Redefining Payroll Checklists: How LNKT is Leading the Charge

[00:00:00] because there's a lot of people transitioning out of payroll right now and people coming in who are excited about it, want to learn about it and want to make it better. Welcome back folks. This is episode 156. We got two great guests today, founders of a tech company. So excited. But before we get into that, what's up Walt? What's up with your man? Another day. Brian, how you doing?

[00:00:25] I'm doing good, man. Yeah, man. My news update for today is like my current event and my new all in one shot is that I am taking the payroll bootcamp from payroll org starting tomorrow. Gonna take the CPP in the fall and see if I pass this thing. I'm excited, man. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm locked in. Good man. Grow the craft and you're up next.

[00:00:53] Yeah, yeah. Take yours and I know starting the fall. Yep. Starting the fall and then for next spring. For spring test. Yeah. So that's what I'm going to do it. Yeah. Go enroll. My job is going to cover it for me. So I'm excited, man. Heck yeah. And for those of you who don't know and thinking about the CPP, they only give the test in two, two times a year, fall and spring.

[00:01:13] Yeah. So I'm taking the preparation course now that'll help. It's like a 20 week course once a week, about five hours of commitment per week. Cause it's two hours of, I think it's two hours of class time or hour and change maybe. And they recommend three hours of study on your own before the next class. Wow. So yeah. Yeah, no, it's a, but look what better we're all in on payroll.

[00:01:38] Yeah. I mean, it's only going to help the podcast, the job, the world that we do, everything we do is just all going to help. And like we say, this podcast, I always say it's a cheat code for me. Cause right. Doing a podcast gets me better at the job. Doing my job gets me better at podcasts and more to talk about things.

[00:01:57] It's causing us to learn even more, you know what I'm saying? We, we're always ever learning. You should always be, but like this is causing us to have different conversations and be abreast about what's going on in the industry. Man. I took the pre-test already, like a practice, like to gauge where you are based on that. I don't know anything. You got this funny, Tony. I could have cheated. I could have cheated and just looked everything up because everything was Googleable and research.

[00:02:25] I'm at a point now when I look it up, I'm like, oh yeah. Okay. That's it. Yup. I know what look, I know. You know what I mean? Yeah. But it'll be good to get. Yeah. I mean, I'm expecting more. There you go. I'm here for it. What about you, man? What you got for us today? So mine is just a short and sweet. We, I love the true payroll crime stories. So we haven't done one. Oh yeah. We got to do another one. Yeah. It's just a quick story on justice.gov.

[00:02:48] We're about two CPAs who were sentenced in a billion dollar syndicated conservation easement tax scheme. So basically they created tax shelters. Ah, okay. So that's basically what happened between the years of 2014 and, but illegally, illegally. Cause there's their legal tax. Yes. Illegally. It is not. Yeah. It was two CPAs that did it, man. So yeah, they caused millions and millions of dollars in tax losses to the IRS. And they eventually got caught in the scheme. Wow.

[00:03:18] Wow. Did it, what else? Did they get committed? Convicted? Yeah. They were convicted and they were sentenced as of October last year. They were sentenced to 20 months each in prison. 20 months each. Almost two years. Wow. Wow. How many, how much dollars again? It was a billion dollar syndicated scheme, but they caused tens of millions of dollars in losses to the IRS. Look, I don't know how to say this. Right.

[00:03:48] But I feel like the punishment does not meet the crime. Yeah, man. Like 20 months for potentially they have billions, millions stored away somewhere. Stashed away if they were smart. Send them over to Singapore. Let them get a couple of canes. Canes. Oh my gosh. Not that I would, it wouldn't be worth any mile for me. I'm about, I'm not going to prison. I would not want to go for any amount of money.

[00:04:14] So the IRS criminal investigation and the U S postal investment inspection service investigated this case. Wow. Yes. That is crazy. Yeah, man. Yeah. It was. Yep. It happens. A lot of true payroll crime for fraud. Yeah. Out there. And welcome new, any new guests, any new listeners to the show. Welcome to the show. Yeah.

[00:04:39] I was on a Facebook page this past week and folks were just asking questions and I was like, oh man, look, reach out. So I've been talking to people, helping them out. Basic stuff, not basic stuff, but normal payroll questions. Yeah. And I was just like, oh man. And they didn't know about the show. So I was like, please come check out the show. Listen. So welcome new folks. Shout out to Ashley. We had a great conversation. She knew the payroll. Not new, but I guess new for six years in payroll.

[00:05:09] Not new really. No, not really. Six years is a long time. It made me think of Christina Hagne right away. Cause after nine years, she was like, I'm on my own. I'm good. Yeah. But she was already triple certified. And I guess that's a big game changer. And then when a lot of folks are on the fence about it, should they get the CPP and not CPP like we always talk about. And again, I just, for me, I just think we're at a place where it makes sense. And we found another certification, right. From that pay. What is that? That bookkeepers association. Yeah. Yup. I want to get that one too.

[00:05:39] So yeah. Shout out to everybody. Learn and want to learn payroll. Reach out. We're here for you. Yeah. Let's pay the bills. Yes, sir. If you're looking for a more efficient way to manage employee time, track go is the solution. Time, try go turns an ordinary tablet into a state of the art time clock in just minutes. And with this mobile app and web portal, employees can clock in from anywhere, but wait, it gets a little better than that.

[00:06:04] Time, try go also automated the PTO and time off request process, making it very easy for both you and your team. So stop wasting time with those outdated, unsophisticated whack and system. Because most definitely like time track go has a special offer for it's about payroll listeners right now. They're offering a, an additional 50% off your first two months. So just head over to www.timetrackgo.com.

[00:06:31] That's www.timetrackgo.com. Forrest last IAP to start your 14 day free trial today and claim this special offer. Let's go. Let's go. So today we have two amazing guests. They're the founders of a company called link up, link, link up, link up, I believe it is.

[00:07:00] L-N-K-T up.com. Yup. And they are redefining the payroll checklist. Yes. Right. They're super powering. They've made an app out of it. I have access. I have not been able to get in there yet. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. And so welcome Lisa King and Christina Vartia. Yay. Vartia.

