Automating Payroll Gave This Veterinary Practice the Time and Confidence to Focus on Care

Automating Payroll Gave This Veterinary Practice the Time and Confidence to Focus on Care

For more than 20 years, Dr. Jacqueline Starink has led a close-knit veterinary practice in Mississauga, ON, a clinic shaped by long-tenured staff and a culture she describes as “like a family.” But behind that stability was an administrative load that had become increasingly difficult to manage. Payroll, vacation tracking, and benefits all lived in different places, and none of them were automated.

Before Powerpay, the team relied on punch cards near the back door, handwritten cheques, manual calculations from government deduction tables, and spreadsheets that had to be reviewed again and again. As Dr. Starink put it, “It was cumbersome, and mistakes could easily happen.” When her office manager position became vacant, she suddenly found herself handling everything. “It was more of an evolving role,” she said, “but once I took on our employee benefits and all the responsibilities around that, it became clear I needed a better way.”

She wanted a system that would bring order to the complexity: staff with different pay structures, temporary workers returning seasonally, salaried veterinarians, off-site partners who depended on accurate records, and benefits that varied from one individual to the next. “You need to be able to take on that responsibility carefully,” she said. “It can’t just depend on one person’s memory.”

The shift began when she moved the clinic to use Powerpay for payroll. What stood out immediately was how easy it was to learn. “It was very user friendly and intuitive,” she said. “I could easily share the responsibility with my bookkeeper, and I could double-check everything before committing.” Setting up employees properly was the turning point. “If you invest your time in getting it right, it just rolls along. Each person is handled exactly the way they need to be.”

Payroll went from a stressful, easily interrupted process to a predictable routine. “I’m a true believer that how you do anything is how you do everything,” she explained. “If you’re going to do payroll, you need to be focused. Once I had Powerpay, it took me maybe twenty minutes, sometimes an hour. Without it, it would take double or triple the time.” She loved the feeling of being able to finish it, close the laptop, and move on. “My number one benefit is my quality of life. Once payroll is done, it’s done. I can mentally disengage.”

Accuracy improved as well. Vacation pay, which used to be one of the hardest things to track, became straightforward. “With vacation, people assume two weeks means ten days. But their hours don’t always add up that way. With Powerpay, I don’t round, I don’t estimate any numbers. It is what it is.” The clarity also reassured her partners. “Anyone can look at my payroll and see everything is clean and clear.”

Her team benefited too. “The fact that staff can access their pay stubs and T4s themselves is fantastic,” she said. “They don’t have to come to me for everything.” And during periods of uncertainty, she relied heavily on the platform. “Through COVID, Powerpay kept track of everything we were entitled to. It made a very confusing time understandable. We were compliant, and it all went smoothly.”

Throughout her experience, one theme kept coming up: support. “I rely on your team,” she said. “If there’s something I don’t do often, like an ROE, I can call and say, ‘Can you walk through this with me?’ And someone always does. That kind of support gives you confidence.”

Looking back, she sees the transformation clearly. Tasks that once felt fragile now feel dependable. Processes that used to take hours now take minutes. The weight of uncertainty has been replaced with reassurance. “Nobody wants to trigger an audit,” she said with a laugh. “Powerpay gives us peace of mind.”

When other clinic owners ask about payroll solutions, she keeps her answer simple: “It’s efficient, it’s accurate, and it’s well supported. If you want a system you can trust, Powerpay is a very good choice.”