Have you ever looked at your accounting practice and seen a problem that everyone else just accepts as "the way things are"?
What if that problem was actually your biggest growth opportunity?
And what if the only thing standing between you and that opportunity was access to the right tools?
That's where Sarah Berry found herself a few years ago. As the leader of her Texarkana accounting firm, she watched staff accountants constantly interrupted by payroll tasks, jumping between multiple QuickBooks files while trying to focus on financial statements and tax returns. It was chaotic, inefficient, and costing her team both time and morale.
But Sarah saw something her competitors didn't.
Business owners in her community were frustrated with big-box payroll providers who shuffled them between different customer service representatives and couldn't deliver responsive, local service.
Sarah recognized a gap in the market and a chance to build something meaningful: a locally owned payroll company that would eventually manage thousands of employees.
There was just one catch. To build the payroll business she envisioned, she needed access to enterprise-level software. And providers like isolved weren't interested in firms without substantial employee headcount. You needed scale to get the platform that would help you scale.
That's where the Whirks Network Partner Program became the bridge between Sarah's reality and her vision.
Jumping Between Multiple QuickBooks Was Killing Our Efficiency
Before partnering with Whirks, Sarah's firm faced frustrations common to many accounting practices. Each staff accountant managed five or six client payrolls, creating constant context-switching and disruption.
"The biggest frustration was all the different payroll softwares we were using, and primarily QuickBooks," Sarah explained. "It was really time-consuming for my team to run payrolls, jump in and out of different QuickBooks."
Without dedicated payroll specialists, no one was truly trained in payroll processes. Staff accountants got distracted by payroll when they should have been producing financial statements or completing tax returns.
Sarah knew there had to be a better way.
We Wanted to Start Big, Even Though We Were Small
The turning point came in July 2023 when Sarah visited the Whirks office for a hands-on demonstration.
"When Matt invited us up for an office visit, we got to see what Whirks was doing, really face-to-face with the payroll team," Sarah recalled. "And I realized, like, hey, I think this would be a really good direction for the firm to go."
But Sarah didn't just want to add payroll. She wanted to build something substantial.
Starting With The End In Mind
The vision was clear: build a payroll company managing thousands of employees, operating as a separate brand, serving both accounting clients and payroll-only customers. Sarah wanted enterprise-level software from day one.
Most businesses start with what's easiest, planning to upgrade later. But Sarah understood that switching platforms would mean retraining her team, converting clients again, and potentially losing momentum.
The challenge? isolved would never have given a firm of her size "a second look."
"Whirks enabled us to be able to use that software, and to get our foot in the door, and to learn that software, and help us get to where we want to go," Sarah explained.
The One Investment That Made Everything Else Possible
Launching a serious payroll operation required real investment, both financial and organizational.
Sarah identified a part-time staff accountant who showed strong attention to detail with payroll tasks. Sarah shared the vision with this team member, showing her what the future could look like.
The employee bought in, and the transformation began. By consolidating all payroll with one specialist (who eventually became the payroll manager of a team of two), the firm created real efficiency gains.
For firms considering a similar move, Sarah's advice is clear: stop having staff accountants run payroll.
"It is not efficient. It's very disruptive to your accounting production team," she said. "Let me tell you, the staff accountants, they don't like running payroll. It was annoying to them to have to stop what they're doing to meet their production goals. They don't want to mess with payroll stuff. So, it's just made everybody happier."
How Sarah Positioned Her Accounting Firm As The Local Alternative
Sarah's marketing insight proved remarkably effective. By positioning her firm as the only locally owned payroll company in Texarkana, she tapped into widespread frustration with impersonal big-box providers.
"We would have clients that were using these big-box payroll providers, and they're very frustrated with their customer service," Sarah explained. "Every time they would call, they would get a different person. They wouldn't get responsive services, and so I saw a need, and jumped to fulfill that."
The local, responsive service model resonated powerfully. Many came in for payroll but ended up becoming full accounting and tax clients.
"What's really cool is when we're marketing our payroll services, a lot of times they come on for accounting and taxes, because they're like, oh, cool, you know, you can do it all here," Sarah said.
The bundling created "sticky" clients. Business owners using you for payroll are far less likely to leave because changing providers feels risky. No employer wants to risk messing up employee paychecks.
What Sarah Wishes She'd Known About Pricing From Day One
If Sarah could go back to the beginning, there's one thing she'd change: her pricing strategy.
"If I could go back and change anything, I would be pricing my clients higher," she admitted. "My first clients that I signed up for payroll only... they were really complicated with a bunch of time clocks, with a bunch of different locations. I definitely underpriced them."
