Chapter 14: Post-Setup Processes and Tasks
CHAPTER 14: POST-SETUP PROCESSES AND TASKS Objectives The objectives are: •
Introduce the parallel testing process.
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Introduce end-user training and documentation requirements.
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Introduce the process of going live with the Payroll module.
Introduction This course introduces processes and procedures for performing: •
Parallel Testing
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End-User Training and Documentation
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Going Live with Payroll
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Microsoft Dynamics速 AX Payroll
Parallel Testing Parallel testing is the stage at which payroll administrators start using the Payroll module to process all employee data in the company, while continuing to process the same data in the legacy system. The purpose of parallel testing is to run your legacy payroll system side-by-side with your new payroll system and compare the results. You are looking for any differences that identify setup problems that need correction. You will ignore differences resulting from deliberate changes that you have made in your policies, or minor effects of rounding differences between the legacy and new payroll systems. This is also an excellent opportunity for payroll staff to confirm that their training has prepared them for all the routine tasks that they do in a pay period. Parallel testing can uncover issues in Payroll setup, such as incorrect calculations, and benefit/deduction rule group calculations incorrectly associated with a calculation. It also uncovers issues in your employee data, such as incorrect employee benefit/deduction enrollments, or employees missing benefit/deductions.
Parallel Testing Process After you have completed your Payroll setup, and have verified that you can reliably import employee data and running totals, you are ready to begin parallel testing. Because you will simultaneously process all employee data in both Payroll and the legacy system, the entire implementation team must be aware of the implications of parallel testing. Payroll administrators will enter data twice until the company goes live with the Payroll module, and stops using the legacy system. Procedures must be in place immediately after employee data is extracted from the legacy system, to ensure that all changes to employee data (for example, address changes, wage changes, deduction amounts) are entered into both Payroll and Legacy systems. Plan to run in parallel for at least two pay periods; in any case, you must ensure that sufficient time and resources are provided so that the complete Payroll module system is thoroughly tested in parallel with the legacy system. The overall parallel testing process has two parts:
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Chapter 14: Post-Setup Processes and Tasks Preparation 1. Extract employee and running total data from the legacy system 2. Create a new parallel test database with only setup data and import employee data. 3. Create a SQL backup of the parallel test database. 4. Maintain all employee changes in the legacy and parallel test database from this point on. 5. Import running totals from the legacy system. 6. In the parallel test database, create or import identical time records that were entered in the legacy system.
Testing Process 1. Process payments in payroll - create the same manual payments, direct deposit payments, and regular payments as in the legacy system. 2. Compare and verify: • Pay registers (for example, earnings, benefit/deductions, entitlements, GL and AP postings) •
Statutory reports, files, and all other standard and custom reports
3. If corrections are required in the parallel test database: • Restore the original backup. •
Enter the corrections.
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Create a new SQL backup.
4. Repeat the testing process until all issues are resolved. 5. Follow the same steps to test the second parallel period. 6. Obtain customer sign-off on all of the test cases.
Procedure: Parallel Testing After you have finished all parallel testing preparation tasks, follow these steps to parallel test. 1. Export employee and running total data from your legacy system and take a backup of the legacy system at that time. Remember that from now on, you must make any changes to employee data in both the legacy and new payroll systems. 2. Populate a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 company with your Payroll setup data and your employee data, including employee benefit/deduction setup. 3. In the Payroll area page, click Status in the Setup area. Ensure that a row for each pay group exists. For each pay group, select the pay period end date for the corresponding parallel test period.
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Microsoft Dynamics® AX Payroll 4. Make a copy of that company, which contains your master Payroll data. 5. Import running totals, such as year-to-date earning, deduction and payment totals, and outstanding balances on garnishments, advances, and negative nets. 6. Process the same pay information in both systems. If you calculate pay from time, enter the same time in both systems. Process the full pay period and compare the results from both systems: • Payments •
Earnings
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Benefit/deductions
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Entitlement balances
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General ledger postings
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Accounts payable postings
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Running totals as updated by the pay run
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Reports
7. Wherever you identify a difference, determine its cause and decide whether you want to: • Change the behavior of the new system •
Make the changes in your master data
8. When you have resolved all the issues that you have identified, return to step 4. Continue to repeat this test-fix-retest cycle until you are satisfied that the new system has produced appropriate results for this pay period. 9. To testing the next pay period: • Export running totals from your legacy system as of the start of the next pay period •
Back up that legacy data
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Return to step 3 to repeat the parallel test for the new pay period.
