Payroll Connected software is well known for being user friendly
BRITISH COLUMBIA – Payroll calculations are complicated, and Evan Drury was determined to make it simpler and quicker.
Thus in 2012 he released Payroll Connected software, and companies across the country have enlisted their services. Drury co-founded Payroll Connected in Vernon and moved to North Battleford, Saskatchewan in 2018, but he says the firm still has almost half their customers in British Columbia.
“If an employer tells the software their employee worked 80 hours over 10 days, the calculations are automatically done, and they don’t have to worry about anything,” he explains. “Our software of course calculates all the regular deductions, but also calculates things like Vacation Pay, Overtime and Statutory Holiday Pay completely automatically, and anything else that needs to be done, and it costs only $12 per month for up to 25 employees for real payroll software.
“Ours is the only payroll software in Canada that calculates payroll automatically, as it has a scheduling component. It just needs to be told how many hours an employee has worked over how many days, and that’s it.”
Evan Drury is the co-founder and owner of Payroll Connected
Drury says besides the usability of the software and price point, one of the reasons for Payroll Connected’s growth is their customer service.
“When customers call us, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST, 7 days a week, we always have a live person taking the time to walk through any questions with our clients,” he explains. “They’re talking to real people, whom they can talk to about B.C. Employment Standards, for example, which they might not know much about.”
Payroll Connected software can be accessed on any unit that has a browser.
“Our customers can do payroll on their cell phone if they want to,” he adds. “And because our software does all the calculations automatically, our price point is the least expensive in the industry. The only thing less expensive is free.”
Drury was co-founder of the company and is now the sole owner, and he was the lead developer of the software.
“One of the big pluses when we started was we were located in Vernon and BC has some of the more complex labour standards in all of Canada,” he notes. “Alberta’s is also complicated, but the other provinces are easier. In fact, adding other provinces was a matter of subtraction of calculations, rather than addition.
“Overtime and statutory pay rules in BC are crazy,” he adds. “It’s the only place where employees get double overtime, for example. Our software does all the necessary calculations, even if they’re extra complicated.”
Drury is proud of the fact Payroll Connected software has a conversion three times the normal in the software industry.
“Conversion rates where someone goes from trying the product to then paying for it, the industry standard is 5 percent,” he points out. “Our product is so easy to use right out of the box that it’s 15 percent. That’s a huge key to our success.”
Drury notes the company focuses on what it does best – payroll software.
“We don’t try to do bookkeeping or human resources software. We do one thing, and do it very well,” he says. “The fact my phone isn’t ringing off the hook with support calls is a testament to how well the software works. When people sign up, they often go through the tutorial, set up their company and start running payrolls without ever talking to us. It’s that user friendly.”
