Company
Luton Town FC, established in 1885, has a rich history in English football. Known as the Hatters, they have experienced significant growth over decades and now compete in the Premier League. Their dedicated fan base and strong community ties reflect their commitment to both sporting excellence and local engagement.
Company size
Industry
Headquarters
Customer since
Products
Integrated software
Involved teams
Key outcomes
- Three months of payroll admin cut each year
- Fully automated payroll in NetSuite without adding staff
- Labor costs tracked to the penny for deeper analysis
- One platform for total financial control
Established in 1885, Luton Town FC is Southern England's first professional football club. As the club, fan base and staffing numbers continuously grew, so did the costs and complexity of managing finance operations. The club made a strategic decision to bring all its finances under one roof – Oracle NetSuite. The only critical financial component still managed outside the ERP was payroll, their most complex cost.
With NetSuite in place, their next goal was clear: bring payroll inside the same system to fully leverage their ERP investment.
Luton Town FC needed a future-proof, scalable NetSuite-native solution to unify payroll with its financial processes, automate payroll admin and provide real-time insights – all in one place.
The Challenge: Managing complex payroll for 400+ employees in multiple systems.
After securing their Championship status, Luton Town FC turned their attention to upgrading their back office. Implementing Oracle NetSuite as their financial management system was step one – a modern and scalable solution to reduce manual data entry, eradicate paper-based processes and improve the visibility of critical information for the next phase of investments.
With 400 employees and growing – salaried office staff, football staff paid monthly but with weekly performance-related pay and casual matchday workers paid hourly – payroll was anything but simple.
The finance team had to juggle every payroll scenario imaginable, using multiple disconnected systems like Sage50 for financials and WinPay for payroll. This manual setup led to increased costs, long hours spent on repetitive data entry and journal uploads and working across spreadsheets to produce summarized reports.
The three biggest challenges faced:
- Manual, disconnected payroll processes: Two finance employees spent ten days each month on payroll, repeatedly entering data across different systems. They had to upload information into their payroll tool by hand, then process all payments manually through the bank and finally upload journals manually into Sage.
- Limited visibility: Fragmented systems and manual processes made it difficult to track costs in real time and understand where they were incurred. The team couldn’t make on-the-spot changes or get instant reports.
- Errors and constant checking: The team had to frequently check for errors and validate all payroll data and costs were accurate across all systems.
“As the club, the fan base and staffing numbers grew, so did the costs, manual entry and process complexity. The use of disparate systems resulted in days of manual work and spreadsheets to produce summarised reports, lacking the depth of information needed to drive strategic decisions.” – Thomas Schofield, CFO at Luton Town FC
These payroll inefficiencies and limited insight weren’t sustainable for Luton Town FC's growth. The club needed an all-in-one payroll automation solution inside NetSuite – one that could unify processes and data, automate most of the payroll admin and provide full clarity into costs.
The Solution: A unified, future-proof payroll system built for NetSuite.
Given NetSuite was already deployed and actively used by the finance team, Luton Town FC was determined to:
- Bring all its financials into one place
- Gain visibility into the most complex cost – payroll
- Optimize the payroll workflow
- Make the most of its ERP investment
After looking at three different market options, the club opted to implement ZonePayroll (previously Infinet Cloud) – the only on-platform payroll solution for NetSuite.
Why did they choose ZonePayroll?
- Automated payroll from start to finish: ZonePayroll extends the out-of-the-box NetSuite capabilities, bringing payroll management entirely into the club’s primary business system. The solution cuts out repetitive, manual admin work and ensures journals are posted instantly without data re-entry.
- Full integration with NetSuite: ZonePayroll is a natural extension of the existing NetSuite setup – no separate platforms, no separate logins. The club’s finance team continued to work in their familiar environment and run payroll as normal.
- Complete visibility into payroll: Payroll costs are captured directly within NetSuite. This gives the team a "to-the-penny", precise view of labor expenses with drill-down capabilities and complete control of all HR and financial costs inside its finance system.
- Excellent, ongoing support: The ZonePayroll team was approachable and quick to respond whenever support was needed. The hands-on assistance ensured the club could fix issues and get back up and running quickly and without delay.
“We looked at three different solutions but ZonePayroll (previously Infinet Cloud) stood out straight away. It operates as part of our NetSuite set-up. As a result, we gain complete visibility of our labour costs within our finance system, to-the-penny, by proxy of us just running the payroll as normal. A massive win!” – Thomas Schofield, CFO at Luton Town FC
The Result: Fully automated payroll inside NetSuite with 80% less monthly admin time.
With payroll brought inside NetSuite, the finance team achieved their goal of cutting out manual admin processes and gaining real-time insights into their biggest, most complex costs. The impact was immediate:
- Three months of payroll admin cut each year: What used to take ten days each month now takes just two, reducing the time needed for payroll admin by 80%. Over a year, ZonePayroll gives the team back 96 days – over 3 months of work time they no longer need to spend on payroll.
- Fully automated payroll in NetSuite without adding staff: Payroll reports go straight from NetSuite to HMRC (UK’s national taxing authority) and the club’s bank, and all payroll journals are posted automatically – no manual intervention is needed. With ZonePayroll, the club continues to manage the rising payroll needs and complexity without new hires.
- Labor costs tracked to the penny for deeper analysis: The team uses ZonePayroll to analyze labor expenses at any level of detail for a much clearer picture of their spending at any time. For example, the team can see precise labor costs per match directly in NetSuite, drilled down by department or employee, and identify trends or opportunities for optimization.
- One platform for total financial control: Financials, payroll and reporting are now fully integrated into NetSuite. The finance team works faster, with no unnecessary steps or the need to toggle between platforms. With everything in one place, the club makes the most of its ERP investment, gaining total control and visibility across all financial operations.
"ZonePayroll saves us eight days each month. Everything is automated now – all reports are submitted directly from NetSuite to HMRC and our bank, and all payroll journals are posted automatically with no manual effort. So, it aligns perfectly with our reasons to implement NetSuite." – Thomas Schofield, CFO at Luton Town FC
Modernizing football club finances and payroll in NetSuite.
By integrating ZonePayroll, Luton Town FC didn't just upgrade their payroll system – they completely transformed how their finance team uses Oracle NetSuite.
All their financials are now in one place. The payroll workflow has been automated to streamline most of the admin and manual tasks. The finance team has real-time clarity into payroll costs and can easily answer any complex payroll questions, quickly. And most importantly, with ZonePayroll and NetSuite, the club can focus on what matters most: their players, fans and community.
“In addition to the software, the team at ZonePayroll has been brilliant. Whenever we need support, it is generally time-sensitive and because we have come across something a little unusual. Whatever it is, the team gets involved immediately, explains everything to us in plain English, and has never let us down, which in our environment is invaluable.” – Thomas Schofield, CFO at Luton Town FC
Ready to fully automate your financial operations in NetSuite like 3,000+ other finance teams? Schedule a tailored demo to explore how Zone can transform your payroll, HR operation workflows, reporting, procure-to-pay and order-to-cash, or try one of our ROI calculators and see the potential results for yourself.
