Eat My Lunch

Eat My Lunch is a social enterprise with a mission to ensure no Kiwi kid goes to school hungry. The social enterprise achieves this by providing children in lower decile schools with healthy lunches through a Buy One, Give One model. Eat My Lunch offers its customers a variety of catering options as either a one-off or subscription-based purchase. The options include lunches, breakfasts, morning teas, grazing, and gift boxes, all delivered to your door. For every product bought, a lunch is given to a young Kiwi student in schools across the country. 

Eat My Lunch’s impactful business model quickly took off from the start, experiencing exponential growth in its first few months after launching. By 2021, Eat My Lunch was accredited as an official supplier to Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunch for Auckland and Wellington Schools. The team soon realised that to keep up better tech solutions were needed to manage their staff and get on top of business admin. That’s when FlexiTime’s payroll software, PayHero, came into the picture. 

We spoke to the National Operations Manager at Eat My Lunch, Brett Pearson, who said, “PayHero has worked really well from its initial integration into the business”. Brett values a system that is easy to use, so he can quickly and effectively manage his internal operations. So, when asked what his favourite thing about PayHero is, Brett was quick to comment on how “PayHero is easy to navigate, and if changes need to be made, they can be made quickly and easily”.  

‘The ability to integrate with other systems makes PayHero a real hub’

A deeply integrated tech stack is the way to go when it comes to streamlining business processes. PayHero integrates with many other best-of-breed software applications, so Kiwi companies can enjoy a powerful workforce management solution. Integrating with other software was essential in Brett's decision to partner with PayHero. Eat My Lunch integrates PayHero with Xero, MyHR and Droppah to manage their payroll, accounting, HR and rostering processes. 

As PayHero customers, Eat My Lunch connects their account with Xero and sends payroll data into the accounting system. Every time a pay is processed in PayHero, the payroll details of the transaction are automatically sent to Xero as a draft invoice, waiting for approval and reconciliation. This automation saves Brett time by streamlining their operations and removing cumbersome manual processes. In addition, the integration with Xero links different payroll costs to Xero account codes or tracking categories to help Brett keep on top of staff costs. This feature provides Brett with accurate cost tracking and minimal data entry.

The integration between PayHero and MyHR is a dream for HR and makes managing people across multiple locations far more straightforward. For example, when a new employee joins Eat My Lunch, they can be added in PayHero with the data captured in MyHR. This data flow saves Brett time by avoiding entering data twice into different systems. The two-way integration between MyHR and PayHero also enables Eat My Lunch's employees to view their up-to-date leave balances, request leave and update important employee details. For Brett and his managers, this eliminates time and admin work by reducing errors and confusion for his employees. "Having our payroll & HR system integrated allows our staff to manage their leave and other data from a single source," Brett says.

Keeping track of staff and their availability when they are located across the country is challenging. This is why we developed Droppah, a rostering system built to help businesses create and communicate rosters with their teams. For Eat My Lunch, the PayHero and Droppah integration has helped them overcome the growing complexity of managing a large team across multiple locations. “Integrating PayHero with Droppah has given us the ability to see every shift and what our teams are doing in real-time”. 

By connecting HR, rostering, payroll and accounting systems, Eat My Lunch has created a cutting-edge cloud-based tech solution that helps them effectively manage their workforce as they scale into the future. 

‘PayHero has been able to scale up with us as the business has grown.’

For a successful and fast-growing organisation like Eat My Lunch, choosing the right technology is a crucial part of the business as it enables them to grow and achieve their goals. For Eat My Lunch, this involves empowering New Zealand's youngest generation to lead productive, healthy and happy lives at school. We are thrilled that Eat My Lunch has chosen FlexiTime's suite of workforce management solutions, and we are even prouder to partner with a purpose-driven organisation that has provided lunches to over 1.7 million tamariki during the past six years. Ka rawe Brett and team! Ka pai tō mahi!

Join Eat My Lunch and thousands of other Kiwi companies to spend less time on admin, and more time on the activities that add the most value to your business.  Get started with PayHero today!