From late-night payroll to payroll on the go, we caught up with Marisa from Sugar Time to hear how a simpler approach to payroll is making life as a small business owner a little easier.
Running a small business is a labour of love. It's early mornings, busy afternoons, unexpected challenges and the satisfaction of building something of your own. But behind the moments customers see, there's a whole other side to business ownership. The paperwork, the payments, the never-ending to-do lists and the little jobs that somehow find their way into your evenings.
For Marisa, who runs Sugar Time in Tuggerah, NSW, it's a familiar balancing act. Like so many small business owners, she's responsible for keeping things moving, looking after her team and making sure everything gets done. And while there's plenty to love about running your own business, there are also those tasks that seem to take up more time and energy than they should.
Payroll was one of them.
For many business owners, the working day doesn't necessarily end when they leave the business. There's often a second shift waiting at home, when the day's distractions have settled and there's finally time to catch up on everything that didn't get done.
For Marisa, that sometimes meant spending her evenings sorting out payroll.
“I'd often do payroll at home late at night, which is no good.”
It wasn't that Marisa found the payroll calculations particularly difficult or time-consuming. In fact, when we asked her about the process, she explained that the real frustration came afterwards, when it was time to actually pay everyone.
“Doing the prep for payroll didn't take too long, but doing all of the individual payments to individual staff members and their super fund was really tedious and time consuming, plus left room for human error.”
It's a frustration plenty of small business owners will recognise. You've already worked out what everyone needs to be paid, but the job isn't finished. There are still individual payments to organise, names to navigate and banking tasks to complete before you can finally tick payroll off your list.
Individually, those extra steps might not seem like much. But when you're already juggling everything that comes with running a business, they add up. And when those jobs start spilling into your evenings, it's not just your working day they're taking up. It's your personal time, too.
For Marisa, there had to be an easier way.
Sometimes, the biggest improvements to your working day come from simplifying the things you do every week.
That's where PaySauce made the biggest impact.
Rather than having to move between payroll and internet banking to organise individual payments, PaySauce brings the process together in one place. It's designed to take the unnecessary back-and-forth out of payday, giving business owners a straightforward way to pay their people without all the extra steps.
And for Marisa, the difference comes down to one thing: ease.
“It's just so easy. It really is easy.”
It's the kind of feedback we love hearing, partly because it's so simple. There's no complicated explanation or long list of features. Just a business owner who wants to get payroll done without making it harder than it needs to be.
As Marisa explained, it's the way everything flows that she particularly appreciates.
“It's one platform to do everything related to payroll. I don't have to go from name to name paying each individual. It's all laid out in the one place, I press a button and payroll is done.”
She went on to describe how easy it is to move through her employees, with a simple forward arrow taking her from one person to the next.
It's a small detail, but one that makes a difference when you're trying to get through a task efficiently. No unnecessary jumping around, no trying to remember where you were up to. Just a clear process that helps you keep moving.
And when you're the person responsible for everything from customers to staff to the daily running of a business, those little improvements can mean a lot.
Of course, finding the right software is only part of the story. When you're running a business, having the right people behind you matters just as much.
Even with a straightforward system, questions can come up. Maybe there's something you haven't done before, a process you're unsure about or a little problem you need help working through. In those moments, knowing you can reach someone who genuinely wants to help makes all the difference.
It's something Marisa has particularly appreciated since joining PaySauce.
“And if I have had an issue that I couldn't figure out how to do solve, the support has been amazing.”
For small business owners, that kind of support can be incredibly reassuring. When you're used to being the person everyone else turns to, it's nice to know there's someone you can turn to as well.
And that's something we care about at PaySauce. We're here to make payroll easier, of course, but we're also here to make sure the people using it feel supported along the way.
While simplifying everyday tasks is important, there's another side to running a business that often gets overlooked: having the freedom to enjoy life outside of it.
For Marisa, that meant an exciting trip on the horizon.
“We will be traveling back to South Africa in October, which is pretty exciting for me. And I will have to do two payrolls from there. I will definitely have the app on my phone by then because I'm not lugging the laptop with me the entire way.”
It's one of those realities of business ownership. Even when you're taking a well-deserved break, certain things still need to happen. Your team still needs to be paid, and payday doesn't stop just because you're on the other side of the world.
But Marisa wasn't planning on letting payroll dictate what she packed.
“So I will definitely have the app on my phone by then because I'm not lugging the laptop with me the entire way.”
Fair enough, Marisa!
And that's exactly the kind of flexibility we want small business owners to have.
With PaySauce, payroll doesn't have to mean sitting at a desk or being tied to a laptop. It's designed to work from your phone, giving you the freedom to take care of payday wherever you happen to be.
Whether that's at the business, at home or halfway around the world, the idea is simple: payroll should fit around your life, not the other way around.
For Marisa, having the option to manage those upcoming payroll runs from her phone means one less thing to worry about as she prepares for her trip.
And hopefully, a little more room in the suitcase for something other than a laptop.
Every small business has its own story, and every business owner has their own reasons for doing what they do. But one thing they often share is the sheer amount of themselves they put into making it work.
It's easy to become so caught up in the day-to-day responsibilities that the boundaries between work and life start to blur. An extra hour here, a little admin there, a few payments to organise before bed. Before you know it, the business is taking up more of your time than you ever intended.
That's why stories like Marisa's matter to us.
Not because switching payroll software suddenly makes every challenge of running a business disappear. It doesn't. There will always be busy days, unexpected problems and things that need your attention.
But making the everyday jobs simpler can make a difference.
For Marisa, that means moving away from tedious individual bank payments, having a payroll process she finds easy to navigate and knowing there's a friendly person ready to help when she needs it. And with her South Africa trip ahead, it also means having the option to take care of payday without taking her entire office along for the journey.
It's a reminder that sometimes the best business tools are the ones that make your life easier, giving you one less thing to think about.
Because running a business takes enough of your time, energy and heart already.
Your payroll shouldn't have to take any more than it needs.
A big thank you to Marisa from Sugar Time in Tuggerah for taking the time to share her experience with us.
We love getting to know the people behind the businesses we support, hearing about their challenges and celebrating the little wins that make running a business that much easier.
We're especially glad to hear that Marisa has found a simpler way to manage payday, and that Anna has made such a wonderful impression along the way.
Here's to easier paydays, fewer evenings spent on admin and plenty more adventures ahead.
You take care of the business you've worked so hard to build. We'll help take care of payday.
Press run. Payday sorted.
From payroll and super to paying your team, PaySauce brings everything together in one place. With mobile-first software and real human support, we're helping Australian small business owners spend less time on payroll and more time on the things that matter.