The root of the problem? Not fully understanding the fee structure for ancillary charges: quarterly reports, time clocks, time tracking, W-2s, and other add-ons.
"I was just uneducated on the front end on the fees of it. So I would have been better pricing those front-end clients," Sarah said. "But the ones that are signing on now, they're priced a lot better."
Sarah's been pleasantly surprised by how well the market has received her pricing.
"They're willing to pay more to us for payroll pricing because they know we're here local, we're in town, the same person answers the phone. If they have a problem, it's fixed. They know they're in really good hands and they're willing to pay that extra premium."
When you deliver real value and solve genuine problems, clients will pay for it. The key is having confidence to price for value delivered, not just the lowest market rate.
Why Clients Were Easier To Convert Than Sarah Expected
When it came time to convert clients from QuickBooks to isolved through Whirks, Sarah was nervous. Would clients push back on the change?
"The clients have responded very well," Sarah said. "We were proactive in our communication with them, letting them know, hey, listen, we're growing our payroll company, we're starting a new business."
Our Clients Trusted Us Enough to Make the Switch
Sarah's team was transparent about what was happening and why. Business owners appreciated the honesty.
"As fellow small business owners, our clients were very happy for us. They were excited about the opportunity for us, as well as the benefits that they would have," Sarah said. Out of all their clients, only two or three asked any questions.
"In our mind, we had built up, well, we gotta sign all these forms. Clients, really, they trust us. We had developed that rapport with clients, and so it went very smooth."
That trust was the result of years of relationship-building, reliable service, and honest communication.
How Sarah Knew Her Firm Was Ready to Launch Independently
After building employee headcount and developing her team's expertise with isolved, Sarah reached the point where the Whirks partnership had served its purpose.
"It was really all about employee headcount," Sarah said. "But partnering with Whirks allowed us to, for our team, to learn the software, learn the processes, get our clients familiar with the interface, all of that while building our headcount."
The alternative would have been far more disruptive. Starting with a different platform would have eventually required moving everyone to isolved, retraining the entire team, and converting every client again.
"What I didn't want to do was use a service like ADP and grow our headcount, and then have to move all of our clients over to a completely different platform," Sarah explained. "Whirks gave us that capability of being able to grow inside the environment that we want to be in, ultimately."
When Partnership Becomes Independence
That's the brilliance of the springboard model. You're not building temporary infrastructure you'll abandon later. You're building the permanent foundation from day one.
When Sarah's team was comfortable with the software and her headcount met requirements, she knew it was time.
What You Can Learn From Sarah's Payroll Journey
Sarah's story illustrates a proven pathway for accounting firms that want to build serious payroll operations without settling for limited software or waiting years to access enterprise-level platforms.
Their journey reveals five lessons every business can apply right now:
- Start with where you want to end up. Sarah chose enterprise software from day one, even before she technically qualified for it. This meant her team never had to relearn a platform or reconvert clients later.
- Stop splitting your team's focus. Creating one dedicated payroll role freed her accounting team to do what they do best. Staff accountants don't want to run payroll, and your clients deserve specialists who know the work inside and out.
- Own your local market. Sarah didn't try to compete nationally. She became the only locally owned option in Texarkana, and business owners were willing to pay more for responsive, personal service.
- Price for the value you deliver. Sarah admits she underpriced early clients because she didn't understand the full fee structure. Now she prices confidently, and clients happily pay the premium.
- Build on the right foundation from the start. The springboard model let Sarah grow inside the platform she'd eventually use independently, avoiding the costly disruption of switching systems mid-growth.
If you're running an accounting firm and considering whether to add payroll services, or wondering whether your current setup is holding you back, Sarah's experience offers an important lesson.
The decisions you make about platforms and partnerships today will shape your growth trajectory for years to come.
Sarah built something real. Something substantial. Something that will serve her clients well for decades.
And it started with a single question: What if there's a better way?
How Do I Start Building A Payroll Business Like This?
Whether you're just starting to offer payroll or looking to grow what you've already built, the right partnership can make all the difference.
At Whirks, we've designed our Network Partner Program specifically for accounting firms that share Sarah's vision: building substantial, profitable payroll operations that serve clients exceptionally well.
Want to learn more about what the first 90 days look like when you partner with Whirks? Check out our article, "Inside the Whirks Network Partner Journey: What to Expect in the First 90 Days."
If you're ready to start a conversation about whether the Whirks Network Partner Program is right for your firm, schedule a discovery call today. We'd love to hear about your vision and explore how we might help you get there.
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