Rippling

1. What is Rippling?

Positioning: Rippling is a comprehensive employee management platform focused on unifying HR, IT, and Finance operations into a single, cohesive system. It aims to automate complex administrative tasks across the employee lifecycle, from onboarding to offboarding, for businesses of all sizes globally.

Functional Panorama: Rippling covers several integrated modules, categorized into three main clouds:

• HR Cloud: Includes Payroll, Benefits Administration, HR Management, Time & Attendance, Recruiting, Learning Management, and Performance Management.
• IT Cloud: Encompasses App Management (provisioning and de-provisioning SaaS apps), Device Management (laptops, mobile devices), and Identity Management.
• Finance Cloud: Features Expense Management, Corporate Cards, Payroll (integrated), and Bill Pay.

Additionally, Rippling offers Global PEO (Professional Employer Organization) and EOR (Employer of Record) services, enabling companies to hire and manage employees anywhere in the world compliantly.

2. Rippling’s Use Cases

• Startups & Small Businesses: Can use Rippling to streamline initial HR setup, automate payroll, manage basic IT needs (like software access), and ensure compliance without needing multiple disparate systems.
• Mid-Market Companies: Utilize Rippling for scaling operations, managing complex global payroll and benefits, automating IT provisioning for growing teams, and consolidating various departmental workflows into one system.
• Enterprises: Leverage Rippling’s advanced features for sophisticated global workforce management, detailed reporting and analytics across HR, IT, and Finance, and ensuring consistent policy enforcement across diverse departments and geographies.
• HR Professionals: Can use Rippling for efficient onboarding/offboarding, managing employee data, running payroll, administering benefits, and ensuring HR compliance.
• IT Administrators: Use Rippling to automate software provisioning, manage company devices, ensure cybersecurity, and streamline access control for employees across various applications.
• Finance Teams: Employ Rippling for centralized expense management, corporate card administration, payroll processing, and gaining a unified view of employee-related costs.

3. Rippling’s Key Features

• Unified Employee Data System: A core feature allowing all employee information (HR, IT, Finance) to reside in one system, reducing manual data entry and ensuring consistency.
• Automated Onboarding & Offboarding: Streamlines the process of hiring and terminating employees, automatically setting up payroll, benefits, software accounts, and device access upon hire, and revoking them upon departure.
• Global Payroll & Benefits: Supports payroll processing and benefits administration in over 140 countries, handling local tax and compliance requirements.
• Enhanced AI-Powered Expense Categorization: Added in early 2024, enabling quicker and more accurate categorization of employee expenses using artificial intelligence.
• Expanded Global Employer of Record (EOR) Coverage: Recent enhancements broadened EOR services to more countries, facilitating compliant hiring in new markets without establishing local entities.
• Improved Custom Reporting & Analytics: Users frequently recommend improved flexibility in creating custom reports for cross-departmental data analysis, which Rippling has continuously refined, with recent UI updates in early 2024.

4. How to Use Rippling?

Official Workflow:

1. Employee Onboarding: Initiate by entering basic employee details. Rippling then prompts for payroll setup, benefits enrollment, software application provisioning, and device ordering/setup.
2. Day-to-day Management: Use the centralized dashboard to manage payroll runs, approve time-off requests, process expense reports, grant or revoke software access, and handle device assignments.
3. Offboarding: Mark an employee as terminated, and Rippling automatically initiates the process of removing them from payroll, terminating benefits, deactivating software accounts, and initiating device retrieval.

Pro Tips:

3. Automate Workflows: Leverage Rippling’s custom workflow builder to automate routine tasks, such as triggering an IT ticket when a new hire’s device needs setup, or notifying HR when a probation period ends.
4. Utilize Rippling Payroll & Benefits Directly: For seamless data flow and reduced errors, opt to use Rippling’s integrated payroll and benefits instead of connecting to external providers where possible.
5. Explore Integration Marketplace: Regularly check Rippling’s app marketplace for new integrations with your existing business tools to maximize data synchronization and avoid manual inputs.

5. Rippling’s Pricing & Access

• Core Platform: Rippling’s pricing model starts with a base “Core Platform” fee per employee, which provides the foundational employee system of record.
• Module-Based Add-ons: Additional costs apply for each specific module added (Payroll, Benefits Admin, App Management, Device Management). Pricing for each module is also typically per employee.
• Custom Quotes: Rippling does not publish fixed pricing tiers online but provides custom quotes based on company size, chosen modules, and global requirements.
• Limited-Time Offers: While not consistently advertised, tech media and business forums occasionally report introductory discounts or bundled pricing for new customers during specific sales periods, particularly for larger multi-module contracts in early 2024.
• PEO/EOR Services: These are separate services with distinct pricing structures, typically involving a percentage of payroll or a fixed fee per employee, varying by country.

6. Rippling’s Comprehensive Advantages

• Unified Platform Superiority: Rippling’s ability to consolidate HR, IT, and Finance functions into a single system provides a significant advantage over competitors, reducing data silos and improving operational efficiency by over 30% for many users.
• Automation Efficiency: Its strength in automating cross-departmental workflows significantly reduces manual administrative burden, setting it apart from competitors that often require manual coordination between systems.
• Global Scale & Compliance: Rippling’s robust global payroll and EOR capabilities allow companies to expand internationally with less complexity, offering local compliance knowledge that often surpasses the capabilities of more regionally focused HR platforms.
• High User Satisfaction: Market recognition data from independent review platforms like G2 and Capterra consistently rate Rippling highly across its core modules, particularly for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive feature set.