End- User Training and Documentation Planning and conducting end-user training and producing accurate, comprehensive documentation is a major contributor to the success of the implementation. Careful planning at this stage is often overlooked, which can have a negative effect on user acceptance of the system.
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Chapter 14: Post-Setup Processes and Tasks Determine the number of end users who need training and the levels of training that they require. Users will require training in specific functions, depending on their positions and job responsibilities. For example, the payroll administrator and his or her backup must be trained to run all of the payroll processes in the pay period, and must be familiar with how to change system tables and settings if required. Timekeepers must be trained to enter time and earnings into the system, to adjust erroneous entries, and to enter all timekeeping scenarios in the system. All end users require reporting training appropriate to their job responsibilities. The initial staff training is preparatory to the implementation of the system, but training will be ongoing. Enhancements to the system will require staff updating and training, and new staff will also require training. Documentation must be prepared and available for training. Prepare and maintain a list of end users so you can distribute documentation updates to everyone affected. If changes are required for end-user documentation, distribute them to all users as soon as possible.
End-user Training Planning End-user Training Schedule formal training sessions so that they occur as soon before going live as possible, to maximize retention of the information. Planning training for end-users should also include the following: •
The number of staff requiring training (including part-time and casual staff)
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The level and duration of training required
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Training materials required (visual aids, handouts, and so on)
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Overtime or additional staffing required
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Availability of trainer(s) - ideally, two trainers should attend each session with no more than 10 to 12 end users (to allow trainers to provide individual attention during labs). Trainers must be knowledgeable in the Payroll module, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, and payroll-related company policies and procedures.
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Availability of training facilities, with appropriate cabling, workstations, printers, electrical supply, lighting, whiteboard, LCD projector, and desks and chairs
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Coordination with the client and a published schedule
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Training database, based on a copy of the most up-to-date test database, and training scenarios in the training database.
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Microsoft Dynamics® AX Payroll Delivery of End-user Training The trainer(s) must monitor both group and individual progress against the training schedule and program, and must recommend additional training if required. Recommendations made by staff during training for adjustments to procedures should be evaluated, documented, and presented to the responsible department heads. After employees have received the training and the system is live, a help line should be available during at least the first two live pay periods to provide quick response to end-user questions.
End-user Documentation Identify the documentation requirements for each training requirement. Payroll administrators and their backups require a full procedure manual that describes how to perform all of their tasks in the system. Data entry staff and timekeepers require a timekeeping procedure guide, plus instructions for: •
entering time and earnings in the system
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coding each possible timekeeping scenario
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listing of new system codes and their descriptions
You can develop quick reference guides so that they are easily accessible to all end users at their workstations. End user training documentation needs to be included in policy and procedure decisions from the start of the implementation project. The documents themselves must be started during the testing phase of the implementation.
Going Live with Payroll After you have finished parallel testing, you are ready to go live with your implementation of Payroll for Microsoft Dynamics® AX. These steps assume that you have finished setting up Payroll, populating it with employee data, and testing it, including parallel testing comparing the results from Payroll for Microsoft Dynamics AX with the results from your legacy Payroll system. Now you are ready to migrate your master data into your production environment. If you have not already done so, import employee running totals, test your production environment, and establish your starting point for entering live Payroll data. Before you go live, ensure that all Payroll users have been trained on the new system and have had a chance to practice their procedures in a test environment.