[00:07:30] Awesome. Of linked up. Is that what you call the company? Linked up? So our website is linked up.com, but we call ourselves linked. Okay. Very cool. I want to get it right. Cause you guys are going to change the game for payroll. Yes. First, always we do origin story, but these two amazing founders have redefined the payroll checklist and we're going to learn more about that. Yes. But before, how'd you each get into payroll? Christina, go first. Yeah.

[00:08:00] So I actually started right out of college. So when I applied for jobs during college, I ended up with this one company that outsources payroll and they had a college hire program. And so I ended up interviewing. I got the job. It was like an analyst role. And I was like, I have no idea what I'm going to be doing. Analyst sounds cool. Didn't know any background on this company. I just, you're just like, yeah, I'll take a job.

[00:08:28] And so I landed on, they had like different payroll processing systems that they manage people's payroll. And so I ended up on the workday floor. And then what was funny about when I started was that I didn't have a team. And so I ended up rolling up into the vice president at the place. So on of the workday, like outsourcing. And so he was like, since you don't have a team right now, why don't you go shadow people like on the floor?

[00:08:57] And so there's people doing HR and then there's payroll and taxes and garnishments. And so I just kind of hopped around for a few months and shadowed people, got to see what they were doing. And then I ended up really liking like all the people who were in payroll. I thought they were, I don't know. I was just like, I like these people's vibes. The ones who are doing payroll, they seem cool. I also majored in math. And so I was like numbers. I love it. I love being analytical. I love problem solving.

[00:09:26] And I felt like all those people, what they were doing, not just processing payroll, but you're also trying to problem solve and make sure the next payroll is right. Or why did this payroll go wrong? And so I noticed that when I was shadowing. So I went back to the guy and I was like, I want to be in payroll. And he was like, what? Nobody usually says I want to do payroll. Except Walt. Even though he has a payroll background, it was unusual. Yeah. Walt chose it in his origin. See? Yeah.

[00:09:57] You choose it or you fall into it. Yeah. Exactly. I think most people say they fell into it, which I technically fell into it in the sense that I didn't have, I didn't get to choose like where I ended up. Like I didn't, again, I didn't know what analyst meant. I had no idea that I was going to be like a payroll analyst, but I ended up choosing it once I ran the floor and saw what people were doing. That's how I got into it. That says a lot. After you saw these different departments and you still chose it? Like. I know. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:10:27] I think that's what it is. Lisa? So I think payroll chose me. I was at a computer company and I, out of college, I went there and I was going to help them choose a new like ERP system, payroll HR system. We put up the RFPs and there's a little bit of downtime, right? So we're hanging out and the payroll person goes on maternity leave. Wow. I can't tell you how many times we've heard that story. Oh my God. So they're like, why do you have a little extra time?

[00:10:57] And I really, I knew nothing about payroll and it was with, I think a lot of people when you're first out of college, your first job, you're like getting to know your paycheck, still that. And they're like, can you run payroll? And I was like, I wasn't really asked. Right. So I ran it. And again, I'm the same with, I love to be, I love numbers, super analytical. Right. Wish I were more creative, but yeah. And I just, although I did like more HRS kind of jobs through my career, they always

[00:11:27] ended up having that payroll team or that payroll. Once you have like payroll on your resume, like you never get out of payroll, even if you have a little bit of a different role. Yep. And, and so that kind of evolved. And then I ended up doing payroll implementations for like 10 years. And then now here we are. Yep. But I love payroll. I think it's, I think it's such a great career and I want to see more, more young people get in the payroll because I do think it can be great.

[00:11:57] Right. It just, yep. How do we advocate? Yeah, there's a lot of avenues. Absolutely. And I mean, earn so much through this show that is entrepreneurs, co-founders, like you say, you're not creative. I think it takes a creative bit to have that risk to do this, to co-found a company and build something from nothing. To me is creativity. That's the part I love about what me and Walt do is that we were taking something that was not, and we're creating.

[00:12:25] It's like on painting a canvas for me, because I'm the same way. I don't think I'm that creative. I have good ideas and that's creativity. So don't short yourself. That's true. I appreciate that. That's where I am. I appreciate that. How did you two? And Chris, of course. I'm sorry. That is funny. Okay. No, I was just going to go over funny story. I'll tell it. Is that okay, Christina? Go for it. I interviewed Christina for a job and you know what?

[00:12:50] The minute we got on the phone call, like that was it because we resonated like just, she is the same way I am. Like we, we both love payroll, but we want technology to really be a part of it. And so I think it was an interview that turned into like a brainstorming session because we were, I was starting the payroll at a new like implementation startup company and I was starting the payroll team and I, but I wanted like-minded people in terms of let, you know,

[00:13:20] work smarter, not harder. Right. We want to bridge technology because with implementations, you do the same thing over and over. It's a little different for sure. It's a nuance depending on your client, but there's a lot of things that, that, that are very manual that we were like, let's try to make it automated. Let's make it easier for us. Let's make it easier for our client. And I think that really resonated. So that's how we met. And that was, I was thinking about it last night, Christina.

[00:13:49] I think that was like 2017. Seven years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Gosh. And we worked together that whole time and then to start this company together. Perfect segue. Tell us why you decided to start linked. Yeah. I think Lisa and I, we both like, okay, exactly what she was saying.

[00:14:17] We were trying to find ways to make implementations easier for our clients and that we were providing this great software for. And then what we noticed was, okay, now you have this great payroll processing system, but every single time that we were on site with a customer for go live or right before we would say, okay, now make sure you take your notes out from the implementation or let's take out Excel and start writing down all the tasks that you need to do for your checklist.

[00:14:45] And we were like, there's nowhere that this lives. There's no, nothing for payroll teams to be collaborative. And so that's where it started. We were like, how do we make this process? So it's really seamless. It's up to date with other apps that are out there. And we're not just stuck in spreadsheets and or notes, word or people's minds of what are the steps for the process? Cause every single time we went on an implementation and the customer, we would always say, it's almost like we were like, okay, let's do the next step.

[00:15:15] And here's what it is. And let's do the next one. And then what happens when Lisa and I are gone? Now they're like, okay, I hope I could, I took a note. And every single like payroll team is different, right? It's not all, you don't always follow the same process everywhere either. And so that's how the idea started was like, how do we get to a place where payroll teams can feel like they have a management system that is built for them specifically?

