Client
This is an internal project for our company Elinext, a custom software development company.
This internal project (like many others) is a base product that can and probably and most likely will be used to speed up the development of a related custom product for our clients.
Oftentimes, new customers at Elinext save a significant amount of money and effort by choosing to go with a customized version of a product that already exists and is being used within our company.
Also, we enjoy simplifying our work with the help of software developed for some of the internal projects.
Project Description
Payroll Management is a web application which primarily used to manage bonus requests for employees at our company.
The app, however, also can be used for a full accounting of employees' salaries. It is a fully operational web system that simplifies and speeds up the payout workflow with the help of automation.
Challenges
There are different approaches to accounting in companies that operate across multiple jurisdictions. In the modern era, they are often solved with the help of the corresponding software solutions. Here are the challenges that caused us to start the project.
- the employee reward management process wasn’t automated, so managers were forced to do additional work for filling and keeping up to date a lot of documentation files in different formats
- narrow point in the request approval process that sometimes caused long delays in crediting bonuses
If you’re still handling salary payouts and bonus management processes manually, we really recommend you get software like the one we’ve developed for our internal use as it streamlines the financial operations.
These are the challenges the solution is supposed to solve:
- for managers, to create the above requests for reported employees based on available data for decision-making and send them for approval
- for those who approve the bonuses, create the toolset to speed up the process
- something to help with generating reports with a filter option
- for employers, to not be involved directly, but have transparency with their accounting - to be emailed with a payroll receipt.
Process
As some of the developers were involved in other projects (not internal ones, commercial for our clients), the team chose not to go Scrum, but rather to choose. So there were no sprints, we worked with the help of Trello boards for the tasks that were taken into work consequently and as per their readiness.
The whole process consisted of four stages of development:
Stage 1: Solution design and database modeling Stage 2: Backend development Stage 3: Frontend development Stage 4: Functional testing and bug fixing
Solution
Several types of users are using this app, and Payroll Management benefits all of them.
Managers want to spend less time on routine documentation and salary bonus approvals. Directors (those who approve the bonuses) can accept or reject the requests with one click, or discuss the matter via in-built chat. Accountants can see all the reports, inspectors can check them in an instant, and employees get more transparency with their salaries.
Also, naturally, admins can assign roles and provide other system support.
Payroll Management Software consists of seven modules that ensure seamless operation of the web application.
Module 1: Manager functionality
This module enables employees to create requests for bonuses, salary reviews, and vacation compensations. Among the realized functions are sending requests for approval, sending messages to the person responsible for approval, and notifications on requests and chat messages.
This particular module helps with saving time and effort as it is based on template selection. So employees, instead of writing manually and requesting a certain bonus, can do it via application, and formulas would be used for automatic calculations.
Requests could be sent with a single click, and quick discussion can significantly speed up the approval time.
Module 2: Director functionality
This module allows approvement (or rejection) of bonus requests, and salary review/vacation compensation. As with module one, messaging is up and working in this module, so are the notifications.
Module 3: Employee functionality
This module enables employees to receive salary receipts by e-mail. With the help of this module, the process is automated.
Module 4: Inspector functionality
This module enables inspectors to have their job. They have access to reports and can generate reports on employee compensations and salary reviews per assigned managers. That way, inspectors have all the info related to employees.
Module 5: Accountant functionality
This module exists to help accountants get calculations on employee charges, including bonuses and salary reviews within the company. Accountants have access to reports and generate reports on employee charges and salary reviews.
Module 6: Admin functionality
Admins can add and remove users, assign different roles to them, and map them (directors/managers, inspectors/managers, managers/employees). So with the help of this module, one could do the entire user management.
Module 7: Reports functionality
This is not a separate module, but rather a set of functions available to all the users. Directors, managers, inspectors, and accountants are kept informed on related requests, and their statuses, and the historical data is also there.
Results
The product will serve as a basis for customization to the customer’s individual needs. It will help to speed up development as we don’t need to develop from scratch.
Managers will spend less time on request creation and management, so they will have more time to focus on strategic work and the employees will be more satisfied with the company processes, which adds to the company’s credibility.
As employees are more loyal, they get better motivated to work for the company.
Currently, the solution has test data for around 1,500 employees, and we’re certain that after stress tests it could be applicable to bigger-sized companies as well.
As for now, the system is primarily used for calculations and approval of bonuses, but it could work as an ERP system for all the operations connected with salaries for SME companies and enterprises.
