How Criterion Simplifies General Ledger Updates for Acumatica Users

As organizations across the world seek to be more efficient, managing payroll data and proper labor allocation continue to be huge challenges. After each pay period, your accounting team needs to be confident in your general ledger entries and rely on your system to plan ahead and determine profitability.

But most payroll workflows require a lot of manual effort to pull data from multiple sources and update the general ledger. This is especially true when doing multi-level labor allocation, where data from multiple sources is being tracked against payroll and labor hours. Doing this manually in spreadsheets or similar programs is inefficient and error-prone. Incorrect or mismatched data in the general ledger is an accountant’s worst nightmare — and for good reason. Errors like these can cost companies a lot of money as they continue to update operations based on incorrect data and reports.

To truly become more efficient and make sure your records are accurate, you need a reliable solution that updates your general ledger automatically.

If you’re using Acumatica as your ERP, you already know the power of its financial and accounting features. There’s a reason it’s become well-renowned among businesses in sectors such as construction, distribution, manufacturing, higher education, non-profits, and among tribal/first nation governments.

Now, you can enhance the functionality of Acumatica with an HCM designed to handle all the complexity of your payroll and labor allocation challenges. With Criterion HCM, you can put human capital at the center of your operation and automate general ledger updates with complete confidence.

What is Criterion HCM?

Criterion HCM is a cloud-based Human Capital Management platform that combines robust enterprise-level functionality with mid-market pricing, beautiful design, and extreme configurability.

Our platform is built for integration with your ERP — or any 3rd party software you choose. Our open API architecture means that we allow the export of every single field within the software (via API or other methods). Whether you’re doing this with Criterion's built-in reporting functionality or making sure your ERP and HCM are in total sync — it’s all available to you at no extra charge.

We offer 3 modules, all under the same database: HR, Payroll, and Talent Engagement. By integrating Criterion with Acumatica, you can maintain accurate records across all your systems with seamless, instantaneous data transfer. This way, you can still use the applications that work for you while keeping all your data connected.

The Problem With Managing Complex Labor Allocation and General Ledger Updates

After each payroll cycle, you’ll need to make sure your general ledger is updated correctly every single time. Many companies today (even large, complex enterprises) still do this with cumbersome Excel spreadsheets or other manual methods. But trying to pivot data like this is not only difficult — it’s also time-consuming, expensive, and incredibly prone to error. Most often, this means entering the data once into the payroll system and then entering it again to update the general ledger in another system like Acumatica.

Even if you have some kind of integration between your payroll system and your ERP, most of the time, connections like this aren’t totally direct. Instead, your team is often limited by when the data syncs between platforms. Does it sync once every 24 hours? Does it sync at 9:00 AM or 9:00 PM? Is it automatic, or does it rely on someone to manually sync the data?

This may not seem like a big deal until you take into account the reality of payroll systems. While everyone strives for a one-time payroll process, this rarely happens. Most of the time, you’ll need to make adjustments after the fact. But if your data only syncs once per day (before you get a chance to make the change), there’s always a chance for discrepancies. If someone gets the syncing schedule wrong and tries to pull a report, they’re now looking at incorrect or outdated information. If that report makes it to the CFO, who then makes a big budgetary decision based on those incorrect numbers, that could spell disaster for the entire company. Without instantaneous, direct API integration between platforms, you’re subjecting your system to poor security and inaccuracy every time you update your records.

What’s more, waiting for the data to sync also limits your reporting workflow. For instance, if you’re working with multiple businesses (each with multiple subdivisions) united under the same corporate structure, you might already be looking at several thousands of lines in your general ledger. But if you’ve already spent a lot of time simply updating that data to be correct, imagine how long it will take to wrangle it into a new spreadsheet (or multiple) and then generate clean, readable, and reliable custom reports for your team. That process will be inefficient to say the least.

The challenges of payroll are more than just correct multiplication. If you want your company to survive, you need a solution that automates payroll, accounting, and reporting reliably — every single time.

What Can You Do With the Acumatica/Criterion Integration?

Acumatica already provides a flexible, easy-to-use platform for accounting. By integrating Acumatica with Criterion HCM, you ensure that your data is accurate and synced in real time. We simplify payroll calculations and general ledger reporting with seamless API-to-API integration and instant data synchronization.

Let’s look at what the integration allows you to do:

Seamless Bi-Directional Time Tracking

No matter what system you use for time tracking, you can sync the information between both platforms. If you or your employees prefer to track time in Acumatica, that’s fine. You can route your information automatically into Criterion’s payroll module for fast, easy payment calculation and distribution each payroll cycle — with no additional effort.

Criterion also offers self-service time tracking designed to help employees easily punch in and out. Your team can access this feature from any device and even enable geofencing so that employees can only clock in and out in designated locations (i.e. at the job site). We also offer offline time tracking to use in remote and rural locations.

Once you track your time in Criterion, that data is automatically calculated for payroll and routed to your general ledger in Acumatica. You can sync this to any system of record, however you choose to set up your tech stack.

