Evolution of Payroll: Insights with Christine Stolpe - Episode 116
In Episode 116 of 'It's About Payroll,' hosts Brian Escobar and Walter William Duncan II welcome special guest Christine Stolpe. Dive into the transformative world of payroll as Christine shares her journey from HR to payroll, the creation of her comprehensive Payroll Encyclopedia, and insights into the future of payroll technology. Learn about the latest industry innovations, the essential blend of human resources and IT in payroll, and her vision for a more streamlined, secure payroll process. Don't miss this enlightening discussion filled with practical advice and forward-thinking strategies. Tune in now!
00:00 Introduction to the Podcast
00:37 Catch-Up and Time Flying Discussion
01:18 Pay News Update: Veritas Prime Americas
03:46 Innovations in Payroll Technology
07:43 Sponsorship Message from TimeTrack Go
09:38 Introducing Christine Stolpe
11:15 Christine's Journey into Payroll
17:02 Christine's Payroll Encyclopedia
25:48 Community and Knowledge Sharing
29:33 Payroll Community Insights
30:19 Personal Projects and Hobbies
31:09 Exploring Interests Beyond Payroll
32:14 The Future of Payroll
33:12 Learning from Payroll Mistakes
40:07 Fun Game: This or That
45:43 Safe Talk: Do Payroll Pros Need People Skills?
50:53 Final Thoughts and Advice
Pay News Update & Commercial!
Brian
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240620948154/en/Veritas-Prime-Americas-Uniting-Veritas-Prime-US-and-Veritas-Prime-LATAM-for-Enhanced-Payroll-Services-and-Operational-Excellence
Walt
https://suna.com/2024/06/14/innovations-in-payroll-technology-whats-new-in-2024/
The article on innovations in payroll technology for 2024 highlights how advancements are revolutionizing the way businesses handle employee compensation, aiming to streamline processes, improve accuracy, and ensure compliance. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the key innovations discussed:
1. **Cloud-Based Payroll Solutions**:
- **Benefits**: These systems offer real-time access to payroll data, enhancing transparency and enabling self-service for employees and managers. They are scalable and flexible, integrating seamlessly with HR and accounting software.
- **Cost-Efficiency**: Reduced reliance on on-premise infrastructure lowers operational costs.
- **Security**: Advanced encryption and compliance with data protection regulations ensure sensitive payroll information remains secure.
2. **AI and Machine Learning**:
- **Applications**: AI automates complex payroll tasks such as wage calculations, tax deductions, and fraud detection. Machine learning predicts payroll expenses and identifies anomalies, improving accuracy and reducing risks.
- **Benefits**: Predictive analytics help forecast payroll needs and preempt potential issues, while AI algorithms enhance security by detecting and preventing fraudulent activities.
3. **Mobile Payroll Applications**:
- **Features**: Essential for remote work scenarios, these apps empower employees to view pay stubs, request time off, and access tax documents anytime, anywhere.
- **Convenience**: Managers can approve payroll and handle other tasks on the go, enhancing operational efficiency and responsiveness.
4. **Blockchain Technology**:
- **Advantages**: Blockchain provides a transparent and secure platform for payroll transactions. It ensures accuracy through decentralized ledger recording and automates processes via smart contracts, reducing administrative overhead and enhancing data integrity and security.
5. **On-Demand Pay**:
- **Benefits**: Also known as earned wage access, this innovation allows employees to access earned wages before the scheduled payday. It promotes financial wellness by reducing reliance on payday loans and improving job satisfaction and retention rates.
- **Employer Benefits**: Offering on-demand pay can attract and retain talent, leading to cost savings associated with reduced turnover and related hiring and training expenses.
**Impact and Future Outlook**:
- These innovations collectively transform payroll management by increasing efficiency, accuracy, and security. Businesses adopting these technologies not only streamline payroll processes but also boost employee satisfaction and retention.
- The article emphasizes the importance of staying ahead in the competitive landscape by integrating these advanced payroll technologies. Companies are encouraged to leverage these innovations to enhance operational effectiveness and meet evolving workforce expectations.
In conclusion, innovations in payroll technology for 2024 represent a significant leap forward in how businesses manage financial operations, aligning with the needs of a modern workforce and ensuring sustainable growth and competitiveness in the market.
Effective July 1, 2024 a final rule that expands overtime protections for millions of the nation’s lower-paid salaried workers by increasing the salary thresholds required to exempt a salaried bona fide executive, administrative or professional employee from federal overtime pay requirements. The salary threshold will increase to the equivalent of an annual salary of $43,888 and increase to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025.
This means that millions of additional workers will be required to track time and attendance. Whether you are new to time tracking or looking to make a change, TimeTrakGO provides a simply better solution that can have you up and running in a matter of minutes. If you follow the link in our episode notes, you also get your first month free.
Don't miss out! To take advantage of this special offer, use the link in the show notes to start your 14-day trial in the month of June to qualify for your first month free.
