Our first major release of 2022 has arrived. This release contains lots of exciting new features and improved functionality related to all Payroll, Time Tracking, HR, and Benefits modules.

Note: UZIO Mobile application features will be updated by February 11th, 2022.

Each of the following links will bring you to a new page where you can read more details about a specific feature. You can treat this article as a home base for this release's new features!

Quick Links:

HR Features

Flat Amount on Hours Worked Accrual Method Enhancements

UZIO Payroll New Features and Enhancements

UZIO Integration with QuickBooks Online

We're excited to announce that UZIO is now integrated with QuickBooks online. For companies managing their accounting with QuickBooks Online, this integration will free you from administrative headaches of making manual entries to accounting software and give you back your time. It is a two-way integration that syncs payroll liabilities and expenses from UZIO payroll to QuickBooks Online. We also pull your chart of accounts directly from QuickBooks Online and use your chart of accounts to create a journal entry after you map them to pay items in UZIO. There are also options for advanced levels of granularity within the journal entry based on departments, work locations, and QuickBooks Online classes.

To start, you need to create a connection between UZIO and QuickBooks Online. On the bottom part of the home page, you will see a new tile App Store. Enter into this, and you see QuickBooks Online integration is available.

App Store

Connect with QBO

Click on “Connect” and enter your QuickBooks Online credentials to get connected. It is important to note that you must be an employer portal user in UZIO and in the QuickBooks account you are trying to connect to.

Other Deductions to have Minimum and Maximum paycheck limits

Payroll admins can now set up the paycheck minimum and maximum limits for the Custom deductions that have a method as % of Gross Pay. You can do this at both the company level and the employee level. Custom deductions are the ones that you create on your own by choosing “Others” from the master list of deductions to define your deductions.

Add Deduction at Employee Level

Employees with $0 Net Pay

When the employees had a 0 (zero) dollar net pay, these employees were part of the check pay stub report used for printing physical checks to be given to the employee. This was causing the wastage of employers' check stock. Now, UZIO payroll will remove such employees from the check pay stub report.

These employees will also not see a pay stub in their profile.

Special Payrolls with pay date falling on a weekend

Sometimes employers pay their employees through checks with a check date of the weekend. The employers make a manual check entry on UZIO via running the Special payroll. The payroll system was not allowing the payroll admins to make that entry. This restriction is relaxed now. Employers can now process Special and Contractor Payrolls with the pay date falling on a weekend, given that all employees are getting paid by Check.

Payroll Hours and Dollars Input Template

Some clients get the employee work hours through their POS system and convert them into the UZIO payroll input template and other earnings they maintain directly onto the payroll system. The payroll input template uploaded into the system with blank values was overriding to 0 to the values the user entered on the grid. The system behavior is corrected now to not override the value to 0 on the grid when it is blank in the payroll input template.
The payroll input template is updated to provide you with a way to set up rates for the hourly-based earnings. Next time, when you download the template, you will see an additional column as earning rate next to earnings hours. The payroll admins can use the rate column in the sheet to update the employee rates during the payroll processing if they vary with each payroll.

Workers’ Compensation Setup

When you add or make updates to the workers' compensation information at the company or the employee level, the system will now ask to capture the effective date for the changes you make. The system will also enable you to view the change history.

Colorado Employee Withholding Certificate

The Colorado Department of Revenue has released its own state-specific Employee Withholding Certificate called DR 0004. As per the guidelines from the DOR, this form is optional for 2022. But to calculate the state withholdings, UZIO must get the choice of an employee, how do they want us to calculate their withholdings for 2022. We have added a question under the state withholding page for each employee for us to know if employees opt for the 2022 Employee Withholding Certificate (DR 0004) or want us to withhold based on the IRS Form W-4. For all existing employees whose state withholding information is already setup, the default is set to NO.

Time Tracking Features and Enhancements

Holiday and PTO Hours Breakup at Timesheet

The Time Tracking overview screen will now show the approved paid time off and holiday hours separately. Earlier, the users did not have the separate details, and they had to dig for this information at other places on the UZIO. This change is available on both the online portal and mobile app.

Time Tracking Overview Page

Decimal Hours information in the Time Tracking Reports

Recently, we updated the time tracking to display time in HH: MM (Hours:Minutes) format across the module, including the Payroll Hours Summary report and time entry report to show the hours in HH: MM format. Some customers wanted to have the hours in decimal format as it was easier to do mathematical calculations. We heard the feedback from our customers, and with this release, we have added the decimal format back to the report. Now the report will show the information in both formats.

