Welcome Brandon Strong

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Stephen Jagger

Another new team member has joined PayrollHero. Meet Brandon, he hails from the US and has joined our Whistler office. Welcome Brandon!

“Hi, I’m Brandon and I am 22 years young. I hail from Vancouver but I have also lived in San Francisco, Delaware, Washington, Kelowna B.C. all before moving to one of my favorite cities in the world Whistler B.C.

When I’m not in an office you will find me in the mountains with a snowboard in hand during winter and a downhill mountain bike in the summer. I am the definition of speed junkie and enjoy anything that has a motor and wheels or puts me airborne.

Besides traveling North America and finishing school in Canada, I have been involved in both business strategy and financial markets all while keeping an eye on up and coming entrepreneurial ventures.

My diverse background and abilities have led to the opportunity to work for PayrollHero as a Growth Hacker/Customer Success Hero and I could not be more excited. To find a company with so much potential and be based in Whistler has put all my passions in one place for which I am extremely grateful for.

I am looking forward to working with such a talented team and continuing to build a truly unique company.”

New PayrollHero Team Members – Welcome Sean and Mylene!

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Stephen Jagger

PayrollHero continues to grow. We have added 2 new team members to our Whistler team, Mylene from France and Sean from Australia. Here is a quick introduction about each of them:

Sean:
I’m Sean. I’m a 23 year old bloke from Australia. I am what some call a dabbler but I prefer Jack of all Trades. I’m the school chess captain, come obsessed surfer, fitness freak, and amateur snowboarder.

I grew up in a family of bankers but have an IT background; I have been pulling everything apart (Including PCs, Engines, and Houses) since before I can remember. I care heaps about my health, I am at the gym every other day and (whenever I can be bothered training) I run marathons.

I studied Accountancy at University of Wollongong where I build upon the knowledge passed down through my family and had the opportunity to practice these skills with my mothers bookkeeping business.

I now work in Customer Support for PayrollHero. I’m loving the opportunity to offer my financial and technical skills to an amazing startup and to the early adopter customers that they service.

Working with awesome people in an awesome startup in an awesome town is an unbelievable dream come true.

I can’t wait to help.

Mylene:
I’m Mylene, I’m 24 years old. I come from the north west of France. I arrived in Canada in February 2013 in Montreal and I did a road trip through Canada and I arrived in Whistler in October.

I like to travel, dance, cook, windsurf… I’m more at ease on the sea than on the snow so I must improve my snowboarding. I am the same level in snowboarding as I am in English… 🙂

I’m a graphic designer and I work as the UI/UX designer for PayrollHero. I’m really glad I could join the team. You can see my previous work: 1000n.fr

Recap: The Inaugural Restaurant Technology Meetup Manila

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Stephen Jagger

The Inaugural Restaurant Technology Meetup Manila took place tonight in The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Boardroom at the top of the Muji/Gap building on High Street in Fort Bonifacio.

The event was a big success. There were 40 restaurant owners/managers that registered to attend the event, which usually means you get about 25, but we had over 40 show up.

I presented for the opening meetup on the topic of “10 Tech Tools Your Restaurant Should be Using“, which was a general overview of some of the tools that I think are important for restaurants to think about using within their business.

In no particular order, I covered:

1. SEO (search engine optimization)
2. Google Local
3. MunchPunch.com
4. TripAdvisor.com
5. Your Own Website
6. Twitter
7. Instagram
8. Facebook
9. Zap.com.ph
10. so much more….

Do you fee like you missed out? Don’t worry, we will continue to run the Restaurant Technology Meetup around the Philippines. Register now to be notified of the next meetup.

You can see the slides here:

The Inaugural Restaurant Technology Meetup Manila from PayrollHero

Want to see all of the photos from the meetup… head over to our Facebook page for the collection.

Update To PayrollHero iOS Apps (TeamClock)

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Stephen Jagger

We have been working hard on our iOS TeamClock (previously called TimeClock) apps and have rolled out a bunch of changes to them. In the most recent update you will notice:

Added progress information when full sync is occurring.
Add Queued Clockings counter to Gender page.
Convert iPhone ClockIn Photo background to black.
Update common code to handle proper server error codes from AFNetworking
Update Creates TimeClock button look.
Renamed app from TimeClock to TeamClock
Add code to correctly attempt config information from the server if the app fails to be able to display the background image.
Add Props back in to clock photo taking (watch for your new glasses)
Remove transparency from iPhone top bar to prevent screen resizing
Updated iPhone to use new Video Capture session common code
Update of common code for potential fix of assert crash in Queue.
Improve Video capture image preview to be more responsive
Fix camera orientation for video playback.
Fix for crash on iPhone/iPod devices when tapping OK on alert view when clocking in/out
Some general bug fixes

Let us know what you think! We would love your feedback.