Link: https://www.timetrakgo.com/signmeup?utm_source=SMB24&utm_medium=IAP&utm_id=SBM24
if you want to learn more, you can go to www. timetrakgo.com, That's www T-I-M-E-T-R-A-K. go.com or you can call 8 8 8 3 2 1 9 9 2 2. Let’s Go!
the more I understand about the computer system, the better payroller I am. - Welcome to our podcast, It's About Payroll. We're your host, Brian Escobar, and Walter William Duncan III. Whether you're new to the payroll game or seasoned veteran, we have something for you. - Welcome back, folks. This is episode 116 of It's About Payroll. We got an amazing guest lined up for you today, Christine Stolpe. Stolpe, well, she'll tell us how she pronounces it. - Nice. - But before that, what's up, man? How you doing, Walt? - I'm good. I say this sometimes, but man, time is flying. - Yeah, right. - Time is flying. I feel like it was just January, now it's the middle of the month. I mean, middle of the year. - Yeah, yeah. - You know, and like, it's just what? - Oh, it's so quick. - Yeah. - It goes really quickly, man. - It really does, I think everybody will say. - I'm good, man. I'm just trying to be appreciative of stuff. What about you? - Likewise, man. Likewise. I know I'm really good, man. Like, I was gonna say about that. I remember people saying that when I was younger, time flies, that I take it back. And it's true. And as the older you get, the quicker time, it's true. - It's all my guess. - So, yeah, man. Yeah. On that note, as time is flying, let's go ahead and get into this pay news. - Yeah, I start us off. Yeah, I start us off. Mine is about a company named Veritas Prime Americas. And it's their uniting Veritas Prime US and Veritas Prime Latin AM for enhanced payroll service and operational excellence. So basically, a company out there that's making some changes to deliver a better payroll product. Little bit about Veritas Prime Americas is a leading provider of comprehensive HR solutions, offering a wide range of services, including payroll processing, talent management, workforce analytics, and more. With the commitment to innovation and excellence, Veritas Prime Americas helps organizations optimize their HR operations and drive business success. But what they did is they believed that as Veritas Prime Americas, they are better positioned to elevate their capabilities and serve their clients with agility, accuracy, and innovation. This transformative consolidation comes in response to the increasing demand for seamless HR solutions throughout the Americas by merging the strength of Veritas Prime US and their Veritas Prime Latin AM, the newly formed Veritas Prime Americas aims to streamline processes, leverage combined expertise, and elevate the client experience to new heights. So again, it's just an HR company out there that's doing it and basically evolving, right? One on this show, we're very brand agnostic. We don't stick on big names and big brands, like that's all we're gonna talk about. No, there's a ton of HR solutions, payroll solutions out there that are making moves in the world and doing big things and million billion dollar companies that we've never even heard of. I love to expose the brands that we don't really talk about or the mass media don't talk about, right? And when we talk about payroll, we know about like four brands that everybody talks about. And again, Veritas Prime Americas is a brand out there that's evolving and doing it better to deliver a better employee experience. And yeah, so look out for them. Nice, thank you for sharing that. So I have an article from sonna.com. They had an article about innovations in payroll technology and what's new so far in 2024. Oh, look at that. They just posted this article earlier this month around the 14th. So this article on innovations in payroll technology highlights how advancements are revolutionizing the way businesses handle employee compensation aiming to streamline their processes, improve accuracy and share compliance. So here's some a breakdown of some of those key innovations that they discussed in the article. So they discussed cloud-based payroll solutions and the benefits of those real-time access to payroll data, enhancing transparency and enabling self-service for employees and managers that are scalable and flexible and integrate seamlessly with HR and accounting software, right? Cost efficiency and that's big, right? Because especially in a kind of economy that is being tried by inflation, right? And another thing that cloud-based payroll solutions offer is security and we need security with our data, especially in today's, today's, and age because we're always reading stories out there about some payroll company or some software company or some company in general being hacked or having a static expose their employees' data. Absolutely. Number two, it's AI and machine learning. Guy, that's gonna be a hot topic. That's the big, great thing. AI is gonna help automate those complex payroll tasks such as wage calculations, tax deductions and fraud detection. Machine learning predicts payroll expenses and identifies certain anomalies. The guys over at Celery, they have a great technology that they use to identify those things. So check them out if you're in the market for that. Number three, mobile payroll applications. So they're features that are essential for remote work scenarios. These apps empower employees to view pay stubs, request time off and access tax documents anytime, anywhere. And it's convenient for them, right? It's convenient for payroll managers to, our managers to approve their payroll or approve that PTO while they're on the go. If you have an app, you can approve your employees. PTO right from that app. So that makes it more convenient for everyone, right? And if you're the employee, you can request that same time off and everything like that. You can even probably review your employee handbook in the app as well. So just those different mobile applications help. Blockchain technology. Blockchain provides transparent and secure platform for payroll transactions. So they're seeing more of that on the rise. So because it ensures accuracy through a decentralized ledger which records and automates those processes via smart contracts, reducing administrative overhead and enhancing data and integrity, and again, security. On demand pay, as the guys that pay active, shout out to Chris and Aaron, how they spoke about the benefits of earned wage access. So more companies are starting to get in line with that. And really, this innovation allows employees to earn, to access their earned wages before the scheduled payday, which is beneficial for them, right? It promotes financial wellness by reducing reliance on those payday loans and can improve job satisfaction and improves your retention rates. So something to consider, right? And employers that offer that can help attract and retain talent leading the cost savings associated with turnover and hiring and training. These innovations collectively transform payroll management by