Streamlined payroll for industry-leading Temperzone

• Moving away from a clunky, disparate system 

• Streamlined processes, accurate payroll data 

• Ongoing improvements: more modules and workflows added 

Founded in 1956, Temperzone has been manufacturing air conditioning equipment for over 65 years. As many of its competitors have moved their manufacturing offshore, Temperzone has increased the size and capacity of its state-of-the-art facilities in Australia and New Zealand, employing more than 600 FTE across the two countries. With a diverse product range, including exclusive distributor rights with Hitachi, Temperzone has without a doubt earned its industry-leading status. 

Big ambitions

Temperzone is committed to being the largest organisation to manufacture commercial air conditioning products in Australia and New Zealand. Temperzone provides innovative solutions that reduce the environmental impacts of air conditioning with a wide range of commercial systems operating on R32 refrigerant. This provides a significant reduction in refrigerant-related GWP per kW of cooling/heating compared to many R410A products on the market helping pave the way for a zero-carbon future. 

Too much complexity 

Any established business will know that as you take on more people, your payroll becomes more complex. Wages, salaries, sick leave, annual leave and overtime are all payroll processes that get harder to manage as your business grows. 

Those are the challenges that Temperzone was facing, as Management Accounting Manager, Steve Morriss explains: 

"Our previous system struggled with a lot of the complexity around things like our collective agreements, award rules and shift allowances. We also weren’t getting the support we needed." 

- Steve Morriss, Management Accounting Manager, Temperzone 

Manual processes: time-consuming, increased risk 

The payroll team’s fallback was more manual checks and workarounds which, given the company’s size, was all-consuming.   

"When it came to applying for leave or tracking absences, we’d have slips of paper floating around the place," Steve said.  

At the time, there was a lot of talk in the media about businesses not calculating holiday pay correctly, and it was that basic payroll compliance that the company couldn’t afford to get wrong.  

MYOB PayGlobal: the payroll solution that keeps on giving 

Temperzone’s top priority was finding a payroll system it could have full confidence in, and that solution was MYOB PayGlobal. Once the software was successfully integrated, and various automated rules set up, the system took over all the grunt work. 

"With MYOB PayGlobal, we’ve never not paid anyone on time because the system wasn’t able to do it," says Steve. Streamlined processes mean less paperwork – a positive for the payroll team’s productivity and minimised compliance risk. 

"We’ve got a lot of confidence in MYOB PayGlobal and that has allowed payroll to focus on the exceptions, rather than going through line by line." 

Also, ongoing support from the MYOB PayGlobal team has only confirmed that the company made the right decision. "When you’re processing pay for 600 employees, there’s always going to be quirks, but the PayGlobal team always responds promptly – it’s good knowing we have a good support system when we need it." 

Self-service module empowering staff 

One of the risks when you have so many staff, particularly on salary, is accurately capturing and recording leave. Previously, Temperzone relied heavily on “bits of paper that may or may not make it to payroll”. 

With MYOB PayGlobal’s self-service module, staff can enter their own leave and timesheets, and automated approval rules help managers stay on top of leave requests. Temperzone now has a ‘birds-eye’ view of leave calendars across teams and the wider business. That’s allowing it to better plan for busy periods. 

"That was an unforeseen benefit for direct managers and senior leaders, particularly around the Christmas holidays," explains Steve. The added benefit of having a self-service portal is that staff can access their payroll records – without having to jump through paperwork hoops. 

"Having an up-to-date database for our employees was particularly important during the height of COVID-19, and MYOB PayGlobal has helped us achieve that." 

Improved workflow between payroll and HR 

Temperzone went live with MYOB PayGlobal in December 2019, and recently rolled out additional functionality with new self-service workflows around recruitment approvals and terminations. 

That’s helping the HR and payroll teams to work seamlessly together and ensure new positions are captured correctly in the company’s organisation structure. 

Giving insight, Steve explains that “it’s allowed us to create some good processes between HR and payroll so we have that traceability and know the right data is being imported into PayGlobal.” 

In addition, terminations used to be managed via spreadsheet, but with a new process workflow, PayGlobal is making life easier for employees and managers. 

“Overall, MYOB PayGlobal enables the payroll team to continue the processes, as well as support the wider business at the right time,” Steve explains.