Curve Dental is a dental practice software company with two subsidiaries—Curve Dental and Flex Dental— and 265 employees spread throughout the US, Canada, and Scotland. But since the multi-entity company didn’t have a catch-all HR and payroll solution that worked everywhere it hired, managing its far-flung workforce was like pulling teeth. 

“There were multiple parties involved in every process,” said Jared Patten, the HR Manager at Curve Dental, “which meant there were more errors and manual work.” Curve Dental used ADP to manage and pay employees in North America, but needed a separate broker to handle payroll, pension plans, and benefits for staff in the UK. The company also needed a separate third-party vendor to handle recruiting, and relied on a glut of clunky spreadsheets to run workforce reports since its employee information was, according to Jared, “spread everywhere.” 

Even for the employees it did support, ADP slowed Curve Dental’s back office down. Jared spent hours manually pulling files and creating spreadsheets anytime an employee changed their 401(k) contribution amount. He also lost time manually sending and uploading documents back and forth with new hires during onboarding. And when he ran into issues with the ADP, Jared spent up to an hour on hold withcustomer support waiting for help. 

For Curve Dental to save time and make good on its ambitious growth plans (the company’s keen on doubling its headcount within four years), it was high time for a better system, with more features, that worked for all the company’s entities.

Curve Dental’s CFO, Scott Poitevent, was familiar with Rippling and MarshMcLennan Agency (MMA) from a past role and recommended them to Jared to explore as new options for the company. 

When Jared looked into Rippling and what it had to offer –  he realized it fit his varied needs like a glove. “Joining Rippling was the best HR decision of the company,” Jared said. “It’s made my life a lot easier.”

Around the same time Curve Dental left ADP for Rippling, the company also tapped MMA to administer benefits. “MMA gave us everything. They’ve been extremely helpful,” Jared said.

For Jared, Rippling’s main draw was its ability to handle multiple HR and payroll functions across multiple entities under the same platform. “Having everything in one system for all three countries, including benefits, employee-self-service, and onboarding  just made sense,” he said. “We run 10 different payrolls every month. ADP could only handle some of those. We do them all in Rippling now.”
In addition to consolidating UK and North American employees into the same system, Curve Dental also ditched its third-party applicant tracking system (ATS) and now uses Rippling for recruiting. This allows Curve Dental’s lean two-person HR team to easily manage employees across their lifecycles—”from application to termination,” he said.

Rippling’s unified platform also comes with time-saving automations that help Jared work faster. “I use Rippling all day, every day,” he said. 

Instead of manually updating 401(k) contribution amounts whenever employees make changes, Rippling updates them on his behalf—saving him nearly two hours of work every time. He can also leverage MMA’s expert assistance anytime he has a question administering retirement benefits. 

And while onboarding used to be a time-intensive slog, his new solution removes all the grunt work by automating new hire paperwork and work authorizations “Knowing what we currently have automated, if we acquired a company and needed to add 200 new employees tomorrow, I know I could do it without losing my mind.”

Here’s a closer look at all of Curve Dental’s time savings after switching to Rippling.

We run 10 different payrolls every month. ADP could only handle some of those. We do them all in Rippling now.

Jared Patten

HR Manager at Curve Dental

When Curve Dental’s employee data was scattered across different systems, “we had spreadsheets on spreadsheets for every report we were doing,” Jared said. “With Rippling, we’ve simplified a ton.”

Curve Dental now uses Rippling’s robust reporting suite to look at cost per new hire, get detailed headcount breakdowns, gauge 401(k) data, and even track the culture-affirming causes for employee celebration. “I used to keep track of people's birthdays and anniversaries on a spreadsheet and manually send an email to managers,” Jared said. “In Rippling I can click one button and it sends managers a report of all their teams’ birthdays and anniversaries—every month.”

Thanks to Rippling’s automated workflows, Jared can run the reports near-instantly, saving him up to 90 minutes every time he tees one up. And when it comes to Curve Dental’s more sensitive data, Jared appreciates that he can customize permissions to make sure only eligible team members see confidential reports.

Jared said the support infrastructure is “one of the best parts of Rippling,” and a “game changer” that blew him away. When he has questions, he can use the live chat feature and get the answers he needs within 20 minutes. He can also look through product resources to get in-depth explainers on any feature. He also appreciates that he can use the same support tools for questions related to any of the three countries where Curve Dental’s employees live (or for any of the different features Rippling offers). 

”Before, if I had a Canada question I’d have to call the Canada ADP team, and they’d bounce me from payroll to time and attendance and you’d sit on the phone for three hours and get nowhere.” 

And while Jared used to fret about payroll taxes due to ADP support he found unhelpful, he can now rest easy knowing Rippling has him covered. “This is the first time I’ve felt okay about our tax withholdings. Now that I know Rippling’s going to handle it, I don’t have to worry about that stuff,” he said. “It’s been a night-and-day change.”

• Breezy benefits administration: With Rippling, Curve Dental saved nearly two hours on 401(k) changes and another hour a month managing HSA contributions. 
• Faster onboarding: Curve Dental saved 90 minutes every time Jared onboarded a new hire. The company often hires 100 new people a year. 
• Painless payroll: The company can run every payroll across every entity and country through Rippling, saving 45 minutes every pay run. 

Joining Rippling was the best decision of the company. It’s made my life a lot easier.

Jared Patten

HR Manager at Curve Dental