[00:15:39] Like all these other teams, like project management and product management and like they have monday.com or smart sheets or something like really cool and slick to use and payroll. I got my, I got my note. Yep. And another thing, right? When we left, there are some processes you don't do very often. And you may be during implementation covered it one or two times. Maybe it's like a check where you need to, okay, I need to back out, right? My first state, right?

[00:16:08] You need to back out one state and add another. And maybe you did it early on in the process and they don't remember anything. They don't have any back, like they're scouring through their notes. Like they have to rely on you. And we wanted to say, no, let's make sure you have a procedure, right? That you could go back on it and read it and say, okay, yes, I can follow this, right? And do this if I need to do a manual, like a manual check with that. And so we were just like, let's find a, whatever you want to call it.

[00:16:36] We call it a PMS, payroll management system. Okay. And we, right. And yes. And a little, so we call it that so that it's all together. And it's funny because I will tell people about it who are not in payroll. And they often, I thought they have ADP or workday that does that. And I try to explain payroll system for sure is a huge part of your process, but it's not your whole process, right? It's a part of your process. And I think that's what people outside of payroll really don't get.

[00:17:06] They're like, why would you need that? They have these other great systems and yes, there are a lot of great systems out there, but everyone has all these processes, right? Dependent on industry. We have clients having things on their list and then one has 150 because they're super right there. They've got 30,000 employees. It's healthcare. It's super. There are so many ins and outs. It's not all in their systems. And every one of those has to be completed correctly in order for you to pay people.

[00:17:35] That's where we were like, we want a system that all companies can use and have everything they need in there to run their payrolls. And so people can take vacations. Yes. So I had a question. You made me think about something, right? I built my checklist out. I have it. But now I'm leaving. I gave my notice. How do I, do you guys have that solved?

[00:18:02] Like how does that person pass it off and leave it with the company? If it's my credentials that I log into? Yeah. You can invite. So if someone was taking over for you, you can manage your team and invite users. So it's not just yourself. You can have a team that's in there. So if someone's taking over, you invite them. And then that person, once you're gone, can then go in there and remove you so that you're no longer a part of it anymore. Okay. So yeah, that's exactly it.

[00:18:31] We want it to be as collaborative as possible so you can invite members of your team. And then we know that payroll teams are often like, they have different role types. So maybe you have some people who are like your payroll managers like support staff. But then underneath that there might be some analysts that are below those team members. And so we do have a couple different security roles that you could assign to users as well. ServiceNow unterstützt ihre Business Transformation mit der KI-Plattform.

[00:18:58] Alle reden über KI, aber die KI ist nur so leistungsfähig wie die Plattform, auf der sie aufbaut. Lassen Sie die KI arbeiten, für alle. Beseitigen Sie Reibung und Frustration Ihrer Mitarbeiter und nutzen Sie das volle Potenzial Ihrer Entwickler. Mit intelligenten Tools für Ihren Service, um Kunden zu begeistern. All das auf einer einzigen Plattform. Deshalb funktioniert die Welt mit ServiceNow. Mehr auf servicenow.de slash AI for people. That's great.

[00:19:25] And I love that question too, because we built LinkedIn on our personal experiences, right? And one of mine was I got calls from a client, a former client. And they're like, our payroll manager is leaving. And it was a payroll manager and like a part-time person who literally didn't know anything just did what the payroll manager told me to do. And so they're like, they called me, they're like, hey, this is happening. Can you like document everything before she leaves? Okay. She's leaving in a week, right?

[00:19:52] And so I'm only going to be able to document where she wants to share. And she wasn't leaving on like the best of terms. And so it was a little dicey anyway. Yeah. And yeah, it was hard. And I said, send me your process. And it was literally a spreadsheet with as many tabs as the spreadsheet has. I don't know, 50? But all it was instructions. It was like output. All these reports of output. And I was like, where are your instructions? And it was, I did the best I could with what I had. And I thought, you know what?

[00:20:22] This is crazy. Because then they took her computer right when she left and then cleared it, wiped it. So all that vacuumation on her computer is gone. And then there's this me who learned what I could. And this part-time guy who literally was like, she tells me what to do and I do it. And so I was like, this is terrible for so many reasons. One, you're paying a consultant all this money to sit here hour for hour.

[00:20:47] And then there were so many misses because what wasn't shared wasn't paid, right? And so it took them a very long time. And so I just thought if somebody would have had something that they could have just passed off and gone through, they would have been in a totally different situation. And we all know how important it is to pay people correctly, right? Like that one person in charge of that is gone.

[00:21:16] And now you're risking all your employees. I'm feeling like valued members of their company. They can't trust your organization. And that is so risky. You want people, it's a contract. I'm so passionate about this. It's like, you're coming to work each day. And our contract is that we pay you correctly, like at the very least. And I think that you, I'm sure you've all seen those reports that you pay somebody incorrectly one time,

[00:21:44] 25% likely to look for another job. You do it twice. They're like 75% likely to be here because people need their money. And sorry to go on, but I have one funny story. We were on a, we were on a implementation one time and that this was their old system, but they couldn't pay this person. I don't know if it was the older dude, but they couldn't pay this person correctly. It was like weeks. It was multiple. And he said, I'm not coming back to work until you pay me correctly. And he went on strike.

[00:22:13] He went on strike and he was like, I'm out until you pay me correctly. And I was like, I get it, right? And his manager called and he was like, cause it was like a security guard and they were like short handed. And so the manager called him, what can I do to pay this guy? Like today, we don't have anybody for security right now. He's out. Oh my God. I don't have anybody else to cover. And so it was like, okay, we need to figure this out. What happened? You can't pay people. Things happen. No, you can't. It's terrible. But right.

[00:22:43] Our jobs are to do our best to do that. And so, and I think we need the tools to be able to do that as well. Yes. We got one job. We got, right. It takes, it's very common to get to that one job, but it, right. We, so we talk about funny stories when I was just starting out in payroll 20 plus years ago, my daughter was a baby and she needed to go to the doctor.

