Payentry.com: Using Employee Self Service
Article ID:
878
, Product:
payentry.com
, Last Updated:
10/9/2012
▼ ▼
This article explains the conϐiguration and use of Employee Self Service (ESS). Any company loaded on Payentry.com can use Employee Self Service.
Employee Self Service currently provides read only access to employee personal information and company information. In the future, additional information will be available, as well as the ability for employees to request changes to data.
Table of Contents
Service Bureau Level AdministraƟon Companies That Can Use ESS Seƫng Up a Company for ESS Sidebars
Company Level AdministraƟon Setup SecƟon
Tax Forms SecƟon Status SecƟon
Allowing Employees to Access Their Pay History Employee Login
Configuring Browser Seƫngs Employee Self Service Enrollment Logging in to ESS
Passwords
What Employees See on ESS Employee Quick Links
Service Bureau Level AdministraƟon
To access the administration options, go to System Tools > [Payentry.com account] > Setup. This is used to conϐigure Employee Self Service speciϐic options at the service bureau level. From here companies can be enabled for self service, and sidebars can be set up.
Companies That Can Use ESS
Any company on Payentry.com can use ESS. The company does not necessarily have to be entering payroll data using Payentry.com. The ESS system can be used in conjunction with a regular installation of Millennium at the client site. The only requirement is that the company be loaded on Payentry.com
ESS and Service Bureaus Running Millennium 3
To setup a company on Payentry.com it can be downloaded via synchronization at any time. The company can be using Payentry.com for either data entry, ESS, or both. M3 synchronization will sync changes made at any site with all changes made at all other sites, allowing any
combination of Millennium remote desktops to work in conjunction with Payentry.com.
ESS and Service Bureaus Running MMillennium 2
Payentry.com can also provide ESS for any M2 company. If the company is using Payentry.com for data entry, ESS can be enabled as an additional feature. Payentry.com can also be used for ESS only, while data entry is done on a remote desktop installation of Millennium.
To use Payentry.com for ESS only, the service bureau must be running M2 version 2.4.105.1468 or higher. In this version and later, the sync location ϐield in the Input tab can contain multiple directories, separated by commas. The ϐirst directory is used to for both receiving the tx.zip transmit ϐile at the service bureau, as well as sending the rx.zip to the client. The additional directories are used for sending additional copies of the rx.zip to multiple locations. This allows secondary locations to receive processed data from the service bureau and maintain a read only
view of the data. Since the tx.zip ϐile is read only from the ϐirst directory on the list, only one location can send tx.zip ϐiles. Remember that each tx.zip ϐile overwrites all data sent by any previous tx.zip ϐiles, so only one location can send updates from client to service bureau. Note that multiple directories in the snyc location ϐield must be separated by commas and no spaces, such as:
/0123/,/payentry/
Seƫng Up a Company for ESS
To add a company to Employee Self Service simply enable the company under the System Tools -> Payentry.com Account -> Setup section. There are two options to conϐigure when adding a company: the employee policy, and the default password policy. Beware the company can also change these settings through their administrative interface.
Employee Policy
The employee policy determines which employees can login: none, active employees only, or only employees that are conϐigured manually. This setting should be left as Active unless directed otherwise by MPAY.
Enrolling Employees & Default password policy
Each client using Self Service should run the Employee Self Service Enrollment report found in the reports section of Payentry. This will generate temporary passwords for any employee authorized to use the Self Service feature as deϐined in the Employee Policy section. The report produces one page per employee and should be distributed to the employees. The employees should then log into Self Service and reset their password. They will be requested to provide Self Service with an e-mail address. Self Service will then e-mail the employee a link. The employee clicks on the link and will be promted to reset their password.
Passwords are automatically created and assigned to employees, minimizing the amount of work needed to get a company setup for ESS. The default passwords are created from the employee data and can be obtained by running the Employee Self Service Enrollment report at the company level.
