Many clients that subscribe to Paychex 401(k) services receive discounts early in the contract. Over time, the company recaptures this revenue by reducing the discounts year by year until eventually eliminating them. This gradual phaseout means discount decisions can get complex fast.

"In the interest of customer retention, we typically avoid removing the discounts all at once, which would result in a sizable price increase for the client," explains Doug Baxter, director of financial operations for Paychex. However, the company's billing software was not designed to accommodate this approach. "The system perpetuates the same discount for a particular client until an employee goes in and changes it. So, in the past, we had a manual process for figuring out how to adjust discounts."

This process was cumbersome for everyone involved. Managers in the 401(k) business unit would set a high-level rolldown percentage. The service reporting team would use Microsoft Access to combine dozens of datasets and generate an initial list of discounts for specific clients, a process that involved more than 100 Access queries. Accounts receivable (A/R) specialists would then analyze each client relationship within multiple Excel spreadsheets to develop a discount for the client for the coming year, and would work with the customer service department to anticipate and mitigate potential issues related to the price change.