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Chapter 14: Post-Setup Processes and Tasks Procedure: Going Live Follow these steps to go live with Payroll. 1. Verify that you have imported the most recent statutory deduction spreadsheet relevant to the jurisdictions you withhold taxes for. The statutory deduction spreadsheet is available from the Microsoft Partner Source and Customer Source websites. 2. Verify that you have applied the most recent hot fixes that are relevant to your implementation. Hot fixes are available from the Microsoft Partner Source and Customer Source websites. 3. Finish parallel runs. The purpose of the parallel run is to closely scrutinize what the Payroll module generates, and to compare this to the client's legacy Payroll system. This will confirm the validity of the Payroll modules configuration for the client, or it will identify problem areas that need to be addressed. You will examining the following: • Earnings •
Benefits
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Deductions
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Postings to General Ledger
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Postings to Accounts Payable
4. Import your master data into your production environment. Ensure that this master data does not include any payroll transactions. The Clear Payroll Transactions tool removes payroll transactions from your master data. It is available from the Microsoft Partner Source website. 5. Ensure that the Clear Payroll Transactions tool is removed from the production environment so that it cannot be used inadvertently. This tool is a script that you download from the Partner Source web site. Documentation on how to use the tool is provided with the script. 6. Update running totals: • Year-to-date earnings, benefits, deductions, and payments if you are going live after the start of your pay year. Import them if you would like to include them in the year-to-date totals on pay check and direct deposit statements or use them as the basis for calculating accumulator values. •
Quarter-to-date earnings, benefits, deductions, and payments if you are going live after the start of your pay year and you are required to provide quarterly reports to any of your tax authorities.
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Entitlement values such as amounts earned, taken, and remaining can be imported or entered manually.
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Microsoft Dynamics® AX Payroll 7. Populate accumulator values as necessary. You do not need to populate all your accumulator values - decide which accumulators to populate, and consider how they are used. For example, you might decide not to populate a pay-period-level accumulator because it is used only when you process that pay period, so historical data is unnecessary. Typically, you will populate accumulators that: • you selected for your statutory reports, and that have values in the legacy system that you need for generating these reports in the new payroll system. •
track year-to-date totals.
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track on-going totals, including employee garnishment and amounts taken and loan recoveries that are being compared to a target total.
8. You can import accumulator values, or you can calculate them from year-to-date totals if you imported the information that the accumulator requires. To calculate accumulator values, use the Set initial accumulator values feature in the Other menu, found in the Periodic area of the Payroll area page. You must enter companylevel and pay-group-level accumulator values manually. 9. To enter company-level accumulator values, use the Setup > Organization > Company accumulators feature in the Payroll area page. 10. To enter pay-group-level accumulator values, use the Setup > Payroll > Pay groups feature in the Payroll area page. Click the Setup button, and click Pay group accumulators. 11. To enter employee-level accumulator values, use the Employees > Setup > Accumulators feature in the Payroll module. 12. Test your production environment. Be sure to test Payroll in a test company in your production environment, not just your test environment, to confirm that Payroll has been installed and configured correctly. Verify that: • Payroll users have sufficient permission to run processes that generate calculations. For example, when the user runs the time to earnings process, selects a pay group, and clicks OK, verify that the process runs successfully.
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Users who will be approving direct deposit payments have permission to create the direct deposit file in the location specified.
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You can generate reports. If you try to generate a report from the Payroll reports menu, and a browser window reports that it cannot display a web page, you might need to reconfigure your report server to access the production database. Or, you might need to modify the report server path in the General definitions form.
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Chapter 14: Post-Setup Processes and Tasks •
You have set the last direct deposit number.
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You can generate checks for your Payroll bank accounts, if you are using fixed check number method. Ensure that no checks are listed that have been issued in the legacy system. Create new checks using the appropriate starting check number.
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You can select the current pay period. Click b, then click on Setup, then click on Status and, for each pay group, enter its current pay period end date and clear the other dates.
After you have gone live, continue to run your legacy payroll system in parallel for one or two pay periods to ensure that all of your needs are being met.
Summary Parallel testing ensures that all pay scenarios in the legacy system have been set up correctly in the new system. Comparing results from the two systems verifies that the setup is complete and correct. Some differences are likely to be detected due to policy changes or minor rounding differences between the two systems. It is also an excellent opportunity to ensure that payroll staff are trained and prepared for the new system. Parallel testing is the critical last step before going live with the Payroll module. All end users must be trained before parallel testing begins.
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Microsoft Dynamics速 AX Payroll
Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned Take a moment and write down three key points you have learned from this chapter 1.
2.
3.
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