The default password policy determines what employee speciϐic data is used to create a default password for the employee. This should left at "Automatic 1" unless you are directed to do otherwise by MPAY.
Sidebars
The sidebars section allows a service bureau to setup notices to be shown to ALL employees using Employee Self Service. Note that speciϐic companies or employees cannot be targeted when editing the service bureau sidebars, and the sidebars are shown to ALL employees. The sidebars are visible on the left hand side of every page of the Employee Self Service system. Note that sidebars can contain HTML, including links and images.
Company Level AdministraƟon
Each company has access to the Employee Self Service conϐiguration under the Main Menu. Go to Payentry.com Main Menu (company code must be selected) -> Additional Options. This will open a new browser window with the three main ESS company option sections:
Setup — Use the setup section to conϐigure your company account information and product options.
Tax Forms — Use the tax forms section to setup the company level information for tax forms or to view current and historical online tax forms.
Status — Use the status section to view current and historical activity of Payentry.com use.
Setup SecƟon
The Setup section has 4 subsections:
Company Access — Conϐigure which employees can access employee self service. Your options here are None, All Active employees, or Speciϐic employees only.
Sidebar Setup — Setup the sidebars that are shown on the side of every page. Sidebars can be used to display company wide information or notices. Company level sidebars are shown to ALL employees in a company. The company sidebars are shown before the service bureau sidebars, and the company level sidebars are only shown to the company they are conϐigured on. Sidebar notices that have already been setup appear on the top half of the screen. Click the 'Remove' button to remove a sidebar notice. You can also edit an existing sidebar notice, and click the 'Save Changes' button to save the new sidebar notice.
There is a section at the bottom half of the screen that allows you to add additional sidebar notices. Put you notice in the text box to the left, and click the 'Add' button to add the new notice.
The sidebar notices accept plain text and standard HTML tags. You can use these tags to change the font size, font color, create a link to your company website, etc... Please contact your IT department for assistance with adding these HTML tags.
Parameter Setup — Use this section to setup the company level password parameters for your employee logins. This section also lets you set a Support phone number and email address so employees know who to contact if they need help with ESS.
Once the policies are setup the company administrator can run the Employee Self Service Enrollment report for their employees. This report is a form letter that is used to distribute the default passwords to the employees, greatly simplifying the setup of the system. Note that changes to the employee policy can take up to an hour to take effect.
Employee Setup — This section lists your employees. You can click on the name of an employee to view their current username and email address used on ESS. You can also reset an employee’s password, reset an employee’s username, or change an
employee’s email address. Any changes on this screen will result in an email being sent to the employee. Resetting the employee’s password or username will require the employee to validate the change before they can log in again. Follow the instructions in the email to complete the login process.
Tax Forms SecƟon
Documentation for Online Tax Forms is provided in KB article 1165. See the section labeled "Payentry.com" and look for the three Online Tax Forms PDF documents. PDF Documents are provided for the Service Bureau, Company Admin, and Employee Users.
Status SecƟon
The status section provides you with two links. The ϐirst link displays current sessions for Payentry.com users only. This link does not list which of your employees is currently logged onto ESS. The second link displays previous sessions for Payentry.com users. You can deϐine a date range to view who has logged into Payentry.com for your company, and when. This link does not list which of your employees logged onto ESS.
Allowing Employees to Access Their Pay History
Perform the following steps:
Log onto Payentry.com and from the company level main menu, click on the Additional Options link. This will open a new window with the ESS Company Options menu.
1.
Go to the Setup section -> Company Access subsection and choose which employees can access the system. Save your changes and click the "Back" button on your browser.
2.
(optional) Click the Sidebar Setup subsection link if you want to add a sidebar to display company information when your 3.
employees login. Once you have made (and saved) your changes, click the �Back� button on your browser.
(optional) Click the Parameter Setup subsection link if you want to change the default password parameters, or set a support phone number and email for your employees that may have questions about ESS.
4.
