From Payroll Provider to HCM Partner
When Larry and Ariana Goldman, along with Alan and Michelle Klein, co-founded Ace Payroll Services Inc. in 1994, payroll was largely transactional. But as cloud-based human capital management (HCM) software gave employers new ways to manage their workforce, they saw an opportunity to become more than a payroll provider.
HR compliance was changing, too. Larry and Ariana pointed to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as one example of the increasingly complex requirements employers were navigating. In response, the company began evolving from a payroll provider into a more consultative HCM business, building expertise across implementation, technology, tax, compliance and client service.
By 2016, as the business expanded into HCM software, the company became Ace Workforce Technologies and joined the isolved Network. The broader model allowed the team to connect clients’ multiple systems and support integrations through APIs.
Growing With the isolved Network
The Ace co-founders saw isolved as technology that could support the broader HCM model they wanted to build. The company was competing with national providers backed by large marketing and sales teams, as well as more basic platform providers that offered less of the advisory support they believed growing businesses needed.
Through isolved People Cloud™, Ace Workforce Technologies could combine broader HCM solutions with the knowledgeable, relationship-driven service at the center of its business. That gave the company more opportunities to support clients as their needs became more complex and add services over time.
"Partnering with isolved gave us the ability to go deeper and broader with our clients. The upsell opportunity was and is tremendous in working with isolved. You couldn't do that with other platforms."
Larry Goldman
Co-Founder, Goldman & Klein Services Inc.
Ace’s technology specialists also worked with clients to connect existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, accounting platforms, legacy software and third-party applications with isolved, using APIs where appropriate. They developed customized reporting, general ledger integrations and workflows around each client’s environment.
The isolved Marketplace added another way to expand what Ace could offer, giving the company access to additional providers and services it could evaluate based on each client’s needs and business goals.
Larry and Ariana credited the company’s implementation process, ongoing service and proactive client education with helping maintain approximately 98% client retention over many years. Over time, the company grew to approximately 60 employees with operations across New York, Arizona, Nevada and Florida, serving 3,000 clients.
Reaching the Next Stage of Growth
As Larry and Ariana considered what the next phase of Ace Workforce Technologies could look like, they saw that continued growth would mean another major investment in the company. They began exploring their options, and after talking with isolved, decided selling was the right move.
In 2021, isolved acquired Ace Workforce Technologies. The acquisition changed Larry and Ariana’s roles, but it didn’t end their connection to isolved. Most former employees stayed with isolved, while a handful continued their careers with other businesses within the isolved Network.
Helping Other Network Partners Grow
After years of building Ace Workforce Technologies, Larry and Ariana launched Goldman & Klein Services Inc. to share what they’ve learned with other Network Partners.
Today, they work with partners on business strategy, operations, implementation, compliance, sales and technology adoption. Their advice comes from facing many of the same questions themselves, including when to invest in people, where HR operations need to improve, how to build referral relationships and what it takes to keep growing as the business changes.
“Technology will continue to evolve, but one principle remains unchanged: businesses do not build trust with software,” Larry said. “They build trust with people who understand their business, leverage technology wisely and remain committed to helping them succeed.”
They also see an entrepreneurial opportunity for accounting and benefits businesses to add HCM services, creating a complementary source of recurring revenue while strengthening client relationships and building a more scalable business. Their work gives other partners a chance to learn from people who have built, scaled and ultimately sold an HCM business themselves.
Staying Connected to the Network
Larry and Ariana stay involved with the broader Network. They attended isolved Connect, a three-day event that brings the partner community together for learning and development, HR technology updates and networking with other partners.
Artificial intelligence (AI) was one area that stood out to them at the event. They were especially interested in the isolved Connector for Claude and its potential to reduce repetitive work and give teams more time to focus. The Connector simplifies the employee experience by letting employees check pay, review benefits and request time off directly through Claude. They also stressed that human judgment remains essential to decision-making, particularly in payroll, where accuracy matters.
For Larry and Ariana, staying connected to the Network gives them a chance to share what they’ve learned and support others building businesses in an industry they still care deeply about.
“Being part of the isolved family offers tremendous untapped potential for entrepreneurs looking to build a scalable, recurring HCM services business,” Ariana said.
