Providing online answers to complicated payrolls

ROSS GIBLIN

TIME SAVER: Flexitime managing director Robert Owen has software that will help companies with staff who work irregular hours. At rear is Sean Golding, the manager of Hashigo Zake bar.

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A payroll system built out of frustration at repeating administrative tasks has built up more than 100 clients in a year and is now mulling an expansion into Britain.

Flexitime, a cloud-based system accessed through the internet to manage staff payroll, was founded by software developers Robert Owen and Sam Newton, who grew frustrated at the amount of time spent repeating simple tasks when running a small business solutions company.

"I found I was spending more and more time doing administrative jobs, paying staff, collecting time sheets, working out how much to charge clients. It just seemed such an inefficient way to do things, and it annoyed me so much that I decided I would build my own payroll system," said Mr Owen, the managing director.

"There is a tremendous amount of inefficiency in running a small business and I am passionate about improving it."

The Wellington company has already attracted about 100 customers and recently won a recommended status from the Hospitality Association, a status it can use to promote itself to the association's approximately 2400 members.

FlexiTime operates entirely online, allowing staff to log in remotely 24 hours a day to fill in time sheets and check rosters. As its name suggests, the company is best suited to companies with staff who work irregular hours, although it claims to save time and money for all companies.

Once staff time sheets are approved, the software automatically calculates individual tax rates and other deductions such as KiwiSaver contributions, removing the need to enter the same information into multiple systems.

Mr Owen said one of the difficulties of payroll systems for small business was a constantly evolving tax system with changes to elements such as student loan repayments and tax rates. Because Flexitime operates online, updates can be installed automatically without additional cost.

Flexitime is already a solutions partner of Wellington online accounting company Xero, and is planning to use the partnership as a means to build a system for launch into Britain next year.

- © Fairfax NZ News