We had version 6 and we had 220 clients 220 staff and 30 staff. We run these 3 payrolls separately. Now we are on version 7. Do not convert to version 7. You are much bigger than anyone I have heard of. How does it handle all those payrolls and how fast does it take to run?

You asked some great questions. We do all of our time sheets through an Access database, then we import them. We found that this was the fastest way for us to do them do to the fact that our biweekly workers could have their hours in multiple ways between overtime, regular pay, holiday, vacation, sick. By using an Access Database we were able to create a form that allows them to input hours under each different pay types. We have found that it usually takes about 15-45 minutes to create calculations. Usually under an hour to print the checks, but lately there has been problem in version 6 so it has taken longer. I am wondering about moving to version 7 though I don’t think it could handle our work load, and I feel that Blackbaud would like us to move to really give the system a good test.

Sorry it took so long to reply. I have been so far behind ever since we converted. We are currently on version 7 patch 7. Even though our payroll is usually for 27 employees it has been a challenge every pay. Our attendance entries have not been updating properly and they still haven't fixed that. I need to go into the employee record and record the annual, sick, personal days myself. They also don't print on the check. I really would waite to upgrade from 6, if you can, We used to import our entries from excel in 6 and that worked fine. We only have 27 employees, but we need to split their time between as many as 15 different projects, so there is alot of entry involved for so few people. We converted because we thought Version 7 was going to make this easier, but it hasn't. I've heard there is a new version of payroll coming and I don't know what to expect.

We converted but we have not update to patch 7. Is anyone having problems with patch 7? Our attendance is working for our employees. It even prints on the check. Call them and tell them it should work. You need to link the pay types to the attendance pay types. Then you can go and add them to the employees files thru the payroll processing in the CREATE GROUP ASSIGNMENTS option. We have all our staff working now. It was a challenge and it works.

I have told them about the attendance not working. In our case it is hit and miss. Some employees record on their check and in their file some don't. They are looking at it. That seems to be a problem. Alot of what is happening isn't consistant even though we are doing the same actions on all employees. We do payroll again Monday. I'll what the new patch does for us then.

Robi Your system for importing time sheets sound like a great way to save alot of time. BB users could benefit significantly from your system if they are still recording time sheets manually!! We have 550 employees being paid by BB Payroll 6 Can we get more information about how your system works. Thanks Scott Barker Controller Tri-County Mental Health Services Auburn, Maine

I agree with you but shouldn't the system we have at Blackbaud be able to handle that and process it with the speed and accuracy of the database. I know it is a workaround that works, but I wish we could all put the work back on Blackbaud since one system should handle it.

Regarding attendance we have now figured out that it is a hit and miss due to the limited paycheck options. What we need is not one of those options, otherwise it would work. The system should work as better than Version 6 and better than a Dos version. They need to work on their attendance program.

Especially for the major investment we all made to acquire this "do it all" software.

Scott, i would be happy to send you some information. My email here at work is [Email Removed]. If you could please send me a quick email, I will reply with how we worked out our Access database for the time sheet input. Robi

I agree that this do everything software should be the best way to do all payrolls but in our case just for February checks, which is our "slow" month, we printed 328 Administrative checks, 435 Biweekly checks, and 486 Student checks. We had 708 time sheets for students and 728 Biweekly time sheets. Because of how this system works it really is faster for us to do time input using an outside application and then import it into Blakcbaud.