increasing accuracy and security. So businesses that adopt these technologies, not only streamline their payroll processes, but also boost their employee satisfaction. So check out this article. It has a lot more than what we talked about. And before we introduce our guests and have her join, we're gonna have a word from our great sponsors over at TimeTrack Go. - Yes, effective July 1, there is a rule that is changing the salary threshold for salary based employees, for exempt employees. What I was reading wrong here was that it's going in two steps. It's going from 35K now to 43 on July 1 of 2024 and less than a month. And then on July, January 1, 2025, it's going from the 43 to 58K there. I'm not sure where they get these numbers from, but I don't know, round them out. It's like 43, 888 and 58, 656. But it's happening in two steps. Yeah, it go, I don't know. So those of us who haven't gotten their analysis is to their bosses for a review, do so quickly. And yeah, and let us know what that means. What's TimeTrack Go trying to do with this? - So that potentially means that there could be an additional, millions of additional workers that will be required to track their time and attendance, right? So whether you're new to time tracking or you're just looking to make a change, TimeTrack Go provides a simply better solution that can have you up and running in a matter of minutes, right? So if you follow the link in our episode notes, you will also get your first month free. So don't miss out. Take advantage of this special offer. Use the link in the show notes to start your 14-day trial in the month of June to qualify for that first month free. If you want to know more, you can go to www.timetrackgo.com that's T-I-M-E-T-R-A-K-Go.com or you can call 888-321-9922. Let's go. - Let's go. - Yeah. - So today we're thrilled to welcome a highly accomplished global payroll professional with extensive experience in both domestic and international payroll operations. She excels in ensuring accurate payroll through effective leadership. She brings a wealth of knowledge in payroll processing and setting up multiple state and localities for payroll. She is, her professional vision is to drive payroll quality, insurance focus, payroll quality assurance, focusing on compliance, accuracy, and timeliness. We all messed up with our words today. And known for fostering a teamwork approach with patience and cohesiveness, she leads by example, adhering to a no hypocrite policy and the golden rule. Please welcome to the show Christine Stope. I believe it's Stope, as you would be, help us pronounce it, or Stolce. - We're so happy to have you. We just intro'd you, so you'll hear that when you hear the episode. And we're so happy to have you on. And let's-- - I'm so honored to be here. - Yes, thank you. It was amazing meeting you at Paycon. And like always, we get everybody started with our origin stories. And we do a little twist now because of the great Jodie. Tell us what your origin story, how you got into payroll, but also tell us why you stood. - Oh, I stayed in payroll. - Well, first I got into it. How'd you get into payroll? But then why did you stay? - Yes. - Okay, all right. So how I got into, am I allowed to just say I fell into it? - Of course. But how? - I think the only person who chose so far is like me and one other person that we know of that chose me. - Who was that? Who was the other person? - It was somebody we had on as a guest. They said, I'm just trying to love somebody and you and me. So they were my-- - No, I don't remember. I think Waltz is still the only person that chose to go into payroll. - Oh gosh. - Tell us how you fell. - So it was a semi-choice in that I started in human resources. - Okay. - And I had the knack for computers. So as really HRIS systems, trying to put human resources things into computers was very much my thought process. We have these great computers that'll do all the thinking for us. Let them do it. - Right. - We just have to teach them how to do it. - That's right. - The same thing we're doing with all the AI stuff that we're talking about today. So when I got into human resources and I was on my third or fourth job, I was working at a hospital system in Northern Nevada and the person who was doing payroll, they're friendly with me, colleague, friend-ish. She got my check wrong. - Oh wow. - She got your check wrong? - Oh crap. - She got my check wrong. Yeah. So I won't say she got it wrong. My check was wrong. They're right. - There you go. - Your error on my check. - I love it. - There you go. - And I knew that I had done everything that I was supposed to do because I am a little follower. I was raised by a lawyer. That's what I do. - Okay. - So. (laughs) So I had followed all the rules. My check was wrong. I went and sat with her and we did the root cause, go through the whole process to figure out what had happened, why it was incorrect. And okay, now we know what happened. So we were able to make the correction on the next paycheck while I sat with her to make sure that the error didn't happen again to me or to anyone else. - Oh God. - Since it seemed that there wasn't any safety in place to make sure that mistake hadn't happened in the first place. So two weeks later, I'm sitting with her again, helping her develop a checklist. Two weeks later, I'm the payroll processor and my friend had made the decision to work elsewhere. - Wow. - Oh my gosh. Well, there you go. There you go. There you go. That was a bit of intention there. - There you go. - Yeah. - You fixed this, now you won the job. - Yeah. She made the decision that it wasn't for her and the boss called me and said, I know you've been over here the last three payrolls. You wanna just come do it full time? - Wow. - And I thought, yeah, I can do that. - Nice. - And it was just such a perfect blend that I've never left because I still have that HR mindset, right? Because if you don't, then you forget who's at the end of the paycheck. - Mm-hmm, that's right. - Not just about me being right, it's about them getting paid right. So it's a win. So that's why I stayed, that's why I stayed. - I love it. And you know what? It's in a line, 'cause I always say on the show, Anita the Tink says it in her book, payroll starts as soon as the HR system is updated or it changed, right? Like it starts in HR and then it goes down. So yeah, I love it, I love it. - My mantra, I have a mantra. It's a big block on my very front homepage on my website. It says that payroll is the rope in the tug war between human resources and finance. One has the data we need and then once the data that we have, - Yes, I love it. - Yes, I love that. - I love that. - I love that, y'all. Oh man, we kind of, yeah, see, we're gonna get all these mantras together, all this stuff, go ahead. - And Christine, Christine, 'cause you let us know what your website is for the listeners so they know where to go. - Of course, it's wwws wagescreak.com. - Love it. - Wages like getting paid and it was Greek, like a river. 