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Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains has a reputation for offering a tried and true way to manage business operations in one location. However, they are not known as a full-stop solution for payroll.
As federal and state laws and employee needs continue to change year after year, it may be time to start evaluating payroll and HR providers outside your ERP system.
What Software is Best for You?
Let’s closely examine the key differences between using Greenshades payroll and running payroll through your ERP system, Microsoft GP Payroll, to reveal important insights.
Payroll Processing
Microsoft GP
When processing payroll in GP, the software follows a windows style interface. Although GP can help you to process payroll, the pay run is not inside one simple workflow. Instead, there are pop-up windows you must navigate through. Due to the extra clicks it can take some “clicking around” to get used to the system and access certain functionality. Many GP users must create “workarounds” for more complex payroll needs such as multi-company, that can take extra time when processing payroll. Although users who have utilized the system for years may be comfortable navigating, due to the extra clicks and workaround it can be a learning curve for new HR and payroll administrators.
Greenshades
Greenshades provides a dashboard that gives you real-time visibility into your payroll operations and an easy-to-use payroll workflow that allows your organization to process payroll in a matter of minutes. Complex calculations are taken care of for you, and with alerts to any area that needs a deeper review, you can swiftly move through the payroll process.
The payroll wizard is seriously smart. It can automatically calculate the proper federal, state, and local withholdings. The payroll codes you set will automatically deduct during the payroll process, and if you need to make any adjustments, you can see instant recalculations without any extra clicks. Stay compliant through location-specific overtime and minimum wage compliance and other FLSA workplace guidelines.
Instantly access payroll reports, pay employees, and send the payroll data to the general ledger inside the post pay run checklist. If you support multi-company, it is easy to navigate between multiple workspace IDs to keep information separated.
Staying Updated
Microsoft GP
The GP ERP system will provide you with the functions to run payroll and HR more effectively, but since it is not the primary offering of your ERP system, staying updated on the latest technology and applications can be difficult. Due to the legacy dexterity programming inside the GP system, this language is not the most “update-friendly” programming language. Updating the payroll system can also come with a set of challenges including possibly having to rewrite codes.
Greenshades
The Greenshades platform is built to ensure organizational payroll and HR compliance, so you will always stay up to date on federal, state, and local tax withholding rates and FLSA, EEOC, ACA, and other workplace agencies’ laws and regulations. In addition to payroll, as HR trends continue to change year after year Greenshades finds new ways to keep your HR department equipped to handle the transitions.
With Greenshades' cloud-hosted payroll solution, updates are a breeze - there's no need to spend time rewriting code or manually updating tax rates every time an update is released. Simply take advantage of the cloud-based platform to keep your payroll system up-to-date with minimal effort
Payroll that Grows with You
Microsoft GP
If you choose to eventually migrate to a cloud-based ERP system, even if you are Payroll is processed using Microsoft GP payroll or Integrity Data, you will have to switch payroll providers because neither of those payroll systems supports ERP’s outside of the Microsoft community. The lift of switching both ERP systems and payroll providers can be a difficult task.
As your organization continues to grow, you may consider migrating to the cloud, even if you're not currently looking to do so. By 2025, Gartner predicts more than 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud-native platforms. Hosting your operations in the cloud your systems can better communicate with each other. This is helpful if you plan to implement new technology in the future, as having your payroll system already hosted in the cloud can simplify the process.
Greenshades
The Greenshades cloud-based platform allows for a wide range of integrations to the ERP, accounting, or the supporting system of your choice. The open API allows your organization to integrate Greenshades with the systems critical to your business. You can receive support for multi-company, unlimited pay runs, tax withholdings for multi-jurisdiction, and more. As your payroll complexities grow, Greenshades is built to handle the changes with ease. If you choose to eventually migrate to a cloud-based ERP system migrating your payroll operations to the cloud ahead of time can help reduce the burden of switching both systems at once.
The Future of GP
There have many questions and concerns about the future of GP. GP is not ending anytime soon, instead, Microsoft adopted the Modern Lifecycle Policy. Older versions of GP will eventually begin to see support wind down on bug fixes, and tax updates.. While the software will continue to run, it will not continue to keep up with payroll and HR technology and compliance like a provider outside the ERP system. Most importantly it is critical to stay updated on the latest payroll tax withholdings, incorrect tax withholding can hold costly fines and penalties.
The good news is Greenshades only focuses on payroll, tax and HR technology. Along with true one-on-one customer support and automatic tax updates, the software will continue to grow and develop as payroll, HR, and tax complexities grow.
Which Solution is Best for me?
While both GP and Greenshades can help your organization to process payroll, there are key differences to take into consideration when deciding which solution will best suit your payroll and HR department.
As you determine which solution is best for your business, a few good questions to ask yourself are
- In the future, will I evaluate moving business operations to the cloud?
- Will I save time for my team by eliminating the hassle of complex updates?
- Will I benefit from saving time using a single payroll workflow and smart payroll wizard?
- Is it important to integrate my payroll operations with my organization’s supporting systems?
- How important is it for my organization to be updated on the latest tax withholdings?
Want to learn more about how you can enhance your ERP system by integrating Greenshades payroll with Microsoft GP? Contact us at sales@greenshades.com.