[00:23:10] And I was like, oh my gosh, I have to go to this event for my job. And she's like, what do you mean? You got to come in the doctor with me. I was like, oh, it's my career. I need to go. She's like, I didn't know cutting checks was a career. Yeah. Oh my gosh. She'll probably deny it. Cutting checks. Cutting checks and pushing the perception. Yes. That button push. There's so many posts on LinkedIn now with the comedy of it all. It's all when you think so many plays on people think payroll is just pushing a button

[00:23:39] and it's so much more, right? It's just so much more that goes into it. And we, right now I'm using a spreadsheet. I have, I'm up, I think I'm up to 10 or 15 tabs and I can't wait to start taking the time to cart and move it into the linked up system, link system checklist. And just, um, I can't wait. Yeah. It's. We can't wait for you to be in there and give us feedback because we had some pilot

[00:24:07] clients who really helped us so much because we built it based on our experience, but there's so many different. People run so differently. Everyone has their own experiences and some of the things that we thought, oh, that's not very important. People are like, no, no, that's and vice versa. Yeah. So we would love. Absolutely. No, I can't wait. I can't wait. And it's so funny how you say from your experience, right? I had a, I was talking to somebody that six years into payroll now. And she said, how long have you been in payroll?

[00:24:36] I was like 20 plus. She's like, oh my gosh, you've seen it all. And I said, no, that's the funny thing about payroll. I have not seen it all. There are some things I don't even have a clue about because it's so nuanced to industry. The company, headcount, issues that dictate, that create your own personal issues in it. And speaking of issues and challenges, what are some of the challenges that you guys have faced now building Link?

[00:25:06] Yeah, I think the different. Oh my God. We got time? I'm like, no, but I'm like, yeah, go ahead, Christina. The different nuances for sure. I think that because you'll have one user say, I want to see it this way. And then another user say, I wanted to see it that way. And so then it's like trying to decide which one is the right way. And do we have our own personal conviction of what is the right way? Because we want to give payroll teams a little bit of a guidance on, hey, this is how we think it's best.

[00:25:34] We don't want to restrict you or anything, but we want to say within our tool, we provide checklists and procedures all in one place and collaboration within that tool as well. So all of this lives in one app. Interesting. And within that, we wanted to say, okay, we think it's best that you have categories. And then within the categories, you have tasks. And so that type of stuff we dictate. But then it gets a little bit hard when someone, when different users want different perspectives.

[00:26:04] They're like, I want a full 30,000 foot view because I'm a payroll manager. And so I just want to see like the whole thing. But then we also have the person who's in the weeds of things and wants to see, okay, their specific detail. Like they're going to view every single task because they need to actually run every single task. They're not just going to view from a high level. And so it's like taking all those perspectives and like putting them into one app is that can be a kind of a challenge, but I think we're doing pretty well. And the beautiful response. Perfect. I, LOL. I was going to say money.

[00:26:34] No doubt. No doubt. Yeah, that too. Being a founder is so hard when you're like doing it yourself and bootstrapping as like you have a full time job, right? And then you're trying to do this and dedicate your time to it and still have the energy for it, which is really hard. And then keep on and it's hard. It's, and then you don't see a lot of, it takes a long time to get things going. So it's like, Oh, we haven't seen anything. Do we just give up? This is so hard.

[00:27:05] And cause we, we thought a little bit about, do we get investors or what? I'm trying to get advice on that. But the early stages, we were very much, we don't want someone to tell us what we should be doing. Exactly. And that was really important to us because we don't want, you have to do it this way because we want it done the right way in terms of what our clients think is important. We don't want people to say you can't do that because of money, because of whatever. We really restrained from that at the beginning because of those things.

[00:27:34] And yes, so that part's been really hard to stay motivated and dedicated. And I'm sure you guys understand that as well. And then through that, it is hard when you're like trying to self-support yourself and fund yourself and it's expensive, right? To start a company. And so we are very happy you had us on today so we can talk about our tool. So thank you for that really little things like this help us out so much. Yeah, absolutely. You guys are changing the game. Yeah, I'm letting people know that we exist. That's right.

[00:28:03] Yeah. Now I'll come up and say, are you another payroll provider? And it's like, no. We are a payroll management system. PMS. I love it. I love it. I love it. PMS. Yeah. PMS. I went to your site and I went to your about page, right? And I saw what your company's values are. Aim for impact. Always learning. Don't take responsibility. Share everything supportive and enjoy your downtime. I love it. This is amazing.

[00:28:33] I love this. Wow. Can you speak to what motivated you to make those your values for your company? Yeah. Yeah. I think honestly, I think it started with Lisa a little bit. So Lisa hired me. And one of the things somebody asked me like recently, they were like, who is a really good payroll mentor for you? Obviously, it's Lisa. Lisa is my payroll mentor.

[00:29:00] And the reason that she was one of the first name that comes to my head, not because I work with her like every day and I love her, but because she was so supportive. And she would drop like anything to help you, especially when it came to any kind of payroll problem. And you heard us talk about like in the beginning stages of like when we first talked, we were like, how can we improve and make things better? And so it was like, we're always trying to learn from each other. We're trying to make things better. We really value our downtime.

[00:29:30] So like when we're off, we take that pretty seriously because we think it's important that a lot of payroll teams in general, you miss vacations or holidays because you have to process. Payroll. And so that's like the unfortunate part about being in payroll is that you're probably going to be working a Christmas here or there or working New Year's or Fourth of July always manages to fall on a payroll week. And yeah, and then you don't feel comfortable taking a vacation because you're going to do double time of the work when you come back.

[00:29:58] And so it's, yeah, how can we make that better for payroll teams? And like, how can we add, how can our app help payroll teams feel like they can take time off and feel comfortable that they have the right tools and resources to have things covered for them? But yeah, that's, I feel like our values came from those things like being supportive and we're always trying to learn and make things better. And we definitely value our downtime. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Yes. And thank you. That's very sweet. But also too, it's funny. We were looking on Reddit.

[00:30:28] Reddit is such a goldmine for us. We might, we see a lot of things that really help us, but it was so funny because we saw this girl post and she seemed very, I'd love to get into payroll. This is so great. Tell me about it. And totally right comes out. Don't get into payroll. You'll never do it. Don't do it. And just like, I took a vacation. Was it like 1998? And it, I, like, it was like, I, we were like, this is so bad. Right. I took a week off the week, like before to train someone.

