A structured business process is a formally defined, standardized process that involves day-to-day operations (Kroenke & Boyle, 2021, p. 298). For our report, we will be focusing on the payroll process of Escapology. The main function of Escapology’s payroll process is to ensure that each employee receives their paycheck on time every other week with the correct deductions and necessary withholdings. The textbook explains the purpose of a workgroup process and states, “These processes may receive inputs from other departments, and they may produce outputs used by other departments, but all, or at least the bulk of, the processes’ activities lie within a single department” (Kroenke & Boyle, 2021, p. 299). With that being said, Escapology’s payroll process is considered a workgroup process.
Step by Step Payroll Process
1) When an employee is initially hired, they are required by their employer, the operations manager, to hand in their completed tax forms - I-9 and W-4. These forms will also allow the opportunity for the employee to note any additional deductions they would need to be taken from their pay.
2) Employers will store these tax forms in a secure spot and submit the employees information, name, DOB, SSN, etc. in addition to these tax forms to the accountant, whom works for By The Book, an outsource payroll and bookkeeping company.
3) The accountant may publish these forms, in addition to the employee's pay stubs, to a secure portal for the employee to view electronically at any given time.
4) In order for direct deposit to be possible, the accountant will require the employee to supply their bank name, account number, and routing number which is typically done by requesting a VOID check.
5) The employer will then set the pay scale and rate for the employee (hourly or salary and how much they will be making in a pay period).
6) Following the completion of a pay period, typically bi-weekly, the employer will record the amount of hours worked which is found in Humanity, the scheduling app, and calculate the gross pay for each employee in an excel spreadsheet. This includes the addition of any other sources of income aside from hours worked such as tips and overtime. This gross pay will then be sent to the accountant.
7) With the gross pay sent over for each employee, the accountant will then deduct the needed taxes and other deductions from their gross pay to provide them with their net pay.
8) On pay day, employees will receive their direct deposit and depending on the business, they could receive a paper copy or an electronic version of their pay stub to see the breakdown of their net pay for the pay period.
EmployeePortal
The information system that supports this structured business process is EmployeePortal which is an application that makes payroll processing easier and seamless especially for companies that are managing a lot of employees. EmployeePortal is powered by Payroll Relief which is a payroll software for accountants created by AccoutantsWorld, an accounting software company. The 5 components that make up an information system are hardware, software, data, people, and procedures. For this structured process, the hardware is the iPhone in which employees have EmployeePortal downloaded to access their pay stubs and payroll tax forms. The software is the EmployeePortal application which stores all of the data important to the payroll process. The data is the information stored in the EmployeePortal app which includes the employee’s W-4 form, I-9 form, pay rate, mailing address, phone number, and email address. The people are the employees that work for Escapology that are responsible for downloading EmployeePortal to keep track of their pay stubs and tax forms. Lastly, the procedures are the instructions given to each employee when they are hired that must be followed in order to successfully set their account up. For example, the accountant emails an access link to new employees and they have 24 hours to set their account up.
With regards to how the process works, the operational productivity of EmployeePortal and the payroll process is commendable, encouraging consistent access for workers to access their bi-weekly stipend with the necessary details.
It's important to note that the payroll process generally functions smoothly and efficiently, with minimal disruptions or issues encountered. Unfortunately, an error occurred when Escapology initially started working with the accounting firm. This error happened because the accountant was unfamiliar with the format of the timesheets used being that there were other values added in. The accountant accidentally mislabeled the incentives column as overtime resulting in payroll overpayment.
Replays serve as a motivating force for the employees, constituting rewards for their hard work in increasing returning customers. When an employee hosts a group out of the escape room, they are responsible for handing the customer a card with their name written on it. If customers use the name as a promotion code to get 15% off a future booking, that employee receives $1 for every customer in the booking. This is recorded on the excel spreadsheet as an incentive.
Information Silo
An information silo occurs when data is stored in isolated systems (Kroenke & Boyle, 2021, p. 305). The company has dealt with one information silo in regards to the payroll process due to the expedited nature of the manager's training. It's been observed that there may have been an opportunity for Colleen to engage in more comprehensive training and allocate additional time for familiarization with the payroll process before undertaking it autonomously. The information system did not eliminate this silo problem because while the company's information system is a valuable tool for streamlining payroll processes, it's important to acknowledge that the issue at hand pertains to human error rather than a deficiency in the system itself. Moving forward, investing adequate time and resources into training could yield significant benefits in ensuring proficiency and minimizing errors.
CRM, ERP, and EAI
A CRM system or a Customer Relationship Management system is a process that manages information and interactions with customers. Using a CRM system makes a company more customer centric. Every interaction and transaction is recorded in the company's CRM database.
Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) is a software with set processes that organizes business operations into one computing platform. ERP systems include all the customer support, and sales applications that a CRM system manages but with the addition of applications such as, inventory, manufacturing, accounting, and human resources. An ERP system allows a business to communicate internally with other business processes.
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) allows companies to integrate existing systems into software that connects all the process applications together. If a company believes that an ERP system is not necessary for their operations then converting to an EAI.
Inter-Enterprise Information Systems
Inter-enterprise IS supports one or more inter-enterprise processes. Solutions to problems require cooperation among different, usually independently owned, organizations with such systems typically involving thousands of users. With that being said, Escapology specifically at Garwood, NJ does not have an inter-enterprise IS. We don’t believe it's necessary to implement an inter-enterprise IS at the moment. However, in the event that there is a need to assist a malfunction in the supply of props/equipment or partnerships with local businesses for promotions or events, then an inter-enterprise IS could be something to think about if it ever leads to that.