Logout of the Company Options screen close the window. Go back to the company level main menu on Payentry.com and run the Employee Self Service Enrollment report.
5.
Distribute the enrollment reports to your employees. 6.
Employee Login
Employees login and access the self service system using a standard web browser and any Internet connection. Employees must make sure their Internet browser meets certain requirements (outlined in the next section) before they can complete the enrollment process and begin using ESS.
Configuring Browser Seƫngs
The ESS web site requires that both JavaScript and cookies be enabled on the client web browser. We also recommend that you allow the Payentry.com websites to open pop-up windows. Different browsers have different procedures for enabling these features. Please refer to the online help feature of your speciϐic browser for complete instructions. The following sections outline the procedures for major browsers and platforms.
Internet Explorer 6.0 (or higher) on most versions of MicrosoŌ Windows
Note that Internet Explorer has relatively complex security settings, and that these security settings may be overridden and/or disabled by a system administrator. The following procedures describe the settings needed to enable various features, but these settings may not be available or honored due to administrative security policies.
Internet Explorer refers to JavaScript as "active scripting". To control active scripting and other security features, Internet Explorer uses the concept of security zones to classify web sites into different groups. Each zone speciϐies a set of security settings that apply when accessing sites in that zone. The user can either leave the Payentry.com web site in the default "Internet" zone, or place the Payentry.com web site in the "Trusted" zone. Placing Payentry.com in the "Trusted" zone is safer as it does not require enabling scripting for all Internet sites. To place a site in the "Trusted" zone, click on Tools -> Internet Options -> Security -> Trusted Sites -> Sites and add http://www.Payentry.com/. To enable active scripting in a zone, click on Tools -> Internet Options -> Security, select the zone containing Payentry.com, click Custom Level, then click Enable under Scripting -> Active Scripting.
To control the handling of cookies, Internet Explorer applies custom settings for any web site that has been explicitly setup within Internet Explorer, otherwise Internet Explorer will apply the default settings. It is recommended to enter settings for Payentry.com explicitly to avoid allowing cookies for all web sites. To allow cookies for Payentry.com explicitly, click on Tools -> Internet Options -> Privacy -> Edit, enter http://www.Payentry.com/ and click Allow. To allow cookies for all web sites, click on Tools -> Internet Options -> Privacy and set the privacy level to Medium High or lower.
Mozilla Firefox 3.x on MicrosoŌ Windows
To enable pop-up windows, click Tools -> Options -> Content and if there is a check in the box next to "Block pop-up windows", you will need to click the "Exceptions" button. Add the address of *.Payentry.com and click the "Allow" and "Close" button.
To enable JavaScript, click Tools -> Options -> Content and put a check in the box next to "Enable JavaScript"
To enable cookies, click Tools -> Options -> Privacy and put a check in the box next to "Cookies". You can also control cookies by putting in speciϐic exceptions to allow cookies only from *.Payentry.com.
Opera 7.x on MicrosoŌ Windows
To enable JavaScript, click File -> Preferences -> Multimedia -> JavaScript.
To enable cookies, click File -> Preferences -> Privacy -> Enable cookies. Note there are additional settings on this screen that may disable cookies for Payentry.com. These settings can be used to enable ϐirst-party cookies while disabling third-party cookies.
Employee Self Service Enrollment
Employees will receive an ESS Enrollment letter from their company’s HR / Payroll department. This enrollment letter has all the instructions necessary for the employee begin his / her enrollment and begin using ESS. The basic process is outlined below.
The employee should follow the instructions in the ESS Enrollment letter to begin the enrollment process. 1.
The employee will be prompted to enter their email address, and the current password from the enrollment letter. Then they click the 'Submit' button.
2.
The employee should read the on-screen instructions and wait for an email from Payentry.com. 3.
The employee needs to click on the veriϐication link in the email from Payentry.com. They should then get a web page with a message indicating their email address has been veriϐied and they can log into Payentry.com.
4.
