Customer Feedback Focus for Reckon Payroll 😊

Hi everyone!

Over the past few months we’ve been improving Reckon Payroll based on customer feedback and suggestions, which we’re excited to announce with the latest release.

There are a number of ways that we’ve been understanding what’s important to you - looking through posts in Community, talking with Support and understanding what’s being enquired about, reading through suggestions on our Ideas Portal, and reading through comments when we release surveys. We prioritise feedback based on number of votes, enquiries or comments; and severity - so do vote on ideas that resonate with you, and leave us feedback when we send out surveys!

Whilst implementing ideas and improvements from customer suggestions isn’t a new practice at Reckon, announcements sharing what we have implemented from your suggestions are - and is going to be a new regular series. We are listening to feedback and ideas, and we do value your feedback - and want to let you know how they shape our products.

Below we indicate if the improvement was applied to the web version of Reckon Payroll, and/or the mobile apps. As a reminder, with your Reckon Payroll subscription, you have access to:

• Reckon Payroll Web, which contains more of the complex settings and STP2 checklist. Access this at https://payroll.reckon.com.
• Reckon Payroll Mobile Apps, for completing a pay run on the go! Download now
• Reckon Mate, the companion app for employees paid via Reckon Payroll, who can check their payslips and details in the Reckon Mate app

Here's what we have recently implemented (you can find all these in Reckon Payroll now!):

🎉 #1 Expanding the working space when processing a pay run

Problem encountered: With the list of previous pay periods, and YTD values taking up room on the Pay Run screen, it left a small area to view the selected pay run. This issue was compounded when a pay run had lots of employees.

How this was solved: We removed the two side panels, allowing for much greater room for working on the pay run. The list of pay runs is now displayed in a separate screen, and YTD values are now housed in the Compliance > EOFY section.

Available on: Web & Mobile Apps

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #2 Removing an employee from a pay run (an additional method)

Problem encountered: Deselecting an employee for the pay run after it had been calculated, via the ‘Edit pay run’ action, led to the entire pay run being recalculated, increasing processing time.

How this was solved: We added an option to delete an employee from the pay run, whilst you are editing that particular employee. This then saves processing time, as there are now less actions required and avoids the need for the entire pay run to be recalculated.

Available on: Web & Mobile Apps

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #3 Clearer statuses for inactive employees to determine eligibility for the pay run

Problem encountered: It was difficult to distinguish between employees who are, and are not, eligible for the pay run

How this was solved: When creating a pay run and viewing the list of employees to select for that pay run, we help you determine eligibility by having the employment status displayed along with whether the employee is terminated, hired after the pay date or has incomplete data.

Available on: Web & Mobile Apps

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #4 Unmasking your password when logging in

Problem encountered: It’s easy to mistype a password - and frustrating when you can’t see what you've entered as the content is masked. Entering in a password incorrectly multiple times can lead to a password reset.

How this was solved: We added the ability to ‘show’ your password after entering, unmasking your password so you can correct any mistakes. You can then easily ‘hide’ the password when you are finished.

Available on: Web & Mobile Apps

🎉 #5 Normal hours worked automatically reduces when an employee takes leave

Problem encountered: When an employee’s pay run includes leave hours, the overall hours for the employee’s pay period was higher than the expected hours for the period. The leave was not reducing the expected hours.

How this was solved: An option available to turn on via the ‘Settings’ area; if an employee has leave items in their pay, the expected Ordinary time earnings hours will reduce by that amount.

Available on: Web & Mobile Apps

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #6 Ability to navigate between years easily when selecting a date

Problem encountered: Particularly felt when completing the STP2 checklist, and rehiring terminated employees, there wasn’t an option to select a prior year for an employee’s start date - this had to be achieved by going back month by month.

How this was solved: You can now type in the exact date, to very quickly select previous dates.

Available on: Web. Mobile Apps use the selection method

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #7 Performance speed of processing a pay run

Problem encountered: At the end of 2023, with many more users using Reckon Payroll, the time to calculate and process a pay period could be slow at times

How this was solved: The development team executed a series of performance related tasks to address performance issues caused by additional load. This has resulted in improved performance and stability.

