I'm sorry to say our experience has not been positive.  I would like to hear if somone does have a good experience, because maybe there is a better way to process payroll in FE, we just don't know about it.  We started with Payroll 7 (from another software) in July 2007 and have struggled with it since.  Was the previous version better?

Audrey Boehm

YMCA of Rapid City, SD

I am not completely dissatisfied.  We converted in July this year.  Once you get used to how it works I don't think it's that bad.  The reports are a different story.  They are horrible!  Can you tell me what specifically you are having trouble with?

We have been on payroll 7 since it came out and continue to have problems every month.  It gets kinda annoying after awhile. It is a really complicated program especially if you have alot of different pay types and shedules. Payroll 6 had some shortcomings but was much easier to use.  Some things it should just warn you about rather than just stop you in your tracks. We basically have to just figure out a way to fool the system to get the checks out. - Terry

We converted in 2008, and only because we had to.  Blackbaud chose to eliminate support for the old version. 

 The new version does have a couple of features I like.  For instance, you can now distribute payroll taxes all the way to the project level which was not available before.

In general, it is difficult to use and not nearly as intuitive as the older version.  The employee set-up is more important - less margin for error and some of the things that will cause you problems don't even surface until way after you have run several payrolls.  As an example, we hired an intern from our local university.  He worked with us for a semester and then went on to graduate later in the year.  He then applied for a full-time position and we were happy to hire him.  His payroll worked fine until the final paycheck of 2008.  We had him set up with an annual salary of $35,000.  The software decided that since we had not paid him that amount during the year that his final check must be the difference between his YTD earnings and the $35,000.  We did catch and correct this issue, but we are a bit mystified as to how it happened. We think it is involved with the set-up. 

 We will open a case with Blackbaud about this and other problems but have not had time to do so yet.

 We were successful with installing payroll ourselves, but it was definitely not easy and required several contacts with BB technical staff and a couple of patches had to be written, if I remember correctly.

 Overall - payroll 6 is a better product and I would prefer to use it over payroll 7, but we don't get that choice.

They do allow for the distribution, but if the employee has mileage for one program it will not let you change it to charge just the one program so you have to remember to do a journal entry. That is really a pain. Also I agree, the reports are horrible and when you try to get backup reports to support your quarterly taxes other than the salary part, you can't. This software also adds so many unnecessary lines that you end up wasting so much paper. I have found this in all of the parts not just payroll. The other problem I have is exporting to excel and massaging the reports to make them work. I have had the training on the reports that they offer, but they never go into payroll, it is just GL and if you ask about payroll like in the training for Crystal reports they tell you it isn't covered so you don't get any help there either. My old software which Blackbaud purchased had such great reports.