Electronic Accounting Systems processed my little payrolls like one big payroll. I did the selling, and the people I hired did most of the operations.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I came up with the idea for what later became Paychex in 1970 when I was working for Electronic Accounting Systems, a company that sold payroll processing to companies with 50 to 1,000 employees.
We picked a great marketplace. We were a pioneer in payroll processing for very small companies. And we had the perseverance and good fortune enough to stick it out.
It struck me that most businesses have less than 100 employees, but most payroll services were going after bigger companies.
We have the most crude accounting tools. It's tragic because our accounts and our national arithmetic doesn't tell us the things that we need to know.
I run a small company with 18 employees on its payroll.
By the end of 1978, we had 11 partners and six franchisees, we were operating in 22 cities, and we had about 6,000 clients. We had left Electronic Accounting Systems and were doing our own processing on our own computers.
I did everything. I worked at S.S. Kresge, the five-and-dime. I worked in a mailroom. I worked processing insurance claims.
I used to do my own taxes. You know how you buy that gigantic sheet at Staples, add up the restaurants, clothes, and taxis and glue your receipts into the book month by month? The more money I made, the more complicated things got.
I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It's done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer.
I actually once sat at the back of a payroll class in America - just me and 40 women! And I'm sitting back there, learning payroll, because I want to understand it. So that when I talk to people about payroll I know what they're talking about. And I set up and managed and ran a full payroll system myself.