Ascentis Reviews

We've used HR Office for about 20 years now -- started out with the in-house Access version and have used the .asp version since about 2001/2002.

Overall we have implemented the system and we are using it. Ascentis support is helpful.

I have never worked with a vendor who was so organized and supportive of us reaching our goals. There was never a gap when we needed help--calls and emails are always returned promptly. They are a great organization that employees top-notch experts who are there to help you. Wish other organization ran this smoothly.

Lots of integrations, great for tons of people, well managed and thoughtful design.

So far i think it is a good system for the most part but it needa some work definitely

Highly recommend!

I have now had Ascentis HR for 2 months, and Payroll for a month, and I can sum my experience up in 4 words:
Thank goodness for Ascentis.
We are a small to medium company with the unique feature of being made up of multiple FEINs. We are also on an aggressive growth plan in terms of expansion. Although the company has been around for more than 30 years, it's only been in the last 5 it's gone from a small family business to a regional (soon to be national) distributor.
When I took on the position with this company to build a HR department and functions, one of the task requirements/ requests from the owner was to bring payroll inhouse within the first year. Payroll was being managed by the accountants, and it was neither cost-effective or timely; corrections were always a challenge. The existing HR software, Sage, was full of bugs and not managing tasks effectively. Much of the historical data was inaccurate, as well.
Literally, I was printing out time punch reports, manually entering onto a spreadsheet, and at the end of the paycycle emailing it to the accountant with all changes/corrections the very next business day. And then sending someone an hour away to pick up checks. And same for corrections. Not anymore.
I did quite a bit of research early on for the right system. The multiple FEINs made some systems much more expensive. And even though I'm in a culture that has been embracing change, I knew doing everything at once would create shock waves. Additionally, the projected growth made it so easy, expandability was a absolute necessity. Finally, the system would need to be easy enough and intuitive enough to teach a Vice President to be an emergency backup.
Selection of Ascentis was easy, actually. I asked lots of questions, and the response was usually either "oh, yes, of course, this is how we do that...." or "that does sound a little different, let me check" followed by "ok, this is how we can do that for you...". Things fit nicely.
The implementation team has been wonderful. They made it easy, making sure I knew what they needed and when, and kept me updated on their statuses as well. I unexpectedly had to move up one of my timelines as my previous system had a different renewal date than I was originally told. It took two months to implement HR, and 3 to do Payroll, which in terms of transition is lightning speed. This is particularly true as I had other major projects going at the same time. Christy, Jean, Kimberly and the rest have been great about letting me mess around with it before going live, and been there to answer the phone as my safety net as I spend time double and triple checking things when I went live. We have had a few minor tech problems, and Jack solved them quickly and easily.
Training was almost too much. There are videos, live demo, handbooks, and the team calls. They have been great about letting me do that part at my own pace.
Once piece of advice: if you have more than one location, use the tax service. Payroll does not print coupons and is a little less helpful with the who-when part (although the related reports are awesome.)
I have now had two zero-error payrolls; I had to make up mistakes to learn how to do that piece! We are likely adding Tax very soon, and anticipate adding Time later this year. We are eventually going to add self service.
Ascentis has wonderful reports, and has cut the time involved significantly. It's less expensive, and just so easy to use. Even the Payroll person at the accountant who did it before is jealous.

We had always outsourced our HR and payroll, and as a rapidly growing company with more offices opening around the country, we were outgrowing the functionality of the third party HR firm; not to mention the enormous costs of their service fees, inflated benefit premiums, and customer service issues.

During my research of in-house support software, Ascentis stood out for its completeness. There is a lot of software that will do HR, or payroll, or timekeeping, but I wanted something that was already built to work and flow together. I was looking for something that would provide a high level of detail in data storage and maintenance, as well as be customizable for the way we already operate. Ascentis definitely provides all of that, and has a good user interface as well. I appreciate how comprehensive it is - I'm happy that it handles our taxes as well as manages data flow to our benefits carriers through Carrier Connect.

We began implementation in July 2012 and currently we use Time, Self-Service v 8.4, HR v 8.5, and Payroll 4.2.1. Since we started, there have already been big upgrades to Self Service and HR that has resolved some of the issues I was having. We have done an open enrollment already using the Self-Service, which creates a walk-through wizard for employees that makes the process of learning about company benefits and signing up for them really easy. The housing of the benefits structures is detailed and I was able to automatically build in nearly all the rules or restrictions that were associated with our plans.

Implementation went smoothly overall - it was a daunting task but the support is terrific. Everyone I've talked to in all the software components are very available and patient, and extremely responsive. This was one of the most important considerations for me. This being our first time handling HR and payroll in-house, I knew we needed to work with a company that we could have a personal relationship with, and not be lost. I also appreciate the fact that the software is continually upgrading and improving. I do not expect anything to be perfect; it is more important to me that they are working to improve and are responsive. Any issues I've had, they have received thoughtfully and log the suggestions/needs to submit for potential changes.

I'm extremely happy with the product and the company and look forward to continuing working with them.

I would definitely recommend Ascentis to anyone ... large or small company. Our transition to Ascentis was well supported and has opened our processes up to today's world.

I chose Ascentis in a very short time frame after viewing 10 Payroll/HR/Timekeeping software solutions. I am very happy I made the choice I did! The software is flexible, reliable and accurate - three must-haves in payroll.

By allowing the end users to manage some request like vacation, offloads some work off of the payroll department and managers.

Ascentis is very user-friendly. All fields are self-explanatory. You need no guidance to use this product. It is very simple to use. I highly recommend this product.

We brought payroll in-house after outsourcing it for over 15 years. We were tired of having vendors add ridculous fees and for stifling our ability to make back-end changes. In addition, they made numerous mistakes in processing taxes and garnishments.

The choice to go with Ascentis was made in large part because of the incredible ability to customize it. The setup of the system (employee records, reporting, back-end) is very logical and easy to navigate.

The implementation was fantastic, and who ever says that about changing payroll systems? Our Implementation Manager, Elissa, was extremely knowledgeable, not only about Ascentis, but payroll processes in general. She was incredibly fast at responding to questions and to implementing all the data as it came in. She provided us with an action timeline outline who was responsible for each part along the way. We had our implementation complete and parallel payrolls processed AHEAD of time!!

So far we have loved the ability to run off-cycle checks, and payroll has processed without a hitch. The off-cycle paychecks alone have saved us thousands in fees we would have normally paid. We also implemented Employee Self Service for the first time and my employees love having access to all their pay information online. The few times we've needed to access the customer support team they have been incredibly responsive.

I would highly recommend Ascentis to anyone!!

I don't really like the color scheme, so if they ever gave the option to switch to a different color I would take it. That is not a complaint or a problem.

Our first week using, we've had a few things that needed fixed. Par for the course for anything new. Hope we grow to love it. It's our first HR software.