Bielby is a wholly Queensland-owned and operated civil engineering company offering major construction services across various sectors, including road, rail, ports, marine facilities, airports and renewable energy resources. Operating for over 40 years, Bielby has grown to include larger-scale projects throughout the eastern states of Australia. Throughout its history, Bielby has maintained strong relationships with long-term clients while consistently partnering with new ones, delivering exceptional results that transform Australian infrastructure.

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The problem

Bielby has experienced significant growth over the last five years. Managing leave and payments for a large workforce, including both salaried and weekly waged employees, has become increasingly complex. The payroll process relied heavily on manual data entry transcribed from forms and spreadsheets, making it prone to errors.

Before TimeFiler, all weekly and fortnightly payment calculations were sent to the payroll team on Excel spreadsheets, often with errors or deleted formulas. Checking and interpreting the timesheets proved time-consuming, especially as the spreadsheets didn’t cover all scenarios. This meant that inaccurate information often led to payment issues, with payroll having to retrospectively adjust employee payments.

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Setting up

Originally, TimeFiler wasn’t on the cards for Bielby, who were looking for an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system to handle end-to-end project management. In fact, long-time collaborative partner COINS, a project management system for construction and civil engineering companies, first suggested using TimeFiler as a support system which integrated with their own. 

At first, Bielby’s team was a bit resistant to adopting a new time-tracking system, but when it became clear how easy TimeFiler was to use, the switch was fairly seamless. The setup was accomplished in two stages, beginning with salaries and followed by enterprise agreements. This multi-stage adoption approach allowed TimeFiler and Bielby to work quickly to implement a solution, phasing over their current time and attendance method. Bulk training sessions were used to help transition staff and senior management.

The award interpretation requirement for Bielby was complex and varied across the different employee groups. TimeFiler and Bielby worked together to help communicate these technical details in a way both could easily understand. As TimeFiler’s Ian recalls:

"Kirrel was fantastic to work with, including developing very clear test cases that helped to set out the requirements for award interpretation."

This process proved fundamental and is helping Bielby move from a mostly manual system to an automated software solution.

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The result

Since working with TimeFiler, Bielby has halved the time spent processing payroll each week. In fact, Kirrel Wilson, Systems Accountant for Bielby, said that the change had “reduced the need for payroll adjustments by 90% since moving from spreadsheets to TimeFiler”.

The new system is ‘pretty seamless’, allowing users to record their timesheet ‘with a simple click of a button’. Approvals have also remained streamlined, keeping the same site manager format that Bielby were familiar with but greatly increasing each manager’s ability to make informed decisions and reduce mistakes during the handover to payroll. With a simplified recording process, site administrators now find entering waged timesheets much easier. 

Accuracy has also greatly improved since moving to the TimeFiler and COINS systems. Payroll spends little time amending errors in arrears, and information between TimeFiler and project management software COINS is nearly automatic, syncing every hour.

All in all, Kirrel has been impressed at how flexible TimeFiler has proven to be — “Other time and attendance systems can be stringent. But Ian can handle any curveball you throw at him.” Moving to a completely unfamiliar system, TimeFiler was able to translate Bielby’s experience and create a time and attendance system that worked for their company, dramatically increasing productivity.

For more information or to book your own demonstration of TimeFiler’s systems, check out our website.