[00:30:56] I took a week off and then I took three weeks trying to clean everything up. Don't do it. And we were like, this is exactly the problem, right? We can't have this. And we need young, bright people in payroll. So let's include them in, let's mentor them. Let's get them like invited instead of don't do it because there's a lot of people transitioning out of payroll right now. And people coming in who are excited about it, want to learn about it and want to make it better. Yep. Well said. Yes. Definitely appreciate that.

[00:31:26] When I read your values, it definitely resonated with me and spoke to me because I think that's what a lot of payroll pros that I've met along my career doing this. A lot of them share that same sentiment. They have those same values. Yes. And it's about basically serving to others. Yeah. That's the service job. And I can tell that you both are, there's love that you have for the payroll community and for helping others.

[00:31:55] And definitely feel that. And definitely resonates with myself. I don't know about Brian, but I can only speak for myself. But that is the first time I saw the values. I love it. Yeah. Oh, thank you. Thank you. But they're really important to us. And so thank you so much. It means a lot. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I think people don't realize that. Yeah. Payroll isn't just about processing payroll, but it is about serving the employee who is like your essential customer. So I think. So. Yeah. It is a service job. We've had.

[00:32:24] We started the other podcast. It's about your paycheck for employees. Yeah. Because we've had so many people like in our families and friend circles to come up to us. And oh, that's right. You do payroll. The podcast. Oh, it's great. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And he's had one friend. I was like, I can't even. I don't even know what my pay stub is saying to me. And I'm like, why don't you ask your payroll people? No, I don't. And I'm like, no, man. I was like, look, most likely they're going to be helpful and tell.

[00:32:51] And later that day, he brought his stub to me and was like, look, help me. And I was like, man, we really. And me and Walt had already been talking about it. It was like, we have to do this. Yeah. Excuse me. Another payroll. We love that. Yeah. Another payroll pro got the put the battery in our back and set the fire for us way back when we started this show. And was like, I don't think there's enough customer service out there. And we were like, what do you mean? And our customers, I don't think there's enough customer service for them from payroll.

[00:33:20] And Walt talks all the time. He's always employers need to do more. And we because I'm like, well, employers going to do as much as they need to satisfy the employees. They're not going to go beyond that. Yeah. And so we need to fill that gap and try to teach employees like what they're entitled to, what some of the laws like, look, there's different laws in every state. That benefit you. West coast is very employee centric and things like that. Like the ups and downs of having unemployment, right?

[00:33:47] The Florida doesn't have income taxes, but there's a downside to that because we don't have any advocacy either for employees. Right. They all defaults to federal and federal minimum wage and federal 725. Who wants to default rules? We need state advocacy, but we don't have income tax. And so we just do a little education as much as we can. And that's what we were talking about before. Just like how to keep putting that content out there, get that the right algorithms going and stuff.

[00:34:15] But it's important because I don't think I know a payroll professional who hasn't had somebody bring them their pay stubs or bring or have a question for them. And so what if they don't have somebody like that? They know, right? Like we've, I'm at a cousin, people ask, we always want to help them and bring your pay stuff. Let's figure it out. But, but what if you don't have that? Like, where do you go? And especially if they are intimidated or maybe they don't have right, the right support at their company.

[00:34:42] And they just have a question that they want to just understand. And even if it's here, some resources for you and paychecks are confusing. They are. They are. And taxes and rules change all the time. And if you're not on top of it, like why would, I think it's great that you're doing that. Because I think people, people have questions. Yeah. Right. And that's with our goldmine Reddit, right? You go out there, people are like, what is this? Optimize your business with a workforce AI edge powered by Vizier.

[00:35:10] Make smarter decisions and achieve better outcomes with real-time AI insights delivered to every people leader. Explore more at Vizier.com. Yeah, people post their paychecks out there just trying to find help or like something. Yeah, no, legitimately. They need help. They're like, can you post your paycheck redacted so I can help you walk through it? But it's true. Like we laugh because like people say like payroll is just pushing the button, but it's so complex. And then we expect employees to understand that complexity. Right.

[00:35:40] Without ever the lesson. Like it's just like, no, no, whatever this is. It took us years. It's a part of, yeah. Yeah. To me, it's a part of financial literacy, right? Yes. It's kind of the thing that Brian and I debated on. He was like, that's up to the employee. And I was like, we as employers and payroll pros can do our part to help. Where else would they get it? Exactly. Like silly things. Like there's OASDI, right? Yes. Mm-hmm. There's a, we'll say, I won't say payroll system who calls it. Social security. Social security and some call it OASDI. Yes.

[00:36:09] And if you're an employee, would you know that that's the same thing? Exactly. Exactly. I mean, I just would be like, what is this? I've never seen this before on my channel. If they're a new employee here and they use a different software, it's little things like that. Exactly right. Probably put their mind at ease and they're like, this is weird, but I don't know who to ask and I don't want to seem dumb. Yep. But it's like, they're difficult. I think that it's great for people to have a resource to ask questions. Absolutely. Yep. Do you have a call in? That would be great. We should do a call.

[00:36:36] So what we're, what we've been trying to get going is we're trying to find the right time to do a live recording and just be live and start getting some, we're trying to find the right tool, the right platform. Is it TikTok? Is it IG? Where is it? We tried Riverside, which can go live on multiple platforms, but just didn't like the prints. And we like our editor better on the script and squad cast this platform. So we stopped using river. So we just kind of find that right platform to do that.

[00:37:06] Cause we would like to bring in quite again. And that's exactly right. We don't know what they need to know. Everything is so second nature for us. That is what questions do they want to ask? And Lisa's right. Remember I was telling you, Lisa said to check Reddit out and we need to do that too. Go on Reddit and see what's going on over there. See what people are talking about. I did join a Facebook page. Cause at the date I'm telling my age was I've been on Facebook forever.

[00:37:31] So I have been joining those and like payroll and another pro had recommended like look at those. And they've actually, I'm going to get some new listeners cause folks were asking questions and I just jumped in and was like, oh, Hey, and DM me if you need more info. And five people DM me and was like, Hey, this question. Oh my God, can you help? And then I was like, holy crap. What's whoa. So, and happy to help. I was just going back and forth with people like, yep, do this, do that.

