Navigating Time Tracking and Payroll Compliance Challenges in the State of California: 4Creeks, Inc. Case Study

About 4Creeks

4Creeks, Inc. (4Creeks) is a Design and Build firm specializing in engineering, architecture, surveying, land planning, and construction. With five offices throughout California, and one in Denver, Colorado the company has seen rapid growth and geographic expansion over the past few years.

Product: Journyx Project Time Tracking integrated with Oracle NetSuite

Problem

4Creeks’ transition from Deltek to Oracle NetSuite was necessary due to the need to consolidate financials from each of 4Creeks’s formerly independently run subsidiaries. While 4Creeks initially went down the path of implementing NetSuite’s time tracking solution, this product ultimately lacked the ability for 4Creeks’ professional staff to allocate time for specific tasks or projects without having to clock in and out of each project or task. While this might work for the skilled labor portion of the workforce, this posed a significant problem for the company’s consulting and engineering teams, who often worked on multiple projects throughout the day. As a result, 4Creeks, Inc. had to search for an alternative time tracking solution. 

The options that they found were scant. Opting for a fully custom solution would have been more expensive and challenging to maintain in the long run. Ultimately, 4Creeks chose Journyx, primarily due to a standard NetSuite integration with Journyx project time tracking. 

Solution Criteria

The top criteria for selecting a time tracking and resource capacity planning solution were as follows: 

• A standard integration with Oracle NetSuite, the organization’s chosen ERP system, was the highest priority. 
• Ability to associate project information within NetSuite, ensuring seamless integration and data synchronization.  
• Meeting regulatory compliance for the State of California labor rules, which are known to be the most rigid among the states where 4Creeks, Inc. operates. State regulations require accurate tracking and reporting on employee’s work projects, working hours, breaks, and overtime. With multiple states, various work schedules and payrolls, 4Creeks wanted to simplify time tracking, and alleviate some of the extra work required currently of the payroll staff, while staying compliant. 
• Clock in/clock out functionality with the ability to allocate time by project, where appropriate. 

Why 4Creeks Chose Journyx

4Creeks, Inc. ultimately chose Journyx as their time tracking solution for several reasons: 

• Integration with NetSuite: Journyx offered seamless, standard integration with NetSuite, ensuring a smooth transition and data synchronization. 
• Compliance with State of California labor rules: by having the ability to set data validation rules, Journyx’s solution helps 4Creeks meet the rigorous and onerous compliance requirements of the State of California, ensuring that the company remains in full regulatory compliance. 
• Flexibility and ease of use: Journyx’s solution allows employees to easily, allocate their time (after punching in/out, if applicable) throughout a given day, accommodating the dynamic nature of consulting and engineering work, while also making it easy for the company’s skilled labor force. 
• Mobile capabilities: Many of 4Creeks’ employees begin and end their days at job sites, so mobile app time clocking is critical. 
• Customization capabilities: Journyx’s ability to rely on a standard integration framework, while customizing some of the mapping to meet 4Creeks’s unique data and workflow needs, without requiring a totally custom-built solution. 
• Custom data verification: 4Creeks is excited about the ability to provide automated guidelines and rules around timesheet entry and rules, giving payroll employees extra time to focus on more important tasks. Because 4Creeks currently works in multiple states, with different work schedules and payroll runs, the current process takes two employees at least two days to chase timesheets, validate entries, etc.  
• Honesty and responsiveness in the sales process: According to Andrew, “It was refreshing to have Journyx be so forthcoming with what the product can—and cannot—do. I wish that were the case with all software vendors! Plus, it’s obvious that the team works well together and respects each other, as responsiveness has been nothing short of amazing.” 

Conclusion

While still in the implementation phase of integrating Journyx time tracking with 4Creeks’s instance of NetSuite, Andrew stated that he has “full confidence that the implementation will go smoothly” based on his positive experience with the Journyx team already. 

Stay tuned for more information post-implementation! 

If your organization is facing similar payroll compliance challenges with time tracking at its core, consider Journyx for your time tracking solution needs.

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