Main Product/Service

Wayne Brodnan and his wife have owned Visiting Angels of Northeast Ohio, located just east of Cleveland in Mentor, OH for 18 years. Their company employs 150 in-home health care workers, and serves approximately 100 seniors in Lake County as well as portions of neighboring Geauga and Cuyahoga counties. Their goal is to be a secondary partner to families, helping seniors remain in their homes and avoid moving to assisted living or nursing facilities for as long as possible.

Why I recommend Horizon Payroll Solutions

“Over the years, we’ve learned from experience that customer service is so important when you’re looking for a payroll company. We’ve never experienced service like we do from Horizon, and our dedicated payroll specialist, Stephanie, is unbelievable.”

“We’ve worked with other payroll companies before, and have found that Horizon provides more service for a lower price. That’s critical because small businesses like ours need to get the most for our dollar.”

“There is a feeling of relief just knowing we have a true partner for payroll. If something unexpected comes up, Stephanie works with us and is still able to get payroll processed and direct deposits made – this flexibility is really the icing on the cake for us.”

-Wayne Brodnan, President of Visiting Angels of NE Ohio

Business Challenge

After outsourcing payroll in the early days of their Visiting Angels franchise, Wayne and his wife decided to do payroll themselves. They used Quickbooks software, but found it did not integrate well with their scheduling software – they ended up spending too much time making manual corrections. They also wanted the ability to focus on building their business. So after seven years of in-house payroll, they decided outsourcing would give them back the time needed to do this.

Initially they selected a local company that did competent payroll work but proved to have unresponsive customer service. The Brodnan's employees were required to call the payroll company with questions or problems, but too often their calls weren’t returned, and Wayne and his wife knew it was time for a change.

Their next payroll provider neglected to inform them they would have to input all their employee data as part of the start-up process. It was time consuming and frustrating, and eventually this company began making payroll errors.

A third payroll company made changes to how their software calculated overtime without informing them, resulting in unexpected expenses and a deteriorating relationship.

It became clear to the Brodnans' they needed to find a payroll company with expertise to get the job done and the ability to communicate and keep them in the loop.

Why I chose Horizon Payroll Solutions

While attending an annual Visiting Angels annual conference, Wayne saw a Horizon payroll demo and learned about Horizon’s medical insurance offering, Flexible Staffcare. Knowing they would be assigned a dedicated payroll specialist and not have to administer a medical insurance plan helped them decide to give Horizon a try. The customer service and flexibility they’ve experienced over time has reinforced that decision and keeps them with Horizon.

How Horizon Payroll Solutions Helps My Business

Personal customer service that goes above and beyond

Wayne has been able to reduce the amount of time he spends on operations and can focus on the bigger picture of his business. The Brodnans have also developed a great working relationship with their payroll specialist, Stephanie. She’s familiar with their business model and handled everything to get them set up. The emphasis is always on getting the job done correctly, not just filling the time. She has also been able to communicate directly with their CPA firm on payroll issues too.

Electronic onboarding and WOTC tax credit screening

Electronic onboarding saves them staff time inputting employee data, and it’s helpful that new hires can enter and update their info themselves from home. It has also been efficient and convenient to have insurance, direct deposit, and onboarding documentation together in one place for easy access.

Built-in Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) screening at the time of onboarding has been a big help and reduces the hassle of keeping up with the time-sensitive application process. Visiting Angels of Northeast Ohio was eligible to receive $12,000.00 in tax credits in 2019 as a result of the WOTC program.

Products and services that meet our employee's needs

Horizon offers several products and services that allow Visiting Angels of Northeastern Ohio to meet their employees’ needs:

  • Flexible Staffcare medical insurance plans save money. Wayne said that even though they pay half the insurance premium it’s a fraction of the penalty costs for not offering mandated insurance, and the premium is tax deductible.
  • Zayzoon payroll advances saves the Brodnans from issuing and keeping track of advances for employees. It’s especially helpful around the holidays when advances are requested more often.
  • The Paycard system makes it easy to pay employees without bank accounts and those who are setting up new accounts. Stephanie can easily set up new employees with a Paycard if their new bank account isn’t ready for a deposit in time for their first payday.