Staffing and workforce services
A payroll system that removed two days of manual work every week
More than 60 site managers submitted separate timesheets every week. The payroll team then spent Monday and Tuesday combining the files by hand before anyone could be paid.
Hundreds of contract workers across hundreds of client sites
locations submitting into one controlled payroll process
of manual work removed from every weekly cycle
of payroll administration removed each year
check that stops inactive employees from being paid
Before and after
60+ site timesheets merged by hand every Monday and Tuesday
- Payroll moves as soon as the last site submits
- Inactive employees held before they're paid
- 60+ sites on one process
The weekly problem
The company manages hundreds of contract workers across hundreds of client sites. Managers at more than 60 locations each kept a separate weekly file and emailed it to the main office, where the payroll team opened every one, checked it and retyped it into one master record.
The time was only half of it. Nothing in that process checked whether a name on a timesheet still worked for the company, so former employees could carry into payroll unless someone spotted them during the manual review.
- Mon
- Tue
- Wed
- Thu
- Fri
Monday and Tuesday spent merging 60+ timesheets by hand
- Mon
- Tue
- Wed
- Thu
- Fri
Payroll closes the day the last site submits
What we built
A secure web application for every location. Each site manager signs in, enters that week's hours in a structured form and submits. Entries write straight into the spreadsheets the company already used, so the consolidation step no longer exists.
Hours can only be entered against people who are active in the system, so a former employee can no longer land on a timesheet. The check happens at the point of entry instead of during a rushed review.
- 60+site managers submit at the same time
- Secure web app with structured entry
- Active-employee check on every line
- One master payroll record, ready the same day
AB Analytics helped us with our company's payroll setup. The software they built for us allows us to this day to effortlessly do payroll as well as track data to prevent payouts to inactive employees, which was a big problem we were facing.
Two decisions that shaped the build
A system only pays off if the team actually uses it. Two calls on this project came from that.
- Decision 1
Stay in the tools the team knows
We recommended moving the data into BigQuery, which scales better for reporting. The payroll team wanted to stay in Google Sheets, where they already worked and could answer their own questions. We built it on Sheets. A better system that people work around is not better.
- Decision 2
No AI where it adds nothing
The rules here were simple and fixed, so this system uses no AI model. One would have added cost and upkeep for no gain. We use AI where it earns its place and say so when it does not.
What changed
The manual consolidation step is gone from the weekly cycle. Managers enter the information once, every location works in parallel, and payroll moves forward as soon as the last site submits. That took roughly two working days out of every week, or about 100 working days over a year.
The inactive-employee check is part of the system rather than something a person has to catch while working through dozens of files under a deadline. The system still runs weekly payroll today.
Where the savings came from
Nobody was doing anything wrong. Every site manager kept a tidy timesheet. The cost sat in the gap between 60 separate files and the single file payroll needed, and a person was closing that gap by hand two days a week.
Closing the gap where the data is entered means the work disappears instead of moving to someone else's desk.
The engagement continued
The company later asked us to help upgrade its recruitment process. The owner introduced AI voice agents for first-round candidate interviews, and we automated everything produced after each call. Each candidate gets a private folder under the location they applied to, and the recording, transcript, candidate details and AI-generated summary notes are filed there automatically, so HR reviews a complete file without downloading, renaming or sorting anything.
- First-round interview call
- Recording and transcript captured
- AI summary notes written
- Filed to the candidate's folder, by location
Client name withheld. Figures are rounded and describe the scope and outcome of work delivered by AB Analytics. Reference conversations can be arranged for some engagements.