Payroll Requirements Draft PWS 18 Apr 22.pdf

American Battle Monuments Commission

Request for Proposal for Provision of Multi-Country Payroll Managed Services

Contents

Confidentiality and other notices

Part One: Scope of Services

1.1 Background

1.2 Special Conditions

1.2 Objectives

1.3 Scope of services

Services

Project Timeline

Part Two: Evaluation Criteria, Process and Timetable

2.1 Evaluation Criteria

2.2 Selection process

Part Three: Statement of Work

3.1 Payroll Service

3.2 Controls and compliance

3.3 Implementation

3.4 Pricing

3.5 Qualification and Reputation

3.6 Governance

Appendix I: Country/Employees list

Appendix II: Responses

Appendix III: Payment Process

Appendix IV: General Ledger File Process

Confidentiality and other notices

The information provided in this document is strictly confidential, and is provided solely for the purpose of requesting a proposal. The contents of this document must not be disclosed to any third party without the prior written consent of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

If your organization decides not to submit a Proposal, please delete all copies of this document.

By submitting your proposal, you agree that the American Battle Monuments Commission reserves the right to accept all or any part of any proposal at its sole discretion, and is not bound to accept either the lowest quotation or any quotation received.

Part One: Scope of Services

1.1 Background

The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the US government, established by legislation in 1923. It maintains military cemeteries and memorials in countries around the world commemorating the US war dead.

ABMC is staffed by around 500 full-time civilian employees, around 90 of whom are US citizens. The remaining 410+ civilian employees are foreign nationals (LES, or locally employed staff) employed in the 10 countries where ABMC cemeteries are located – six in Europe (France, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Luxembourg), plus the Philippines, Tunisia, Panama, and Mexico.

This RFP covers payroll services for foreign national employees only in 8 of those 10 countries, excluding Panama and the Philippines. See Appendix I for the list of countries and foreign national employee populations covered by this RFP, which range from 240 in France, down to two in Mexico.

The agency is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, USA and has an Overseas office in Paris, France, where HR and finance directorates oversee the administration of foreign nationals worldwide.

1.2 Special Conditions

In addition to providing multi-country payroll managed services, please note that:

• While ABMC is part of the foreign mission of the government of the United States it is not considered an “embassy” and is not exempt from local labor practices.

• ABMC makes all payroll and benefits payments directly from the United States Department of the Treasury and cannot use the services of a commercial bank to make payments. (See Appendix III for more details.)

• Accounting services are outsourced through a shared service agreement with the US Department of the Interior in Denver, Colorado. This is an Oracle-based accounting system, and the payroll service provider will be required to provide a balanced general ledger (GL) output file for accounting. (See Appendix IV for more details.)

• The majority of ABMC employees do not have access to a computer, so ABMC requires the capability for timekeepers to manage electronic timecards and other leave management duties on behalf of other employees.

1.2 Objectives

The main objective is to deliver an accurate, timely monthly payroll to ABMC foreign national employees that is compliant with both local labor laws and ABMC internal regulations.

1.3 Scope of services

Services The scope of services for this project covers a typical set of payroll managed services across all 8 countries listed in Appendix I. These services include:

• Time and Labor/Attendance, with associated absence and leave management

• Gross to Net Processing

• Pay slips

• Disbursements

• Inbound & Outbound interfaces

• Legal & Statutory reporting

• Lodgment service to local authorities

• Employee queries

• Year-end preparation

• Year-end report distribution

The anticipated contract period of performance is for one base year plus four additional option years.

Project Timeline ABMC will agree on a timeline with the chosen supplier. However, its goal is to select a provider in accordance with the Selection Timeline outlined in Part Two below and to commence implementation no later than October 2022.

Part Two: Evaluation Criteria, Process and Timetable

2.1 Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria, in descending order of importance:

1. Technical Approach, including details regarding

a. Payroll service

b. Controls and compliance

c. Implementation

d. Foreign Governance

2. Past Performance

3. Price

2.2 Selection process

ABMC’s requirements are specified in Part Three. Please submit your proposal by email to XXXXXXXXXXXXX no later than XXXXXXX. Pricing details must be submitted in an editable Excel file.

Supplementary information may also be provided in Microsoft Word or PDF format.

