ITW Construction Cuts Payroll Processing Time by 50% with Paytools

A Complex Payroll, Ready for Change

Nicole Watson-Spry, Platform Payroll Lead at ITW Construction, Asia Pacific, oversees payroll for a broad and complex workforce. Multiple legacy systems and a decentralised structure meant payroll was anything but simple.

With three weekly, five fortnightly and five monthly pay cycles running simultaneously, visibility was limited and manual effort was high. The team often relied on memory and verbal updates to track tasks – a situation that made planning and accuracy difficult, especially when team members were absent.

Yet Nicole and her team saw this as an opportunity. Rather than accept the status quo, they took a proactive step toward modernising and streamlining payroll – starting with Paytools.

Finding the Right Fit: A Partner That Truly Gets Payroll

Nicole first encountered Paytools at the Australian Payroll Association conference. What caught her attention wasn’t just the product – it was the approach.

“There was no pushy sales pitch. Just a clear passion to understand how payroll actually works and to improve how it’s managed,” she said.

Nicole and the ITW team saw that Paytools was the ideal solution to help them consolidate their fragmented processes, increase transparency and take control of payday.

Effortless Onboarding, Instant Value

Getting started was incredibly easy. Nicole’s team handed over their existing payroll documentation – and in return, Paytools delivered an intuitive, custom-built processing checklist that mapped out every cycle, task and responsibility.

“The onboarding was seamless,” Nicole said. “They quickly turned our documentation into a magical checklist that was easy to follow and that we could start using straight away.”

Speed Gains: Up to 50% Faster Processing

The results? Game-changing.

By centralising tasks in the payroll calendar and standardising processes in our payrun checklists, ITW Construction’s payroll team significantly reduced processing times – in some cases, by up to 50%.

“We used to produce pays on pay day, sweating on getting bank approval by the end of the day. Now, we’re able to produce the first review of wages a full day earlier,” Nicole explained.

These time savings haven’t just reduced pressure on the team. They’ve enabled more accurate reviews, earlier approvals and greater flexibility. The team can now plan better, be proactive and work more confidently.

From Stress to Structure

More key improvements include:

• • Real-time visibility and monitoring of all work done in the payroll work schedule, especially if you have a team who work from home and in multiple locations.
  • Centralised knowledge, so all processes are documented and version controlled.
  • Award and EBA tracking, so variations and workarounds are handled consistently in the obligation library.
  • Improved communication across the Payroll and Finance team using automated notifications in Teams.

Nicole describes the transformation as “a huge shift from spending my days chasing updates to knowing exactly where things stand.”