IRIS Cascade New Features per release
We are constantly striving to enhance the functionality IRIS Cascade delivers to its users. This product update provides information on the major features, enhancements and fixes developed over the years.
We’re continually fixing bugs, improving security and enhancing features. Full details of all major releases can be found on your Community Portal.
Leaver Holiday Calculations – Cascade will now calculate and apply any holiday owed to leavers or holiday deductions owed at the point of inputting leaver data.
Update to dates in report builder – Cascade now has the ability to create “dynamic dates” in reports, meaning where dates are referenced for time periods in reports, these can be pre-set. For example a report that looks at starters and leavers from “The start of last month until the end of last month” can now be created and saved in the system. This removes the need to edit dates in reports and allows greater automation in reporting.
Auto disable leaver access – Previously this was a manual task undertaken by system super users. The auto-disable of leaver access adds an additional layer of system security, by not allowing anyone outside of the organisation to access the system.
HMRC New Starter Checklist – The form which used to be known as the P46 has been digitised and built into Cascade as a standard screen. This will replace the paper form in new starter processing, can be exported in one piece for payroll submission and has direct integration with Cascade payroll.
Average Holiday Pay – As average holiday pay was brought into legislation, Cascade was updated with a location to record AHP schemes. This allows reporting on the data in the system and the holiday pay accrued by individuals or groups of people. This data can then be easily exported for payroll processing.
Gender Pay Gap Report – A Gender Pay Gap report template was built into Cascade, ahead of the reporting requirement being introduced into legislation. The report is formatted correctly and draws the data from Cascade into a pre-designed layout. The report is available at the click of a button and is immediately ready for publishing and submission.
Enhanced Dashboards – Cascade now has the ability for HR users to amend the dashboard charts on their homepage by creating mini reports in Query Builder, saving them and pinning them to their homepage. This allows much greater access to data in the system, as well as flexibility over how data is reported and presented within the system. These are easily updateable and manageable so can be changed when internal business focusses change.
Occupational Pay Reporting in HR – Occupational pay schemes have now been added to the Query Builder tool in HR. This means a much greater amount of data is available in HR reporting, including more in-depth sickness cost analysis.
GDPR Updates – Ahead of GDPR legislation being introduced, Cascade was updated to include a tickbox option which self-service users could check to “Right to Restrict” this meant there were limitations on how their data is processed. This update also includes an automatic data deletion which is set up to act 7 years after someone leaves, to ensure the system remains in line with GDPR legislation with no additional work required from HR users.
Webhooks – Webhooks is a feature which allows data to be pushed to a URL location, effectively allowing users to create their own mini-API links from Cascade.
Parental Bereavement Leave – As parental bereavement leave came into legislation, Cascade was updated with a screen to record the data, as well as the ability to record pay schemes for PBL. These pay schemes can be reported and exported for payroll or analysis.
Off Payroll Workers – Settings were introduced to identify off payroll workers ahead of legislation changes in 2020 (which was pushed back to 2021 due to the Covid pandemic).
Shared Parental Leave – As shared parental leave was made legislation, Cascade was updated with the ability to calculate dates of shared parental leave in line with statutory rules. Self-service access to book the leave was also created in the system, as well as the ability to input company pay schemes for reporting and extracting to payroll
New User Interface – Cascade has recently gone an upgrade to the user interface (UI) of both the standard system and the mobile application. The purpose of this is to update the system, ensuring it remains at the cutting edge, not only from a functionality point of view, but also the look and feel of the system. The aesthetics can be particularly important to self-service users and can increase end user “buy-in” to a system, based off it being sleek and easy to use.
