How Glanzhelden now completes payroll in 2 hours instead of 10 days.

During his economics studies, Jannis Mousafiropoulos gained insights into service companies, including building cleaning firms, and set out to revolutionize the often-underestimated building cleaning industry. Where others might have seen a less prestigious field, Jannis saw an opportunity to bring a breath of fresh air to the market with a premium product and more efficient processes. Thus, in 2016, he founded his company  Glanzhelden – initially with just one employee. Over the years, however, Glanzhelden grew rapidly and today boasts 90 employees. From the outset, digitalization and a focus on innovation were key components of the company's strategy.

The Challenge

Like many young companies, Glanzhelden initially faced several challenges, particularly in time tracking and payroll. Jannis and his small team manually recorded working hours and then entered them into Excel spreadsheets. Deployment schedules were created manually and distributed to employees – often via email or phone. However, with the growing workforce and increasing volume of orders, this system proved to be unsustainable.

“We were simply overwhelmed,” Jannis recalls the time before switching to a digital solution. “Payroll took forever, and errors kept cropping up. Many processes had to be checked two or three times.” Jannis remembers manually keeping timesheets in the early years: “We worked with paper slips, which was extremely prone to errors. It sometimes took ten days or more to check all timesheets and manually enter them into Excel.” Often, tedious recalculations had to be done over several days and hours afterward to ensure that hours were recorded correctly. Error-proneness wasn't the only problem. The manual recording and transfer of data cost the company a lot of time – time that was missing from daily operations. Instead of further developing existing processes to become even more successful, Jannis and his team spent hours poring over Excel spreadsheets and lists. Although the CEO realized early on that digital tools could provide a solution, the implementation of the first software solution proved difficult and dragged on for years. Mousafiropoulos describes the frustration: “We bought the SQ One software in 2021, but implementation lasted until 2023. In the end, the manual effort was still high, which greatly disappointed us.”

The Solution

In search of a more reliable and efficient solution, Jannis finally came across PlanD, software specifically developed for building cleaning companies. The introduction of PlanD in May 2024 brought immediate relief. “PlanD takes a lot of manual effort off our hands,” Jannis says enthusiastically. “Surcharges and night hours are calculated automatically, and the monthly data export is done with just one click.” Additionally, since June 2024, there has been seamless collaboration between PlanD and Relog, a specialized payroll service provider. Together, the two systems created a fully integrated solution that saves time and minimizes errors. Jannis and his team are impressed by the speed with which, for example, interface problems were resolved: “We thought it would take weeks, but everything was done in just two hours.” Today, payroll runs smoothly. Working hours are exported as a complete export via PlanD and transmitted to Relog, where final details such as advances or special payments are taken into account. The payroll accountant can review and approve the completed payroll in just a few hours. Previously, this process would have taken up to ten days; today, it's completed in less than a day. “It’s incredible. A huge added value for us,” Jannis summarizes and adds: “With PlanD, it’s a completely clean system, quick traceability of error data, and we still have a four-eyes principle at the end. The payroll accountant double-checks whether any erroneous shifts were approved by dispatch. For example, in recent months, not a single erroneous shift has been approved by us.”

The Results

Thanks to the optimization by PlanD and Relog, Glanzhelden was able to not only streamline internal processes but also significantly increase employee satisfaction. “Our employees are thrilled with the new app,” Jannis reports. The app allows employees to view their working hours in real-time, which creates transparency and fosters trust. “Before, we always recalculated afterward; today, we immediately see how many hours have been worked. This creates a much stronger bond with our employees,” he adds.

The software solution has also shown positive effects in material management. Erroneous orders are a thing of the past, and the material ordering process has been significantly improved thanks to PlanD's clarity. The success story of Glanzhelden impressively demonstrates how innovative digital solutions can transform a company. What once began as a manual, time-consuming endeavor has been transformed into a modern, efficient system through the implementation of PlanD and collaboration with Relog. For Jannis Mousafiropoulos, one thing is clear:  The right software can not only optimize processes but also improve the working environment – benefiting both management and employees alike. “The employees are very satisfied with the app. The internal staff is completely satisfied with the app. The dispatchers, the site management. And I, the management, am also very satisfied,” he says.