“It’s one system for all ADP clients in the United States,” says Jordi Conrado, VP of product development. The current tax engine and the new one are not visible to users, but underlie all of the company’s payroll and HCM systems.
ADP has begun rolling out the new engine to its small business group, which serves clients with one to 10 employees. Conrado said the company has about a half million clients that are served by the business unit and has been expanding the areas in which the engine is available.. “By now, we are live in about 10 jurisdictions,” he said.
The effort began with small business because of the low level of complexity. ADP will introduce the engine to the midmarket in 2020 and will follow with its upper market products.
Increased automation and real-time information help provide built-in protections that can expose “where errors might exist and reducing opportunities for tax agency notices to occur,” the company said in its announcement. Conrado says internally the new engine reduces the number of tools and steps needed to ensure correct calculations.
Customers will have more current information about tax filings, Conrado notes. For example, currently, if a client company operates in seven jurisdictions, “the client only knows if the filing has been successfully completed after all seven are done,” he says. With the new engine, clients will know the status of filing in each jurisdiction before the whole process is completed. The system is able to report that filing was completed in California, but still pending in Florida, Conrado continues.
