At a glance
- The platform: A commercial cleaning and facility maintenance platform (5 acquired companies in 3 years, PE-backed)
- The problem: Five legacy entities running payroll, onboarding, and job tracking on separate spreadsheets; stalled integration; risk of inheriting a sixth disparate system
- The team today: 5 specialists across process engineering, operations management, payroll, and HR administration
- The impact: $247,234 in annual SG&A savings (about 60%), ~$1.98M in added enterprise value at an 8x multiple, and a plug-and-play shared services playbook for future acquisitions
- The timeline: 4-month phased rollout from initial workflow mapping to full shared-services execution
The situation
In buy-and-build private equity rollups, the investment thesis depends on operational consolidation. When platform companies acquire regional service providers without integrating back-office infrastructure, administrative overhead compounds instead of scaling. Every entity continues running its own back office, creating fragmented reporting and trapping working capital.
This commercial cleaning and maintenance platform had completed five acquisitions across three years under PE sponsorship. Each operating business ran on its own legacy systems: tracking jobs, managing payroll, and onboarding field technicians on local spreadsheets. Platform leadership lacked the operational bandwidth to audit and unify these disparate methods, causing integration timelines to repeatedly stall. With a sixth acquisition on the horizon, leadership faced the risk of compounding the chaos with another disconnected administrative operation.
How we started
The platform addressed the bottleneck by separating process design from daily firefighting. Before trying to force staff onto new tools, it brought on a dedicated Process Engineer to shadow branch workflows, map how each acquired entity handled payroll and field onboarding, and identify recurring friction points across spreadsheets.
Once the Process Engineer documented the unified standard operating procedure and automated recurring steps like field timesheet collection, the platform established a centralized shared-services pod. An Operations Manager joined to supervise daily execution, followed by two Payroll Assistants to consolidate multi-entity payroll cycles and an HR Admin to standardize field staff onboarding.
How the team grew
- Month 1: 1 Process Engineer (audited 5 legacy branch workflows, designed unified SOPs, and automated timesheet aggregation)
- Month 2: 2 specialists (added 1 Operations Manager to build the shared-services framework and coordinate cross-entity rollout)
- Month 3: 4 specialists (added 2 Payroll Assistants to take over hours collection and payroll preparation across all five entities)
- Month 4: 5 specialists (added 1 HR Admin to centralize new-hire onboarding, background checks, and compliance files)
The team expanded systematically, mapping and documenting the operational blueprint before migrating personnel into shared execution.
The team
- 1 Process Engineer: Maps how each acquired company runs payroll, onboarding, and job tracking, establishes one documented standard operating procedure, and automates recurring tasks like timesheet collection.
- 1 Operations Manager: Manages the centralized shared back-office team day-to-day, monitors service delivery SLAs, and reports directly to the platform COO.
- 2 Payroll Assistants: Collect field hours, audit timesheets against job logs, and prepare consolidated payroll batches across all five companies for controller review and approval.
- 1 HR Admin: Standardizes onboarding paperwork, coordinates background checks, and maintains compliant employee personnel files across all operating units.
The platform COO and controller retain full authority over every payroll run, policy revision, and process modification. Specialists work inside the platform's own systems and tools under access permissions granted, monitored, and revocable by company leadership at any time.
The results
- $247,234 in annual SG&A savings: Reduced multi-entity administrative overhead by approximately 60% compared to domestic recruitment costs.
- ~$1.98M in enterprise value created: At an illustrative 8x exit multiple, permanent annual EBITDA expansion yields substantial enterprise value for the private equity sponsor.
- Plug-and-play M&A playbook: Transformed five disconnected legacy setups into a single documented shared-services engine ready to integrate the sixth acquisition immediately.
- Eliminated multi-entity payroll risk: Consolidated spreadsheet tracking into automated collection workflows, removing manual errors and late payroll runs.
- Executive control and visibility: The COO and controller gain standardized, centralized visibility into labor hours, headcount, and payroll approvals across all operating companies.
The numbers
- US cost for the same five seats: $408,954 a year
- employmagic cost: $161,720 a year
- Estimated savings: $247,234 a year, about 60%
By role:
- Process Engineer (1 seat): $101,335 in the US against $49,400 with employmagic, saving $51,935
- Operations Manager (1 seat): $90,350 in the US against $31,200 with employmagic, saving $59,150
- Payroll Assistant (2 seats): $151,476 in the US ($75,738/seat) against $54,080 with employmagic ($27,040/seat), saving $97,396 ($48,698 per seat)
- HR Admin (1 seat): $65,793 in the US against $27,040 with employmagic, saving $38,753
US costs use the US Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 median annual wage for the closest occupation (industrial/process engineers; general and operations managers; payroll and timekeeping clerks; human resources assistants), plus 30% for benefits, payroll taxes, and recruiting. For comparison, BLS puts the full cost of employee compensation at about 1.43 times wages for private industry overall (June 2026), so 30% is on the cautious side. employmagic costs use our starting rates for one full-time specialist at 40 hours a week, the same 2,080 hours a year the US salary covers. Faster hiring and lower turnover would add to the savings, but they are left out to keep the figures conservative. Your pricing depends on the roles and hours you need.
What made it work
- Mapping before migrating: Deploying a Process Engineer first ensured workflows were audited, unified, and automated before staffing the execution seats.
- Centralizing shared services: Establishing a single operational hub eliminated redundant branch-level administration and created scalable operational leverage.
- Scalable roll-up infrastructure: Designing the shared back office to absorb future add-ons ensures subsequent acquisitions integrate without adding linear overhead.
- Preserving executive oversight: Centralized specialists run routine data collection and batch assembly, while all final payroll sign-offs and strategic decisions stay with platform executives.
Is this a fit for you?
This model works best for private equity sponsors, holding companies, and rollup platforms scaling through acquisitions where decentralized administration slows integration and inflates SG&A. If your add-ons run fragmented back offices on spreadsheets or you need a repeatable integration engine for upcoming deals, start with a process engineer to map the workflows, prove the model, and scale.
The bigger change is structural. Five ways of doing the same work become one documented process, so the next acquisition joins a back office that already exists instead of adding a sixth. The steps that repeat every pay period are automated, as in our weekly timesheet teardown, and people handle the exceptions. That is easier to manage during the hold and easier to explain in diligence at exit.