Case Studies
ABA provider cut payroll processing to 30 minutes – and strengthened operations along the way
ABA provider cut payroll processing to 30 minutes – and strengthened operations along the way
Founded in Michigan in 2023, Akoya provides applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy to children with autism.
The organization has expanded to provide in-home care and clinic-based services across the state. As Akoya grew across Michigan, it was hiring five to 10 employees per week. Ian Santus, BCBA, COO, and Co-Founder, needed the systems behind the organization to grow just as thoughtfully as its care footprint.
Growth changed the payroll equation
When Akoya had only a handful of employees, manually moving time data into payroll was manageable. Growth changed the equation. By the time the organization had about 30 employees, Santus was spending four to five hours every other week exporting information from their electronic medical record, reshaping it in spreadsheets, importing it, and checking the results.
“At our growth rate, a manual process was going to create errors eventually,” said Santus. “And I wasn't willing to let that affect our staff.”
With Akoya only continuing to grow, a process dependent on manual entry would become more time-consuming – and more vulnerable to mistakes.
"The occasional payroll error would lead to inaccurate paychecks, and that had the potential to create employee dissatisfaction," said Santus. For an ABA provider, those back-office details extend into the care experience.
A platform built around ABA realities
Akoya entered its search with clear non-negotiables. “Number one, I needed the export from my EMR to be able to directly communicate with the new platform,” Santus said. “That was the minimum requirement for any software that we were exploring.”
Viventium’s configurable import approach stood out because it didn't force Akoya to restructure its export first.
“With Viventium’s import system, you don't have to customize your export,” Santus explained. “You just tell it what you’re going to give it so it’s prepped to be customized.” That adaptability gave Akoya a practical connection between the systems it already relied on and the payroll detail its team required.
It also had to support the organization’s varied pay structures and compliance management. "With the federal laws, calculating the FTEs became very cumbersome, and it changes week to week," said Santus. "Viventium's ACA support really helped us keep an eye on that."
Transparency was equally important: employees needed to see individual shifts, hours, and earnings on each paycheck rather than a single rolled-up total.
Viventium also offers payroll, time tracking, onboarding, and I-9 and E-Verify capabilities. Together, those tools gave Akoya a foundation designed to streamline payroll and support the operational demands surrounding ABA employment and care delivery.
"Viventium fulfilled all of those wants and beyond right from the beginning," said Santus. "I wasn't willing to explore anything else."
From hours of payroll preparation to minutes
With Viventium, the most labor-intensive part of Akoya’s payroll process changed dramatically. The export-and-import step that once required extensive spreadsheet work now takes less than a minute in an average cycle.
"On an average week, the download import takes 30 seconds," said Santus.
Including Akoya’s own audits, review, and final adjustments, processing has fallen from several hours every other week to roughly 30 minutes. “Thirty minutes compared to four or five hours is a significant time savings,” confirmed Santus.
Viventium’s report builder has helped Akoya strengthen the process further. Santus created a series of reports that the payroll team runs before and after import to identify issues early. Billable and nonbillable time, salary, PTO, holiday pay, mileage, and reimbursements populate automatically, while the team retains a deliberate human review.
"Before Viventium, that export-import was 90% of the work, excluding session note conversion," said Santus. "It's now automatic."
The checks and balances have also made payroll easier to delegate, giving Santus confidence to train another team member to take ownership of the process.
“It’s not only freeing up time for our team, but also creating more confidence in other members to pick up aspects that we didn’t want to delegate,” he said.
Employees also have clearer information about their pay, PTO, and benefits through self-service.
One onboarding path, clearer readiness for care
Onboarding quickly moved from a “nice to have” to a core requirement. Akoya hires approximately five to 10 people a week, and each new employee must complete employment documents, training, certifications, and other readiness requirements before beginning work with a child.
"When we were talking about how Viventium's onboarding works, my eyes lit up," said Santus. "There are so many things I can do to make onboarding easier for employees who are joining."
Viventium gives new hires one place to complete I-9s, W-4s, driver’s license documentation, training tasks, CPR registration, course confirmations, and certificate uploads – all while the hiring team can monitor each person’s status from a dashboard.
“You’re doing all of your stuff in this one platform, and then you’re ready for employment,” Santus said. The unified experience replaces the need to trace progress across emails, spreadsheets, and separate links.
While Akoya’s required training still takes time, Viventium has accelerated the compliance portion and made readiness visible. Santus estimates employee onboarding time savings at roughly 50%, but considers transparency the more important outcome.
“With Viventium, we open the employee’s dashboard, and boom, there it is. Rock and roll. We can start care.”
That clarity has reduced questions and document-related delays. New hires no longer move between disconnected systems, and administrators spend less time determining what's missing.
More confidence across the organization
As Akoya has grown from a startup to an organization of roughly 200 employees, Viventium has helped its internal operations become more repeatable.
“Viventium has improved efficiency,” Santus said. “It has improved confidence for internal staff. And it’s reinforced confidence for the employee in terms of accuracy of pay, accuracy of PTO, and accuracy of their checks.”
For an ABA organization, that confidence matters. When staff can trust their pay and administrators can clearly confirm readiness, teams can devote more attention to supporting employees and delivering consistent care.
When asked if he would recommend Viventium to organizations like his, looking for a platform that can adapt to the complexity of ABA operations, Santus answered, “Absolutely.”
Results
- Payroll processing reduced from 4-5 hours to about 30 minutes per biweekly cycle, with the average export-and-import step taking about 30 seconds
- A clearer onboarding path for 5 to 10 new hires each week, with visibility brought into one platform
- Greater confidence across the organization, from employees reviewing pay to administrators delegating payroll
