From eight clubs in the early 2000s to forty-seven locations across the North and South Island, CityFitness has grown with its affordable gym memberships, personalised training sessions and varied classes, covering everything from intensity training to yoga and pilates. The motivation behind CityFitness’ success has been to offer a gym that anyone can access or go to, getting Kiwis everywhere off the couch and moving.

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The problem

With between 800-900 staff currently, flexibility has always been a big part of CityFitnesses’ ethos, with 24/7 accessibility, public holiday access, and training sessions available every day of the week. With many of CityFitness’ staff working part or split shifts at all times of the day, the gym chain used to have great difficulty keeping track of hours worked and paid leave.

Before 2009 CityFitness was using a paper timesheet system, which required employees to fill in their own hours and send, or fax in, their completed week. Often payroll would find employees handing in five timesheets at once, resulting in necessary back pay and follow-ups to try to pay its rapidly growing staff. The variable hours also made it difficult to track any typical week, and it was all down to manual reentry every time, from handwritten paper notes to systemised pay packages.

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The setup.

TimeFiler’s first exposure to CityFitness came about as a recommendation by Business Evolution, who supply ERP, payroll and supporting services to businesses. The suggestion started a conversation with TimeFiler, in which the different roles and needs of the company were discussed, including the number of ‘out of the box’ scenarios that would have to be accommodated.

TimeFiler was able to offer a solution which would work around CityFitness’ unique model and soon had the business operating on a much more efficient system, taking over much of the mundane time tracking and reporting capabilities. 

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‍The solution.

The result has been a resounding success for CityFitness, which has grown sixfold over the last decade without increasing its payroll department proportionately. What might have become a thirty-plus team, suggests Payroll Manager Paula Southgate, has remained at a small staff of three, allowing the company to save on additional administrative roles. 

The software has also proven easy to adapt at an employee level too. Tyler, a receptionist in Christchurch, says TimeFiler is ‘easy to use’, especially when completing timesheets on his phone. In fact, while the software supports desktop and mobile use, most of the hours are logged via the ‘very user-friendly’ mobile app, with the necessary training required by the casual staff minimal. 

On an account level, the adoption rate has been impressive, with CityFitness no longer chasing up people to complete timesheets. With its easy-to-navigate system, which includes a history of every single timesheet submitted for approval and submission, managers can see times and dates of approval throughout an employee's lifetime. This simple readout of all actions has been ‘amazing’ in ensuring everyone does their roles well and that managers can access and approve time tracking and rosters as needed.

The app has also made it easier for TimeFiler to contact its non-deskbound staff, who more typically use their phones in their day-to-day roles. The mobile app includes the ability to send out alerts within the application itself, notifying people as needed regarding their hours.

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‍Ongoing work.

Over the last few months, Paula has been working closely with Jo at TimeFiler to adapt TimeFiler for 2023. Her experience working with TimeFiler has been positive, with Paula citing TimeFiler’s accessibility as one of the best parts of working with the company. 

Following up on calls, TimeFiler were able to piece together a strategy and give solutions to CityFitness’ latest developments, allowing for the same level of near-seamless integration that first appealed to the company back in 2009. While the new changes promise to add efficiencies, Paula has been impressed by the fact that it hasn’t increased the workload, with the same basic process that works just as well with a staff of 300 as it does with a team of 1,500. TimeFiler has also been able to help CityFitness create various cost codes to improve capturing data, ensuring that the time tracking process remains mostly automated.

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The TimeFiler experience.

Paula, who has been working at CityFitness since 2008, says of her experience with TimeFiler that it’s the people behind the company that have impressed her the most. She states that the team is responsive, approachable and that they deal with any tasks referred to them quickly, offering various suggestions for improvement to arrive at a firm plan going forward. 

When asked if she would recommend the company to other businesses, Paula had this to say;

“Yes! Obviously, we’ve used it for so long, so it’s hard to talk about what we did before. But other than the fact that TimeFiler itself is awesome, the team can customise the app to your needs and dealing with them is always so easy. I’ve never felt that when I’ve contacted them, they’re not interested in listening to what I’ve had to say and have always presented a solution for going forward.”

TimeFiler’s ongoing goal has been to streamline the timekeeping for managers, employees and payroll, making time tracking and cost saving easy by allowing businesses to grow without needing numerous hires or changes. The simple joy of TimeFiler is that the process stays more or less the same, whatever size your company is, and can be adapted to suit your particular infrastructure.

For more information or to talk about what TimeFiler could do for your company, book in for a free demo of the software application here.

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