Success story:
AC Whalan

In 1939, Arnold Clement Whalan established Whalan & Co Pty Ltd and began trading in Lithgow. Those days, the business supplied grain and dry feed to the local farming community and the mining industry. A mining industry association began here for Whalan & Co Pty Ltd.

AC Whalan has grown into a leading manufacturer of piping systems for mining, industrial, and civil applications. In 1995 they formed Poletech when they installed and commissioned their first Filament Winding machine. They have since been a market leader in this field.

For over 80 years, the company has provided quality fit-for-purpose products, friendly service, locally held stocks, solutions & advice. Combining the company’s philosophy and its team of professionals, they offer expertise and skills second to none. This includes numerous pipeline applications, including design, supply, and installation.

Their head office is in Singleton, New South Wales, with additional sites across New South Wales and Queensland.

AC Whalan used Attaché for payroll and accounting but found it time-consuming and administration-intensive because of manual payroll processes. As the company pays its employees weekly, processing, approvals, and reconciliation take considerable time.

Most of the employees are on a salary, so there was not much data to upload. However, some administrative and manual tasks were required before pay runs. Having a holistic workforce view was also a challenge without a single data source.

AC Whalan wanted to:

• Share data efficiently to streamline manual workflows.
• Reduce the administrative burden.
• Increase self-service and improve the employee experience.
• Offer a mobile app.
• Deliver comprehensive reporting in real-time and a single data source.

AC Whalan reviewed how they used Attaché for payroll and accounting and determined their future requirements. They met with their Account Manager at The Access Group to review their options. It became apparent that Attaché was not the most suitable solution for their payroll requirements and future workforce management aspirations.

Following an investigation of possible solutions, AC Whalan reviewed Access Definitiv and had a demonstration of its capabilities. This was to ensure that it met their needs and was the right fit for their workforce. AC Whalan was reassured to know that The Access Group uses Access Definitiv to manage their workforce.

Access Definitiv is an all-in-one workforce management solution that eliminates manual processing and saves time. The opportunity to manage leave and timesheets in a fully integrated payroll application ensures less manual intervention. Employees can request leave, view payslips, and maintain their personal information with an app on their mobile phones.

The CFO and Directors of AC Whalan agreed that Access Definitely was the best choice. Access Definitiv met all the requirements regarding automation, data collection, integration, reporting, security, and improving employee experience. In the next phase, payroll can be automated further with in-built real-time leave management.

AC Whalan switched to an updated payroll solution and gained:

• Payroll solution that automates the process and eliminates errors.
• A user-friendly mobile app to enhance the employee experience.
• Data sharing with business systems that is effective.
• A time-saving solution that reduces administrative burdens.

Implementing Access Definitiv certainly took more time and effort than expected, but it has transformed the payroll process.

Payroll processing with Access Definitely has reduced administration costs and delivered better reporting while automating payroll, data collection, and data sharing. The mobile app has improved employee engagement, and most employees enjoy the self-service experience for payslips and leave requests.

Access Definitiv has already delivered immense value to the business. AC Whalan is evaluating a phased approach to benefit from more features in the future.

• Payroll processing is streamlined in-house, less labour intensive, and time-consuming.
• Access to real-time reporting from a single data source.
• The mobile app allows employees to self-serve.
• A single platform for workforce management.

The Access Definitiv mobile app provides employees with a better experience, autonomy, and visibility. A single source of data also saves time and money.