Since its entry into the material handling industry, Crown Equipment Corporation has earned a reputation for exceptional product design, engineering and manufacturing of its award-winning line of electric lift trucks. Their goal is to always provide the user with the safest, most efficient and ergonomic truck possible to lower total cost to the client of ownership and increase the uptime.

The UK Head Office is based in the South of England and, at the point the payroll manager retired, they took the opportunity to review the market availability of services. Jim Jones, Company Secretary, said, ”We have complex conditions of employment with a spectrum of working hours making payroll administration a headache, especially as our expert was leaving. We looked around and knew we had hit base when we met the ESOS team. They made extensive promises and I readily agree they have not only fulfilled their contractual obligations but, on a number of occasions, have exceeded our expectations.”

The data from the three locations is collated at the Swindon office and entered onto specially designed work sheets which have background information running behind the sheet providing indicators and warnings when an entry contravenes the Crown rules. This information is imported directly into the ESOS payroll suite thereby reducing the incidence of keying error and saving valuable time.

All information is transmitted electronically and, wherever practical, is uplifted into payroll without re-keying.

The engineers’ time sheets presented formulae problems as their overtime rate depends not only on the number of hours worked but on the time of the day it occurred and its relationship to the hours worked throughout the week, complicated by weekend working being non-standard. The workbook on which the hours are entered uses a formula to arrive at the correct payment which is then uplifted into the ESOS payroll programs.

Jim added, ”The ESOS solution to our complicated data gathering problem saved valuable time and enhanced the accuracy levels through data import. From time to time tings go awry, an inevitability with a complicated payroll, but I am always impressed with the approach to putting it right and getting on with the job.”

Sandra Barrett, HR Manager, added, “Once we were up and running ESOS suggested a number of changes which enhanced our efficiency in handling complex and timely issues such as reporting pension matters to our parent company in the States. I feel the ESOS team is an extension of our own department.”

Michelle Crook, ESOS Director of Payroll, commented, “Whilst Crown Lift Trucks is a model customer their general ledger interface was a complicated piece of programming but we are proud to say we manage to meet the client’s requirements.”