Payroll Pro Cuts Paycheck Processing Time, Reduces Errors for Rock Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning

When Amy Heidtman, Office Manager for Rock Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, signed up to try ServiceTitan Payroll Pro during the open beta phase this fall, her top priority was to cut down the time required to process and calculate payroll each month. 

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She saw the benefits of Payroll Pro as twofold. One, it would free up time for Rock’s owners, who often spent hours, and even days, calculating payroll manually. And two, she could learn to do it all on her own, but more simply and efficiently.

“It's everything we expected and more,” Heidtman said after two rounds of using the new all-in-one payroll software to automatically process Rock’s different levels of payroll, bonuses, and commissions for its service technicians, CSRs, sales team, and others. 

“I’m a huge proponent of ServiceTitan. I really like that you guys do a lot to make things better constantly,” Heidtman said. “Sometimes I'm like, ‘I can't even keep up with all the cool stuff.’”

Payroll Pro eliminates the need for payroll data exports, commission calculations, and data entry into your payroll processor. It not only automates the processing of benefit and tax deductions and direct deposits for employee pay, Payroll Pro also automatically files and pays federal, state, and local business taxes.

Companies like Rock Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning use ServiceTitan’s core payroll features, such as timesheets and performance pay, to calculate payroll but process the payroll using Payroll Pro. Instead of taking hours or days, the process now only takes minutes.

As we get ready to launch Payroll Pro, Heidtman agreed to share her experience with the new product.

First, drop the technology-resistant accountant

Heidtman discovered the power of ServiceTitan software after joining Rock nearly three years ago, and persuaded the owners to add the Phones Pro tool after learning about it during the 2019 Pantheon, ServiceTitan’s annual user conference.

When Rock’s owners decided they wanted to spend less time in the office, she knew Payroll Pro could also help automate the payroll process to free up more of their time. But first she needed to make sure everything was integrated and connected properly.

“At the time, we had an accountant who was really fighting all the stuff that ServiceTitan has to offer,” Heidtman said. “And so, she’s no longer here.”

The problem, Heidtman said, is that the accountant refused to transition from QuickBooks Online to QuickBooks Desktop, which they needed to do to take advantage of all of the software features. 

With integrations all complete, Heidtman said, the software allows her to configure pay based on flat rates, bonuses, commissions, added items to an invoice, and more.

“The variety is more than what I thought it would be, which was super cool,” she said.

Payroll Pro replaces a cumbersome, manual pay process

Before using Payroll Pro, Rock’s technicians manually kept track of every job, especially those with commissions, and would turn in paper sheets to the owner. The owner would then compare those paper sheets to the digital reports Heidtman pulled from the ServiceTitan software. 

To figure the different level of commissions or bonuses due, the owner manually entered each job for every technician into another spreadsheet, which would then calculate the correct commission for each job.

“And then, she'd have to pass that off to our accountant to process through QuickBooks. It was a pain in the booty,” Heidtman said. “And she still had to figure all the payroll taxes.”

Mistakes also happened, which required writing extra checks to employees to make up the difference after the fact, and the commission-earning employees didn’t know what their final check was going to be until it was actually processed, Heidtman said.

“It was a pain, and there were a lot of mistakes,” she said. Today, it’s as easy as clicking a few buttons, and she lets the software do the work.

As part of onboarding Payroll Pro, Heidtman said the staff continues to manually track jobs and commissions for a period of time to make sure everything matches up in the end. 

“Just to make sure we’re not missing anything and there’s nothing falling through the cracks,” Heidtman said. “It’s been pretty dead on, so that makes me feel good.”

Rock Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning just hired a new accountant, Heidtman said, and entering her information into the payroll system and paying her on time was a much easier and quicker process.

“We've done two payroll processes through ServiceTitan. And I would think by the next two, we're going to have it down to where there won't be any problems, which is just so exciting,” Heidtman said.