Web Startup Helps Business Owners Manage Employees PayrollHero streamlines the business of tracking employee schedules, for both management and workers, all in the cloud.

What It Is
PayrollHero streamlines the business of tracking employee time, attendance, schedules and location, for both management and workers, all in the cloud. To use it, employees download the PayrollHero app to their smartphones (iOS only; Android coming soon) or to a computer outfitted with a webcam. When they start or finish work, they open the app, which logs into their company's account, then take a photo of themselves to check in or out.

The platform is a step up from self-reporting on a time sheet, and its versatility extends to the management of remote contract workers who bill on an hourly basis. Further, employers can use it in lieu of a time clock at a shop or restaurant to thwart time-card fraud; PayrollHero's facial-recognition software prevents buddy punchers and ghost employees from clocking in. (This happens more often than you might think at SMBs that employ hourly workers.)

How It Started
Serial entrepreneurs Stephen Jagger and Michael Stephenson began collaborating in 2000 in Vancouver, British Columbia, where they launched real-estate software company Ubertor, but later set their sights on the Philippines. "We took a trip there, initially with the idea of finding a customer-service solution for Ubertor," Jagger says, "but upon arrival, we decided we could get into the outsourcing business, and that Ubertor would be our first client. We set up OutsourcingThingsDone.com as a Philippine corporation and began leasing labor back into North America.