Time Entries Report

Payroll Hours Summary Report

Mobile App Enhancements

In the last few releases, we made significant changes to the UZIO Mobile app to enhance the user experience and added more functionalities. In continuation to that exercise, we made a few improvements to the mobile app.

The users can enter their user id and password on a single page. Earlier it was on two separate pages.
In time tracking, when the employees are on a break, their location through mobile GPS will not be tracked now on.
The pay stubs screen has a revised user interface.

Mobile App New UI Reference Screens

HR New Features and Enhancements

Flat Amount on Hours Worked Accrual Method Enhancements

Time Off policy accrual schedule “Flat Amount on Hours Worked” has been improved. You can now create multiple accrual schedules when using this accrual method in your time off policies.

Using this method, you can accrue your employees' PTO based on the hours they work, setting up the schedule in any way you wish. The different accrual amounts can be set based on employees' dates of employment or work anniversaries.

In addition, a new waiting rule "the first day of the year following _____ work anniversary" has been added, which can be applied to any accrual method, including Flat Amount on Hours Worked.

Time Off Policy Accrual Schedule Section

Benefits New Features and Enhancements

Spanish Support for Benefit Related Emails

In the last major release of 2021, we have added Spanish language support on the Employee Portal. To further support our Spanish-speaking clients, UZIO now supports Spanish content in benefits-related emails. The default language used in the email will be as per the preferred language of the employee set in UZIO. The users can switch to reading it either in English or Spanish while viewing the benefits-related emails.

Spanish Email Example

Class Change Event Process Enhancement

The system now offers an option to broker and employer users to create a class change LSC when the class is changed in the employee profile. This will allow clients to immediately file a class change LSC so that employees will receive the necessary benefit offering based on their new class.

Initiate Class Change LSC Pop Up

Add Benefits to a Benefit Package for Existing Classes

The broker users can now edit the benefits package and add the benefits to any existing class that was not a part of the package initially while setting up the benefits package. It is now possible to do, even after the benefits proposal and the coverages are in effect.

Deactivation of Clients

When a broker wants to deactivate a client in UZIO, they can do it now in a self-service manner from the actions drop-down on the client listing page. Once deactivated, the employer users and their employees will no longer have access to UZIO and the system will stop sending all email notifications. The brokers can also schedule a client for deactivation in the future. The date can be edited or canceled up until the deactivation date.

Miscellaneous Enhancements

2-Step Verification

UZIO as software for all your HR, Payroll, and Benefit needs contains some of your most sensitive information. You can now add an extra layer of security to your account to secure your company’s and employee’s vital information. We have introduced a 2-step verification process (also known as multi-factor authentication).

After you set up 2-Step Verification, you’ll sign into your account in two steps using:

Something you know, like your password
Something you have, like your phone

UZIO strongly recommends that you enable this extra layer of security for your account to prevent unauthorized access and keep your details safe.

To set up 2-step verification, sign in to your UZIO account. Click your profile name that appears in the upper-right corner and click on the Account Information. You will see 2-Step verification on the right side navigation.

When you set up 2-step verification, you’ll be prompted to choose a second verification method apart from simply entering a password. You have a few options to choose from, but before that, you need to authenticate your account by entering your login credentials

2-Step Verifications Setup

From the choices available to verify your account, you can use an authentication app such as Google Authenticator or Authy to complete the setup.

For details on how to complete and maintain the 2-Step Verification setup, click here to learn more

Additional ways to login to the UZIO platform

Logging into the UZIO platform is easier than ever. You can log into UZIO with your existing Google, LinkedIn, or Microsoft accounts. You will see new login options added on the UZIO login page.

Login Page with Social Login

Before you use the new ways to log in to UZIO, you must link your other login accounts to set them up first. This enables you to have multiple ways to login to your UZIO portal.

To set up additional login methods, sign in to your UZIO account. Click your profile name that appears in the upper-right corner and click on the Account Information. You will then see Login Accounts on the right side navigation.

Managing Different Login Accounts

Similarly, when a new user gets a registration email, they would not necessarily be required to create a UZIO login account. The users can link either Google, LinkedIn, or Microsoft onto the UZIO portal to complete a UZIO account setup.

This new capability comes with more flexibility and ease of set up, thus, the existing Enterprise Login feature has been deprecated.

Note: Those who are using enterprise login can continue to use their work credentials by clicking login with Google or Microsoft.

For details on how to do a complete and maintain the setup, click here to learn more.

If you’d like to read about our last major release from November'21, click here.

Articles in this section

UZIO Product Updates, February 2022

Payroll Features

Time Tracking Features