Case Study: Maranatha Sheet Metal Company Streamlines Complex Union Payroll Processing

Founded in 2016 as a family business, Maranatha Sheet Metal specializes in commercial and industrial sheet metal fabrication and installation. The company focuses on HVAC ductwork, architectural sheet metal and custom fabrication services throughout their service area.

But while the company excelled at getting their construction work done on time, finishing their complex union payroll and certified payroll reports quickly was a different story.

After losing too many weekends trying to keep up, Maranatha Sheet Metal eventually decided that enough was enough. That was when they made the decision to find a payroll processor that could actually support the processing needs of their unique situation.

(Read: Case Study: Desperately Seeking Service (for Multi-Rate Payroll Processing)

Maranatha Sheet Metal’s Initial Challenges

For Bob Melendes and his wife, Melissa, the transition into running the sheet metal business presented unexpected challenges beyond the construction work itself.

While getting the family on board was easy, efficiently completing the company payroll wasn’t so smooth of a transition. “We had no experience. I have a science background — Bob does, too — and we did a late-in-life career change,” Melissa recalls. “This was completely new.”

With complex union benefits packages to track and weekly certified payroll reports to complete, Melissa and Bob knew that their sheet metal company needed some help. But, Melissa says, that help was hard to find with the franchise payroll company they first used to outsource payroll: “Whenever we asked, we couldn’t get assistance for certified payroll or fringe payments.”

Melissa remembers losing most weekends just to catch up, still having to perform most of their reports and calculations by hand: “Fringe pay would take us Saturday into Sunday, with the rest of Sunday being used to finish up any leftover certified payroll. We’d average a combined 40-60 hours per week just in payroll. This included time spent on all payroll activities, including fringe benefit payments, worker’s comp, and certified payroll — including LCPTracker — as well as our weekly payroll.”

Finding the Right Solution

Tired of spending weekends finishing payroll and filling out reports, Melissa went online to search for a service equipped for certified payroll. This led her to Payroll4Construction. “With what payroll was costing in time, we decided to go ahead and try it, and it’s been fantastic,” Melissa says. “Within two minutes, we get our reports, especially LCPTracker. Within half an hour, we’re done with all of our reports, including uploading them into LCPTracker.”

The benefits, Melissa says, were noticeable immediately: “I get my Saturdays back, and I’m not exhausted. Knowing that our payroll is no longer an issue, we can focus on our customers. Being able to focus on them instead of being so haggard is great.”

And, Bob says, unlike his experience with their previous payroll service, “We always get the assistance that we need to make it work. The Payroll4Construction team is outstanding. They know our unique situation and find ways to make it work to get our payroll done.”

Sharing the Results: Maranatha’s Sheet Metal Business Successes

For the metal fabrication company, the help provided by Payroll4Construction extends even beyond their business. Each year, they attend a union benefits meeting, where they can discuss any upcoming benefit changes. One benefit that other companies found particularly complicated to set up was their employees’ 401(a) retirement plan. Through the breakdown of contributions Payroll4Construction provides, Melissa could easily see how the system calculated everything, allowing her to help other companies see how they should handle those contributions. “After discussing the 401(a), we set it up correctly, and it turns out that there were other companies that had been doing it wrong in their systems for years and never realized,” Melissa explains.

Being able to see how Payroll4Construction breaks down all of the benefits has helped Maranatha’s employees as well. “All of the reports work to clearly show the 401(a) contributions during an audit. It’s all straightforward,” Melissa says. “Transparency is there with the crew, and when they get their new raises, they can see exactly where the fringes are and the payments that’ve been made. It’s more information than they’ve ever received on their pay stub before.”

For Melissa, Bob, and the rest of the team at the sheet metal contractor, it was the trust that they could put in the service provided by Payroll4Construction that made the biggest difference. “With our previous processor, we had to call after every change and every increase, and we just don’t have the time to babysit our vendors,” Bob says. “And that’s the thing: they were a vendor, but I feel like Payroll4Construction is our partner.”

Maranatha Sheet Metal continues to rely on Payroll4Construction as their trusted payroll processing partner, allowing them to focus on what they do best in the construction industry.

To see more of the real-world difference Payroll4Construction makes for contractors, check out more construction payroll testimonials!