Review of myPay Solutions - 2010

Thomson Reuters - myPay Solutions
800-968-8900
cs.thomsonreuters.com

From the Sept. 2010 Review of Professional Payroll Systems.

In addition to the CS Suite of professional accounting, payroll, tax and practice management applications, Thomson Reuters offers myPay Solutions, a service bureau-style outsourced payroll option for accounting firms who wish to play a role in their client payroll activities without managing the actual processes. For the purposes of this review, myPay Solutions fits our “Outsourced/Referral” model, with Thomson Reuters handling all of the back-office processing, payments and compliance functions and the accountant maintaining control over the payroll relationship. Thomson Reuters does not market the offering directly to businesses. Firms also get the benefit of automated data integration into Write-Up CS and other professional systems, with full access to payroll reporting and compliance information.

BASIC SYSTEM FUNCTIONS
The Thomson Reuters myPay Solutions system is quite different in application than most other payroll systems and services, especially from the accountants’ perspective. It is essentially hands-off as far as the professional firm is concerned, with clients performing all of their own data entry, either through a web portal they log into from the firm’s website or directly from the myPay Solutions website, or by fax or email submission of employee timesheets, depending on client preferences. The portal can also be used by the firm if they choose to do the basic employee time entry.

While the system’s data-entry screens are designed for small business users with little or no knowledge of payroll accounting and processing functions, myPay Solutions is actually designed overall for accounting firms. As previously noted, the system is offered only through accounting firms, for professionals who wish to extend payroll services to their clients, but who don’t want to perform payroll tasks or outsource to one of the generic national service bureaus. As an option, firms may be billed directly by Thomson Reuters for their clients’ use of the system, which allows the practice to then invoice clients as they choose; or the client can be billed directly by myPay Solutions when the payroll is run.

Firms can use the myPay Solutions system for any number of employers. It offers a multi-client management portal for overseeing client reports and other payroll functions in one place. It also allows for running more than one payroll frequency per employer. Multiple firm staff members can access the reporting functions of the program concurrently. Pricing is based on client payroll size and frequency, and has payroll tax tables and compliance for all U.S. jurisdictions, including states with coupons and municipal taxing entities. myPay Solutions processes payroll for employers with multi-state needs, accommodating individual employees with multi-state income distributions. This simply requires that the client to inform Thomson Reuters of the necessary split, which the vendor then handles behind the scenes. Direct deposit with support for debit pay cards is included, as are options for offering benefits administration, including 401(k)s, time off accruals and pay-as-you-go workers’ comp. Additional HR functions, labor law compliance and employee background search functions can be added through third-party integration.