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In this Article:
Clayton Achen, Managing Partner at Achen Henderson CPAs as well as leader of the firm’s Guru service line, which delivers fractional controllership, CFO services, and a full suite of payroll services to small businesses. This includes getting a small business set up on a payroll provider, teaching them how to drive their system, and even process payroll.
One of Guru’s first clients was a fast-growing, high-volume hair salon with a complex compensation model and major payroll challenges.
A Complex Payroll Challenge
The salon’s payroll was completely manual and error-prone. Staff were paid by handwritten cheques after running calculations through the CRA online tool. Salon staff were also receiving various pay types, including salary, hourly, and a variety of different commission types. Key issues included:
- Time drain: The salon owner spent 6-10 hours per week collecting data, calculating pay, and making adjustments to correct those who were underpaid or overpaid.
- Data chaos: Inconsistent timing and format of data from the salon’s CRM made payroll entry tedious and riddled with errors.
- Missed remittances: Frequent CRA late penalties due to incorrect or delayed payments.
- Low morale: Staff received late or incorrect pay, leading to frustration and turnover.
“If you look at the time that was going into payroll; the information gathering and compiling, then entering the information, followed by the calculations, then fixing last week’s mistakes and dealing with the CRA… the salon owner was spending 6-10 hours a week on payroll.”
De-Tangling Complexity for a Smoother Payroll Experience
Achen Henderson stepped in with a multi-pronged approach to streamline and automate payroll. The first step was identifying, collecting, and exporting all the necessary information, as well as understanding how that information flowed. The next big step was working with salon staff to educate them on the importance of entering information in a timely manner to ensure they were paid accurately and on time.
Lastly, the Achen Henderson team identified Wagepoint as their payroll solution; designing a form to enter all relevant payroll data and easily import to the system. To breakdown each step of their approach:
- Data Wrangling:
- Analyzed the salon’s CRM and sales tracking system.
- Extracted consistent, usable reports for payroll.
- Reduced manual tweaks by standardizing outputs.
- Stakeholder and Staff Engagement:
- Educated staff on timely data entry.
- Assigned accountability for supply tracking and usage reporting.
- Wagepoint Identified Solution and Implementation:
- Achen Henderson worked with them to collect and corral all the data points, identifying Wagepoint as the payroll system to leverage to manage this client’s payroll because of the easy-to-use interface, automation, and simple data entry and import.
- Customized set up of salaried, hourly, and commission-based employees.
- Integrated with bank accounts for automatic direct deposit and CRA remittances.
- Also integrated with key business tools like QBO and Xero.
- Introduced digital pay stubs and TD1 form tracking.
“We set them all up in Wagepoint with various pay types, withholdings, and all of that. And now all of the payroll calculations are happening automatically, there’s no more manual entry because there’s an integration that imports the data straight across.”
The Final Result: Hours Saved and Payroll Issues Eliminated
Within 3-4 weeks, the team at Achen Henderson had the salon’s payroll turned around. The salon no longer had any issues or CRA penalties to manage, and staff morale was greatly improved. Other results included:
- Drastic Time Savings:
- Salon owner time spent on payroll dropped from 6–10 hours/week to 20–25 minutes.
- Achen Henderson team reduced their internal time to ~1 hour/week for payroll processing.
- Data Consistency:
- Reliable reports pulled directly from the CRM.
- Minimal manual correction required.
- Zero CRA Penalties:
- Automated remittances ensured compliance and on-time payments.
- Improved Team Morale:
- Staff received consistent, accurate pay on time.
- Turnover decreased and trust was rebuilt.
“Wagepoint is a fantastic tool for those who want an easier payroll. It integrates with certain tools that others don’t and removes manual data entry, so our client can be out selling and growing their business instead of dealing with payroll nightmares.”
By focusing first on wrangling data and then automating payroll through Wagepoint, Achen Henderson helped their client reclaim time, reduce errors, and improve both compliance and employee satisfaction. For small businesses with complex pay structures, a streamlined system can make all the difference. Interested in seeing how Wagepoint can work for your clients? Book a demo today.
