Edifice Protection Group is a nationwide security services provider supporting public and private entities, including high-rise Class A and Class B buildings, commercial properties and large construction and redevelopment projects. With operations spanning four states and up to 180 employees, the company needed flexible scheduling, strong time management and payroll solutions that could support staffing needs.
That responsibility falls to Emanuel Smith, director of payroll and human resources (HR) at Edifice, who oversees hiring, payroll, billing, employee experience and training company-wide.
Separate Systems Slowed Down Payroll and Billing
Before moving to isolved and Celayix, Smith had used five to seven different human capital management (HCM) systems, including Paychex, Valiant, GuardTrack and Paycor. While each of these systems supported parts of the workflow, he still had to complete many steps manually. This often meant he had to deal with:
Time-consuming payroll: Log into multiple screens for different states, review physical timecards and resolve discrepancies to run payroll.
Multiple disconnected systems: Coordinate data across separate dashboards for onboarding, employee scheduling, time tracking and billing, with no automation to tie the workflow together.
Missed deadlines and stress: Spend up to three days completing payroll, sometimes pushing up against cutoff deadlines.
Configuration challenges: Manually adjust complex policies, such as vacation accrual for tenured employees.
Smith needed a scalable workforce management solution that could optimize scheduling, keep up with regulatory compliance and labor laws, and streamline payroll. He also needed better forecasting for staffing levels to support retention and employee engagement, while keeping labor costs predictable across locations.
Finding the Right Fit with isolved and Celayix
When Smith started working with Celayix for flexible scheduling and attendance tracking, he said it was “almost like a match made in heaven.” He immediately felt at home with the user-friendly interface, which mirrored a system he had used previously.
Through long-standing relationships with two sales representatives—one who moved to Celayix and another to isolved—Smith learned that the two systems integrate directly. That connection opened the door for isolved to help streamline staffing, payroll, HR, onboarding, self-service tools and workforce planning.
“What’s beautiful about it is their communication is so seamless and almost perfect that whether I change something in isolved or in Celayix, it updates automatically in the other system.”
Emanuel Smith
HR and Accounts Payable Director at Edifice Protection Group
Today, Celayix handles employee time tracking and scheduling, while isolved manages payroll, HR and other workforce management functions. According to Smith, the two systems connect through an API integration. He describes the communication as “seamless,” noting that changes made in one system’s dashboard appear in the other in real time, whether it’s updating a phone number or adjusting employee data.
“When they were able to develop the API keys and talk to one another, it just blew the world apart,” Smith said. “I can lock down time management and hit one button, and in less than five seconds, I'm already in the grid in isolved, and I'm already completing my assignment.”
A Collaborative Setup Built for Edifice’s Needs
During implementation, the isolved team worked closely with Smith to configure the workforce management system to align with Edifice’s business goals and workflows. They helped set up vacation rules for tenured employees so accruals added up correctly by year-end and paused during team members' vacations.
Smith said it felt “almost like I rubbed the magic lamp and they gave me everything that I wanted,” highlighting how quickly the team understood what he needed. “I found in both companies that the software did what they told me it was going to do, and that was a sale for me,” he said.
Key results include:
Faster payroll processing, from three days to under four hours
Payroll approval completed within 24 hours
Better accuracy between billing and payroll data
Eliminated the need for a third-party billing vendor
Reduced HR workload through self-service and automation
A More Connected Workforce Management Solution
After moving to isolved, Smith saw immediate improvements in how he manages payroll, staffing and overall employee satisfaction. What once took up to three days now takes less than four hours. The full cycle, including approval, is completed within 24 hours. The streamlined workflow is consistent and dependable, giving him the flexibility to submit payroll from wherever he’s working using the mobile app, with the same accuracy and reliability every time.
Billing also became simpler. The reports and metrics Smith pulls from isolved now match his billing “to a tee,” which reduces the discrepancies he used to correct and removes the need for a separate billing vendor.
Smith also appreciates how much of the day-to-day staffing workload now runs on “auto drive.” Once he enters a new employee’s basic information, the rest is seamless. Through self-service, team members can update their own bank accounts and timesheets, pull tax documents and change their tax status at the right time without needing to go through him, which reduces routine requests and supports stronger employee engagement.
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