more productive, the shortcut key combinations available for the current screen appear when you hover the mouse over the page icon, and employer maintenance activities (Add, Modify, Delete) are grouped together in the same area on the navigation pane. Field-level changes also increase usability, for example:

• Domestic Partnership is added as a Marital Status type.
• The phone number extension field is increased in length to six characters.
• Emergency Contact Relationship and Source of Hire field lengths have been increased to 25 characters.

Reporting And Analysis
Now, by default, many benefit reports do not show historical records to make current benefits information easier to find. When you want to include history, a new criteria selection, Include History Records, has been added to the following reports: Benefit Coverage By Employee; Benefit Enrollment by Plan; Benefit Premium Totals by Plan; Employee Benefit Changes; and Insurance Coverage Detail.

Here are additional reporting changes included in Version 10.1:

• The Benefit Premium Totals by Plan report runs correctly with and without terminated employees.
• The Insurance Coverage Detail report shows the correct information according to the Effective Date entered on the Specific Criteria tab.
• The Employee Profile report shows the correct dependent benefit information when Dependent is selected to be included on the Specific Criteria tab.
• The EEO Job Group Age Analysis report now includes employees who are on leave of absence at the specified time.
• The Employee Attendance YTD Details report no longer includes any employees’ plans that have zero available time left.

Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 Integration
The Sage Abra HR for MAS 90 link now is available in Sage Abra SQL HRMS. The link includes the ability to transfer employee data from Sage ERP MAS 90 Payroll to Abra HR; transfer of employee data from Abra HR to Sage ERP MAS 90 Payroll; and transfer absence transactions from Sage ERP MAS 90 Payroll to Abra Attendance.

Leveraging Technology
Because Sage Abra SQL HRMS is built using industry-standard technology such as Microsoft SQL Server, the Sage development team can leverage new tools to deliver information. ViewBuilder technology allows your organization to create dashboards that managers and executives can use to view workforce information anytime, anywhere. Version 10.1 adds support for more browsers, including Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Mozilla Firefox in addition to Internet Explorer. Executives can view Employee Analytics in iGoogle or Excel, and on an iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, or other intelligent device. In 10.1, Sage has added more data in the Employee Analytics Views to provide more comprehensive information in dashboard views, and you now can build custom roles that enable other types of managers to access View Builder. A view created in View Builder now can be formulated in Crystal Reports.

Are You Ready To Upgrade?
There are a number of steps to be performed when upgrading to Version 10.1 Payroll, including setting up the General Ledger, updating the mapping for all Employee Configuration Profiles, and setting proper access in the new security feature. Please call us for assistance.