How Wagepoint and Xero help turn operational efficiency into lasting client trust
At a glance
Ask Stephanie Kelcey, owner of Capture Bookkeeping, for a payroll horror story and she comes up mostly empty.
“Usually everything just runs so smoothly,” she says. “I know that’s so boring, isn’t it? But you kind of want your payroll and your bookkeeping to be drama-free.”
That’s exactly the goal: payroll so reliable, it never makes headlines. For Stephanie, that reliability is about more than saving time. Capture Bookkeeping has built its business almost entirely through word of mouth and accountant referrals. Every tool Stephanie recommends becomes part of the trust clients place in her practice. That’s why her go-to for payroll and bookkeeping comes down to two tools that just click: Wagepoint and Xero.
Building a reliable tech stack
Xero has been Stephanie’s preferred accounting software since she built her cloud-based practice. She discovered Wagepoint when a new client was already using it and quickly saw how easy it was to manage.
So, when Xero phased out its built-in pay run feature, Stephanie already knew where to move her clients.
“My God, this is so easy,” she remembers thinking, after moving her first handful of clients onto Wagepoint.
Today, she has nine clients running monthly payroll through Wagepoint. She works within each client’s existing tech stack, using QuickBooks Online with a few and Xero with about half. But when she has a choice, the Xero–Wagepoint pairing is her go-to.
“That’s my preferred combo of bookkeeping software and payroll: Xero and Wagepoint, for sure.”
Payroll and bookkeeping, in sync
For Stephanie, the appeal of pairing Wagepoint and Xero comes down to one thing: she doesn’t have to think about it. Every pay run in Wagepoint flows straight into Xero, with wages, source deductions, and liabilities posting to the right accounts on their own.
“I know that the information that’s in Wagepoint is flowing directly into Xero, and that information is matching up with the bank feeds — so it streamlines our reconciliation process.”
Her team still reviews everything that comes through; nothing is on autopilot. But the review itself moves faster, since verifying numbers that already landed correctly beats re-entering them by hand, every time.
Features that keep things boring, in the best way
A connected payroll and accounting stack gives bookkeepers fewer manual tasks, faster reconciliation, and more confidence in the experience they deliver to clients.
Here are a few specific features that come up again and again when Stephanie talks about Wagepoint.
Compliance that runs ahead of the deadline. Stephanie screens clients carefully and treats security as a top priority for her cloud-based practice, so Wagepoint’s FINTRAC compliance and consistent remittance timing matter to her. Most of her clients remit on the 15th of the month, and she says Wagepoint typically has source deductions paid well ahead of that, so it’s one less date she has to track herself.
Year-end without second-guessing. Not only are T4s automated, but filing confirmation comes through right away, so Stephanie never has to log into a client’s CRA portal just to check that a submission actually went through.
An intuitive partner dashboard. Switching between client accounts doesn’t require multiple steps. “It’s easy peasy… it’s just a drop-down and okay, which client do I need? Login, there you go,” says Stephanie.
Support that resolves things fast. When one of her clients ran into an issue — an employee’s T4 didn’t match a name change on file with the CRA — Stephanie resolved it through a support ticket in minutes, and her client was thankful for how quickly it was handled. “It feels like a value add, but it wasn’t a big deal,” she says.
Tools that build client trust
Trust is a core value at Capture Bookkeeping. For Stephanie, that trust extends beyond her team to the software they use to deliver their work.
“Trusting your bookkeeper and their abilities, but also the suppliers that they’re using within their tech stack, is one of the most important things.”
That reputation does most of the selling before a prospect ever talks to her. About 90% of her clients come from referrals, and she’s never run a marketing campaign beyond having a website.
When she’s speaking with a prospective new client, she doesn’t lean on a pitch; she points to her tools. “Here’s our tech stack, this is how we operate,” she tells them.
Xero and Wagepoint are part of that proof: one less part of the stack she has to second-guess, and one more reason she can recommend it with confidence.
Build a payroll setup that gets out of your way
Stephanie’s story highlights that payroll and bookkeeping work best when they run in sync, not side by side. It means less time moving information between systems and more confidence in the experience Capture Bookkeeping delivers to its clients.
Wagepoint and Xero offer a connected payroll and accounting experience for Canadian small businesses and their advisors, including single sign-on and bundled pricing for companies running both. You’re eligible for three months free when you get started with Wagepoint, Xero, or both.
