Hospitality Staffing Agency Accounting: A Case Study In Scaling And High-Volume Payroll Growth

By Simply Accounts on Aug 18, 2026, 1:30:00 PM

When you look at your business finances, it's tempting to focus purely on day-to-day cash flow. But for any growing business, the systems and processes running quietly in the background are just as important. Getting these right is what allows you to scale with confidence and build something that lasts.

Since 2021, Simply Accounts has provided Chefs Bay Hospitality with a fully outsourced finance function. As their dedicated financial partner, we've kept their back office running smoothly throughout a period of rapid growth.

The Background: Meeting A Critical Market Demand

Chefs Bay Hospitality is a premier hospitality staffing agency based in Liverpool. Founded in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the business was built to tackle the chef shortages hitting the hospitality sector after thousands of experienced kitchen professionals left the industry during lockdowns.

By offering better pay, genuine flexibility and strong working conditions, Chefs Bay built a trusted reputation for supplying skilled kitchen staff to stadiums, hotels, care homes and contract caterers. But rapid success quickly brought its own challenges.

The Challenge: Managing A Fast-Growing Flexible Workforce

As the company grew, keeping up with the demands of a highly flexible workforce put enormous pressure on the leadership team. Processing accurate weekly payroll for nearly 400 temporary staff had become a full-time job in itself.

Unlike standard corporate payroll, a hospitality staffing agency deals with constant complexity. The team was juggling:

• Variable hourly rates and shifting pay patterns
• Weekly timesheet imports from third-party systems
• Frequent last-minute additions, deductions and urgent payment requests
• Tight coordination with factoring companies and invoice financing arrangements

In this sector, reliability is everything. Any delay or error in pay risks damaging staff trust and client relationships. The weight of managing all of this internally had fallen squarely on the founders, limiting their ability to focus on growing the business.

The Solution: A Complete Back-Office Partnership

Our goal was straightforward: build a reliable, streamlined payroll and finance process that removed the operational burden from the leadership team entirely.

At Simply Accounts, we go well beyond traditional accounting. To properly support Chefs Bay, we took full ownership of their back-office operation:

• System Integration: We connected directly with their third-party workforce tracking software to automate timesheet processing, verify pay rules and handle deductions accurately.
• Stakeholder Management: We took over direct communication with external partners, managing factoring company requirements and coordinating bank payment runs.
• Full Payroll Ownership: With secure access to their banking systems, our team handled end-to-end payroll execution.

This gave both teams a clear focus. Chefs Bay concentrated on winning clients and placing staff, while Simply Accounts handled everything behind the scenes.

"15.68% – that's the Employer NI reduction from our first monthly payroll run using our own Earned Wage Access platform. Not without its moments but we got there. The next couple of months should flow considerably smoother now that the foundations are set.

The number I'm watching more closely than the NI saving? 49% – Nearly half of all invited workers used EWA Chefs Bay in our first month live. Accessing wages they'd already earned before payday, at zero cost to them.

We moved to a monthly payroll to protect the business margin. We built the EWA platform so workers didn't carry the cost of that decision. Month one delivered both. Couldn't have done it without Michael John Wilson and Sandy at Simply Accounts and Elissa Thursfield, Sophie and Michelle at HRoes – thank you for helping me get this over the line!

Month two starts now."

— Michael Szalaty, Founder & Director, Chefs Bay Hospitality

The Impact: Real Results And Long-Term Stability

The partnership gave Chefs Bay a resilient, fully outsourced payroll operation, one they could depend on as they continued to grow.

A key milestone was the successful rollout of a fee-free Earned Wage Access (EWA) platform. This protected business margins by moving staff to monthly pay, while ensuring workers could still access their earnings early at no cost to them. It was a significant operational shift, executed without disruption.

The long-term results speak for themselves:

• Accurate, stress-free payroll for nearly 400 field workers, processed weekly and monthly
• A 15.68% reduction in Employer National Insurance contributions achieved during the initial payroll transition
• Automated timesheet processing that eliminated the internal admin burden entirely
• Stronger staff retention driven by reliable pay and zero-cost early wage access
• Complete strategic freedom for the directors to focus on growth, travel and new business without being held back by administration

With the right systems in place, Chefs Bay can now balance short-term cash needs with long-term planning and the founders stay fully in control of where the business is heading.

Your Next Steps With Simply Accounts

Want a cleaner operation, stronger financial visibility and more time to focus on growth? Whether you're in hospitality, construction or any fast-scaling sector, Simply Accounts can help you build the financial foundation your business needs.

Get in touch today to talk through where you are and where you want to be. We'll make sure your finances support every decision you make, so you can move forward with confidence.