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FAQ’s for:
Penny  /  Spencer  /  Marshal  /  xRM/CRM

Penny

  1. I have a job costing system. Can Penny track time against the jobs in my 3rd party system?
    Yes. Penny has the ability to capture time to Microsoft Dynamics GP Project Accounting, Key2Act Service Management, Key2Act Job Costing, Diamond Project Costing, Olympic Job Costing, WorkTech and Canadian Payroll Jobs. This gives you the flexibility to choose the best project costing solution for your business and Penny will connect to it hassle free.
  2. I have a punch-clock system. Can I use it to collect the data and push the approvals through Penny?
    Yes. Penny can import time from a biometric, scan card or punch-clock system as long as it can produce an ASCII file. There may be some effort required to configure the ASCII file and do some data validation, but with Penny you are well on your way.
  3. Will Penny work with Microsoft Dynamics US Payroll ?
    No. At this time, Penny is designed to work with Canadian Payroll only. We have done projects to integrate to US Payroll, but they involve significant customization. We are considering adding support for US Payroll in the future, but it is not available at this time.
  4. I have the HR Module. Can Penny show my staff their HR Data?
    Penny connects to the Canadian Payroll tables. Some HR tables synchronize with the Canadian Payroll tables (e.g. Employee name / address / phone number). Dynamics GP ensures the data between HR and Canadian Payroll are the same and Penny displays the information from the Canadian Payroll tables.
  5. Can Penny help me with my vacation planning?
    Yes. Penny comes with a leave management system that allows employees to see their vacation entitlements and to use this time to book holidays. Their managers can see balances and a calendar of all leave requests in their department to help them decide if they will approve a leave.
  6. My staff is not very computer savvy. I do not think they can enter their own time.
    No problem. While Penny has a very easy-to-use interface, it also allows a delegate to enter time on behalf of someone else a crew chief or an administrative assistant can enter time for a group of employees and still have it flow through the powerful approval engine prior to being processed by Payroll.
  7. What about business intelligence capabilities?
    Penny has a number of built-in reports to use, but it relies heavily on the same tools as Microsoft Dynamics GP so users can use Smartlist Builder or SSRS to report on key metrics using the Penny data. There is no need to learn another reporting system.

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Spencer

  1. I need to capture expenses against projects. Can Spencer help?
    Yes. Spencer can natively integrate to Microsoft Dynamics GP Project Accounting or you can set up Projects and Cost Codes in Spencer and capture time for any third party system.
  2. Will Spencer handle my GST / PST / HST?
    Yes. Spencer uses the Tax Schedules and Tax IDs that you configure in Dynamics GP to ensure proper tax capture and reporting. Then it automatically calculates your taxes and allows employees to override the amount for rounding differences between systems.
  3. I use a credit card for many of my expenses. Do I have to enter all the details?
    No you do not. Spencer can import expenses from many credit card providers and assign them to the right expense type and employee. You can then add additional details to the expenses and submit them for approval without having to enter them from scratch.
  4. Can Spencer handle multiple currencies?
    Yes. Spencer allows entry in multiple currencies.
  5. I have some expenses that need to go to multiple GL accounts. Does Spencer do that?
    Yes. Spencer allows for a default GL account to be assigned to expenses; however, this can be overridden to distribute parts of the expense to other accounts.
  6. My employees don’t know where I want things coded in my GL. Can Spencer allow them to enter information without making a mess of my GL?
    Yes. By default all expense types are user definable and each one can be assigned to a natural GL account. Spencer then allows you to configure other attributes (e.g. Employee’s department) that automatically mask a portion of the GL Account. This way employees enter items that make sense to them and Spencer does all the heavy lifting to ensure they are coded to the right place.
  7. Can I attach electronic receipts in Spencer?
    Yes. Spencer allows receipts to be attached anywhere along the workflow. If you have a document management system with an API, our professional services team can even integrate Spencer for you.
  8. What about business intelligence capabilities?
    Spencer has a number of built-in reports, but it relies heavily on the same tools as Microsoft Dynamics GP so users can use Smartlist Builder or SSRS to report on key metrics using the Spencer data. There is no need to learn another reporting system.

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Marshal

  1. Why use Marshal?
    • Inexpensive, flexible, familiar
    • Manage, Capture, Collect, Report, Analyse
    • Web based, Outlook interface means one point of reference or click
    • People, Incidents, Training, Certifications, Meetings, Policy, Forms, Reports
    • Alerts and Notifications in Outlook
    • Brand reports with company logo
  2. What industries choose Marshal?
    • Clients who have a home-grown manual or spreadsheet based safety system
    • Clients with sophisticated reporting requirements or legacy safety system
  3. Can Marshal be integrated with other solutions?
    Integration between Marshal and in-house systems is standard practice for Joesoftware and has commonly included Human Resource & Personnel databases, ERP, Content Management systems, Active Directory and many more. Please contact us to discuss a particular integration requirement you may have.
  4. Is a premise model available?
    Yes, we have several customers who still prefer the on premise model.
  5. How do users access Marshal?
    • Simply let your Marshal support representative walk you through the process
    • You can access Marshal through any internet connection.
    • The Marshal Mobile solution allows access through a tablet or mobile device
  6. Do I need an IT resource or computer person to install/maintain?
    Absolutely not! Marshal is an accelerator which resides in Outlook and is typically managed by OHS internal resources.
  7. What if I add or change my hardware?
    Simply let your Marshal support representative walk you through the process
  8. How flexible is Marshal?
    • Dashboards, workflows, reports, KPI’s, customizations can be done with Marshal
    • In most cases the clients perform these activities themselves
  9. Getting Started?
    Determine the choice for your full web users, light web users, and/or on-premise
  10. Training?
    • By design Marshal is intuitive and easy to use for quick user acceptance.
    • Training plans include train the trainer and web based training. Client on-premise training or training at our facilities are available.
  11. How are upgrades handled?
    • Marshal Software Assurance Revs, patches and version upgrades are included in Software Assurance
  12. Want to investigate Marshal? Who do I contact?
    Visit our Contact page.

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xRM/CRM

  1. Can Joesoftware help me if my company doesn’t use Microsoft for email or office productivity solutions?
    At Joesoftware we implement solutions on the Microsoft platform. If you are not a user of Microsoft solutions we might not be your best choice of partner at this time.
  2. How involved does my company need to be in a software implementation for it to be successful?
    Our experience tells us that the more involvement there is from our clients the better the software implementations work. To be able to tailor a solution to best meet your needs we need to speak to your people to understand those needs. Employees are more likely to adopt a new software solution if they had a say in how it was designed and implemented. While we are working on the software, the company needs to consider how it needs to change processes, policies and procedures to take advantage of that new software. Employees will require training and support on the new software and amended processes.
  3. Can I implement new software and leave my business processes unchanged?
    To be able to achieve real improvements in business outcomes, companies that implement new software should expect to have to change some of their processes, policies and procedures. Software alone can only do so much. The rest is the result of better processes and training to support better employee performance.

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