Available on: Web (this issue wasn’t affecting the apps)

🎉 #8 Ability to rehire terminated employees

Problem encountered: Employees which had previously been marked as terminated, were not able to be rehired. They had to be created as new employees or have their termination pay reversed.

How this was solved: A new process has been added to allow terminated employees to be rehired. Employees can now have multiple hire and termination dates. Employment date histories can also be viewed for each employee.

Available on: Web

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #9 Adding a percentage calculation basis for deduction types

Problem encountered: When creating a deduction item with the fixed amount calculation basis, the only option was to use a fixed dollar value.

How this was solved: We added an option to select between per cent or dollar amount, enabling flexibility in data entry.

Available on: Web & Mobile Apps

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #10 Setting up an overtime pay item that is a fixed amount

Problem encountered: Overtime pay items could only be set up as hourly, not accounting for when an employee receives a bonus for work they did entirely outside of their ordinary working hours.

How this was solved: We've added additional calculation options, ‘Fixed amount’ and ‘Other unit’, giving flexibility in recording the overtime amount.

Available on: Web

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #11 Editing of the leave accrual rate on an employee’s profile

Problem encountered: On the employee’s leave record, the accrual rate is a computed value which was read only. The rate could not be modified.

How this was solved: The leave accrual rate is now editable, and the calculated rate can be overridden. To revert back to the calculated value, the Annual entitlement hours need to be re-entered.

Available on: Web & Mobile Apps

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #12 Show leave balances, override accruals and stop accruals within a pay run

Problem encountered: Leave balances, and the ability to override accruals or stop accruals within the pay run, were not available. This made it difficult to determine if an employee was entitled to leave and to adjust the balances.

How this was solved: A new link is displayed in the pay run - 'Show leave summary', for any employee that has at least one leave type associated with their employee profile. The leave balance is displayed and allows the accrual for the pay run to be overridden.

Available on: Web

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #13 Showing ‘Date from’ and ‘Date to’ for leave type items in a pay run

Problem encountered: Leave entered could not be associated with a particular date range.

How this was solved: For each leave type added to a pay run, the ‘Date from’ and ‘Date to’ can be added. This enables tracking of leave taken in a period, viewed on the Leave Taken Report in Reckon Insights.

Available on: Web & Mobile Apps

More detail: Release Note on Community

🎉 #14 Create an OTE pay item and apply a multiplier

Problem encountered: With the introduction of STP2 and the disaggregation of gross, when creating an Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) with a multiplier (for example, shift penalties), the only option was to set up as a Overtime pay item which meant it was incorrectly reported to the ATO as overtime.

How this was solved: We included the multiplier field when creating an OTE pay item that has a pay rate basis of hourly. This will report the value correctly to the ATO as gross.

Available on: Web & Mobile Apps

More detail: Release Note on Community

💡 Do you have feedback or ideas to share?

You can do that via our Ideas Portal any time! Vote on an idea that already exists for Payroll Web or Payroll Mobile App or add a new idea.

Over the months of May and June, we’re conducting a survey in Reckon Payroll, asking you to leave a score based on your recommendation of using Reckon Payroll. We also invite you to leave us feedback and ideas, of which we read through them all.

We then assess all the feedback and ideas, determine the priority based on votes and severity, and then get to work improving Reckon Payroll for you. We’re always listening to how the product can work better for you.

💰 Get paid to do research with us!

If you’re interested in sharing your thoughts on future features and products, join our Reckon research panel! We run a variety of research studies, including usability studies, interviews, and more.

We host our research activities on UserTesting, a research platform, which enables us to easily pay you for your time with each Reckon study you participate in. UserTesting incentivises via your PayPal account, from USD$5* for a short 5 min study, to USD$60* for an hour interview.

Create an account, answer some Reckon profile questions, and then look out for emails from UserTesting to join a study. Completing your Reckon profile ensures you are only contacted for studies you are eligible for, making them relevant to you. Join now!

Cheers,

Kelly J - Head of Research and Design

*UserTesting pays in US dollars, which with our exchange rate, is even better for our Aussie/NZ bank accounts!