'Cause it flows, is that, was that the motivation? - It's a double entendre, to be sure. There's the money flows, wages Creek and my great grandparents purchased land way north in California and established a corporation to own the land so that we could keep it in the family for generations. - Yeah. - Wow. - The road that you turn off the highway to get to our property is wages Creek. - Yeah. - I love that. - That's amazing. - That's the best story. - That's amazing. - I love it. It was written for you to be in payroll, oh my goodness. - Yes. - And let me tell you. - Something like that. - Let me ask you this, how long has your website been around out there on the internet? Okay, 'cause-- - I think I started it in 2019? - Okay, that's because when me and Walt started this and we were starting to look for content and I think we mentioned that paycon, that our motivation was really 'cause we were developing an app and then we were like, okay, let's do the podcast and payroll, let's get in, let's dive in. And I was looking for content and I'm pretty sure I found your website, we just Creek because, and I'm even told, well, I'm like, oh, Walt, if somebody out there, they're putting out content, we're gonna have to find out more and I think I signed up and all that and it was just like, wow. And I, 'cause I remember the Creek part, like the Wages Creek and I was like, interesting name, so it just stuck out. So I've been, yeah, as I had found it then and then come fast forward to a month ago, we meet you at paycon and it was amazing. Perfect segue, right? As you had shared some stuff with us at paycon, what are you comfortable sharing with about like the solutions that different things that you've developed over the years that are out there? I am actually over the moon to share about what I've developed and what I'm still working on developing. So when I started in payroll, all those mini moons back when my friend Lisa got my check wrong, one of the things that I stepped into to really wrap my brain around payroll as a whole, as a community, as a genre, as a necessity of life, was I stepped into implementations with, into it payroll and so I had to learn an awful lot about supporting payroll outside of my little box, which was Reno, Nevada at the time. So any payroll job I'd had on my employees were in Reno or Sparks or Silver Springs or Carson City or I might have had one or two from Truckee, but we were a Nevada company so we didn't have to do state income tax from California if we didn't opt to. Once upon a time that was the rule between the two states. So we just made the decision not to. So I was really only processing single state payroll for a state that didn't even have income tax. So my job was really easy. So when I started it into it, I had clients from all over the country. We had charter schools from Kentucky, we had mom paw shops from Florida who didn't have state income tax from Washington who didn't but does and it just did all these different things. And all of a sudden I was like, okay, I'm learning how to build this puzzle of 50 states and it's not 50 puzzle pieces. But in California, there's two puzzle pieces. In Nevada, there are three, even though we don't have state income tax, there are still three puzzle pieces to open your business in Nevada. So it just depends on, look at Washington. Not only do you have Washington cares, but now you have all of the preschool for all, the housing for all, you've got the locals. There may not be state taxes in Washington, but depending on where you live, you're paying extra taxes. - Washington state, right? - All those things, yes, Washington state, yes, yes. So again, here's all these things that are bouncing around in my head that I can just start rambling off because they're top of mind. But ask me about Iowa, do you want to have a place in? - I can go look it up really quick. I know where to go, look it up. Hey, I got my tool. - Exactly. But how long is it gonna take you to look it up? You have to go to, yeah, you're gonna go to Google, you're gonna type it in, you're gonna make sure you're going to the non-sponsored places. - That's right, I gotta go to the state, we're gonna go to the right place. - Exactly. Which part of the state website are you gonna get the information that you're looking for? Is it relevant to the actual topic you're looking at? - Oh my gosh, you are just using my ear. - Or are you looking at something that only applies to three things later? So my brain immediately went to put me in a six-sigma program into it and let me build a state-by-state how-to. And they were like, no. - Yup. - Because everything changes too often and so it would be a constant thing that we would have to do. And I said, okay, so what? - Yeah. - Let's do that. - Yup. - Into it, didn't want it. - That's a big one. - Are we gonna push it? - Yeah, that's a big right. - It would have been. - You know it. - It would have been. - Yeah. - At the time I was actually thinking like index flip cards. (laughing) - Yeah. - Like a roll index, right? - Yeah. - That would be a little one card out and put the right card in or erase the information and put the right, I don't know. I was trying to figure out something. So fast forward to the pandemic. 2019 is when I got laid off, which is when my pandemic started. - Yeah. - And then in 2020 they sent everybody home and so I was working from home. I was self-employed at that point. Anyway, so it really didn't matter to me. I got really fortunate and that I was able to just keep the wheels running the whole time. - Of course. That's right. - And I also found myself with enough sign time with my clients to start building the encyclopedia, which is what I call it. And it is that roll index that I was talking about. It's every topic that is payroll relevant. And every state as well as territory of the United States of America. I haven't gone global with it yet, but you can search by state or by topic. And then you get, if you search by topic, you get the topic with all 50 states and the territories and whatever the rule is for that topic. So minimum wages, new employers, SUIs. I'll have to say SUIs. - Do it yet. - It means unemployment insurance. - Yes. - So they have wage basis, plus they have rate. So my encyclopedia has all of that by table. And then when you go over to the state side of the encyclopedia, if you choose Kentucky, it will pull up the minimum wage, the sewer rates, the wage base, the local tax rates, everything for Kentucky on one page. - That's amazing. - Yes. - Wow. - See. - Much needed, much overdue. - Yeah, much needed, much overdue. I think into it, not to speak badly about anybody or anything like that, but I think maybe they saw that the work was gonna be, say, didn't see the benefit of it. - No. - Yeah. - And so I appreciate you, Christine, for doing that. That is amazing. Thank you for putting that out there, because it will take somebody like you, and I know that you care for others in the industry, because not only did you wanna do that for yourself, but you wanted to do that for others, I can assume, right? And so, for me, can you talk about what inspired you to do it beyond just wanting to educate others? What else inspired you to do that? - To make the lives of other payroll professionals like me, even easier. