We currently use Ascentis for several parts of the employee services area. We use it for hiring, training, timekeeper services, payroll, and many other parts of the HRIS suite. We switched to Ascentis to help us save valuable time with problems in our old system. The ability to call and get someone to help within minutes was a lifesaver. Our company is small so we all have multiple duties that require our time and sitting on hold wasn't one of them.
Pros
Customer service.
Continuous product improvements
Knowledgeable staff—product specific
Cons
Implementation thoroughness
Likelihood to Recommend
Ascentis has been a wonderful payroll provider and an even better timekeeper solution. Our company needed help to better manage where our time was being spent specific to a product sold and Ascentis listened and implemented a solution in a timely manner and our leaders couldn't have asked for anything better.
VU
Verified User
Team Lead in Finance and Accounting (Consumer Goods company, 51-200 employees)
Ascentis/Nova Time is used throughout our whole organization for our timekeeping and attendance needs in all seven locations, coast to coast. We also use the point system within Nova Time.
Pros
Captures unclaimed punches.
Give us the ability to see the history of leave used.
Very user friendly
Can generate automatic warnings in regards to attendance or tardies.
Cons
Be able to change the name label if needed.
Be able to see the accrual history on one page instead of the need to keep scrolling.
Likelihood to Recommend
I believe this is one of the most user-friendly timekeeping software I have used.
VU
Verified User
Administrative Assistant in Human Resources (Automotive company, 501-1000 employees)
Ascentis is used for recruiting, applicant tracking, onboarding, HRIS, timekeeping, payroll, talent management, and learning management. It is used by every employee in the organization. Ascentis addresses the business problem of HR as a service, flow to minimize errors, compliance, and accuracy in payroll.
Pros
Product flow, robust system--linked to all-in-one HR network
Customer service availability is good, although slow at the beginning of the year
Reporting improvements with online-based option recently
Cons
Recruiting--poor applicant experience ratings
Reporting option too robust--needs simplification in HRIS
Support often needs to forward my questions to a specialist--consider directing more easily to a specialist so I don't have to wait (option for "do you need a specialist?")
Likelihood to Recommend
I am a part of an HR peer group in my region. I have "shown off" the Ascentis system a couple of times and most of my peers are jealous at the robust options in Ascentis--the minimization of duplicate entries in particular. This system has saved our company from having to add a full-time staff member because it works so well.
Ascentis was very difficult for me to use at first. I came from a similar sized company of 118 people, which used Bamboo HR for HRIS and recruiting and outsourced timekeeping and payroll to other, less robust platforms. The company had just purchased Ascentis a few months earlier and the owner/decision maker for the purchase had left before the system was fully established. This caused me a large amount of pain and it took a while for me to be sold on the product. I was convinced for months that we had over-bought for our company needs. Once I was able to fully integrate all the pieces of the system, I was overjoyed with it. Perhaps when you have a client going through this type of turnover issue in HR, it might be good to have a team member specifically assigned to contact them weekly. I appreciate the online forum and training options, but because of the background of the role and how many people I was expected to hire at the time, I really had to learn by making mistakes on the fly. It was a struggle getting started for me.
Organization-wide—timesheets, PTO, HR, and payroll.
Pros
The customer service is exceptional; I rely heavily on their expertise.
The automated/roll-over features are easy to setup.
The way the systems talk to each other is helpful and easy.
Cons
The tax portion could be a little more smooth. I find that I have to do more work than I would expect to have to do with no explanation/understanding of what to do.
I would prefer more reminders of upcoming dates and deadlines.
There seem to be issues within payroll when trying to end/change certain benefits and I feel the need to double-check everything with payroll and that adds considerable time to the process.
Likelihood to Recommend
Ascentis is great if you have a dedicated, system administrator on-site. You can't really be a casual user with all the back end things required for seemingly small changes/adjustments.
We use Ascentis across our company as our HRIS. We (in HR) are completely paperless, and were able to do so because of the Ascentis system! We were the first "group" in our organization to complete this task, and the ease of scanning and saving documents in Ascentis took time but wasn't difficult. We now have employees scan and save documents in the system as well. We use TimeKeeper and Recruiting, and now complete our Open Enrollment in the system too.
