How Anchor 41 Increases Accuracy and Efficiency of Certified Payroll with hh2

Weekly certified payroll is challenging and time-consuming for construction companies, especially if you still use paper timesheets. Discover how Anchor 41 streamlined their entire payroll process, eliminating paper timesheets and cutting turnaround time from days to hours with the help of hh2’s construction software.

“We can’t live without hh2 Remote Payroll, period.” 

— Lorraine Searcy, Accountant and Payroll Administrator 

The Challenge 

Being a smaller business, Anchor 41’s payroll department consists of two employees who are responsible for acquiring, processing, reviewing, and approving timesheets to meet payroll each week. Their roles are made more challenging by having to follow strict regulations around prevailing wages and certified payroll requirements for all federally funded projects. In addition, all state-funded public works projects must meet California certified payroll, which has its own set of rules and prevailing wages.  

Prior to using hh2’s Remote Payroll software, Anchor 41 completed its payroll process by hand. Workers had to fill in paper timesheets for tasks they performed every week and then deliver them to Lorraine Searcy, an accountant and payroll administrator for Anchor 41. After acquiring the timesheets — mainly through fax or email — Searcy would manually transpose each line item from the timesheet into a spreadsheet.  

It was a very time-consuming task, as a single timesheet “will have up to 50-line items because they might work 30 minutes doing one thing, then another.” Even project managers often worked several hours on multiple construction projects within the same day. Searcy had to select the job, cost code, and pay rate for each line item on a timesheet before sending it to her supervisor, Maribel Dorado, for review.  

Anchor 41’s payroll review process was often rushed due to strict certified payroll deadlines and the time it took to enter all the timesheet data. Using paper timesheets further complicated the process and delayed turnaround time, as field workers would forget to send in their timesheets. Searcy would chase down crew members or wait until they were back in the office to receive the data. In all, it took Searcy and Dorado one to three days to complete the entire payroll process, sharing that “we were not as productive in our other duties because we were so focused on finishing payroll.” 

The Goal 

Searcy and Anchor 41 quickly grew tired of their frustrating and time-consuming payroll process and wanted to find a solution that streamlined their workflow.  

Their goals were to: 

• make it easier to collect timesheets 
• eliminate manual data entry 
• reduce the time it takes to code costs, review wages, and approve payroll.  

Searcy knew that a simplified and more efficient payroll process would allow them to reduce human error and give them more time to review data for accuracy. Anchor 41 wanted to use a payroll tool that could integrate with their existing ERP system, Sage 100.  

With these objectives in mind, the company discovered and began using hh2’s Remote Payroll. Searcy and Dorado felt it would help them complete and approve payroll faster, reducing turnaround time. Having a more efficient payroll process would also ease the stress and time constraints they faced while freeing up more time to focus on their other financial responsibilities: completing federal and state-certified payroll paperwork, handling accounts payable and receivable, and submitting payroll taxes. 

The Solution 

Since implementing Remote Payroll, Anchor 41 has seen tremendous changes to its payroll process. The construction company simplified its payroll time collection by using hh2’s time tracking app, which captures time on a worker’s phone or site supervisor’s tablet while they’re out in the field. Searcy is no longer chasing after crews for time sheets, and the information is instantly available to her once it’s entered into the app.  

“If we have an employee hanging drywall on a prevailing wage project, but that same employee works on a project that’s not a prevailing wage, but he’s doing the same classification, we’re able to differentiate between the dual wage interest.”  — Lorraine Searcy, Accountant and Payroll Administrator 

The time-keeping app also lets workers leave notes, so Searcy can easily adjust when reviewing data. For example, if a worker laid ceramic tile but the only available cost code was for vinyl flooring, they can quickly note this while completing their timesheet. Searcy can then quickly add or modify a cost code for projects or fix any issues while reviewing the timesheets.  

The Results 

With Remote Payroll, data entry was virtually eliminated from Anchor 41’s payroll workflow, allowing greater time for review and speeding up their entire process. Completing payroll used to take three full days, but with hh2, it now only takes a few hours. Searcy says that, depending on the number of employees on payroll and the amount of project data, they can complete payroll review and approval in as little as 30 minutes. 

“We can’t live without hh2 Remote Payroll, period. The ability to input your time and having those cost codes available at your fingertips is extremely helpful. I couldn’t imagine having to do payroll without hh2.”

— Lorraine Searcy, Accountant and Payroll Administrator 

Lorraine Searcy couldn’t be happier with their results. “We can’t live without hh2 Remote Payroll, period. The ability to input your time and having those cost codes available at your fingertips is extremely helpful. I couldn’t imagine having to do payroll without hh2.” 

Remote Payroll has simplified the payroll portion of her job, and Searcy highly recommends it to anyone in construction.