Research shows that paper-based administration of payroll and benefits can consume as much as 80% of a human resource department´s time. If you are considering outsourcing your payroll and benefits needs or approaching PEOs, one company that you might want to take a look at is MyBenefitSource.
What is it?
MyBenefitSource (MBS) is an outsource option for your Payroll and Benefits needs. The company offers a number of options relating to payroll and benefits requirements. What´s unique about MBS is that they offer integrated services involving payroll, benefit administration, enrollment and benefit invoicing using SingleSource Technology.
The Benefit Administration software is designed for the HR industry and delivered over the Internet.
The Services offered by MBS include:
How does it work?
MBS offers services for administering:
Payroll
This tool offers administrators the ability to calculate the cost of their payroll for a pay period. The Preprocess Register lets you view the "Gross to Net" details for each employee before the information is sent to MBS so that there are ZERO mistakes with the payroll. You also have access to over 70 reports so that you have a clear understanding about payroll costs and other related issues.
Payroll can be set up to run automatically or you have the option of entering information manually. This is an interesting tool that would be highly useful for manual checks in that it allows you to run deductions both "net to gross" and "gross to net". (I can really appreciate the usefulness of this tool given how many times I have had waste my time determining the deductions given net pay).
With the MBS application, paychecks can be viewed at the employee or the company level. You also have access to both summarized and detailed information for prior checks and the view check option allows you to reprint the earnings statement directly.
Benefit Administration
This module allows for two different options:
1. Employee Self-service
This allows the employee to view his or her benefit selections at anytime via access through the Internet. Employees can also view other information included by the company such as employee handbook and holiday & pay schedule.
2. Client Self-service
The administrator can use the Survey function to communicate with employees. It also allows you to review employee benefit profiles, post W-4 forms and new hire packages.
Enrollment
This tool also allows for two different options.
1. Employee self-service
An employee can use the personal information table to edit and modify information about herself as well as about her spouse/dependant. She can also update basic information such as address, family status, and password.
2. Benefit Selection Online
During open enrollment, the employee can request desired changes to her benefits options. This can all be done online. The employee will also have access to plan descriptions, costs, and dates for open enrollment.
MBS offers three different options for enrollment:
i) Onsite
ii) Web-based or
iii) Self-service.
Invoicing
MBS offers billing reconciliation, integrated billing systems and bill consolidation from all users and benefits providers. MBS is able to bill everything out for you.
The Company Setup screen allows the administrator to use more than 20 different tabs to record the necessary information for each employee. These are the same for all four sections mentioned above. This allows the different sections to speak to each other and avoid redundant data entry.
Administrator View
The following section will give you some understanding about what you can expect to be able to do through the administrator´s view. (It should be noted that the capacity of each field is unlimited so you can add as much information as you need.)
Some of the actions possible include: setting up payroll deductions information, earnings type (e.g. specifying cash tips), 401K-tax levy codes, jobs, demographics, billing, and memos.
In particular, the taxability of the system is able to keep track of who is exempt and who is not. In addition, payroll can be prepared based on every tax table in the US and updates are sent out as often as necessary.
You can choose to set up groups based on various factors at up to 5 levels. This allows you to analyze payroll and benefit cost patterns of different departments or groups.
From this view, you can also get benefit accrual information and set up agency checks, which allow you run garnishments/levies as well as perform direct deposits.
HR Level
This view contains information that would be useful to a HR professional in particular. In addition to the basic employee information like address and family status; and department and position; Employee Type (in terms of FT/PT) helps track benefit eligibility.
You can track EEO and Workers´ Compensation information. This section allows for keeping a record of W2 and 1099 forms. You can also complete the I-9 form as well as maintain other Visa-related information.
There are options that allow you to keep track of union affiliations, set up pay rates based on department, shift, or locations. You can get a clear understanding of your company´s organization by running reports like the labor allocation report.
Other tabs include the ability to keep track of time-off, education, previous employer information, employee reviews, and pictures.
