MSP Photography

MSP Photography transitioned its payroll systems to the cloud with MYOB Advanced Payroll and MYOB Advanced Workforce Management. The Kilimanjaro Consulting implementation team met the complex payroll and onboarding requirements by leveraging our software skills in combination with a successful long-term partnership with the MSP team.

Who is MSP Photography?

MSP Photography Pty Ltd (MSP) is Australia’s largest school photography service provider with over 30 years of experience. Renowned for their commitment to quality and professionalism, MSP has produced timeless school photos and products cherished by generations. What began as a small venture in 1995 has become today’s complex enterprise. Each franchise operates autonomously under the esteemed MSP Photography banner, catering to schools within their designated territory. MSP’s 25 local franchisee businesses, employing over 400 staff, provide quality services and school photography products to around 3,000 schools and 1.4 million students across Australia.

What catalysed the switch to MYOB Advanced Payroll and MYOB Advanced Workforce Management?

MSP’s busiest time of year is typically between March and June, accounting for 75 percent of its revenue. Because of this seasonality, the company uses an hours-banking (wages averaging) system to pay staff an annualised salary for 38 hours a week. Extra hours worked in peak season are recorded and “banked” into the hours bank to be used in the off-peak months and during the annual shutdown.

MSP‘s old payroll system, which was made of integrated solutions MYOB Exo Employer Services and MyStaffInfo, was unable to handle the complexity of the hours bank model, despite being the best solution available on the market when it was implemented. The ability to customise MyStaffInfo and MYOB Exo Employer Services to their specific needs was limited, but it did serve their purpose of payroll and leave processing. MSP was left to manually retype timesheets into Excel each week, adding in public holidays, sick leave, and annual leave.

Onboarding only added to their time pressures. Recruitment typically peaked at the start of the year, compounding the effect of their already busy workload. In just two branches, MSP could onboard around 30 people in January and February alone, all using paper forms. MSP would dedicate at least a day to familiarising new starters with the plethora of information and paperwork. When MyStaffInfo and MYOB Exo Employer Services started to move towards end-of-life, they decided to review and achieve their payroll goals in a new system.

MSP Photography’s Trusted Implementation partner

Kilimanjaro Consulting is ANZ’s largest, most experienced, and most skilled team of MYOB Advanced Payroll and Workforce Management consultants. When MSP Photography decided to implement MYOB Advanced Payroll and Workforce Management, they looked to Kilimanjaro Consulting as their partner of choice.

The Kilimanjaro Consulting team successfully implemented MYOB Exo Employer Services and MyStaffInfo for MSP Photography, so there was already a comprehensive understanding of their workflows and processes. We worked to customise the software to meet their specific needs, including the complex hours bank. The MYOB Advanced implementers follow a structured implementation methodology, and combined with the skills, knowledge and support of our team, we are able to guide MSP Photography through the implementation process.

At Kilimanjaro Consulting, we pride ourselves on being technology Sherpas, focused on building long-term relationships with clients and maintaining that partnership as their business grows. We take pride in MSP Photography’ssuccess and look forward to our continued partnership. 

Which changes followed the decision to implement MYOB Advanced Payroll and Workforce Management?

The MSP team was immediately impressed by how MYOB Advanced Payroll and Workforce Management was customised to their unique and complex needs. Chief among them is the hours-bank. MYOB Advanced Workforce Management tracks and stores hours against each individual team member for head office to import in quieter periods. MYOB Advanced Payroll allows the head-office administration team to pay every employee across the entire franchise at one time and from one place while also generating separate ABA files.

The Kilimanjaro Consulting experts built customised onboarding workflows with the ability to upload unique documents for new employees to read and sign. New starters could jump straight into learning, and the payroll team could seamlessly manage the administration requirements tanks to the integration between MYOB Advanced Payroll and MYOB Advanced Workforce Management.

The team leverages the self-serve mobile app that employees use to clock in and out, record their timesheets electronically, see payslips, and apply for leave. Supervisors have greater visibility on hours worked and can approve or reject timesheets before payroll is processed each week. MSP now has huge time savings across onboarding and payroll processing, greater productivity, ease of use, and increased visibility and accountability for all employees.

How are they now?

MYOB Advanced Payroll and Workforce Management’s reporting capabilities meant that MSP Photography no longer wasted precious time manually onboarding new starters and calculating leave. Their payroll processing has now been reduced to one day per week, and its complex hours-bank reporting has now been customised to report at the click of a button.

Two unexpected but welcome benefits MSP has realised through MYOB Advanced Workforce Management are increased visibility and improved staff accountability across the organisation. MYOB Advanced Workforce Management makes it very easy to track how many hours staff are working and see if staff are working too much or too little. MSP Photography now has reliable, accurate information across the entire business at the drop of a hat.

The team also enjoys working in the cloud. They can view and access information at any time and from any location via the app or web browser. With a mobile workforce travelling to and from schools across Australia, this flexibility has been invaluable.

How do I achieve a successful MYOB Advanced implementation?

A successful MYOB Advanced Implementation depends on 3 critical risks:

1. Software Risk
2. Implementer risk
3. Self-Inflicted Risk

You can reduce your risk by selecting the right implementation partner. Although there are many different partners to choose from, you need the one that will work with you every step of the way. Managing risk is an important part of an implementation; selecting a low-risk partner is critical to a lifetime of success with your Business Management system.

Kilimanjaro Consulting ticks all the boxes when it comes to choosing the right partner:

• Proven industry experience and a positive reputation,
• A structured implementation methodology to guide both you and the implementer through the process,
• Ongoing training and support during your implementation and after go-live,
• The accounting skills to ensure you go live with a reconciled system, 
• A strong relationship with the software vendor allows us to influence enhancements to the software that might be useful to your own organisation,
• Specialised technical knowledge to integrate best-of-breed connected services into your system,
• A stable team with high levels of staff cohesion and collaboration and low staff turnover.

Kilimanjaro Consulting is the largest and most experienced implementer of MYOB’s Enterprise-level business management, accounting, payroll, and workforce management solutions: MYOB Advanced  and MYOB Exo. We are experienced, low-risk implementers, helping organisations improve efficiency in their businesses through the use of clever, innovative, and proven technology.

Free resources to help you further

If you are ready to start your Business Management System journey, choose Kilimanjaro Consulting as your trusted implementation partner. If you don’t know where to start, download our free E-Book that will take you through everything you need to consider and what to be wary of during this process.

Kilimanjaro Consulting is the largest implementer of MYOB’s Business Management Software across Australia and New Zealand. We take the time to understand your business and only recommend the products that can meet your needs. Talk to our team to start a conversation about how MYOB Advanced can improve efficiency in your organisation. Email sales@kilimanjaro-consulting.com or call 1300 857 464 (AU) or 0800 436 774 (NZ).