You can easily lose your club $20,000 buying the wrong payroll software

A North Coast club learned the hard way that not all software is the same and that sometimes your best option is to stick with a tried and proven system.

A North Coast club learned the hard way that not all software is the same and that sometimes your best option is to stick with a tried and proven system.

In this report, we reveal how a North Coast club invested over $20,000 in payroll software only to abandon their investment within three weeks of implementation.

Not wanting to embarrass the management of this club, who is now a KINGpay client, we will share with you the mistakes they made that proved both costly and disappointing.

“Our client had been satisfied with our King Street system for decades. But when they were approached with an offer too good to be true, they fell for the sales pitch hook line and sinker,” explains King Street CEO, Matthew Betland.

To make sure you don’t make the same mistake, we have asked Matthew Betland to share several warning signs to look for when purchasing payroll software for your club.

1. Not all payroll software can handle the complexities of running a club.

“The first warning sign they missed, was that the software system they were purchasing was designed for generic small business payroll situations,” explains Matthew.”Generic payroll software is great for small Mum and Dad businesses starting out with no systems in place. “But they are not designed to handle the complexities of the various employment Awards pertaining to the club industry.”You only have to examine the awards tables to realise it is so easy to either overpay or underpay a staff member.””With KINGpay, as it is cloud-based and online, the various industry awards are constantly updated in real time.”We have made it so simple that even a person with hardly any experience in payroll can work with a system knowing that the appropriate awards are being applied to each member of staff.

2. The latest, the newest, is not necessarily the best.

“When most people think of software, they think that they need the latest version, the newest technology,” says Matthew.”But when it comes to running a club you could easily be heading for trouble picking the latest software released in the past couple of years.”The reason we have so many clients who have stayed with King Street for well over 20 years is the fact that it takes many hours to refine a payroll system for each of our clients.”When our clients have spent over a year or two customising our system to meet their needs, they won’t risk switching providers knowing that they will have to go through the whole process again.

​3. Generic software maybe cheap, but its implementation can be extremely costly.

“At the outset you think you are getting yourself a bargain when purchasing generic software,” says Matthew.

“But as soon as you take it out of the box and start trying to adapt the various awards for your staff to the software– you quickly run into trouble!

“Some people would tell you that payroll software for business is the same no matter the business. That is simply not true. The club industry in general operates with so many complexities, including multiple employment awards, that generic payroll software simply cannot deliver what clubs need.

4. The personalised service is very short lived.

“No sooner had the North Coast club finished the allocated training that came with their package, they went from being looked after one-on-one to a number in a long queue.

“Once they realised that they had made a mistake implementing the generic software, they returned to KINGpay, and made the following comment: 

“Matthew, it is so good to be able to reach out to you or a member of your team and receive personalised one-on-one help. To deal with someone who knows your situation and has developed trust makes a big difference. Which is why we constantly recommend your KINGpay payroll software.”