Pros
Ascentis is VERY user friendly! I conduct all New Hire orientations, and make sure our new employees are familiar and comfortable with the system. Rarely do I get a call back with questions.
The Ascentis Support Team is always very prompt and helpful when we have questions. We usually get a response and get our problem or questions resolved within the day.
We LOVE the homepage and widget function. We communicate all important info. on the homepage, and have included countdown widgets, links, etc. The homepage is a very easy set-up, and allows employees to utilize in place of a newsletter, etc.
The new reporting system is amazing and very easy to use! Makes running quick analysis reports a breeze!
Cons
It would be great if on the new platform, you could look up employees by hire date, as we used to use that function all the time on the old desktop.
Some of our new hires have had issues uploading an employee photo during the onboarding process - maybe a bit of user error, but it does seem to puzzle them - maybe a way (I'm not sure if there is one) to make this easier?
Likelihood to Recommend
Ascentis is a wonderful tool ... I don't have anything to say that isn't favorable? I have recommended it to several friends as the capabilities are fantastic, and I love how it's always improving, etc.! The App is amazing and has proved to be very beneficial to our employees!
VU
Verified User
Employee in Human Resources (Mechanical Or Industrial Engineering company, 201-500 employees)
Ascentis is used to process payroll, for employee recruitment, and benefits management throughout our entire organization
Pros
The dashboards are easy to interpret
Cons
Creating Ad Hoc Reports is difficult and not intuitive
Recruitment has too much back and forth as you process a new hire
Moving between Timekeeper and Payroll is awkward
Information in ESS is difficult to find and not located in a logical place
Likelihood to Recommend
The timeclock feature seems to work well, accruals for PTO seem to work well. Processing payroll works ok, but the messages about completion of data compilation are lacking.
VU
Verified User
Administrator in Human Resources (Printing company, 201-500 employees)
We use Ascentis across the entire organization. We have the Human Resource, payroll, time and attendance and performance modules.
Pros
Customer Service
Updating according to changes in regulation
HR Module easy to use
Cons
NOVA time
Time Keeper Hard to Use
Time Keeper terrible FMLA Module
Time Keeper confusing configuration
Would like to have a dedicated customer service support person, instead of a call center
Likelihood to Recommend
HR module is fine. The information flows from HR to payroll to time and attendance but does not reverse the flow, such that accruals on the paycheck are not accurate to what is in time and attendance.
I am using the recruiting module of Ascentis, our company uses the HR module and payroll module. With the help of the Ascentis team we are just now working on them working in conjunction. For the recruiting side it helps with our applicant tracking and allowing better communication with the applicant.
Pros
Applicant tracking
Posting of open positions in one place
Tracking of open positions
Quick and efficient communication with applicants
Cons
We had little or no guidance at the beginning, that has changed now that we have a team helping us.
Likelihood to Recommend
Communication with applicants, and the message that is sent can be developed by the organization. Our message is directly our own and continues what we say in the community.
We use Ascentis for HR, Payroll, Benefits, Performance, and Recruiting. It addresses all HR functions that we need to perform on a day to day basis.
Pros
They have a lot of trainings to help with support of their products.
They give a point person to go to for help with the different products.
Customer service reps are always friendly and try to solve whatever questions arise.
Cons
Would be nice if products could be more company-specific and not generalized to everyone
Sometimes it takes a long time to get an answer to a technical question with the software.
Likelihood to Recommend
Ascentis has all the capabilities and functionality to complete all HR-related functions for any business. I do not see any reason why it would not be useful or helpful if looking for HR modules.
VU
Verified User
Professional in Human Resources (Wine and Spirits company, 201-500 employees)
We use Ascentis/Nova time for time and attendance across our company. We also use it for PTO accruals and requests. We also use it for FMLA and expense reimbursements.
Pros
Tracking time and attendance
Setting accruals with limits
Tracking accrual approvals
Cons
Mobile app could be more user friendly
Accrual visibility for employees could be better
Likelihood to Recommend
It is great for time and attendance and easy for users. Accrual visibility for employees is not optimal. It is hard for them to see what is available NOW.