Should you have any questions about this Request For Proposal, please contact XXXXXXXXXX

ABMC anticipates award by XXXXX, pending availability of funds.

Part Three: Statement of Work

This section specifies ABMC’s detailed requirements. As indicated in Part Two above, please address all requirements in your proposal.

Please submit your proposal using the attached spreadsheets in Appendix II.

3.1 Payroll Service

A. Contractor shall provide a comprehensive suite of payroll managed services for the eight countries listed in Appendix I. The services shall cover the full payroll cycle, including calculation, payment, reporting, and employee service.

B. If the Contractor engages with a third party to provide the service on its behalf in any proposed serviced country, it must be clearly indicated in the proposal along with a description of selection process.

C. The Contractor shall indicate in which countries lodgments services to local government authorities are provided.

D. The Contractor shall indicate in which countries it manages disbursements to authorities.

E. The Contractor shall prepare all the legal & statutory reports for the eight countries listed in

Attachment I.

F. The Contractor shall provide a Time & Attendance service for the countries listed in

Attachment I, including the ability for some employees to manage timekeeping duties on behalf of other employees.

G. The Contractor shall provide a central employee system of record and describe in the proposal how changes to this system are managed.

H. The Contractor shall provide electronic pay slips for the countries listed in Attachment I.

I. The proposal shall include a description of the technology platform, including architecture, interfaces, and portal, including detail by country where relevant. Additionally, explain if and to what extent the proposed system can or will be configured to ABMC’s specific business needs.

J. The Contractor shall generate an International Treasury Services (ITS) file to meet ABMC's requirements as detailed in Appendix III.

K. The Contractor shall generate a GL output file to meet ABMC's requirements as detailed in Appendix IV.

L. The Contractor shall provide business reporting for the proposed service, including consolidated reports, standard reports, custom reports, self-generated reports, and reports from the Time & Attendance solution. The proposal should explain the degree of data consolidation offered.

M. The proposal must clearly indicate and describe:

a. how disbursements will be provided for each serviced country, including the use of subcontractors, escalation process, cut-off times, governance, and communication channels;

b. any known constraints, by country, to your payroll service, including date constraints, gross-ups, and retro calculations;

c. how payroll cut off times are determined;

d. out-of-cycle pay run process, including roles, responsibilities, and cut-off times;

e. If applicable, details of how multiple country payrolls from shared service locations are managed, including the knowledge and qualifications of Shared Service Center (SSC) staff;

f. the range of languages supported by the service team, and whether English language support will be provided in each country;

g. how the proposed service will support new hires and terminations;

h. year-end process, including roles, responsibilities, and timelines;

i. processes for managing and escalating employee and corporate customer service queries.

3.2 Controls and compliance

A. The Contractor shall document a legal and statutory change process, including specific details regarding how changes are communicated to the client.

B. The Contractor shall, upon request, provide a report itemizing all changes to pay items per employee in an audit log.

C. The Contractor shall document the encryption standard and methodologies used to protect customer data, including during transport, storage, and processing. The proposal must include an overview of data storage, back-up, and protection procedures, as well as record management procedures.

D. The Contractor shall maintain an information security policy, including compliance with ISO 17799 or any other relevant information security standards.

E. The Contractor shall maintain compliance with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and all applicable data protection & privacy laws of the countries listed in Attachment I.

F. The Contractor shall prepare and maintain a Business Continuity Plan for the countries listed in Attachment I.

G. If applicable, the Contractor shall provide a copy of its SSAE16 audit report.

3.3 Implementation

A. The Contractor shall propose a project management approach, including standard project management methodologies utilized.

B. The Contractor shall propose an indicative implementation timeframe/time range per country, using the countries/employee populations listed in Attachment I.

C. The Contractor shall have the ability to transfer/import personnel and year-to-date payroll data from other payroll services.

D. The Contractor shall provide a list of key personnel and their qualifications by country.

E. If applicable, the proposal shall include proposed blueprinting/UAT testing/parallel running processes for this project.

F. The Contractor shall deliver a plan to transition from the implementation phase to continuing sustained operations.

G. The Contractor shall provide training for pre-implementation, during, and post-implementation.

3.4 Pricing

A. Prices for the proposed effort should include costs broken out by cost element (e.g. labor, subcontracts, software licenses, indirect costs, other direct cots, profit, etc.), for one base year and four additional option years.

