From Manual Entry to One-Click Year-End: District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board's Move to Sparkrock HRP

How the District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board eliminated tedious payroll processes, automated onboarding, and gained real-time reporting.

We all had very similar ways of working. We all had high standards. That was a really good fit. 

Julie Bench
Payroll and Benefits Officer
District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board

About The District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board

The District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board (TBDSSAB) is responsible for administering vital social services across the Thunder Bay district. Established in 1999, it operates as one of 47 service managers in Ontario, overseeing programs such as child care, community housing, homelessness prevention, and Ontario Works. The board includes representatives from 15 municipalities within the district, ensuring that local needs are met through effective service delivery.  

The Challenge: A Legacy System and Too Many Manual Steps

Julie Bench handles a lot. Hiring, terminations, position changes, attendance, leaves, payroll — if it touches an employee at TBDSSAB, it crosses her desk. When a process is clunky, she notices.

Every new hire meant Julie had to set up employee wallet cards and vendor cards one by one. Year-end was worse: manually pulling updated tax rates, entering everything by hand, then going back to audit her own work.

"I would have to go in and manually update all the rates, and because I was entering all the tax data, I would just start second-guessing," she says. "Then the numbers don't even look like they make sense anymore."

TBDSSAB had been running on an older version of Sparkrock. It had done its job for years. But the manual work had become hard to ignore. TBDSSAB needed a change.

The Solution: Sparkrock Impact HRP — with the Right Team

Switching payroll systems is never simple. There's data to migrate, processes to rebuild, and a very small margin for error. For TBDSSAB, getting it right meant finding not just the right software, but the right people to implement it.

TBDSSAB cut over to Sparkrock Impact HRP in October 2025. The implementation went well, and Julie is quick to credit the people who made it that way.

"My consultant with Sparkrock was Dayna McCarthy. She was great," says Julie. "And then we had Heather from the Primo payroll team. The three of us together, I felt like it was a really, really good team."

In payroll, the details matter. A misconfigured rate, a missed step in the setup, a workaround that almost works — any of it can ripple out into real problems for real employees. Julie needed a team that understood that. With Dana and Heather, she found exactly that.

"She had the same work ethic that I did. The need to get it right. Neither one of us were going to compromise. It's payroll. It's got to be right."

That shared standard shaped how the whole implementation unfolded. When Julie would audit something and push back, Dana didn't just wait it out. She understood why it mattered.

"She was really good at coming up with ways to do things in the system, thinking through, what if we did it like this? I wouldn't let something go when I would audit it and audit it, and Dana would totally get it. She'd say, I would do the exact same thing if I were in your spot."

When you're rebuilding a payroll system from the ground up, having someone in your corner who holds the same standard makes all the difference.

With Sparkrock Impact HRP, TBDSSAB replaced a full day of manual year-end work with a single click.

The Outcome: Less Time on the Details, More Confidence in the Numbers

Onboarding, automated

Onboarding new hires was one of the first places Julie felt it. What used to be a manual, card-by-card setup now happens automatically, freeing her attention for work that actually needs it.

"That's probably the biggest improvement I've seen," she says. "That process is a little bit easier for sure."

Year-end, simplified

For anyone who has ever manually entered tax rates and then second-guessed every figure, the change here is significant. Julie now starts year-end by clicking a single button to pull the updated rates. Then she audits the result — once, cleanly, with fresh eyes.

"It's easier to do one clean audit rather than auditing your own work, where your own work starts to look right even when it's wrong."

A process that used to consume a full day now takes a fraction of the time, with far greater confidence in the output.

Reporting, in real time

Before Sparkrock Impact HRP, getting a report meant setting parameters, exporting data, and building something from scratch each time. Now, TBDSSAB has a full library of Power BI reports that update in real time — built in collaboration with Sparkrock's reporting team.

"We have more reports now than we ever have before," Julie says. "And it's really nice that they're real-time. If we want a rate of pay report, we just click it and it's done right on the spot."

We have more reports now than we ever have before. And it's really nice that they're real-time. If we want a rate of pay report, we just click it and it's done right on the spot. 
Julie Bench
Payroll and Benefits Officer
District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board
It's easier to do one clean audit rather than auditing your own work, where your own work starts to look right even when it's wrong. 
Julie Bench
Payroll and Benefits Officer
District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board
Dayna would totally get it. She'd say, I would do the exact same thing if I were in your spot. 
Julie Bench
Payroll and Benefits Officer
District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board

Looking Ahead

TBDSSAB is still in the early stages of their Sparkrock journey, but the groundwork is already paying off. With automated onboarding, a smoother year-end, and a real-time reporting suite they didn't have before, Julie is focused on continuing to refine how the board gets the most out of the platform.

For TBDSSAB, the expectation has always been straightforward: payroll has to be right. Sparkrock makes that easier to deliver.

"It's payroll. It's got to be right."

— Julie Bench, Payroll and Benefits Officer, District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board

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