Transition to 1C:ZUP CORP for a service company

Customer

A service company in the niche of oilfield and drilling equipment.

Task

The client planned to transfer personnel records, payroll, and labor protection to a unified digital platform in order to combine unrelated processes in one system. Additionally, the client intended to eliminate manual operations performed in Excel and outdated software such as BIT-2000 as well as set up a centralized workflow for all branches. 

The main reasons for the decisions were: 

• Termination of support for the previous BIT-2000 solution and manual data processing;
• Lack of key features such as digital labor protection solutions, military registration, and personnel recruitment;
• The corporation did not have standardized workflow procedures across the branches, and the information storage was fragmented.

Before the transition to 1C:ZUP 8 CORP version 3.1, payroll and personnel operations were performed through the BIT-2000 software that does not correspond to modern standards. The employees had to prepare management and regulatory reports manually.

These manual procedures led to mistakes, while the requirements for tax authorities andinvestment funds forms to be up-to-date increased the preparation time even further. 

Our objectives included: 

• Automating the labor protection and military registration modules;
• Standardizing accounting across the holding’s branches;
• Implementing a standardized corporate template for payroll and management reporting;
• Assigning user roles;
• Separating the functions of HR employees;
• Integrating the payroll and HR systems with 1C:ERP. 

Solution

The factors we considered when choosing software for the client included:

• The company’s wide network of branches;

• The plan for 30 active users to work in the system;

• The company’s complex organizational structure;

• The necessity to integrate the new system with 1C:ERP; 

• More than 100 complex payroll types used by the company due to its work specifics;

• The necessity to plan payroll expenses;

• The need to automate work for HR specialists and the payroll calculation staff within a single system.

The 1C:ZUP 3.1 CORP system fully met these requirements and the company’s work specifics.

Thanks to the system’s customization features, we were able to meet all the client’s requests and develop the required reporting and documentation forms. Additionally, we added more than ten types of analytics used to collect data on personnel groups, types of activities, and work areas.

Completed tasks:

Normalization of the division directory.

Earlier, the division directory in BIT-2000 included a variety of small divisions that have been originally implemented to separate expenses based on employee groups and to account expenses for specialized work areas.

We approached expanding these divisions in two stages.

The first stage involved updating the Divisions directory by adding a Technical Division attribute.

When forming updated staffing reports, these divisions can be hidden, while also being comfortable to use for allocating costs based on the activity type.

The second stage involved eliminating small divisions that have previously been split into categories of workers. As a result, the division structure matched the company’s approved requirements. We configured the processes for expense reporting for employees of different categories. They were previously included into technical divisions, which did not match the company’s corporate guidelines.

We also updated the staffing manual to include an Additional Attributes block that contains more than 10 indicators for in-depth personnel analysis.

We have added an additional Region attribute to the organization card, the Structural Divisions directory, and the Territories directory. This attribute is now linked to the implemented Regions directory.

This update was designed to correctly form accounting reports by region, including reports on personnel headcount, structure, and quality.

Another update involved improving the Position Combination document.  When creating documents that might impact planned accruals such as position transfers, the system now creates two correction documents, one before the correction date and one after. It is based on the previously designed Position Combination document.

We improved the process for filling in employee schedules and timesheets. Timesheets are now exclusively based on the working time schedule. The mechanism for manually correcting the time accounting type is now blocked. There is now an Approved button which removes the option to correct the timesheet after being pressed.

Payroll configuration. We configured over 100 types of earnings and deductions with links to regional and other motivation-based coefficients approved by the client.

We improved the piecework payments features. We added a Piecework attribute, set up and updated the corresponding jobs directory. This allowed us to automate payroll for piecework jobs that would take into account regional coefficients, northern bonuses, and other planned earnings. Working on day-offs is now automatically calculated as double pay. Additionally, there is now an option to make detailed notes about work completed in a payslip.

Conducting user role audit. Based on the audit, we have configured user role models according to the organization’s policy.

Results

Throughout the 12-month period of 1C:ZUP 3.1 CORP integration, the company achieved notable improvements in three key areas:

1. Operational efficiency

Automation reduced the time required to prepared the reports by 40%. Built-in validation has reduced the number of mistakes in payroll calculation by 35%, which is especially important for a company with more than 100 payroll types.

2. Process manageability

Combining 7 separate branch systems into a single framework resulted in a 25% decline in administration expenses. The company gained an opportunity to quickly analyze data based on region, personnel groups, and work types through more than 10 new analytics reports.

3. Data quality

Accounting centralization eliminated data duplication and improved the reliability of data. Management now receives relevant data required for decision-making in real-time.

Digitalization investments reached the break-even point after 8 months thanks to reduction in labor costs and financial losses because of accounting errors.

The project demonstrated that even in complex industrial holdings it is possible to achieve dramatic boosts in efficiency through system automation.

Future plans:

• Automation of the employee motivation and KPI modules;

• Implementing the Workforce Monitoring module for tracking work time;

• Enhancing the employee mobile app functionality.

Technologies

• 1C:ZUP 3.1 CORP

Difficulties

During implementation, the system struggled to perform due to more than 30 active users working simultaneously in the network.

• Solutions we implemented:

• Increasing the server capacity;

• Properly configuring background and scheduled tasks;

• Optimizing antivirus configurations;

• Testing and fixing database errors.

In the process of the transition to 1C:ZUP 3.1 CORP, we had to add seven other branches to the existing database. Each branch previously worked with different information systems.

Solutions we implemented:

Due to the scale of the project, we opted for a phased transfer of data to the current database:

• We improved the systems for transferring data from other information systems;

• We performed test migrations to new servers, during which the specialists verified the data transfer correctness;

• After fixing all the errors, we performed a final merge between the databases in the main system.

During testing, not all users were prepared for unified corporate accounting, causing delays in data entry.

Solutions we implemented:

Conducted thorough training sessions, showing the users tools required for working and helping them to get used to the software. As a result, the employee adoption rate for the new system increased to 90%.