[00:37:58] So yeah, it's, there's so much space for it, for more things like more tools and the support pieces that the vendors don't think about. Don't really, I don't know if they care about it, but you can fill those spaces. So that's, what's exciting. Right. And now the big guys are going to be worried about AI. They're not even going to be worrying about these other things. Then, oh, we got to get on the AI race and wherever that goes, you know, as I think it's no, go ahead. Go ahead.

[00:38:27] I was just going to say, that's one of the, that's one of the reasons that I really love the payroll community because people are always willing to help with the question. And that's why even with you guys, right? Like payroll is your job and we want to take the time as well to help people. And you're, you know, cousins, nephews, whatever, whoever comes with a paycheck. You're not like, no, I'm not at work. I'm not doing that. It's like, we, I love it. Most of us genuinely want to help people understand. It's important. That's why I like that. Share everything.

[00:38:56] Like I really connect to all of these values. Like this is great. I was just telling one of the folks I was talking to today, I was like, oh, she's like, oh, thank you so much for helping. And I was just like, Hey, knowledge isn't worth it if I can't share it. And I love teaching. Do you have all those on a merch or anything at all? Your values? I think that would be so cool. Oh, we should do that. We should. That's a great idea. I would definitely. We have a great artist, but I think you guys have that solved.

[00:39:23] But if you ever need a branding artist or anything like that, we got somebody that's really good. Thank you. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. We're really trying to help the payroll community in general and just trying to keep them more organized, keep payroll on track. That's our motto. And again, perfect. As we come to the end of this, what do you want payroll pros to know? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:51] We want you to know that linked exists and that we are, we're out here trying to essentially get you out of Excel and Word or notes or paper from your, for your payroll checklist and putting them into linked so that you can manage your entire team who's doing what. But you can manage all your procedures and steps all in one place. One of Lisa's favorite features is on every task, you can add the procedure to it.

[00:40:17] And so if someone was out and they open that task, they can just view the procedure immediately in the app. So they know exactly what the steps are that person follows. You can also edit those procedures within the app, edit any tasks that are recurring. But it's not just for your on-cycle payroll. We're also, we want you to put any of your checklists, like your year-end, your quarterly tax filing, a new state registration, all the things that payrolls do. Like we have new earnings. What do you do? You have an acquisition? What happens?

[00:40:47] Unfortunately, you have an employee pass away, right? Oh my gosh, we were just talking about that. Not very often is very sad, but there's a very specific process you have to follow. And you don't want to be like, I got to get this check to the family or the trust or whatever. And you don't want to be like, we have no idea who was the last, who did it? You want to just be able to go to a checklist and say, oh, yep, got it done. Get that check out. It's really important. But if you, what if that was three payroll processors ago who did it?

[00:41:16] And now you're like, I don't even know where to start with our payroll system. Do you have to change the name or do you do it outside of it? Like those processes are almost even more important, right? Because those have to be timely and you want to make sure that, so sorry to interrupt. No, you're fine. But that way, yeah, yeah. And we want keeping, we essentially just want to be able to track all of your activity and anything that you do on a checklist. So you can prove to your auditors that this is who did that task and it, and when was it done by?

[00:41:46] So we're just tracking all those things for you within one app. So you don't have to go hunt and peck for that procedure or that checklist or that link or who emails this, putting that all in one place. But we're launching officially in May for Congress. So come see us. We have a little booth. We have stickers and fans and fun stuff. Yay. Even if it's just to get back. Yes, we have fun stickers. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, literally. All right. We have money socks. Money socks? What are those? Yeah, they're just with money. Oh, okay.

[00:42:15] Dollar size on the side. Okay. You're like, are they filled with money? Maybe next year we can afford money socks. Money socks. But the experience is dollar sign socks. And also, we don't have our pricing out there yet. I think we're really reasonably priced, right? And we have all sorts. We have large companies. We have one person. I don't even know. Gigantic payroll teams. What do you think? Like 15, 20 on teams? Yeah, easy. And then we have two people, right? One, two.

[00:42:45] And so it's fit for everybody. And also, it doesn't matter what payroll system you have. I think that's key. Like everybody, regardless of your payroll system, needs a checklist. Absolutely. You need a process, right? Absolutely. You need to have those, your processes documented. And I just would like to, before we end, to close with one story. Of course. Because we talk about processing a lot in the checklist. But today, I had a really interesting situation happen.

[00:43:12] And really goes to like disaster recovery, business continuity. I had a company call me today, old client, and they process outside of the U.S. for U.S. Power outage. Yes. They have been in Portugal. They cannot process their U.S. payroll. Nobody has. They called me and said, what can you do? And I was like, I can do my best. But I don't know your process. I can get people paid. You're going to have to fix it. I will do my best. Oh, my gosh.

[00:43:41] I was thinking, if they had links, right, I could go on, log in, and I would be able to run their payroll and be very confident that I got people paid correctly. But I am going to be flying by the seat of my pants and just saying, looking at their last paycheck and saying, does it look okay with this paycheck? Okay. And then forget about the nuances. Oh, yeah.

[00:44:09] And forget about, I don't know who gets funded. I don't know if your 401k gets funded automatically. I don't know if that's a file. What about, I don't know anything. And that's terrifying for a company to know that they have thousands of U.S. employees who just might not get paid because of a disaster that you don't think is coming. And so, you never know. So, anyway, that's the thing.

[00:44:37] It's not just about current, but look how it could help you in that. And I think we all need to be prepared, right? For example. Absolutely. We talk about on the show all the time, business continuity. And, oh, by the way, I plugged you guys today because me and Walt teach a payroll course. And we're running. Oh, you do? Yeah, we're running a five-day course now. And I said the same thing. I was like, hey, you got to stay organized and checklists. And I said, oh, by the way, speaking of checklists, and I plugged you guys in.

[00:45:06] And our learning partner is great because they let us plug whoever we want, really. Yeah. Thank you. Absolutely. No, I love it. This has to be the go-to tool for payroll folks. And one thing that, if you haven't already done this, is maybe consider creating a blurb that payroll pros can use to sell it to their leaders. I think. Oh, that's a great idea. Yeah. We're proponents of it. Just like Congress has.

[00:45:33] Okay, if you want to come, here's a little thing to give to them to say what you're giving. Yes, exactly right. Thank you for that advice. Of course, because the biggest thing, what I see is that knowledge transfer from one payroll person to another. And because I've walked into new companies and I'm like, hey, so where's the SO? No. And I'm like, what? Thank God I've been doing this for a little while. Right? They end up on people's hard drives. Updated copies end up. And that's exactly. And that's really. Yes.

