Fanello Industries
Fanello Industries opened in 1998
in Lavonia, Georgia, a small town
in the northeast region of the state.
For 10 years, the company—which
makes stamped blanks and
component assemblies for the
automotive, lawn and garden,
HVAC, and other metal industries—
has built a solid reputation and
experienced healthy growth.
Fanello Industries opened in 1998 in Lavonia, Georgia, a small town in the
northeast region of the state. For 10 years, the company—which makes
stamped blanks and component assemblies for the automotive, lawn and garden,
HVAC, and other metal industries— has built a solid reputation and
experienced healthy growth.
Fanello’s employees work hard, and are reliable and good at their
jobs. The last thing they want to worry about is getting paid on time, and for
the right amount. But that’s exactly what happened when the company first
made the decision to switch from a paper-based, to an electronic time,
attendance and payroll system.
With an expanding workforce, multiple shifts, and paid and unpaid break
periods, Fanello’s Human Resources Manager Brandy Langenwalter knew it
was time to look to technology to keep time and attendance tasks from
overwhelming staff.
Langenwalter first looked to one of the largest, most well known time and
attendance and payroll vendors to fill the need, hoping their experience and
size would ensure the best possible products and service. She was wrong.
“Everything about our encounter with this vendor was
horrendous—from the implementation, to the time tracking, to
payment” she said. “It was so difficult, we cancelled our contract
after just the first payroll.” =
Despite their unpleasant first experience, Langenwalter knew an automated
system was the only answer to the company’s constantly growing needs.
But after the first failure, she had a difficult time convincing both
management and staff to try again.
“Before our first attempt, people were skeptical about changing the
way things had always been done. After it failed, I’d say 99 percent of
our company had a very strong aversion to trying again.”
Langenwalter spent several months researching another time and attendance
solution. She wanted a package that offered biometric clocks, was flexible, and
did not require the company to outsource payroll. The last requirement was
designated as an absolute must by the owner, who insisted the company maintain
complete control over at least that portion of the process.
“Months after we cancelled our service with this national vendor,
we’re still having issues with them debiting tax payments from our
account,” she said. “Maintaining control over the back end of the
time-attendance-payroll process was understandably non-negotiable.”
Langenwalter was also looking for a smaller company that could offer
Fanello more personalized technical and customer service. And yet, she also
wanted a group that had a proven track record of success with its customers.
“ I was looking for a solution that would help
move our company to the next level, not just a Band-Aid for the next five
years.”
She came across Qqest on the internet and sent them an email.
“Someone from Qqest called me the day after I sent that first
message.”
From that point, things moved quickly. “My boss was pretty
skeptical,” she said. “But after the first presentation, that
changed. Between the user-friendly nature of the software, the
straight-forward bid, and the salesperson’s attitude, most of his
concerns evaporated right away.”
The implementation process was challenging because Fanello has unique needs
that were not addressed by the existing software design. For example, the
company has a third shift, where workers start at 11 p.m. and work through to
the morning the following day. They wanted the time worked to count from the
second day. Both the first product and Qqest’s solutions counted the
time on the day the workers started their shift.
“Instead of bending to what we needed, the first vendor was
constantly asking us to change the way we did things,” said
Langenwalter. “They wanted us to adjust pay policies, shift times, and
modify the way we reported hours. The first two months we were with that
vendor, I felt like I was working for them.”
Qqest’s implementation team took a much different
approach. “Once I started working with Qqest, I barely did a thing. They
asked me how we worked and what we wanted the outcome to be, and then made it
happen.”
Qqest also accommodated Fanello’s desire to keep payroll in-house.
With TimeForce, the company was able to use a Quickbooks interface to handle
that end of the process. But first they had to overcome a few hiccups.
”When we ran the first test, the multi-day shifts did not calculate
properly,” Langenwalter said. “But thanks to Qqest’s
Implementation Services staff, we were able to make adjustments and eliminate
the problem completely—and quickly.”
After using TimeForce for a few months, Fanello added the human resources
package, and is now looking at adding the job costing feature. “Qqest
has made our company more efficient, and the reports are helping us track
information in ways we never could before,” said Langenwalter.
“And after just a week of using the software, everyone stopped
complaining and got on board. Now everyone loves TimeForce.”
