Payroll that scales with a multi-site hospitality business

Raglan Roast is known for doing things differently; each location boasts a unique feel and flavour shaped by the local team and community. And what began with a few barefoot surfers and a love of good coffee is now a complex operation of over 90 staff, 12 cafés, a roastery and online fulfilment facility, and a central operations team, all without franchising or losing the Raglan Roast soul.

At this scale, payroll and people management aren’t just operational tasks, they’re business-critical. And keeping everything running smoothly takes more than great coffee alone.

We caught up with Celeste and Alanah from Raglan Roast to learn how things run behind the scenes. Celeste manages payroll, HR and general administration across the business, while Alanah works across operations, supporting store teams and helping systems scale as the business grows.

When growth turns payroll into a risk

As Raglan Roast grew, Celeste says the complexity behind each pay run grew with it. What once felt manageable became harder to run consistently, becoming “a two-day event, manually working out details for 90 staff.”

Every pay run meant juggling mixed staffing models, employees moving between stores, regional anniversary days and public holidays, and accurately tracking variable hours across multiple sites, all with one person responsible for getting payroll right nationwide. Payroll needed to keep up with Raglan Roast's pace, without adding more manual work, and that’s where PayHero came in.

“As a leadership team, we want to be working on things that add to the culture, the product and the service — not fighting fires with urgent and frustrating admin. A streamlined system like PayHero is a no-brainer.”

Why PayHero was the right fit

Raglan Roast’s non-negotiables were simple (at least on paper): built-in NZ Holidays Act compliance and automation, seamless rostering-to-payroll integration, local manager approvals, and centralised payroll processing.

Celeste reflected on the days when hours were written in a diary, transferred into Excel, and pay was manually calculated for 90 staff, with accuracy depending on careful data entry at every step. PayHero automated many of those rules across locations, helping reduce risk as the business continued to grow.

“Public holidays and statutory compliance were all manual. Now, as long as employees are set up correctly in PayHero, it’s all automated, it’s been a significant shift from our old system.”

Just as importantly, having local expertise on hand mattered. The team wanted a partner who understood the New Zealand compliance landscape. “I’ve found the PayHero team incredibly easy to deal with, they’re quick to respond and always provide detailed, helpful notes,” Celeste said, adding that having a New Zealand-based company that truly understands their environment was a major selling point.

Payroll that scales across every site

Today, PayHero mirrors how Raglan Roast operates day to day. With one account and 12 teams (one for each location), store managers can approve timesheets and leave locally, while payroll runs centrally with full visibility, saving valuable time across the business.

Clear views like the Time Summary bring hours and leave into one place, helping ensure nothing is missed before the pay run is finalised.

“It’s been a big shift in terms of time. Payroll used to take two days; now it takes a morning, and there’s real confidence that staff are being paid correctly for the hours they actually worked.”

Built for managers and teams on the floor

For the Raglan Roast managers running each café, PayHero provides clear visibility over timesheets and leave balances without pulling them away from the floor. Managers can approve leave and timesheets with confidence, knowing the system handles the rules behind the scenes.

For staff, the visibility builds trust. With PayHero’s self-service tools, team members can easily submit leave requests, check their balances and download payslips. “That visibility is really helpful, especially for staff in their first jobs,” they explain.

"The automation has made our managers' lives easier. It frees them up to focus on what is important."

The power move: Droppah + PayHero

For rostering and time tracking, Raglan Roast uses Droppah, also built by the team behind PayHero. This is where the magic really happens.

By linking Droppah’s AI-driven rostering with PayHero’s compliant payroll engine, Alanah and Celeste eliminated double-handling of data and room for error.

This setup strengthens PayHero’s payroll outcomes by improving the quality of timesheet data it relies on, without adding complexity to the week.

"When we moved to PayHero, we moved to Droppah and it’s the first time we automated our rostering. It was a complete game changer."

Read more on the Droppah integration: here

Built for Hospitality. Built for Growth.

For Raglan Roast, payroll is about far more than just the numbers; it’s their largest cost and their biggest compliance risk, but an “essential investment” they note, because: “While payroll is our biggest cost, our people are also our biggest asset."

With PayHero and Droppah supporting the operation behind the scenes, Raglan Roast can focus on what really matters: great coffee, great people, and growing the business without losing what makes it special.

Join Raglan Roast and start a free trial for PayHero today.