B. Pricing data shall include price per monthly pay slip, ongoing costs per cycle (bi-weekly or monthly), and year-end costs for each country in Appendix I.

C. The Contractor shall provide the Implementation (including integration) cost per country for the proposed service, to include transferring data from the incumbent.

D. The Contractor shall provide the price to implement the ITS and GL files as specified in Appendix III and IV.

E. The Contractor shall provide the cost structure used for change requests, for example adding new pay codes, or configuring non-standard reports.

F. Pricing data must clearly indicate if there is a charge for out-of-cycle pay runs or distribution of year-end forms.

G. The Contractor shall break out and outline all training included as part of the implementation costs as well as any additional training costs that could be incurred.

3.5 Qualification and Reputation

A. The proposal shall indicate:

a. where the company is headquartered;

b. relevant details regarding company's funding and financial health;

c. length of time providing multi-country payroll services;

d. the size of the Contractor’s multinational client base, relevant populations (e.g.

industry type), and scope of services provided.

B. For each of the countries listed in Appendix I, the Contractor shall list the countries where it has live clients and indicate whether employee populations are of a similar size to those in Appendix I.

C. The Contractor shall provide at least three references with reference contact information as part of the proposal.

3.6 Governance

A. The Contractor shall provide details regarding its overall governance model, including communications, escalation, change management and conflict resolution.

B. The Contractor shall provide an account management structure, including details about the roles and responsibilities.

C. The Contractor shall deliver a report detailing performance management, measurements, & review process for both implementation and sustaining, including samples of the indicators and measures used.

D. The Contractor shall include in its proposal any applicable details regarding how manual forms are handled, e.g. court orders.

Appendix I: Country/Employees list

Country Employees France 240 Belgium 37 Italy 35 Netherlands 17 England 14 Luxembourg 11 Tunisia 12 Mexico 2 Total 368

Appendix II: Responses

Please use the embedded Excel spreadsheet to record your responses to the requirements. If required, you may submit longer answers in Word/PDF documents.

As explained in Part Two, in order to reduce the time and resource required to prepare your initial proposal, we have divided the questions into two parts.

• Standard questions require an answer with your proposal

• Supplementary questions, colored red in the attachment, may be addressed during individual discussions and are only for informational purposes.

Vendor Selection Questions.xlsx

Appendix III: Payment Process

As stated in Section 1.2 ABMC makes all payroll and benefits payments directly from the United States Department of the Treasury and cannot use the services of a commercial bank to make payments. Because of this ABMC may require the payroll vendor to provide bank services in limited circumstances where payments must be with withdrawn from ABMC funds held in the payroll vendor’s account rather than paid by ABMC directly to an external entity.

In addition, because the Department of the Treasury must convert all payments from USD to local currency prior to disbursement, ABMC requires payroll providers to support the following process:

1. At the time pay slips are being previewed, but prior to payment:

a. A payroll authorization file must be generated for each country that reflects payments and accruals in both USD and the local currency, using a standard currency exchange rate provided by ABMC.

b. A Gross-to-Net file should be generated for each country that reflects the total expenses in both USD and local currency, using a standard currency exchange rate provided by ABMC.

2. After pay slips have been approved, but no sooner than three days prior to payment, ABMC will provide payroll with a market-rate USD to local currency exchange rate for each country. At this time:

a. A payroll authorization file must be generated for each country that reflects payments and accruals in both USD and the local currency, using the market currency exchange rate provided by ABMC.

b. A Gross-to-Net file must be generated for each country that reflects the total expenses in both USD and local currency, using the market currency exchange rate provided by ABMC.

c. An “International Treasury Services” (ITS) file must be generated for each country that contains the details of each payment to be processed that month. These ASCII files must contain data formatted according to the specification document attached below. ABMC will process these files for payment by the Department of the Treasury.

ITS Standard File Format - Advanced R

Appendix IV: General Ledger File Process

As stated in Section 1.2 ABMC’s accounting services are outsourced through a shared service agreement with the US Department of the Interior Business Center (IBC) in Denver, Colorado. This is an Oracle-based accounting system, and the payroll service provider will be required to provide balanced GL output files for accounting for each country. These ASCII text files must contain data formatted according to the specification document attached below.

GL Specifications.pdf