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I don't want others just have the same struggles that many of us have had. And it's frustrating to hear, here in 2024, those who are in the process of retiring, our baby bloomer generation, who basically brought my generation up. I am a Gen Xer, by the way. They brought us up with these really great values and traditions. And as we're turning them into our own traditions and our own values, they're not loving it. So I am finding that as part of the struggle, and I think that was part of it within to it, was it's always gonna need to be updated. And who's gonna do that, right? Who's gonna create one of these really awesome databases of information and then maintain it? - Yeah. - 'Cause that's the hardest part, right? - It is. - Building it as a task of itself, 'cause it's taken me five years to get it exactly the way I want it to look. And I'm on my third version of it, and I'm on my third platform. - Wow. - The first platform was Excel. - Oh my God. - That's where it all starts, right? - No. - That's where we're at Excel. - Oh my goodness. - And I still leave it. My whole database does live in Excel, and I keep it there, because it's all linked together. But that database is what I use to update the encyclopedia. - Wow. - So I just maintain my database, and the pages on the website follow the database. - Holy. - That's awesome. - That's awesome. - I do have next steps, but I wanted to talk about my why to get to that point. It's not just about making life easier for myself, right? I don't want anyone else to have to learn the same hard lessons, right? Learn from my mistakes. Learn from the lessons that I've already had. - Yes. - We don't teach because we want things to be done a certain way. That's not how my generation works. That's how the baby boomers worked. - Right. - And that's definitely how the traditionals worked, because that's how they were taught. - Yeah. - But that's not how we were taught. We were taught see a problem, solve a problem. - Yeah. - Right? And I see compliance in the United States across all 50 states and all of the different agencies as a major need. - Yes. - Yeah. - I'm so motivated talking to you, Christine. - Oh my gosh. - Oh my gosh. - For real. - I just pushed my request for the access by the way, 'cause I remember getting it. So I'm like, wait a minute. Let me log on. And I don't think I set it up. I saw the invite, but I never set it up. But now you'll see my request there. I think I joined it finally on Slack, 'cause you also have a Slack community. - I do want to tell this a little bit about that. - So that was basically, that's a communication tool as far as I'm concerned. It's a knowledge share as well. - A knowledge transfer, knowledge share. But it's really just a communication tool for payroll people. - I love it. - And I try to keep the headhunters at a minimum. - Okay. - I am letting them join when they ask, but I am also keeping them to a minimum, as well as any salespeople from UPG 80 to radiant and all of that. I try to keep that. If you're here to participate in the community, then fine, great, be here. But if you're here to just post a bunch of ads, I'm probably going to remove you. - Good. No, 'cause I love that. I mean, we're very similar on this show because when we get folks from, they want to promote their brand, but I'm like, that's cool. And you can naturally, 'cause if we're talking about something you solve for us as payroll pros, you're going to talk about the brand. But if you don't have anything to solve and you just want to say, "Hey, come buy our product." No, we don't have any space for that. If you have a solution, then absolutely we can talk about something. And naturally, you're going to talk about your brand. And I get though, and I'm glad you do that because a lot of times when I'm going out and looking for stuff, you'll see a salesperson on LinkedIn, mostly you'll see a salesperson. Oh, yeah, we can do that. Come to our brand and I'm like, "Oh man, I'm clicking on things." Like, "Oh, he can got to solve." Oh, nope, it's just come look at their product now. - Yep, it's the same old sale, right? - Exactly. - They like to advertise it. - Exactly. - They're not end to end. - Yeah, and they're end to end with a few handshakes and a long link. - Exactly, exactly. And we're all about solutions. I love like people are very solution oriented, very helpful, right? We're always looking at, "Hey, no, we can help you." We got somebody that reached out to us on LinkedIn now, who has a tool. So perfect question, we have a tip problem and maybe I can share the link. She's has a question about like how they're doing tipped wages and things like that, but I've never paid with tip wages, but it's been a while for Walt. So we're like, "Mm, we're gonna get you a solution." So maybe we can share the link with her to jump on to the community on Slack to try to get some help with that. 'Cause I'm at a law, so of course we invite questions and of course the first question we get is, "Oh, I don't know, we don't help you." - I replied to her, Brian. - Oh, you did? Okay, cool. - Yeah, I did and I got an answer after doing some research and stuff. - Oh, perfect, yeah, she's good, yeah. - Okay, oh, that's awesome. - We see we're solving problems, there we go. That's how we do it. - I told my best Christine. - And do you know active? - Yeah. - In the payroll encyclopedia, the tip credits are listed as their own column. - Let's see. - The maximum tip credits. - So go ahead and share that with her anyway, Brian. - Yeah, exactly, yeah, for real. If you have links, Christine, if you can send it to us in the email, I'll put it in the show notes and they'll be shared when we post the episode. That would be great. - Yeah, for real. Oh, by the way, how do you announce it? - Everybody, invite only. - Okay, okay. - And I just put that out there, right? Google payroll is the Slack channel and it's free. We want everybody there. We're still on the free part of Slack and if it ever gets to the point where Slack wants us to start paying because we get to a certain size or we want to turn on some of the bills and whistles, we already have a sponsorship lined up financially. - So I'm not worried about Google payroll. It's going to be awesome. The thing I like about it the best, of course, is it's free? - Yeah, exactly. - It's managed by payroll people or people. - That's right. I'm not a social media manager who's trying to build a community of payroll people who doesn't actually understand payroll. - Yes, yeah. - Right? - I'm a payroller. - That's right. One of the best out there, that's for sure. How do you pronounce your last name, by the way? - Stolpey. - Stolpey, see, I was saying it