The employee should follow the email instructions to log into ESS with their SSN and the current password from the enrollment letter one more time. The next screen will inform them they will no longer be able to log in with their SSN. Their new username will be their email address used during the ϐirst part of the enrollment process.
5.
The employee must put a checkmark in the box labeled "Please click this checkbox to acknowledge that you have read and understand this change."
6.
The employee must key in a New Password of their own choosing. Passwords must be at least 8 characters long and contain letters AND non-alphabetical characters.
7.
The employee must key in their Current Password from the enrollment letter. 8.
Once all these ϐields have been ϐilled in, the employee clicks the "Submit" and "Continue" button. The employee has now completed the enrollment process and is logged into ESS.
9.
The employee will see a welcome announcement that instructs them how to customize their ESS home page if they wish. Click the "OK" button after reading the message, and the employee can begin using ESS.
10.
Logging in to ESS
ESS on Payentry.com has login security features. Please click on the button to read about the details and how they affect the end users: ESS Security Enhancements on Payentry.com
ESS Security Enhancements on Payentry.com
The ESS Security enhancements are designed to increase security by enabling employees to login without having to use their social security number, forcing employees to change their password periodically, and providing a mechanism for employees to obtain their login information automatically. Additional security enhancements include the following: one-way encrypting of passwords stored in the database, periodic forced changing of passwords, and conϐiguration of various security polices including time before passwords expire, time before passwords can be reused, and maximum failed login tries.
Other goals of the ESS Security enhancements include reducing the need for support activities. Employees can now have direct access to security level questions by allowing employees to request login information to be sent via e-mail when they have forgotten their password.
Passwords
Employees are assigned default passwords which are provided to them in the Employee Self Service Enrollment report. When an employee logs in with a default password the employee is immediately prompted to setup their password. Once a password is set up the default password is no longer valid.
If an employee does not show up on the Enrollment report, then the employee has either changed the password or is not available for login. You can reset the employees password at the company level and then run the report to get them to show.
What Employees See on ESS
Figure 1 shows a ϐictional employee’s ESS home page with the default display settings. The center of the page has summary information for the last 10 pay periods, and any accrual information. On the left side of the screen are the employees Quick Links, and any sidebar information that has been setup. The Logout link, and current page (e.g. Home) are displayed in the upper right corner of the web page. Further details on the Quicklinks are below.
Employee Quick Links
Employee Quick Links are divided into 3 main areas: Employee, Company, and Maintenance.
Employee Quick Links are view-only. This data comes from the employee data in Payentry.com. The employee can see their own data, but
cannot change it. The available data is as follows:
Contact information: Name, address, phone, and email
Status and Position: Deparment, employee status, hire date, LOS, Title, pay rates, fringe beneϐits Deductions
Taxes: Tax types, ϐiling status, ϐlat amounts/percentages, exemptions
Tax forms: This is an optional section if they are enrolled for online W2 and 1099
Direct deposit: last 4 digits of the routing and account number, account type, ϐlat or %, and the amount Beneϐit accruals
Pay history: This shows the employee’s full pay history with summary and detailed information
Company Quick Links are view-only. This data comes from the company data in Payentry.com. The employee can see the data, but cannot
change it. The available data is as follows:
Contact information: Company name, address, phone, fax. HR / Payroll contact name, phone, and email. Tax form Administrator name, email, phone, and address.
Company Directory: A searchable company directory. You can enter a full name, partial name, deparment code. Results will display a name, department, branch, and work phone.
Maintenance Quick Links are view-only. This data comes from the company data in Payentry.com. This is the one area of ESS where employees
Account Maintenance: Change their password, change their username, change their email, set an authentication “secret question.” The secret question will be required if the employee forgets their password and needs to use the "Forget your username or password?" link at the main ESS login screen.
Online Tax Form Enrollment: The employee can use this area to enroll for online W2/1099 forms if their company has decided to participate in this program.
My Home Page: The employee can customize how they want their ESS Home Page to appear when they log in.
▲ ▲
