At APositive, our mission is to make lives easier through innovative business finance. We do this by providing invoice finance and payroll funding specifically for recruitment and labour hire businesses. As well as freeing up funds and improving cashflow, our integrated solutions are designed to save serious time and money, particularly when it comes to admin.
In the case of our client, GRIT Talent Consulting, a boutique IT recruitment firm based in Brisbane, these savings amounted to $8,000 per month when they moved from outsourced to inhouse payroll management. We recently caught up with Chris Garibaldi from GRIT to talk about the transition, plus how GRIT has been able to grow since making the switch.
A scalable upgrade from outsourced payroll
Chris founded GRIT in 2016, leveraging his years of experience in the recruitment industry. Initially, GRIT used a one-stop-shop that provided payroll services and funding. However, as the business grew, so did the associated costs and Chris started to investigate other options.
“With our previous supplier, we paid a set percentage fee. That worked in the early days, but it didn’t scale very well. We were spending a lot of money on admin and our monthly costs were getting excessive,” Chris explained.
“The tipping point came when we got to about 25 contractors. We started thinking about better ways to spend that money – like reinvesting in the business, employing more staff and upgrading our office space. That need to find a more affordable solution is what led us to APositive.”
As to why GRIT chose APositive over other payroll funding providers, Chris says the level of automation and service stood out.
“We explored a few options, but APositive gave us confidence from the first conversation. We liked the fact that other systems such as Invoxy online timesheets, Xero and JobAdder integrate seamlessly into the platform. The automation side of things made a lot of sense.”
“We looked closely at another provider, but they had more of a traditional portal. We’d have to get all our invoices out of Xero and create things manually.”
“The APositive solution is much more integrated, saves a lot of time and we get access to our funds quicker.”
An easy set-up and smooth transition
Having worked in large corporate and self-funded agencies prior to founding GRIT, Chris had limited knowledge of payroll funding and invoice finance. Before engaging APositive, he admits he was a little “freaked out” at the thought of bringing payroll inhouse.
“We went from not having to think about any of it, just knowing someone’s going to fix it, to having to learn the whole flow of payroll.”
However, despite his initial concerns, the process was much easier than Chris anticipated.
“It’s very simple and automated. We used a bookkeeper for a couple of hours to help with the accounting set-up. From there, it probably took less than three weeks to get into a rhythm. By then we were thinking “this isn’t as hard as we thought it would be. It was actually very easy”, Chris said.
In fact, the transition was so easy – and the automation so smooth – that GRIT were able to scrap plans to employ an additional admin person.
“We thought it would be a full-time job looking after the new platform. We budgeted to outsource that work, but quickly realised we didn’t need to. So, in addition to the $8,000 monthly admin and funding savings, we also saved on staffing costs.”
“We have a workflow that directs everything through our CRM, Job Adder, to Invoxy for online timesheets and then through to Xero. It takes around three hours a week to administer and run the whole thing. Slightly more at the end of the month, but it’s far from a full-time job.”
The bottom line: Huge savings, happy clients and growth on the horizon
Since engaging APositive in mid-2019, GRIT has gone from strength to strength, saving a staggering $8,000 per month by moving from an outsourced flat fee model to payrolling in-house with payroll funding.
Chris says the platform has exceeded expectations and allowed GRIT to invest in additional resources to help grow the business.
“The level of automation and the process is a lot higher than we expected. That’s resulted in extra savings and freed up funds for other things.”
“We recently hired a Senior Consultant and we’re planning to move to a bigger office space. These things wouldn’t be possible with our previous admin costs,” he says.
In terms of getting clients to transition to online timesheets, Chris says that feedback has been 99% positive.
“Our previous system was quite clunky and required a lot of clicks to get through. The new interface is more modern and visually it’s easy to administer. It saves time for us and for our clients. We’re very happy we made the switch.”
Find out how APositive can save you time and money through a more integrated back office and funding solution.
Whether you want help with payroll funding, invoice finance, or integrated back office solutions, APositive can help. Contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation. We work with recruitment, labour hire and professional service businesses across Australia and New Zealand.
– Chris Garibaldi, Director
GRIT Talent Consulting