Gul International Cuts Payroll Time By 75% with Payrite
Established in 1967, GUL International has steadily increased its business to become renowned for its high quality marine and surfing wear. Using the latest technological developments in waterproof and breathable clothing, the company designs and distributes a wide range of surf and marine accessories for men and women under the GUL brand.
As well as distributing its products directly across the UK and internationally, the Cornwall based company has now launched its GULs surf clothing range in key specialist retailers throughout the UK.
With over 50 employees, GUL is focused on keeping up with the trends in specialist marine and surfing wear. Ten staff are dedicated to servicing clients on the road, while the remaining staff members are involved in the design, administration and despatch of the products, with manufacturing outsourced.
A time for change
After a management buyout in 2003, the company reviewed business systems used in house. According to Chris Sutcliffe, company secretary at GUL and responsible for the administration of the payroll:
“We had used Payrite originally since 1996, but moved to a Sage system last April, since we were using Sage for our other accounting systems and thought it would be easier to use the same system.”
However, running the monthly payroll was not easy on the new system, since it required manual calculations for the car scheme payments, and also had very limited reporting functionality. Sage required each payroll report to be specially written, which was a time-consuming process.
GUL decided to go back to using Payrite having been happy with the product prior to the switch.
“It was pointless looking at other software when we knew we had a system that we could use and that we were happy with. Also half the data was in the system already, having only had a year gap so there wasn’t so much to do to add the additional information.”
Saving time with Payrite
The most important function that Payrite offered was the ability to calculate net to gross. Payrite is also able to process the car scheme payments automatically. With the previous system this had to be manually calculated and then the payroll rerun each time – sometimes up to four or five times until the figures matched.
“It took an hour to do all the car scheme payments before and now it takes a couple of minutes – we just key it in and it’s done,” said Sutcliffe.
There were further benefits of using the Payrite system. The monthly payroll needed to include variations such as statutory sick pay, maternity pay, student loan deductions, basic overtime or holiday calculations, all of which Payrite easily accommodates.
“Although there is a similar amount of administration involved preparing the information, we can now run the actual payroll from end to end including printing reports in an afternoon, where it previously took a couple of days,” said Sutcliffe.
Accurate information readily available
Reports are now also easily generated since they are built into the software. The management at GUL can now use reports on cost splits and overtime to monitor staffing requirements at peak times and seasonal variants, helping them to forecast and plan.
“Payrite has the speed of operation and accuracy of information that we need, saving us time all round. Previously we were getting the wrong figures through and paying the wrong amounts. Our staff are key to business operations, so having a monthly payroll that runs smoothly and with no mistakes is vital,” said Sutcliffe.
“Since choosing Payrite software we haven’t looked back, it does everything we need, well.”