Tri-State Nursing

Tri-State Nursing Achieves Real-Time Payments, Payroll Peace of Mind with Branch

Background

Tri-State Nursing is an established healthcare staffing agency with more than 30 years of experience pairing RNs, CNAs, LPNs, and other clinicians with healthcare facilities. These clinicians are classified as W-2 workers, helping to temporarily fill roles in places like long-term care facilities and clinics across the Midwest. 

We spoke to Atalie Simpson, Accountant for Tri-State Nursing, and Trisha Norris, Payroll Clerk, on what made them switch from their previous payments provider to Branch in order to deliver fast, seamless payments to their healthcare professionals.

Searching for a Seamless Payments Experience

Prior to using Branch, Tri-State Nursing was using a competitor payments provider—one that unfortunately was causing them constant issues. While Tri-State ran payroll weekly, their clinicians also had the option to get paid daily. Yet with their previous solution, offering faster payments became more trouble than it was worth. 

“With our previous provider, it was just non-stop frustration, both for us and for our temps,” Simpson says. 

There seemed to always be some delay in payment or uncertainty around whether or not a payment had gone through, leaving clinicians with questions and complaints—and leaving Simpson and Norris with last-minute fires to put out each Friday at 4pm.

“We wanted to leave Friday afternoons on a good note, not having to field complaints because people were waiting for their money,” Simpson says. “So we started looking at other options.”

Though they did look at a handful of competitor solutions, they quickly selected Branch for a few key reasons; one of which was the fact that Branch provided workers greater flexibility in how and when they could move their funds.

“The other solutions we looked at had cap limits on what [workers] could transfer,” says Simpson. “For some of our nurses, their check might be $500 per shift, and they want to transfer all of it if they can. If the other solutions had caps of $200 a day, that wasn’t going to work for our staff.”

Accelerating Payments with Peace of Mind

As soon as Tri-State Nursing implemented Branch as their new payments provider, Simpson and Norris were delighted with how much easier it made their lives. Using Branch, clinicians can now opt to get their pay quickly after each shift, instead of having to wait until the end of the day. 

Plus, Branch’s partnership with symplr Contingent Talent Management (CTM), which Tri-State Nursing was already using for time and attendance data, made the transition even more seamless, allowing them to verify hours and pay clinicians with the click of a button. 

“It’s so much easier and more convenient,” says Simpson. “It’s just a click of a button and they get their money; they don’t have to wait, and there haven’t been any issues like there were with our previous provider.”

Norris echoes the ease of switching to Branch for both payroll and Tri-State’s healthcare professionals, leveraging the CTM integration with Branch to make timecard reconciliation fast and easy. 

“With our previous provider, we would have to wait until 4pm to submit a file,” says Norris. “With Branch, we can submit those payments whenever we want. We choose to process those priority pay requests every two hours for our clinicians.”

Priority pay is an option clinicians with Tri-State can select in CTM to get their pay right after they clock out; and now, with Branch, they can actually achieve a more real-time payments experience instead of waiting until the end of the day to see money in their account. Offering this option has had a meaningful impact on the lives of their clinicians, too.

“It’s been great for our temps, because now they don’t have to wait until the end of the day to be paid,” says Norris. “Some of them rely on these fast payments for gas money to get to their next job; being able to offer them real-time payments is crucial.”

In fact, some of Tri-State Nursing’s top clinicians have remarked that switching to Branch has been an upgrade. “I just got a comment this morning from one of our top temps saying she likes Branch so much better,” says Simpson. “It’s been a huge relief for all of us.”

Saving Time + Providing a Clear Payments Audit Trail 

Not only has using Branch made accelerating payments easier than ever, but it’s also helped provide a clearer audit trail for the payroll team, eliminating the need to constantly field those last-minute questions from employees. 

“There’s no gray line of wondering where the money went,” explains Simpson. “It’s so convenient; there’s a clearer audit trail and it’s easier to see where money has been sent. 

Plus, Norris and Simpson can also use Branch to quickly issue one-off payments or re-issue payments if needed, without worrying that it will take up hours of their time. 

“We can now issue a replacement check in literally two seconds if we need to,” says Simpson. “We don’t have to wait for the bank to return the direct deposit and go through all of those manual steps.”

Being able to issue payments in real-time throughout the day and easily verify or track payments have led to a more simplified payroll experience for Norris and Simpson; one that actually allows them to head into the weekend with peace of mind.  

“I’ve heard nothing but great comments on how much simpler this solution is than our previous solution,” says Norris. “Now, we get to reclaim our Friday afternoons.”