Customer Care Membership

By Stephanie Elsen

Customer Care Membership

Customer Care Membership with Red Wing Software gives customers a comprehensive package of benefits for using its accounting and payroll software products. Included in Customer Care Membership are unlimited phone and e-mail support, product version updates and enhancements, and of course tax table updates. Once customers try Customer Care Membership, a large percentage of them see the value and renew each year. (January 2013 renewal rate=89.75 %.)

Here are some interesting facts about Red Wing Software Customer Care Membership.

  • Support team members have an average of 13 years of experience at Red Wing Software.
  • 100% of product updates come from customer suggestions.
  • Customer Care Members are provided with a toll-free number to call, which rings directly into the team supporting the product they are using.
  • Support is 100% U.S. based.
  • Product updates can be done online via the internet, or customers can receive updates on a CD via mail.
  • Detailed training videos and documents by subject are available to Customer Care Members.

The Person Behind the Voice – Mike Zielski

My name is Mike Zielski. I am the Quality Assurance Manager here at Red Wing Software. Red Wing Software has been my home away from home for the past 12 years. I am responsible for delivering quality software releases to our customers.

My daily commute to Red Wing Software involves a 30 mile trek from River Falls, WI, where I am originally from, and continue to live with my wife Kathryn and 8-year-old daughter Kadence.

When I am not stressing over a product release, I love to travel and cheer on my Wisconsin Badger sports teams. Some of our most recent trips have been to New York City, Washington D.C., Mexico and Pasadena, California for the past three Rose Bowl football games.

My last trip to the Rose Bowl was a hectic one, but as a big Badger fan, it was worth it!

My summarized itinerary…

December 31st:

  • Took a flight at 5:00 p.m. (CST) from Minneapolis to Las Vegas.
  • Rented a car and drove from Las Vegas to a hotel in East Los Angeles (about a 3.5 hour drive). I arrived about 11:30 p.m. (PST).

January 1st:

  • Drove to the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California and parked my car at 5:30 a.m. (PST).
  • Walked about two miles up to the Rose Bowl Parade and claimed my spot for the 8:00 a.m. Rose Parade.
  • Watched the parade until 10:00 a.m. and walked back down to the Rose Bowl Stadium.
  • Watched the football game.
  • Left the game about 6:00 p.m. and drove down to San Diego (about a 1.5 to 2 hour drive) to stay overnight at my brother-in-law’s apartment.

January 2nd:

  • Caught a flight back home from San Diego at 9:30 a.m. (PST) with a layover in Denver.

…whew…

Our next big adventure is a trip to Disney World in Florida in March. Wish us luck!

Mike Zielski

These Red Wing Software customers have made news. We are proud of our customers!

CenterPoint Payroll Software customer, M.A. & Sons, was featured in the December issue of Successful Farming. In the article, “Growing Chiles the Garay Way”, Mary Alice Garay and her sons discuss the challenges, as well as their successes competing in New Mexico’s Hatch Valley, the Chile Capital of the World.

Red Wing Software CenterPoint Accounting and Payroll customer Dick Wittman was featured in the December issue of Farm Futures. In the article, “Beyond Basic Bookkeeping”, Dick discusses how the benefits of professional, financial management, can add value to your business.

Lambert VanderMade, a CenterPoint Accounting and Payroll customer, is featured monthly in the Dairy Today publication in the section, Dollars and Sense.

Red Wing Software CenterPoint Accounting and Payroll customer Sunburst Dairy, was featured in the January 1, issue of Progressive Dairyman, as a panel member in a roundtable discussion on A.I. & Breeding.

Payroll Software – Who Needs Earnings and Deductions?

By Stephanie Elsen

Who Needs Earnings and Deductions

You know the answer if you are responsible for payroll at your organization. An earning code represents the calculation used to calculate an employee’s pay, such as hourly, salaried, bonus, etc. A deduction code does the same for an employee’s deductions, such as 401K, wage garnishment, etc.

Most payroll software programs include a standard set of earning and deduction codes for you to choose from. If your needs become more complex than your payroll system can handle with the standard codes, be sure that your system includes the ability to customize the codes so you can calculate earnings and deductions correctly. If your system doesn’t allow you to customize the codes, you will need to figure out a way to do the calculations outside the payroll system, and enter them into the system by hand. This is inconvenient and inefficient.

A good example of this is a wage garnishment deduction. An employee’s garnishment calculation must be done correctly, and wage garnishments can vary greatly by employee. You need to ensure garnishments are calculated and deducted correctly from employee pay checks. If the system will not allow you to create the code to meet your needs, you will need to calculate it elsewhere and enter by hand.

CenterPoint Payroll Software has a set of standard earning and deduction codes available. And you can also customize as many codes as you need to, so you won’t have to be using spreadsheets or entering data by hand.