Streamline Accounting by Syncing GL and Employee Data to Acumatica

With Criterion and Acumatica fully integrated, you only have to enter payroll data once. After each payroll cycle, your general ledger is automatically updated in Acumatica so you can use that data in your accounting workflows and reporting.

Since Criterion operates on a single database, all the data you enter in the HR module is instantly available in the Payroll module. It’s also available in any other system of record you choose via API. With one system of record for employee data and self-service time tracking features built into the platform, integrating Criterion with Acumatica can save you more time than you ever thought possible.

Improve Labor Allocation by Syncing Project Data and Cost Codes to Criterion

When you open a new project in Acumatica, the integration automatically feeds that data to Criterion to track labor against it.

You set the financial data for that project (job fees, how much the customer pays, etc.). Our platform automatically factors in labor cost to help you generate reports, allowing you to gain insight into the profitability of your labor faster than ever. You don’t need to pull the data from separate platforms to generate these reports. With Criterion, any field (including custom fields) is reportable, and any dimension can be tracked against anything else in the system.

Divide Your Tracking by Specific Branches and Sub-Accounts With Less Effort

While many HCM platforms offer reporting, few offer the level of complexity Criterion offers. If you need to do labor allocation and still account for multiple companies or entities under the same corporate structure, you can do that. If you need to divide that even further to account for different divisions and departments within those companies, you can do that too — and more.

With Criterion, you gain eight levels of complexity right out of the box, allowing you to subdivide your labor tracking and reporting to entirely new levels — and we can add more levels if necessary. Being a multi-tenant environment, Criterion will be able to handle your multiple departments, companies or entities under the same instance.

Achieve Ultimate Granularity with Reporting

When you’re generating new reports with Criterion, each field (including custom fields) is reportable and trackable against anything else in the system. Track labor against project data, cost codes, grants, union benefits, and anything else — our system lets you generate totally unique reports. You can also export everything to an external BI solution where you can blend HR data with data from other departments and sources.

This provides you with virtually infinite combinations for reporting, allowing you to make better data-driven decisions for you company and answer complex questions such as:

• How many positions do I need to fill this month?
• How many overtime hours were charged per project, and can we change scheduling to avoid overpaying?
• What are the most popular benefits people elect across our organization?
• Did the overtime hours we paid marketers in week X reflect an uptick in ad clicks?
• How did the mass vacation during X month affect our production rate?
• Is there a correlation between vaccinated individuals (custom field) and the amount of sick leave taken per (month/quarter/year)?

These are just a few examples of what’s possible with Criterion. In reality, you can track and report on data however you choose. With hundreds of reports already built in, you’ll be able to gain more insight into your workforce and financial activity to improve operations at every level.

What Else Can Criterion Do For You?

Our native integration with Acumatica is just one of the many integrations we’ve achieved and far from the only benefit we offer. We’ve designed our HCM around the most up-to-date best practices for HR departments around the world, offering enterprise functionality to help you tackle any challenge with your workforce.

Centralize Your HR Data

Put human capital data at the center of your operations by making Criterion your HR system of record. Manage all of your employee data (wage rates, union affiliation, benefits packages, location, etc.) in one place.

Criterion is a cloud-based system built on a single database. This means that when you update one record, it's updated everywhere else in the system as well. For instance, when you update an employee’s benefits package, that information is automatically calculated as a deduction in the payroll module. We also give you access to every setting in the system, so you can configure and utilize all of the backend tables as you please.

Automate Payroll Complexities

At Criterion, we’re experts in multi-state, multi-union payroll in the United States, Canada and the UK. When you use our software, you can be confident that your payroll calculations and tax payments are compliant with all laws, regardless of where you work.

We automate payroll calculation by pulling the information you log in the HR module directly into payroll for easy payment distribution with zero delays. Criterion also makes it easy for you to make adjustments on a dime according to prevailing wages, stipulations in collective bargaining agreements, and more.

If you need a payroll system that can help you handle virtually any level of complexity (and report all of it back to your ERP instantly), Criterion is the perfect platform for you.

Create Talent Engagement Workflows

Part of making human capital the center of your organization is ensuring you have a healthy, engaged workforce. Manage resumes and interviews, build your own training courses, and customize your communication platforms for each department with Criterion’s Talent Engagement module.

Imagine if you had the best candidates producing the best work for you at all times. With Criterion, you can develop custom hiring, onboarding, and training workflows so acquiring top talents is seamless from start to finish.

Streamline Your Data With an HCM Built for ERP Integration

Eliminate double data entry and simplify complex general ledger reporting by integrating Criterion with Acumatica. With Criterion, you’ll save time and money updating your general ledger, and you can trust that the integrity of your data is always preserved. Using our seamless integration with Acumatica, you can effortlessly fine-tune your operations, optimize resource utilization, and make data-driven decisions with ultimate precision and granularity.

For more information on how Criterion works with Acumatica or if you have any questions, reach out to Amos Frajnd at amos.frajnd@criterionhcm.com. Or, you can book a demo to discover the transformative power of Criterion and see how it interacts with ERPs like Acumatica.