right. Awesome. - Stolpey, yeah, it's Scandinavian Norwegian. I believe it's originally pronounced Stolpey. - Ah, okay, of course. - Awesome. - Yeah, we just wanted to make sure we get it right for the folks. So what else, what else do you got? You got the encyclopedia, you have the go-go payroll on Slack, community, anything else in the works? - Oh my goodness. (laughs) - Now you can show you one of the shares. - Now I have a lot in my life, believe it or not. I'm actually opening another website for some handmade blankets that I make on the slide. Another shutdown thing, right? I needed something to keep me busy in the end. - Yes. - I can go to my payroll meetings. So I started fingering it in, and now I make baby blankets and sweaters and scarves and stuff. And I have such an interesting story, I get it. I've posted it, everybody I know, right? Everybody's got at least one or two blankets. Now I still have blankets, so I'm finding it to just start selling them and open another website. It's half-built, it's, again, I know what I need to do, it's just a matter of doing it. - Share it with us, we'll put it out there. I love getting those different things with payroll folks. What else are you interested in? Beyond payroll, and we're gonna play a little game with you in a second, that'll get a little bit of stuff out of there. It's, oh, don't worry, it's fine. But we do, check out today's episode that will be out, well, it's actually out there already, but I'll put the ad out for it in a little while. The guest gave us a game, she put us on the hot seat, and she, yeah, Walt took the question, and she gave us a hard question. It was like really hard, and we were like, oh my gosh, wait a minute, so no, don't worry, it's a very fun, and it's made, it's built to expose those things beyond payroll, right? 'Cause we don't only do payroll, we have lives, we have other interests. We're people, right? Meanwhile, I think we're gonna do a fantasy league this year, football fantasy league. Oh, by the way, we gotta quote my boy, he wants to talk to us today about it, and at football fantasy, we love football, we're always talking about like sports on the show, there's more to us than payroll, right? But before we get into that, what would you like to see? Where do you like to see payroll go? Where do you think payroll, more importantly, where would you like to see payroll go? 'Cause I think you're one of the most prolific payroll mind, right? And where do you wanna see it? - Okay, first of all, I have to take that in. There was a lot bigger than I would play myself off as. - That's all your humble. - Okay, meanwhile, we see that. - I think humility is a necessity in payroll, honestly. - Yes, I think we all are very-- - We can't always think-- - That's right. - We can't probably think that we're right. When someone asks a question, right, I always go and double check. I don't just say, oh yeah, I did that right. I think that's part of it. I think that, but that makes us really good at this, 'cause if you're arrogant, if you're overconfident though, then you're not gonna really be good at this job because you have to double check. Folks always question, Brian, is that compliance, right? You know what, things are changing all the time. Let me double check. - He's doing that, right? And I learned a hard lesson recently, and I wanna get you, I gave you time to think about the question while I say this. I learned this with the software system we were using in the past few years, where I had been using the system so long that I was like, no, it doesn't do that. And then I got a life check on it because then, but I'm gonna go check anyway. And I checked and they did change. They changed. They evolved the system changes. And that really gave me a career check life lesson, and I stopped doing that. And now when folks say, oh, can the system do this? And I'll know that no is probably the answer, but I say, you know what? It hasn't currently, but let me check. It hasn't in the past, but let me check. It humbled me in that respect because all these systems are trying to evolve and really at lightning speed, especially now with AI and machine learning, they're growing by leaps and bounds. They're evolving and I love to see it. So you really do have to really check it. Nothing, I love, nothing is static, right? It's very dynamic. And I learned from one of these payroll conferences, it was a legal conference that I went to years ago, and it was a lawyer, one of the presenters was a lawyer. And he said, listen, you guys are going to ask me a million questions in this conference. All the answer, every answer will be, it depends. It depends. Anywho, where would you like to see payroll go? I would like to see payroll go the way of IT. What does that mean? I like that answer, yes. How many companies actually still have an IT department? They don't call it IT anymore, most of them, right? Especially when it comes to big payroll systems. And I'm the big one with the W that's multifaceted and has branches everywhere. I'm finding the teams that use teams. That didn't sound right. The departments that are breaking things into teams within each department, that's the most successful I've seen, however, it was also too big. It was so big that everyone got very siloed and no one could cross cover anyone anymore. So I really think that payroll needs to go the way of IT in that we teach the systems to do all of those checks for us, so that we don't have to keep doing them, right? We're human, we're prone to failure, it's just a thing. However, so are computers. I don't know if you guys have been watching the news, but I saw what happened in the airports in the UK and computer glitches are a thing, man. - Yes, they are. - They're a thing. And I've been reading a GPA magazine about the whole Phoenix thing up in Canada, and I can't believe that I didn't hear about that while it was going on. - Yep, they are. - I'm reading about it. - Tell us. - After the fact. - Boom, we got a bonus penis. Go ahead, tell us what is it about. - Oh, Phoenix? - Yeah. - The entire country of Canada decided to put themselves on the Phoenix payroll system. Every Canadian employee was moved on to this system. They didn't do their parallels correctly. They rushed the project. They didn't do enough testing. There obviously wasn't enough long-term who is this going to affect in 12 months, and we have to do tax forms and things like that. So here we are, I think they said six years later, four years later, something like that, and many Canadian employees still aren't whole. - Oh, my God. - So it was not just wrong payroll. It's hold on missed payrolls, which is something I have never had happen. - Thank God. - Thank you. - Uh-huh. - Would you? - Yeah, not exactly, not would. - Never missed a payroll ever in my entire career. I can't imagine the government missing. You wake up as a public servant and find nothing in your bank account. That's only by the government. They're only making a system in Canada. So it's just been a nightmare, and