PayrollHero‘s time, attendance, scheduling and analytics platform is available worldwide.

Feel free to reach out to us for a personalize demo anytime by filling in the quick form on our website.

New and Updated Features in PayrollHero

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Stephen Jagger

PayrollHero gets better every day. Feedback from our internal teams and clients help us shape the platform so that it is of more use to all of our clients. Here are a couple of new or updated features rolled out into the platform today:

1. How to set-up Extra COLA for Regular Holidays
Pursuant to the Philippine Proclamation No. 629, the following rules for COLA shall apply

If worked, the employee should get 200% of COLA or equivalent to Php60.00
If unworked, the employee should get 100% of COLA or equivalent to Php30.00

You can see complete details on this feature here

2. How to Export the Employee Clock ins and outs?

This feature has been in the platform for a long time, but we added the functionality to have the system generate the report in the background and email it to you when it is complete. As larger clients join the PayrollHero platform the report can take a few moments to complete, this feature frees up payroll administrators to continue doing their work while PayrollHero is working behind the scenes.

You can see how the attendance export feature works here

Your Guide To Payroll In The Philippines

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Stephen Jagger

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions that our client happiness team gets asked about Philippine payroll.

What are the leave benefits that an employee is entitled to under existing laws?

How to compute Lates/Tardiness and absences

What do you mean by total working days per year?

How to compute the 13th month pay?

What are the legal non taxable allowance?

What are de minimis benefits?

How to compute Philippine BIR taxes.

What is taxable income?

Are minimum wage earners exempt from paying income tax?

How much is the minimum wage in Metro Manila?

How to compute for Night Differential?

How to compute Holiday, Rest day pay?

How much is my SSS, Philhealth, and HDMF (Pag-Ibig) deductions?

How do I compute my hourly rate?

How to compute overtime pay?

How do I compute my Daily rate?

Why do business in the Philippines, here is a quick video on the topic:

The Inaugural Restaurant Technology Meetup (Fort Bonifacio, Philippines)

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Stephen Jagger

The Restaurant Technology Meetup is a gathering of restaurant owners, managers, payroll and HR professionals who are interested in learning more about how technology can help grow and streamline their business operations.

No sales pitches… just a free learning environment designed to foster networking and learning amongst restaurant professionals.

Recap: Geeks On A Beach, Boracay

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Stephen Jagger

Geeks On A Beach – Boracay Island, Philippines – Tina Amper of TechTalks.ph put together a fantastic conference on one of the most beautiful islands in the world last week. The event was the first of its kind for the Philippines and was a big success. Over 300 geeks, investors and speakers descended on the white beaches of Boracay for 2 days of learning, networking and sun.

While there we some nay sayers suggesting a beach location was not the right fit for an event like this, I found it perfect. (Boracay is SEAsia’s Las Vegas) It attracted attendees from all over the world, into a very cost effective location (when compared to places like Singapore) that provided a quality venue, attractions outside of the conference and plenty of hotel options. Overall the event was a big success and hopefully will run next year and many after that.

I was invited to be a guest on a panel with Jack Madrid (President DCOM) moderating the “Philippine Startup Success Stories” along with Mark (CEO, Caresharing), Alvin (Director, Microsoft) and Stefano (TwitMusic.com). It was a fun panel discussion. You can see the video of the panel below.

How you commute to Boracay

Geeks On A Beach, Boracay Island, Philippines

#AdventureEngineer Ronald Maravilla Packs For Whistler

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Stephen Jagger

Ronald Maravilla, a native of the Philippines has been working with Mike Stephenson and myself since 2009. When Ron joined us it was for Ubertor, our real estate software company. When PayrollHero got off the ground a year and a half ago, Ron moved over to PayrollHero and joined as the second engineer building out the first stages of the platform.

Today is a big day!

Ron has been accepted into Canada under the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program and will be moving to our Whistler office as part of his #AdventureEngineering dream.

What is an #AdventureEngineer you ask? It is a term we coined as part of our offering to attract smart, hard working, talented enginners who wanted to work hard and play hard. This video sums it up:

Part of what PayrollHero offers to new team members is help with immigration into Canada. Interested in a job, you can see our available roles here – (Ruby) (iOS)

Join us!

What is PEZA? (Philippine Economic Zone Authority)

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Stephen Jagger

PEZA is the Philippine government agency tasked to promote investments, extend assistance, register, grant incentives to and facilitate the business operations of investors in export-oriented manufacturing and service facilities inside selected areas throughout the country proclaimed by the President of the Philippines as PEZA Special Economic Zones.

There are PEZA zones, PEZA approved buildings and PEZA approved companies. Tax holidays and other special benefits are just part of the program. You can see more about PEZA and how they can help your business here.

In the video below you can hear a bit more about PEZA from Bryce Maddock of Taskus.com (@ 5:00 mark):