Expro Case Study

Margaret Millar, Payroll Manager for Expro group has been a part of the team since 2000 and used a competitor as their payroll software before moving to Earnie in 2002. Margaret explained that the actual process of running a payroll including manually keying in the data was “far too antiquated and left no room for manoeuvre”. This then lead her to open discussions with her manager to upgrade their payroll software.

After reviewing the options, Margaret felt that Earnie was the best option. 

 She explained that: “Earnie fits the criteria due to its user-friendly interface and simplified processes. We interlink Earnie with our accounts software, SAP Business One, making tasks streamlined and easier to complete.” Margaret manages three different payrolls; the largest UK payroll consisting of over 1,000 employees and two smaller overseas payroll which total over 500 employees. This provides the added complication of different currencies, based in Dubai with no tax or national insurance contributions required. The flexibility of Earnie allows Margaret to seamlessly pay employees in around six different currencies.

Reporting and Efficiency

One of the unfortunate pressures that came with the success of an expanding business was that Expro had outgrown the Earnie Executive software. This then lead to the decision being made to upgrade to Earnie IQ. Earnie IQ uses an SQL server and Margaret explained how this means that Earnie IQ is perfect for managing large numbers of employees and subsequently, running reports became much smoother. Margaret explained “The Quick Report Writer is great, particularly for larger reports as we can simply pull export files to distribute to various managers. This saves time and increases efficiency.” In addition to this is the use of Timesheet Central which Margaret uses for getting variable information into the payroll. She explains “Before Earnie IQ, we had to key in all of the permanent changes to payroll and all of the variable changes manually. Now with Timesheet Central, we can do it as we go along. This in itself has saved us a lot of time and we can simply format any changes in a spreadsheet and upload them into Earnie”

Auto Enrolment and RTI

Margaret, at the time of auto enrolment implementation, was already well prepared for the new legislation and as such, the majority of her workforce were already enrolled as part of the Expro pension scheme. However, there were around 100 employees that were not. The assessment module within Earnie helps Margaret on an ongoing basis to keep track of who needs to be auto enrolled as and when the need may arise depending on the individual circumstances of each member of staff.

In terms of Real-Time Information (RTI) Margaret explained that “RTI operates smoothly, which is beneficial to us, particularly during busy periods such as year-end. Getting tax codes and balancing everything each month has worked seamlessly.” Margaret also explained that the workload increased for the current employees.

Fortunately, the extent to which the payroll department managed to cope with the new challenges facing them is purely a testament to how much time they have been able to save, thanks to the Earnie payroll software. Functionality One of the characteristics of the payroll that Margaret is in charge of is the multi-currency aspect across a number of different countries. The complexity of such a payroll process is handled easily within Earnie as it has been set up to calculate complex formulae. In addition to this, each month they require about 50-60 payments and deduction elements, most of which are used every month.

However, there are sometimes a few ad-hoc items that need to be created, pushing the total of payments and deductions to over 100. Support Fortunately, Margaret explained that they rarely find themselves in a position where they need to use support; a testament to the ease of use of payroll software. However, on the occasion that support is needed, Margaret explains “Any time I have used the support team they have been very helpful.”