ARA Property Services: Growing Business Using Timegate and TemplaCMS

By Debbie Trecek Volkens, Content Specialist April 17, 2023 Category: Case Study

Using workforce and contract management software to operate at the forefront of the cleaning industry.

The overview: An enterprise commercial cleaning company

Established in 2001, ARA Property Services is a leading provider of essential commercial cleaning services in Victoria, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania.

With customers spanning across commercial, healthcare, government, educational, corporate, multi-site, food manufacturing, office, aged care and retail industries, ARA provides services to thousands of job sites across the country every year.

The challenge: Outgrowing manual, paper processes

Since its founding, ARA Property Services has grown both in customers and employees. As it grew, it became clear that processes needed to change.  The company carried out the needs of a contract using a mixture of manual systems, paper-based processes and spreadsheets. The problem? It wasn’t reliable, fast or scalable.

“There was a lot of time spent each fortnight doing cleaner pay runs, specifically,” said Dani Anderson, Director of Client Relations. “With the rate of our growth, we needed a solution that would work for us, instead of against us.” That’s when ARA Property Services turned to TEAM Software by WorkWave.

The solution: Using Timegate and Templa to speed up processes and improve data accuracy

TEAM Software by WorkWave develops market-leading financial, operations and workforce management solutions for the commercial cleaning industry.

ARA’s goals for a software solution included being able to manage cleaning staff rosters, simplify contract management and improve processes for more reliable business information. These needs pointed them to an integrated software approach, which connected TEAM Software’s Timegate and TemplaCMS solutions.

“We were looking for easy to use technology that would be user-friendly across the business and all levels of technology skill as well,” said Anderson. “TEAM Software by WorkWave was able to provide that to us.” Timegate fufils ARA’s cleaning staff roster needs. It enables cleaning staff to check-on and check-off shifts from a job site, view current assignments and communicate with supervisors or back-office staff. Supervisors can manage job sites by exception – meaning no action is required unless the system spots a possible issue, like scheduling errors. “We needed a solution that would work for us, instead of against us.” 

TemplaCMS streamlines ARA’s back-office needs. From managing contracts, payroll, purchasing, billing and budgeting, TemplaCMS was able to replace multiple separate software solutions ARA had previously maintained. The two systems are completely integrated to work together, providing data accuracy for ARA from the moment a cleaner’s shift starts and stops, to if they’re being paid on time and correctly.
“From a process perspective, it has saved us a lot of time across the board and made everything so much easier,” said Anderson. “From where we were using multiple systems, we now just have one. And, it’s all integrated, so it covers from cleaner on the ground all the way to the end of payroll.”

The results: Significant growth for an industry leader

ARA immediately saw improvements in operations in both the field and the back-office. Using Timegate and TemplaCMS, ARA can:

  • Track where cleaners are and how
    long they’ve been there
  • Automatically fill open shifts based
    on cleaners who may be the best
    fit in relation to the client, have the
    right qualifications or their location
  • Streamline payroll processes
  • Rely on better quality information
    and reporting

“[TEAM Software by WorkWave’s] products and technology allows us to be at the forefront of our industry,” said Anderson.

ARA’s Chief Executive Officer, Paul McCann, agrees. “Cleaning is a simple task, but a very complicated business. They’ve brought every system we need into play. Since we’ve started using [TEAM Software by WorkWave], our business has grown significantly.”

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