[00:46:03] Thank you for reminding me, because that's exactly what I said in the class as well. I said, be sure that you're saving things on the company share drive, not your laptop. And go a step further and make sure that there's a redundancy that the company has for that file as well. And that server dies. Coming to delete the drive, right? Yep. Where else is it? And what we talk about is folks become dependent on the vendor, right?

[00:46:29] So yes, now some payroll system, you can save files to the employee profile. Awesome. But that can't be the only place that those files exist. And payroll reports off. Like folks, I'm like, hey, where the report saved? Oh, they're on the system. Where else are they? Are they not on the share? Like that's the company's property. You know how much the vendor is going to charge when you, if you decide to leave the company, if you need all your reports from the past, however many years you've been on that system. Are you crazy? He was so clever. Yes.

[00:46:58] Are you crazy? So like part of my checklist is to save down the final reporting package so that the company has the data. If the system goes away, what happens to the data? Good point. So there's so many, right? This and all these little things need to be captured. Link seems to be where it's going to be now. I'm so happy for you guys. Yes. Congratulations. I'm so happy and proud to know you all.

[00:47:26] I can't wait to see how it develops and how you guys grow because you're going to change the game. We're big fans. We're cheering you on. Yep. Oh, thank you. And the same for you guys. You guys are wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much for the support. It really means so much to us. Oh, we know. We know how it is. Right. And that's how, that's why we still. It's hard out here. Yeah, it is. And that's why we're still here doing this because honestly, our peers, our peers, hey, we love the show. Keep going. We love the show.

[00:47:55] And that's what keeps us going because there's the moments like that. We're like, oh, what are we doing, man? We can do this. What are we doing? Right. For sure. We're unexamined, right? Yeah. Listen, I'm tired. And it gets, it's hard. It's hard when you're trying to do multiple jobs, have a family, do everything else, right? It gets to do this. You have to have, you have to pass in. Yep. Yep. Yeah. You really got to have that, that burning desire, right? Like that, that, that's something that keeps you pushing.

[00:48:22] And hopefully we'll have you guys back on in some time because we want to talk about progress and where you're at in the future state, right? We would love to. Awesome. Yes. No, you, you're going to, for sure. There's no, there's no question about it. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. Before we let you go, we have a game. What's up, Walt? No. Oh. Yeah. We have a game. Yeah. We like to play this out a little, so just to get us talking about other things other than payroll. We want to take the first three. I'll take the last three. Yeah.

[00:48:50] So this game is, since there's two of you on, this game is called you or them. So it's basically who's more likely to do something. And you can say either one of you or you can say neither of us or both of us. Okay. This is going to be funny because Lisa and I are exactly the same for a lot of stuff. Oh, this might be hard. We'll see. We have a lot of the same taste. Yes. We'll see. It's like the Hollywood game. Okay. Let's do it. Okay. Number one. Who's more likely to grab a coffee from Starbucks? Both. Okay. Both.

[00:49:20] Okay. Probably me, but Starbucks specifically for me and then coffee in general. Ah, okay. Exactly. Who's more? Oh, and you, oh, so sorry. Christina can tell you my coffee order too. That? I can from Starbucks. I know it by heart. Oh my gosh. What I was just going to say, what is it? Yeah. Yeah. You see? Yeah. Blonde coffee with half and sugar. Gotcha. Thank you. Wait, does that throw off Starbucks when they see y'all like blonde coffee? They're like, wait, is it? Yeah. Did you mean blonde? Coffee.

[00:49:51] Blonde coffee. Well, watch out now for Starbucks because I think the marketing team pushed it out into the field that folks are supposed to write more personalized messages on the cups now. They are. Yeah. I've noticed that. Yeah. See, this is why. Yeah. Interesting. I love it. Okay. Okay. Number two, who's more likely to listen to panic at the disco? I don't even know what that is. I would say me because it's closer to my age. I'm old. So yeah. We'll go with Christina. Last one for me.

[00:50:22] Who's more likely to send an email rather than a call? Both of us. Oh, nobody wants to be on the phone. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely not. 100% email. That's me too. I would text me. I would like, no. Call? Why? Email us. Text us. Just call. Not call. Yeah. Do not. Yeah. We'll be like, oh, I have to call. I have to call. Last resort. We do a lot of the voice memos now. And iPhone. We just sit instead of calling now.

[00:50:51] Game changer. Because we could just speak right into the phone. We used to do microsoft memos too. Random thought streams and just boop. Because at some time, right? We don't need to talk. I just need you to hear what I want to say. You know what I mean? Yeah. I just want to get my idea out. Yes. I do that with voice to text, but I'm like your grandma and I don't read it before I send it. But Christina, though, knows me well now. I think I know what you're talking about. That's hilarious. I learned how to read through it. I know what she meant. That's so cool. That's hilarious. Oh, my God.

[00:51:21] My brothers are older than me and they're like, they never want to text. I'm like, for the love of Pete, text me. And they're just like, I don't know how to text. All right. Oh, yes. Just text me. We don't want to talk. Okay. Who's more likely to share their lunch? I think both of us. Yeah. We share lunch in general. Like when we get something, we have the same taste buds. Oh, my God.

[00:51:50] We're usually like, do you want to split this? We literally will. We'll go to dinner with other people and be like, do you want to split it? Yes. Yes. Because it's like big pasta plates. We'll just split it. I'll split it. I'm just kidding. I get it. No, I get it. Finding a great career has always been a challenge. But today, with the massive changes underway in just about every sector of the economy,

[00:52:19] in just about every country in the world, finding a great new career is even more challenging. And if you're a student, recent graduate, or someone else early in their career, it's even harder for you because you just don't have the experience that those who might be 10, 20, 30 years older than you have. The answer, the podcast, from dorms to desks.

[00:52:47] A podcast by College Recruiter Job Search Site, where every week we take a deep dive into a topic specifically of interest to candidates who are early in their careers and looking for a great part-time, seasonal, internship, or other entry-level job. Who's more savvy in Excel? Christina.

