Mikhuna speeds up payroll processing and improves visibility

OVERVIEW

What comes to mind when you think of food trucks? Smash burgers, street tacos, and overpriced loaded fries, right?

Well, you’ll be happy to know that one particular food truck in California offers something a little bit different.

For eight successful years, LA-based Mikhuna has been dishing out authentic Peruvian cuisine from their unmistakable bright red truck. From seafood classics like Causa en Lapa, to stir-fry dishes like Tallarin Saltado de Pollo, Mikhuna offers a deliciously unique menu that stands out from the rest of the competition.

CHALLENGE

Behind Mikhuna’s menu is a hard-working team. Cynthia Carreiro, Mikhuna’s CFO, oversees a team of thirteen employees who staff the food truck. Delicious meals and happy customers aside, all was not so simple behind the scenes for Mikhuna.

Besides payroll, everything regarding Mikhuna’s staff management was done with pen and paper, from scheduling to time tracking. Schedules took forever to create, and staff only heard about their shifts via text or a printed spreadsheet.

Mikhuna employees also had to routinely fill out their own timesheets by hand; this often led to all kinds of errors. “It used to take me about two hours each pay period to fix timesheets,” reflects Cynthia. “Some would be missing, some would have incorrect hours – it took up a lot of my time.”

After fixing these errors, Cynthia would then manually calculate each employee’s pay and re-enter each timesheet into Mikhuna’s online payroll system. From start to finish, the entire process took Cynthia between four to five hours every pay period.

All of this manual work not only cost Cynthia lots of time, time but also severely limited her ability to view important labor cost and attendance metrics. Since scheduling and time tracking were not tied together in a single system, Cynthia couldn't see whether staff were arriving to their shifts on time, and she couldn’t project the cost of her schedules.

SOLUTION

There were two things Mikhuna wanted. The first was to find an online scheduling and time-tracking app that employees could use to clock in for work and check their shifts. Most importantly, the app had to automatically record hours and calculate timesheets on a daily basis.

The second thing Mikhuna wanted was to drop their old payroll system in favor of one that would come bundled with an online scheduling and timeclock platform. An all-in-one solution like this would eliminate the need for constant data reentry – a common side effect of using multiple software systems.

RESULTS

Mikhuna partnered with Workforce.com to sync scheduling, time tracking, and payroll into a single, fully automated, online system. Since implementation, Cynthia could not be happier with the results.

“The biggest benefit to using Workforce.com is saving time, for sure,” she reflects. “And time, you know, it really is money!”

Here are a few of the ways Mikhuna has benefited from switching to Workforce.com:

92% decrease in time spent correcting timesheets

Due to the level of human error involved with manually tracking hours by pen and paper, Cynthia used to spend about two hours every pay period filling out incomplete or missing timesheets. Now, with Workforce.com automatically tracking hours and wages for all her staff, it only takes Cynthia ten minutes to review and approve timesheets before processing pay – no more calling, texting, and combing through printed schedules.

3 hours saved processing payroll

Before Workforce.com, Cynthia had to manually calculate wages for each of her employees. After this, she had to enter each timesheet one at a time into Mikhuna’s online payroll system. With Workforce.com, timesheets are now calculated automatically, and she can quickly send them all to payroll with a single click following a brief approval process.

“It used to take me between two to three hours to run payroll,” Cynthia reflects. “Now it takes no more than 3 minutes – this is why I love Workforce.com.”

Improved frontline visibility

Through the Workforce.com app, Cynthia and her scheduling managers receive notifications whenever staff members are late or can’t make it to a shift. Visibility like this helps Mikhuna stay on top of coverage needs and attendance issues.

Cynthia can even view live labor cost metrics for scheduled shifts as well as wage and hour variances on every timesheet whenever someone works outside of their scheduled hours.

Extensive pay run reporting

Following each pay run, Cynthia gets a detailed overview of Mikhuna’s historical pay records. These reports give her a better understanding of the company’s labor costs.

“I like that I will be able to see reports on my labor costs down the road,” says Cynthia. “A year from now, I’ll be able to look back at a pay run from the same time last year and see if I’m losing or making money.”

Operations have never been smoother for Mikhuna. With Workforce.com comfortably handling all of the manual admin work, Cynthia has more time to focus on the things that truly matter – like strengthening employee experience and improving customer service.

Big things are on the horizon for Mikhuna. If you find yourself in LA, keep an eye out for where they'll be by following Mikhuna on Instagram @perumikhuna or X (Twitter) @PeruMikhuna.