My Muscle Chef

We spoke to Sanak Ahmed, My Muscle Chef’s Finance Manager, about his experience using KeyPay. Sanak was looking for a more reliable payroll for a growing team, to reduce time spent on interpretation of the Manufacturing Award, and to improve the timesheet management process.

Results overview:

• Reduced time spent on payroll by at least 50%
• Streamlined and more reliable timesheet management process
• Ability to manage a growing team with scalable payroll software
• Elimination of manual award calculations
• Improved efficiency of management decisions through reporting
  

The situation before KeyPay

“Before we began using KeyPay, we were using Xero for payroll, integrating with Deputy for rostering and time and attendance. Xero wasn’t efficient for payroll beyond around 20 people, and as the team grew and grew, we needed a change. The payroll situation previously was a slow, manual process. You had to exit windows to get to the next employee; but with KeyPay it just takes a click on a drop down tab.

We considered a few options and went with KeyPay because the award compliance is a big part of our payroll with the Manufacturing Award. KeyPay has been a lot more efficient and better in terms of payroll - it’s definitely been a good move for us. We now use most of its features - award interpretation, time and attendance, rostering, and payroll.”

KeyPay’s award interpretation

“The payroll part of KeyPay is phenomenal. Award compliance is very easy. Once the award is set and we import the timesheets, the system automatically applies penalty rates, the loadings, and so forth. It’s quick and really simple to work with. When I do award interpretation and the entire payroll process in KeyPay for 600 employees it takes about 2 hours each pay day; with Xero it used to take around 5 hours. I’ve reduced time spent on payroll by at least 50%.

Award interpretation with Xero just didn’t always work. There were times we had to do manual calculations because awards don’t really translate properly. The Manufacturing Award is based on the end time of the employee, and what KeyPay does is calculate it per the timesheet. It’s a lot smoother.”

Timesheet management

“In the past, with Deputy, the timesheets were kind of all over the shop and it’s certainly a lot cleaner with KeyPay. We now have the confidence to rely on the timesheets, and it’s very easy for our supervisors and managers to review and approve them. There have been a lot of time savings there.”

Payroll reporting

“My favourite thing about KeyPay is reporting. It’s very helpful with location reporting. It allows us to track performance of our factory labour and measure efficiency and costs. It’s very helpful to business and management decisions. When logging payroll tax - the payroll tax report makes it very easy. We employ staff in different states, so we just plot the report, put figures in and lodge the tax very easily.”