Of all the capabilities, I found the Skills tab to be most interesting. This allows you to keep a record of the skills required and assign them to the various jobs. You can also track the employee´s proficiency for each skill.
Each tab has a large note section where you can write remarks directly or cut and paste information for the employee.
Reports
As I mentioned before, MBS provides up to 70 standard reports. For example, these include all payroll reports, Workers´ compensation report, Earnings/accrual reports and EEO headcount report.
The export function accepts data in 14 different formats.
In addition, the Report Writer allows you to create customized reports.
Stroll in the PARC
PARC is MyBenefitSource Employee Self-serve Web-based application. The name comes from the different options available from the employee menu.
In particular, employees have access to an area called Protection, which takes them through the enrollment process. Here employees gets a clear indication of their cost for the benefits and the contribution made by the company. The employee can use her password to sign and confirm the changes. A link allows the employee to go to the benefit carrier´s website to have any additional questions answered.
The Accumulation section deals with the employee´s stock options and also has access to a related Education Center.
Through the Retirement section, the employee can get access to her 401(K) plan as well as the Education Center.
Lastly, Cash refers to services related to credit unions, tuition plans, and referral plans.
These four employee services combine to allow the employee a "stroll in the PARC".
Target
MyBenefitSource services are targeted at all different sized companies and industries. MBS clients that have anywhere from 2 up to 4000 employees. Generally though, the average company size is 80-100 employees.
Security
The MBS network is secured through a Watchgaurd Firewall system. This ensures that the internal network is completely hidden from the Internet.
Updates are transferred from the client´s server to MBS through a secure FTP transfer. This information is encrypted and only includes table-updates.
All users are required to have a valid username and password. The system uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.
Access can be defined to indicate which users have access to what fields both in terms of view and ability to change data.
Implementation
All pertinent information is loaded onsite using FTB technology. All necessary products are installed by MBS. There are a number of components of the product like the employee self-service that are entirely web-based.
Implementation time depends on the size of the company. However, it´s estimated that for Payroll services, the duration is about 2 weeks while for benefits; the wait is 60 days after the first check date.
Support
Each client is assigned his or her own payroll/benefits administrator. MBS´s team is compiled of payroll professionals.
Competitors
Payroll/benefit-administration providers with integrated technology : Quickbooks Employee Administration
Publicly held payroll processors :
ADA, Paychex
Small privately-held payroll bureaus
ExpressPay, Payroll Central
Single service providers and portals :
BrightLane.com, FirstDoor
Software providers :
Peachtree Software, ERP-based solutions for larger enterprises.
PEOs (Professional Employer Organizations)
Overall Evaluation
MyBenefitSource is obviously a very comprehensive service. From what I have seen, letting MBS "wear all your administrative hats" will certainly free up a lot of time to concentrate on core business issues.
You also have an opportunity to choose the level of service that meets your need. Although, you do have to have the payroll service in order to choose to implement the benefits services, the MBS representative mentioned that about 40% of the clients choose the full service options.
Though a lot of vendors claim to have the ´integrated´ system, MBS actually has this capability. Since they are the ones providing the payroll services, MBS can easily integrate this with the benefits services.
HR.COMmentary
The biggest selling point of MyBenefitSource is that all the products that the company is selling are actually used by the company. MBS itself relies on its services and uses them in-house.
Understandably, there may be concern about outsourcing one´s basic functions. As you are aware, there are both pros and cons to such a decision. While this is not the article to discuss this issue (if wish, you can find related articles, like "Thinking about Outsourcing" from our site www.hr.com), I can say that MyBenefitSource should be looked into if you are considering such a decision.
About the Company
MyBenefitSource was organized in mid-1999 and operates out of Norcross, Georgia. As highlighted in this review, MBS offers a wide range of related services including, payroll, benefit, enrollment, and benefit brokerage. MBS is a licensed broker for healthcare insurance, employee benefits and qualified retirement plans.
Telephone (770) 449-7727
Toll Free (877) 449-7727