Slashing payroll time by 50%: The tech change fuelling Epic Group’s growth

Keeping 13 service stations running smoothly from one central hub

Epic Group is the head office for 13 BP service stations across Australia, including sites in Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland. With a lean head office team of six overseeing payroll and HR for each store, Doris Ohi, one of the Accounts Officers, needed a solution to help them manage complexity without adding more admin.

Before Employment Hero, the team juggled Excel timesheets and MYOB to run payroll. It was time-consuming, error-prone and lacking the flexibility needed to support a dynamic retail workforce.

“We used to run our payroll using Excel spreadsheets and import it all into MYOB. It was very manual and inefficient. Clock in and out times were hard to verify and there was a lot of room for error.”

Doris wanted more than just automation, she needed tools that made her team more effective, gave store managers better oversight and helped ensure compliance across a varied workforce of casuals, part-timers and student visa holders.

A faster way to run payroll, with more time for strategic work

One of the most immediate benefits Doris noticed after switching to Employment Hero was a dramatic reduction in payroll processing time.

“For six sites, it used to take a full day to do payroll. Now it takes me about half a day. We’ve cut that time by 50%.”

But it’s not just about saving time, it’s what that time enables. Doris explained that the efficiency gains have allowed the team to restructure their work week and focus more on strategic finance tasks.

“I can now use the extra time saved for more review and audits in our accounting process. It’s helped us with things like accurate coding of accounts and we now have more oversight of our financials.”

Accurate leave management at a glance

Managing leave used to be a headache, with confusion around balances and approvals. Now, with Employment Hero, Doris and the store managers have full visibility and real-time access to the right information.

“It’s just so much easier now. Managers and employees can see their balances. If someone requests leave and doesn’t have the hours, the system flags it. It’s made things way more transparent.”

The built-in warnings about negative leave balances during payroll also prevent issues before they become bigger problems and the reporting tools make it easier to respond to any employee queries.

Visa tracking, junior rates and compliance – automated

With many employees on student visas and a significant number of juniors on staff, managing compliance was previously a very manual and high-risk process.

“We have a lot of people on student visas and a lot of junior employees whose rates change as they get older. Employment Hero tracks all of that for us now with the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) check reports. I don’t have to manually update things, it just happens automatically.”

This automation not only ensures employees are paid correctly but also reduces risk for the business.

Smarter rostering and photo clock-ins give managers more control

Epic Group’s store managers use Employment Hero’s rostering and attendance tools daily and the difference has been game-changing.

“Managers compare rosters to timesheets and attendance records. And with photo clock-ins, we know people are actually at work. That’s helped with preventing time theft.”

Not only does this improve accuracy for payroll, it empowers managers with better visibility into their teams’ schedules and attendance.

“The managers say it’s much easier now to see who’s clocked in and who hasn’t. It just gives them better control of their stores.”

Even employees are happy, something that Doris says is rare when introducing a new system.

“The feedback’s been great. The employees like being able to clock in and out on the app, check their leave and everything’s in one place. We haven’t had a single complaint.”

Support that makes all the difference

Doris also values the level of support she gets from Employment Hero. In particular, the chat function has been a lifesaver when something goes wrong.

“If I have a problem, I just jump on the HeroAI chatbot. Whether it’s something like a lodgement failure or anything else, someone gets back to me pretty quickly and it’s resolved. That support really helps.”

Why Employment Hero works for retail businesses like Epic Group

For Doris and her team, Employment Hero is more than just a payroll tool, it’s a platform that makes managing a complex, multi-site retail business significantly easier and more valuable. By removing manual tasks, automating compliance and giving managers and employees more visibility, it’s helping Epic Group operate more efficiently and effectively.

“I’d absolutely recommend Employment Hero. It’s added so much value to how we manage our people.”

Ready to simplify your HR and payroll? Join businesses like Epic Group who are making work easier and more valuable with Employment Hero. Book a demo to see how it could work for your business.