How FC Workforce turned payroll panic into predictable progress 

FC Workforce had built something remarkable over their eight years in business. This family-run industrial recruitment firm in Peterborough, UK specialised in temporary recruitment for warehouse operatives, pickers, packers and forklift drivers, and had carved out a reputation for doing everything in-house: finance, payroll, HR, recruitment. 

I'm quite proud of the fact that we do everything in-house and it's fantastic.

says Joshua Human, HR Manager at FC Workforce. 

But success brought its own challenge. Every Thursday evening, while neighbouring businesses wound down for the week, FC Workforce's lights stayed on. The payroll team was committed to one non-negotiable goal: ensuring around 600 weekly workers received their pay on time, every Friday. 

There were times where some of the staff were working late into the evening just to get it done, just to get people paid on time, essentially.

The problem lived in the details: seven or eight different software systems that had been layered on over the years, each solving a specific problem, none talking to the others. According to Staffing Industry Analysts, recruiters lose an average of £17,000 per year in productivity due to inefficient manual admin tasks. For temporary staffing agencies managing weekly payroll cycles, this inefficiency doesn't just cost time; it impacts cashflow, worker satisfaction, and the ability to scale.  

In July 2024, FC Workforce began looking at new software systems. But this wasn't about quick fixes or incremental improvements. 

The whole point of looking at a new software system or a new structure of the business if you like, was to try and increase and boost efficiency, but right from front, mid and all the way through. It's not necessarily a case of looking to reduce the team, but it was looking to future-proof the business and to say we can take on more work, we can take on more clients, and we can maintain the same service levels.

After evaluating several providers, Access Vincere Evo and Access FastTrack360 emerged as the clear choice. The deciding factor? Integration. 

The ability for essentially our workload to split across the various departments inside the business where if a mid office person takes an action, that replicates in the back office and it's not then repeated essentially, was the key thought process behind it.

No more duplicate entry. No more data living in seven different places. One action, one time, flowing seamlessly through the entire business. Based on data validated across our client base, agencies using Access FastTrack 360 typically achieve a 90% reduction in pay and invoicing errors and a 66% reduction in operating costs.  

The decision was made. But Joshua had one fear that kept him awake at night. 

Data migration. Two words that make even seasoned IT professionals nervous. 

Years of candidate records, placement history, payroll data. All locked in legacy systems that would need to be extracted, transformed, and loaded into new platforms without losing a single critical piece of information. 

It's the thing that worried me the most, to be honest with you. It was: Number one, how do we get it? Number two, what do we do with it? And then number three, what does it actually look like when it goes in?

- Joshua admits

This is where Access Recruitment’s implementation specialists transformed from service providers into partners. 

We worked with the software engineers to help us understand that and to structure it so that the information went in how we wanted it to go in.

This speed was no accident. FC Workforce embraced a “learn by breaking” philosophy. 

What I really liked about the onboarding process was it was led by us. If we needed more time and more support, then we were able to get it. But equally, we weren't hounded for weekly meetings or daily meetings or whatever it might be.

- Joshua explains

With Access Vincere Evo feeding data seamlessly into Access FastTrack360 Evo, the agency finally had what they’d been missing for years: a single operational flow from placement to payroll. 

When a recruiter updates a placement in Access Vincere Evo such as shift details, pay rates, job status, Access FastTrack360 Evo picks it up automatically. Payroll doesn’t need to re-enter anything. Finance doesn’t need to guess. And compliance teams see the same information the moment it’s updated.  

The technology didn't replace the human touch. It enabled more of it. 

Key benefits:  

• Single data entry, automatic flow: Quickly and securely transfer data between your systems, while streamlining your timesheets, payroll and billing operations and reducing the risk of manual errors. Discover the latest integration enhancements powered by AI.
• Effortless timesheet processing: Custom imports turn 1,000+ rows of manual entry into a simple copy-paste operation.
• Accuracy & compliance: Remain compliant with current UK tax and labour laws. 

Transformation in numbers 

• Payroll Cycle: 5 days → 2.5 days (50% faster) 
• Recruiter Capacity: 200-225 shifts → 350-375 shifts per week (67% increase) 
• Payslip Delivery: Thursday evening → Wednesday lunch (1.5 days earlier) 
• Systems Consolidation: 7-8 disconnected → 2 integrated platforms 
• Manual Entry: 1,000+ workers × 5 columns → Copy-paste import
• Transformation Timeline: 6 months 

Workers are getting paid on time, not at the last possible second, but with breathing room for questions and adjustments. The recruitment team is handling 67% more volume without breaking a sweat. New candidates are registering themselves through the portal. 

Yes, I would 100% [recommend this]. I think the key point I would say is don't be afraid of the initial work to reap the benefit at the end. You're going to have some initial work with whatever you do and however you do it. So get through that first couple of weeks of the transition over - it's well worth it.

- Joshua Human, HR Manager 

Now the team has time. Time to answer worker questions. Time to solve problems. Time to focus on what a family-run business does best: build relationships and deliver exceptional service. 

We wanted our finance team and our payroll staff to have more time to offer a service to our workers. If they've got a query - what's going on with my tax code, or I feel like the hours that have come through aren't correct - we wanted them to have the time to be able to respond inside of a decent time window.

The integration between Access Vincere Evo and Access FastTrack360 Evo has eliminated the fragmentation that once defined their operations. With one provider managing both their CRM and payroll systems, FC Workforce enjoys a zero-stress, all-in-sync workflow where data flows seamlessly from recruitment through to payment. 

And those Thursday evenings? They're just Thursday evenings now. Nothing special. Nothing stressful. Just another workday that ends at a reasonable hour. 

Sometimes, that's the greatest victory of all.