From the November 2009 issue of Ceridian Connection.

November, December and January can be very stressful months for HR and payroll professionals. Complying with HR and payroll rules and regulations surrounding year-end processing can make a normally busy role overwhelming. Fortunately, Ceridian provides a variety of tools and support options to make year end a brighter season for HR and payroll professionals.

The most immediately available year-end tools are those already built into Ceridian's existing solutions. In particular, Ceridian's HR/Payroll Latitude contains detailed checklists and related work management tools designed to help HR professionals address specific year-end issues. Ceridian's built-in reporting capabilities can also be extremely useful in the weeks leading up to December 31. "When we have to do year-end audits, tax audits and W-2 audits, we have all of our reporting on a CD," explains Leah Johnson, payroll manager with Gerresheimer Glass, one of Ceridian's customers who appreciates instant access to past and present reports. "They're easy to find and easy to interpret," concludes Johnson.

In addition, Ceridian's newest tool, Enterprise Reporting, now makes payroll reports available online within one hour of a completed payroll run. Customers receive e-mail notifications that their payroll reports are available online and can be easily viewed in PDF format. The new process saves time, reduces use of paper and allows customers access to information needed to complete the remaining steps of their payroll process.

If Ceridian clients have an issue that is not addressed by built-in application support, they can always call Ceridian's dedicated team of CSAs. "This year, our call times have continued to improve," notes Paul Everett, Ceridian's senior vice president of Customer Service. "Another of our key measures of success has risen this year as well. We're pleased that more and more of our customers indicate they are willing to recommend us to their colleagues."

Julie Bridwell, Ceridian customer and payroll manager for Tire Centers, LLC, agrees. "Even at year end, you are able to speak to those folks."

In addition to customer service analysts, Ceridian offers services tailored to help payroll, tax and benefits professionals skillfully manage year-end activities. Some of those services include year-end training (classroom and Web-based), digital reference materials, a knowledge base with online reference tools and detailed coverage of new laws and regulations.

Among the most popular service programs are the Web seminars and Web-based training (WBT) modules. Web seminars are live, instructor-led classes specifically designed to assist customers with many specialized year-end operations. Some of Ceridian's current seminars address key W-2 employee considerations and explain how to manage benefit processes. The Web seminars are offered live at numerous times from October through mid-December. For those unable to attend the live sessions, the seminars are also recorded and made available via MyCeridian, Ceridian's customer support site. The more specialized WBTs consist of student-paced courses that range from 10 to 15 minutes in length and can include video clips, screen prints and text. Some of Ceridian's current WBTs include getting ready for year end, FSA limit deductions and company-level deductions. The WBTs are available 24x7 via MyCeridian and have been particularly popular this year.

In an additional effort to "go green," Ceridian now offers its popular Year-end Packets in electronic form. "In the past," notes Vicky Kukas, Ceridian's year-end program manager, "we distributed over 8,000 printed packets. This year, we distributed them in digital form via e-mail and made them available on our client support site, MyCeridian." Kukas is quick to remind customers they can still request a printed version. "But the effort to reduce our use of paper," concludes Kukas, "has been very successful. To date, we have mailed less than 10 percent of our Year-end Packets in print form, and our customers have appreciated the reduced use of paper."