From Notebooks and Excel to Payroll Data Directly in SAP

The leading domestic snack manufacturer

Chips Way has been in business for more than 50 years and is one of the leading domestic snack manufacturers. Its product range includes chips, popcorn and similar snacks, and at the start of this year the company also launched a new production line for a new generation of snack products in a variety of shapes and flavors.

In recent years the company has invested heavily in development and in modernizing production. A new administrative building and a modern high-bay warehouse have been built, and production capacity is being expanded continuously.

As one of the few independent manufacturers, the plant uses exclusively domestic potatoes, grown on more than 500 hectares, which guarantees top product quality. The company operates in line with the highest IFS Food standards, with every stage of the production process under strict control so that consumers receive products of the highest quality.

Production takes place in Čačak, storage facility is in Novi Bečej, and the company also has an office in Belgrade. Today it employs around 190 people, and since producing its first chips in 1971 it has grown into a regional brand whose products are present in nine markets - Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Bulgaria, Austria and Moldova.

At Chips Way, time and attendance was initially kept manually in notebooks and Excel spreadsheets. Payroll was based on manually entered data, which required a great deal of checking and additional corrections. As the company grew, this way of working became slow, hard to keep track of and prone to errors.

SPICA as a Partner in Digitalizing Time and Attendance

HR representative Slađana Milovanović and cash flow specialist Bojana Stefanovic spoke about their experience with the system and the implementation of the solution.

"We chose SPICA because it makes managing working hours simpler. Before that, time and attendance was kept manually through an arrivals log maintained by the gatehouse staff, which served as the basis for recording working hours on employees' timecards. All Hours brought all of that together and provided a single record that can be viewed and used for several different purposes. Employees responded positively to this way of clocking in and out straight away, and there were no obstacles to getting the system to work as it should. It also meant that supervisors knew which employees were present on a shift within its first few minutes." said Bojana Stefanovic, cash flow specialist

Asked how long the implementation took and whether all the deadlines were met, Bojana Stefanovic, cash flow specialist, says:

"Implementing the system took about a month and it took time to align the software with the needs of our company. Since we also work in 3 shifts, it was important to get all the settings right so that working hours are calculated correctly and the timelines are displayed appropriately. There are seasonal jobs that require flexible working hours for certain staff, so all of that had to be understood and aligned with the needs of Chips Way."

Today, Chips Way uses All Hours at two locations — in Čačak and Novi Bečej. Clocking in and out is done via terminals and cards, while all the data is processed centrally in the system.

The greatest benefit of the SPICA All Hours solution lies in accurate time and attendance and significantly simpler payroll processing. The system provides an overview of regular, night and overtime hours, absences and every change made, and the data is exported directly to SAP, which has eliminated a large part of the manual work.

"We connected the SPICA report with SAP and today we import payroll data directly. That has made our work significantly easier," says Slađana Milovanović, HR Manager.

Alongside the HR department, supervisors also benefit from the system: with All Hours they plan shifts more easily, track employee attendance and have a real-time overview of hours worked.

One of the biggest changes since the implementation is greater transparency toward employees.

"When employees have a question about their pay, we can now check the data in the system immediately. Everything is clearly recorded and there is no more uncertainty."

The company also singles out the quality of the cooperation with the SPICA team.

"Whenever we had a question or a problem, the response was fast and expert. We really have no complaints about the support," says Slađana Milovanović, HR Manager

As production develops further, the system is set to be upgraded too, above all by installing an additional terminal in the production plant in order to track employees' effective working time more precisely.

For Chips Way, All Hours today represents a reliable foundation for managing working time and payroll, a system that combines accuracy, clarity and ease of use.

"The system is stable and reliable, and it has made our day-to-day work significantly easier. We would certainly recommend it to companies that want accurate and transparent time and attendance," concludes Slađana Milovanović, HR Manager.

Key Results

• Accurate and reliable time and attendance
• Elimination of manual data entry and unnecessary administration
• Simpler management of working time and access rights