[00:53:17] Me. Okay. Last one. She taught me XLOOKUP. She taught me XLOOKUP. Oh. I'm all my happy. If you're not doing XLOOKUP, please. I'm not. I'm VLOOKUP. What are you doing? And then she XLOOKUP me. Real quick. Spiel on XLOOKUP. Yeah. So VLOOKUP, you have to like, you know, it's only vertical and you have to start like, your lookup field has to be on the left and then you have to look up to the right and you have to tell how many columns. XLOOKUP, the field that you're looking up can be on any side. Shut up.

[00:53:46] And so you can start it over here and work left and you don't even have to tell it how many columns. Shut your mouth. I'm looking. Yes. You look up here and I want this one back and that's it. It's so easy. It's so nice. It's so fast. And you're like, I don't have to count 26 columns over or put my column on the left-hand side rather than the right. I'll tell you what funny is. Yes. No, wait. Hold on. This is because now I'm, and I used to be the youngest person in the room. Now I'm the oldest person on my team. I don't know how I got there, but anyway.

[00:54:16] Yeah. Guys. Oh, so it took me, I must've realized this like in the last few years and using Excel 20 plus years. Right. Where, cause I used to have the alphabet on my screen with the numbers under it. The number. So I knew real quick, but I don't know if Excel always did it. Like it tells you the number as you count. Yeah. Yeah. So somebody saw me doing, they were like, what are you doing? I was like the number of column.

[00:54:45] They're like, look, Oh my God. I know they come out with new things all the time. Thank you. Christine. Christine. Just tell her when you have time to take 10 minutes, show you. It's a life changer. More technical than I am for sure. Oh my God. I love it. Last one. And who's more likely to watch love is blind? I think that's me too. It's reality TV. Man. Like that's me. I'm a 90 day. I'm a reality TV.

[00:55:14] But I'm also, I'm a 90 day fiance kind of person. And so I love reality, but yeah, I'm yeah. Yeah. That's where we differ. She watches 90 day fiance. And then I watched like the love is blind, the bachelor or like, yeah. But still reality TV. Still. Yeah. Yeah. I'm still reality TV. Have a little. Turn off our brain. Have a little place to just be like numb and just enjoy. Yeah. A little. A little. A little. A little. A little drama. I got. I'm trying to find.

[00:55:44] I think I do enough stuff, but yeah, we, it was, it's been amazing. We could talk all night really, but it's been amazing having you guys. Cause I would love to do those questions. Just reversed. I would love to know which one of you is more likely to watch love is blind. Go. Go. Now. Now I'm forced to watch 90 day fiance. What? Yeah. If I want to sit next to my wife, I got to watch. But then you're like, wait, what? Oh, I drive her crazy.

[00:56:12] Cause I'll, I'll have commentary. She's like, I thought you weren't watching. And I'm like, whoa. I'm watching. I got to be now. Exactly. It's funny. What was blind though? I'm more so. We must've watched like survivor. Amazing race. Those types of things. Yeah. We all have. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What is she doing? My life turned down. Trying to think about what we've been watching recently.

[00:56:40] She watches a lot of crime stuff and. Oh, true crime. Yeah. Me too. Do you really? Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Christina is like the real podcaster though. She'll be like, you need to listen to this podcast. Like she's great about going out and listening and of all sorts. And I love that. What are you listening to now? Right. So recently there's this podcast called money's podcast. What is it? Lenny? Yeah. Lenny's podcast.

[00:57:05] So I listened to that for, he brings on like different, like product managers from like big, like tech companies. I just for like understanding like how other people do things. So I like to listen to those into Jay Shetty. I listened to one with a founder, female founder. It was really good. I forgot her name. Bad on me, but it was on Jay Shetty. It was, that one was a really good. That's a good, I haven't heard of these. I love podcasts. Oh yeah. Those are good ones. I don't know.

[00:57:34] Patreon calls that we are listening to. Yeah. Two guys do it. Yeah. Two guys. Yeah. It's about something like that. That's good. Oh, thank you so much. What was I getting you guys see? You threw me off. Oh, how I built this. Have you, I think, I think NPR puts that one out. Yeah. I've heard of that one too. So I love those listening to the origin stories, the founder stories. Yeah. You guys are going to be on that soon. Right.

[00:58:04] Telling your story. I love it. Yeah. I like, I like Trevor Noah's podcast. Yeah. And I, oh, sports stuff. So this is where I think where I get my deep, that my disconnect from payroll is my podcast. Cause I listened to the Kelsey brothers, new heights, football, podcast, sport. They do everything now. They got a hundred million dollar contract to do a podcast. So they have actors on. Yeah. Right.

[00:58:31] So yeah, they do, they do everything, but then it's very sport driven. Try to turn on. And my favorite is drink champs, which is it's a hip hop based podcast. And yeah. Yeah. Pioneer. He's, I don't know if he's retired, but he's a older rapper from like my age and a DJ hosted. And they only bring on the legends of hip hop. You have to have been in hip hop for at least 10 years to come on the show. Cool. Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. So it's very cool. And he's from, one of them is from Queens.

[00:59:00] So it's like talking to my friends, like listening to my friends talk. Cause I live in South Florida now. I'm originally from New York. So I'm like always getting nostalgic and I miss New York sometimes. And, and until it's winter time, then when my mom is like eight degrees here, I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm good. Thanks. Oh gosh. All right, guys, we're not going to keep you anymore. Cause again, we're going to go all night. We could be here all night. You guys are wonderful. No, you guys are great.

[00:59:28] I told you, once you get to payroll talking, it becomes very comfortable. So the website is L N K T U P.com. Yeah. You got it. Link. Com. Was not available. Right. Yeah. So L N K T. And we'll put the link in the show notes as well. Oh, check them out. Get on there. Sign up. Get this tool. Oh. And again, I had meant to say like that knowledge transfer for the, for, to sell it to their bosses

[00:59:56] to get this, that's going to be big. Look, this is how you keep payroll continuity as we move and grow through systems. Right. Maybe even through, oh my gosh, so much. Congratulations guys, ladies. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you guys. We really appreciate it. We love this support. Yeah. We got to support each other for sure. And we'll, we'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much. Thank you. Don't. Before we sign off, here are a couple of quick things. Don't forget to follow. It's about payroll on LinkedIn.

[01:00:25] 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.