Logistics service provider MzB makes short work of payroll accounting
In order to automate the previously manual process of data preparation for payroll accounting and at the same time bundle the expert know-how of the employees in one solution, logistics service provider MzB relies on the Payroll+ solution from experienced DATEV partner LANOS. The company, which specializes in feed and food logistics, is thus not only closing the gap between REINER SCT time recording and payroll accounting with DATEV LODAS, which was created by manual determination and checking processes. Errors or corrections in the sensitive payroll accounting of around 180 employees are now practically impossible thanks to the consistently high data quality. Thanks to the now consistent and largely automated process, the high volume of work involved in calculating monthly salaries at the beginning of the month has also been permanently reduced.
Error-prone calculation and transmission processes
MzB records the working hours of its 180 employees via time recording terminals at the company’s various locations and via the Yellowfox fleet telematics solution, which is integrated into the “timeCard” solution from REINER SCT. However, the processing of time recording data was sometimes largely manual and, with the processing of monthly salaries, occasionally led to a considerable amount of work that could hardly be handled effectively with limited resources. In addition, the expert knowledge for reliable payroll accounting for individual employees with old existing contracts or individual wage groups in the company was concentrated on just one employee, which regularly led to an enormous effort in the event of illness in order to be able to post salaries correctly and on time at the end. Against this background, plant manager and authorized signatory Dirk Krümpelmann finally decided in 2016 to automate the manual processing procedures for payroll accounting with the help of a smart extension for time recording from REINER SCT: “The manual calculation and checking of Sunday and public holiday bonuses, expense calculation, three-month averages for continued pay in the event of illness or times for the employers’ liability insurance association could hardly be handled effectively with our existing resources.
‘We are no longer overwhelmed by the amount of work involved in our monthly accounts […]’
Stress and media disruptions made the sensitive issue of payroll calculation quite error-prone, which regularly resulted in additional checks and corrections. With the introduction of a new payroll accounting solution, we wanted to restructure this process and make it leaner for the future,” says Dirk Krümpelmann. “If our payroll accountant responsible for the calculations was previously absent due to illness, we had to use external tax advisors, but they didn’t offer a viable alternative for cost reasons.”
DATEV and REINER SCT: LANOS combines the solution expertise of two worlds
For example, the future solution should offer the company the option of storing certain logics, such as the driver’s country of residence and associated individual correlations, in the calculation algorithm in order to ensure fully automated expense calculation. It should also allow personnel costs to be posted directly to the respective cost center. MzB then carried out its own research to identify suitable solution providers and invited them to on-site presentations. “In the end, the decision was made in favor of LANOS, who made the most professional impression during the presentation phase and, as a certified REINER SCT partner and long-standing DATEV partner, combine the solution expertise of both worlds in-house,” says Dirk Krümpelmann, explaining the decision. “LANOS was also named by DATEV as a competent reference for our project, especially as the LANOS Payroll+ solution integrated perfectly into our existing system landscape.”
Data collector enables effective cost and activity accounting
The next step was to design the underlying payroll model: Once the various payroll and overhead modalities had been documented, wage groups formed and the payroll logic of the specialist department translated into the application logic of the program and the interface, Payroll+ went live in May.
To date, this data has been imported from Yellowfox and the timeCard was manually consolidated in a separate Excel spreadsheet and calculated using a complex set of formulas in order to transfer it to the other payroll and cost accounting departments. This process was very error-prone due to the manual approach. A “collector” developed specifically for MzB as part of the introduction aggregates the data from the Yellowfox telematics and vehicle management system and simultaneously collects time recording data via project stamping in the timecard. The cost centers from REINER SCT were also linked to Yellowfox via the Collector so that the personnel costs can be 100% allocated and broken down to the respective vehicles and orders. In addition, the Collector uses various plausibility checks to ensure a fully automated transfer process to Payroll+ and the downstream systems. MzB has thus created the basis for transparent and effective cost and performance accounting in the company to support corporate management.
High data quality and time savings in payroll accounting
The introduction of Payroll+ has already paid off in many respects after just a few months: “In future, MzB will no longer be exposed to the risk of merely ‘keeping’ expert know-how in the heads of a few employees. The entire payroll logic, including all legacy contracts, is now documented and embedded in the Payroll+ set of rules. In addition, the entire process, from time recording at our terminals and in telematics to payroll accounting, has since been seamless, smooth and almost completely automated. We are no longer overwhelmed by the amount of work involved in our monthly accounts and have also been able to completely reduce the amount of overtime,” summarizes Operations Manager Dirk Krümpelmann. “The data quality in preparatory payroll accounting has also improved considerably with the introduction of the new solution. Today, we can be certain that every single minute of work is booked to the correct cost center. In addition, time-consuming corrections and adjustments are no longer necessary – management and the specialist departments can rely on consistent figures at all times. If something goes wrong today, the fault usually lies with the employee who stamped incorrectly and not with the downstream processes.”
The plan for the future is to further expand the evaluations for process and resource control at management level.
LANOS already offers an extensive repertoire of standard evaluations for this purpose, some of which MzB also intends to use for operational support of day-to-day business.
This allows individual key figures for personnel controlling to be determined at the touch of a button, making it easier to measure effectiveness at employee level and to take countermeasures at an early stage in the event of problems.