the fact that they're still dealing with it. And so I've been reading this series in the GPA's magazine. It's called O 4.5, I think it's called. It's just, it's intense, what you could do. Really intense. It gives me a new perspective on my friends at North. - Yeah, holy cow. Wow, wow. Okay, so going back to, you'd like to see payroll go the way of IT. What, I'm not following yet. I don't get it yet. What do you mean? - So not only do we need to know the logistics of payroll, which is a lot, but we have to learn systems. So we're learning logistics and we're learning systems and we're learning, do they match? And if they don't match, how do we work around that in Excel? That's got to go away. That's where the IT mindset comes in. The logistics need to be the system. The system needs to be the logistics. - Boom. - Black drop. - That's the teaser. - We keep talking about AI and machine learning, like ad nauseam and payroll. Let's start doing it, right, we've talked about it. We know what we can do with it. So now let's start doing it. And that's where we have to take that step into IT. We have to make the decision to learn something different. - Yes. - While we still retain what we already know. - Yep. - I love it. - And that's the way it's got to go. - That's it, yep, my drop. - The more I understand about the computer system, the better payroller I am. - Yeah, oh, heck yeah. And thank you because that supports my, one of the things that I do tell folks, or, and I get annoyed at recruiters, when you're in the job hunt, oh, do you know this system? Do you know that system? No, but I've touched enough systems that I'm going to be good at that system in two hours, right? Because I know what it's supposed to do. If it's a payroll, it's an HR system, they are all supposed to do the same thing, but the buttons are in different places, right? It was a joke on what I think it was like Max from Paison that put like something out there and I was laughing because I was like, yeah, all the systems are the same, the buttons are in different places. That's not far from the truth. And when you get-- - Well, unless it's the W one, right? - Yeah. - There's no buttons in the W one. - Oh, there you go. Okay, so there you go. - There's no buttons. (laughing) You have to learn a whole new language if you're going to work in the big W. - There you go. Okay, so there you go. Eye opener there, learning point there, right? But for the most part, you know what it's supposed to do, you know how to get at it. So yeah, I love it. I think that's exactly right. It's the way of IT. I like it. - Great stuff, great stuff. - Yeah. - It really is. - We have a game, it's called this or that. - Yes. - You can pick one, the other, neither both. Doesn't matter, just again, just some things that help us get to know you beyond payroll. We want to start it off and you got six, so I'll do the last three. - Yep, I'll do the first three. Number one, coffee or tea? - Oh, coffee all day. - Coffee all day. (laughs) All right, what about sunrise or sunset? - Oh, here in the desert, it's sunset. - Okay, it must be beautiful, right? - It must be amazing. - You got any colors? - Take a picture and send us a pic. - Oh, I have a camera full of sunset photos. - Oh, I would love it. - When I was in San Jose, it was about roses. Here in the desert, it's about sunsets. - That's awesome. - That's awesome. - Florida has a nice sunset too. I love sunset time 'cause the sky gets purple and all these colors, it's awesome, I love it. - Yeah, and you have ocean forever, right? - Yeah. - I have land. - Land forever, yeah. (laughs) - All right, number three. Would you prefer a webinar or an in-person training? - Ooh. - It's a good one from a learner, right? - I didn't. Very good one. Gosh, it depends on my mood. - Okay, okay. - There you go. - Fair, okay. - There you go. - I think it's the same for me. I'm like, eh, sometimes I don't want to do it with people, but yeah. - Yeah, I was just gonna say most of the time, I think in classroom really is more preferable for me. - Yeah. - Because I can hear the little scoffs and sniffs and giggles and stuff. - Yes. - When I'm on a webinar and people are all muted and I can't hear if the jokes are landing, that's rough. - Yes. (laughing) - That's so funny. - Oh gosh. - I like to be able to, I think I could do either, but I like live instead of watching something recorded. Or for instance, for a pecan, we talk, we go back and forth about this 'cause they had so many good classes at pecan and you literally cannot go to all of them because some of them are at the same time. And then it's dang. That was one of the things we talked about. I wish we could go to all of them and what was like, oh, but you can get the slides. And I was like, yeah, but it's not the same. Like you, yeah, you get the decks and you can look at, but you can't interact and ask the question that you want. And so, yeah, it's both, there's like pros and cons. Okay. Number four, Halloween or Christmas? - Christmas. - Yeah. - Yeah, Christmas. 'Cause Halloween is an outfit. It's the same outfit every year. (all laughing) My mother did be a vest. She hand-knit the vest. - Oh, wow. - So it just doesn't make any sense not to wear it every year 'cause I can only wear it once a year. - So what's the costume? - It's just this vest. I put it over whenever I'm wearing. (all laughing) - There you go. There you go. I love it. I love it. - I've gone full blown before for costume contests and stuff, but made a complete boob of myself in public multiple times. I even do that at the conference at the conference. It doesn't have to be Halloween, right? Laurel and I dressed up in all the brands one year. - Wow. I had no idea that folks tried. That was something, there's a costume concert also. But see, I love that part of "Paycom" because it really just promoted being, we have more than payroll, right? We're just not just payroll. - Yes. - And number five, Seattle or Portland? - Hmm. - Tough one. - I have family both, so I'm going to see Seattle because Bainbridge Island. - Oh, what's that about? What's Bainbridge Island? - Bainbridge Island is a suburb of Seattle. - Okay. - And you have to take a ferry to get there. - Oh, okay. - And that's where my aunt and uncle lived. - Nice, and it's beautiful there. - Oh, it's gorgeous. It's the best part of Seattle. - You know that part too, Walt? You know that? Oh, look at you. - Yeah, that worked for FEMA. When I worked for FEMA, many years ago, I was in Seattle for a year or so. So I got to travel around and see that. Didn't get to go to Bainbridge. I heard about it, I was told about it, yep. - Nice. All right, and the last one is, would you prefer a road trip, car rides, or fly? - Oh, absolutely, the car rides, because I have the best seat on the road. - What's that? - My husband and I in 2022 flew to Texas and bought a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. - No way, huh? - Oh, so you all about the road trip? - Yeah, so that's my office on the road. We have a white bike