Pegasus Opera3

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We are binning our current Construction Industry Financial software and Pegasus Opera 3 is under serious consideration. Wondering if anyone has used it and would be prepared to share views? Is it as good and solid in it's structure as Sage? We can't use Sage as it doesn't have a good construction project management "bit" that integrates well.
All comments greatly appreciated

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By DMGbus
05th May 2016 13:24

I have to use Pegasus Opera PAYROLL sofware (not the CIS addon).
Personally I find it a horremndous piece of kit, here's why:
PEGASUS OPERA IS SUB-STANDARD ON SO MANY LEVELS

1. Saving .pdf copies of payroll docs – file/folder navigation is “blind” ie. cannot see other .pdf docs on desktop or in folders
2. Saving .pdf copies of payroll docs – limited file name length
3. Saving .pdf copies of payroll docs – cannot use mix or lower & upper case letters
4. If an RTI filing fails then it is extremely difficult to navigate / find the failed filing RTI file (EPS/FPS) to try and re-file it – necessary in practical terms to re-create the EPS or FPS again the re-file it
5. Backing up data is “out of the ark” – cannot back up an individual client if anyone else is using the software – like the .pdf saving routine cannot easily navigate and see other back up files
6. Backing up the data takes less than a minute in other software (eg. Brightpay and Basic Tools) but typically takes about 5 minutes per client in Pegasus Opera
7. Many other software products include at no extra charge employee communications capability for Automatic Enrolment (thus averting the need for a costly middleware solution)
8. Some other payroll products can transmit AE data direct to the pension provider averting the time-costly need to extract .csv files and manipulate the data to suit pension provider
9. For EPS filings HMRC require cumulative data (eg. SMP recovery, CIS deductions credit) – other software is easy to use in this respect – just type in the tax month figures and the software calculates the cumulative figures – in Pegasus Opera have to manually compute the cumulative figures and enter these into the software
10. End of tax year routine – have to re-input cumulate EPS figures (extra work – easily forgotten given that other payroll software does not include this inconvenient extra time costly routine)
11. Employment Allowance – P32 – a manual process is involved with Pegasus Opera, other software does the maths automatically to claim the EA rather than having a need for user manual intervention with a calculator in hand
12. End of tax year routine (to get new tax year installed) – with modern payroll software it is a simple easy user-applied process taking less than half a day (with some proper payroll software it is actually less than 30 minutes work) – in contrast Pegasus Opera involves the costly use of a Pegasus “partner” (eg. TSG Ltd) – perhaps at several hundred pounds cost, and the software may well be unusable for a day or more whilst the process is carried out
13. Forms P60 – with other software (eg. Basic Tools, BrightPay, Moneysoft) there is absolutely no need to use pre-printed P60 forms – these other software products easily and intuitively produce perfectly adequate P60 forms in .pdf format that can be printed on plain paper (no extra module / high installation costs). With Opera the silly time-consuming routine of having to use pre-printed (with blank boxes to get data aligned / printed into) P60 forms is required with issues of misaligned figures / boxes sometimes encountered – apparently there IS a way of producing .pdf format P60 forms in Pegasus in Opera but according to Pegasus Support partner this involves setting up an eMail and then password protecting .pdfs – a typical Pegasus Opera rigamarole – what might take a few seconds in Brightpay is a several minutes job in Pegasus Opera, PS I did eventually find a hidden routine to quickly create plain paper .pdf P60 forms, but not told how by Pegasus support - had to find it myself (a drop down menu / FRX file)

March 2016

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By KaySarah
05th May 2016 14:48

Thank you for your quick reply. I was looking more for the functionality of the Accounting side of Opera3 as well as the CIS/project management side. We aren't a payroll bureau. I can sympathise with your frustrations though.

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