Associated Cold Stores

Leading logistics provider selects integrated HR and Payroll

Associated Cold Stores is one of the UK’s leading logistics providers in the food industry. The Company has approximately 500 employees (including casual workers) based at four sites across the UK. The Human Resources Department is based at the Company’s head office in Grimsby.

Associated Cold Stores installed the Mitrefinch HR Manager package in 2000. This was followed by the installation of Flexipay Payroll in April 2003 and TMS Time & Attendance in December 2003. The systems cover all of the staff across the different sites.

Cheryl Telford, Accounts Manager at Associated Cold Stores, says: “As part of a market review, I looked at a number of competing products within the computerised HR system market. At that stage I was particularly interested in time and attendance, and the Mitrefinch system stood out for its wide ranging functionally and integral Fire Evacuation System.

“At the same time we recognised the need for improved record keeping and the Mitrefinch HR Manager system offered the greatest level of benefits from the products on the market. Using the system we have easy access to a wealth of information at our fingertips and can handle staff enquiries quickly and effectively to the benefit of all.”

HR Manager allows companies to spend their valuable time on people and strategy rather than paperwork through an automated and integrated approach to personnel management.

Following the installation of HR Manager, Associated Cold Stores specified Mitrefinch’s Flexipay Payroll package to replace its old computerised system that was failing to meet the company’s growing needs.

Flexipay Payroll is a multi-company and multi-pay group Windows payroll system which allows companies to reduce their payroll department’s administrative workload and supports payments by cash, cheque, BACS and giro. The system performs tax, NI, SSP, SMP and Small Employer's Relief calculations, as well as allowing for deductions such as CSA or Student Loan payments.

Cheryl says: “As with everything practice makes perfect, but Flexipay Payroll is very user friendly and we quickly got the hang of it. The system is extremely flexible and we are able to run our payrolls in the way we want instead of in a set routine as dictated by our previous system.

“We then turned our attention to TMS and consulted closely with Mitrefinch to ensure we were able to use the system to best effect. With staff on a variety of different contracts and based across a range of sites, it is crucial to have the ability to easily and accurately draw together all of the information required to run payrolls on a weekly and monthly basis. Flexipay Payroll allows us to do this by using working hours data exported from TMS.”

Mitrefinch’s TMS Time & Attendance system gives busy managers an easily-accessed overview of staff attendance which enables them to target resources more effectively through improved shift planning and greater budgetary control.

Associated Cold Stores use the systems to generate management information for evaluation and reporting purposed. Reports are run for accounting functions including pensions and payments.

Cheryl says: “The systems include a lot of good pre-designed reports which we use but the real gem is the report writing tool which allows us to customise our reports so that they address the issues which we need to review.”

www.acstlogistics.co.uk