on board. And so the passenger seat in the front of that van is my happy place. - Wow, I love it. Good job, Walt is doing really good. He curated these questions, so he really nailed it then. That's awesome. That's awesome. - I love that question. - Yeah, that's all he nailed it. All right, so that was this or that. And then we do have one more segment before we go. We call it SafeTalk, and we always like the guests to be a part of it, 'cause at first it was just me and Walt yapping onto each other. And it was like, wait a minute, let's bring the guests in on these. So today's SafeTalk question is, do all payroll pros have to be a people person? Do you think all payroll pros, ooh, see, he's a good one? - No. - And no. - Okay. (laughs) - You wanna elaborate a little bit? - So the answer is no, because not everyone needs to be forward facing. - Okay, fair. - If you're a one-person team, you gotta have some people skills. - Yes. - Just straight up, right? If it's just you and you are payroll, you gotta be nicer, right? You guys remember the movie Monster Inc? - Yeah. - Yeah, who wants to deal with Raws as their payroll person? (laughs) - And it can be your time time time. - I think favorite movies too with the kids, yeah. - Oh my gosh. - Oh my gosh. - If no one was Raws rolling into their awkward-- - And it can be your time time time time time time. - I think that, right? But you make fun, right? I'm the time card fairy. I haven't seen yours. It can be, yeah, you're too connected. We'll run away on it and say everybody who turns in their time card on time gets an extra payday. And it's a candy bar. - Yeah. - Oh, love that soap. - There's all things that we can do to be peaceful without having an extra people. To give them some candy. - Yes. - Hands around in a tutu for a day. Make a complete dougal out of yourself. And guess what? Everybody will know who you are. - Yeah. I love that. - And you'll start getting a little bit of that respect and not even respect, just acknowledgement. - Acknowledgement. - It's just great of acknowledgement. - Yep, it was funny. I missed the days that I used to go hand out checks. And even some companies kept their tradition so that even though everybody got direct deposit, you would still hand out the stub. And I missed those days 'cause you had a time, a moment to connect with people and the man. Oh my God, like people were happy to see you come. Ooh, payday, you got my check, right? Yeah. - Let me ask you a question. - Yeah, you could ask questions and stuff like that. - Oh yeah. - Whoa man. - My favorite was company events, right? And I would go and stand at a table of complete strangers 'cause it's just what I do. And not like I had a whole lot of friends at work and payroll, I have acquaintances. But I try not to make too many friends at work 'cause friends always want favors. And you can't do that in payroll. But I would go and stand at a table full of, could have been engineers, could have been salespeople. I didn't know, right? I would just walk up and I'd stand and go, "Hi guys, what do you do here?" And they go, "What do you do?" I go, "Nothing important, I just do payroll." And they go, "Whoa, that's, what do you mean that important?" (laughing) - Exactly. - So find out about them. And then they would ask, "And what do you do?" No big deal. I just run your payroll. - Yeah. - So where they connect with the others, yeah. What about you, Brian? What do you show? - Well, payroll's not gonna have to be payroll. No, I think I agree with Christine or hold heartily 'cause it's, I used to be not Forward Fade. When I, for my first payroll, like my first full-time payroll job for corporate, I was not Forward Facing. I would only talk to the office managers at each location and I would work through them on issues. And then I think over time, as my boss saw that I was a people person and like I knew what I was, he was like, "Yeah, you could talk to people if you want." And then I was able to start talking directly to the employees, especially like if issues escalated. And I think the office managers too, they got, they were comfortable and they were confident. And they were like, "Oh, you know what? "Brian knows what he's doing. "You know what? "Why don't you explain this 'cause I can't." It evolved into it. But yeah, I agree. There's not, it's not always that you have to be. And in the bigger departments, you really don't have to have your payroll person forward-facing. If you don't want them to be, or you don't have to have your HRIS or their IT of payroll, they could be in the background. So yeah, it depends, it depends. What do you think? - 'Cause I think, I'm thinking about what it means to be a people person, right? I think when I think of people person, that means being sociable, it means stuff like. So if I think about it in that context, then I'm leaning a little bit more towards, yeah, because you deal with people, but that's probably because of my own disposition. Christine said, "I wouldn't want to deal with somebody in payroll." That was like E or from Winnie the Pooh. "I wouldn't want to deal with anybody like that." So I don't know. So for me, I think a little bit. But to be, in order to do payroll successfully, do you have to have it? If I had to pick a yes or no answer, no, the answer is no. - That's a different question. Do you have to be a people person to be good at payroll? No, not at all, not at all. Some of the best of us are not really good people person, people, 'cause we just, they're amazing at understanding the compliance, understanding how that logistics, understanding the systems, and your check is in percent accurate every single time. Do you need that, do you want to have, no, look, work on my check. Don't worry about the niceties of things. So yeah, good conversation. I love it, I love it. Thank you so much, Christine, for joining us today. What an amazing opportunity for us to talk to you. - Thank you for having me. - Yeah, of course you. - Absolutely. - And before we end it, Christine, do you have any words of advice or wisdom for any payroll pearls out there to close the show? - I will tell people what I tell people all the time, and that is trust yourself as far as you're comfortable trusting yourself. - I love that. - Right, if you're trusting yourself and you've learned what you've learned and you know what you know, then you know it. - Okay. - But if you don't know it, go learn it. - All right, mic drop, I love it. - Mic drop, perfect. - Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Christine, we love having you. And I look forward to learning more about the tools and things and yeah, we'll be in touch. - Awesome. - Before we sign off, here are a couple quick things. Don't forget to follow, it's about payroll on LinkedIn and it's about your paycheck on Facebook and TikTok. - Thank you for being part of our payroll community and thank you for being a part of this journey with us. Until the next time, keep learning, keep growing and most importantly, keep going. (upbeat music)
