Moreland/Bishop McDonald’s

The family business: Moreland/Bishop finds success in the McDonald’s franchise

“We’re kind of a family business,” said Nicole Moreland, HR director for Moreland/Bishop McDonald’s. Nicole is currently going through the McDonald’s owner-operator program, just as several of her family members have done.

Nicole’s parents-in-law, John and Mary Moreland, were the first to become approved McDonald’s owner-operators in 1980, and they opened their first McDonald’s restaurant that same year in West Frankfort, Illinois. Around 2014, however, John and Mary decided they were ready to retire, so Nicole and her husband, Mike, made the decision to move from Colorado to Illinois to run the business. 

“Now, my husband is an owner-operator, and my sister-in-law, Stephanie Bishop, is also an owner-operator. She became an approved operator in 2009. And so that’s when we changed it to Moreland/Bishop because we all work together.”

When the family partnered up with AllianceHCM in 2014, Moreland/Bishop already had nine McDonald’s restaurants. Currently, they have 21 locations in Illinois and plan to keep expanding their McDonald’s stores in the near future.

From manual to mobile: How Moreland/Bishop streamlined operations and saved tons of time with AllianceHCM

Before AllianceHCM, Moreland/Bishop McDonald’s manually handled their payroll, recruiting, and onboarding processes. Nicole, however, saw an opportunity to simplify operations for Moreland/Bishop after joining the crew in 2014.

“When I first started, I took over for someone who was retiring,” explained Nicole. “She was manually entering all the stores’ hours one by one down the line. So, that’s when we started searching for a payroll provider to make it easier.”

Now, Nicole works in their McDonald’s restaurants five days a week. She credits AllianceHCM’s mobile payroll solution for the flexibility to work from wherever she wants.

Before using AllianceHCM’s payroll solution, it would take days to process payroll for Moreland/Bishop’s 600 to 700 employees. Since 2014, Moreland/Bishop has almost doubled in headcount, employing around 1,300 McDonald’s crew members, but Nicole can complete payroll for all 21 locations in just two hours with AllianceHCM.

AllianceHCM to the rescue: The Payroll Nightmare for Moreland/Bishop

A few years ago, another payroll company talked with Nicole and offered lower prices with the promise of an easier process. She decided to give them a try, and briefly switched to a new payroll system.

“I think we got into maybe two payrolls, and it was a nightmare,” said Nicole. “They could not mesh or get anything going or connecting. We had a lot of manual entries. Their system and our system just wasn’t working. And at the beginning of that third payroll, I am emailing Alliance back and saying, ‘Please, help us. Please.’ And all because [the other company] was a little cheaper.”

AllianceHCM was able to quickly get Moreland/Bishop back into our payroll system and made sure their McDonald’s crew members were paid on time.

Employer Tax Credits: How Moreland/Bishop earned big money with AllianceHCM

Before utilizing AllianceHCM’s Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) services, Moreland/Bishop worked with a separate company to help them get through the WOTC process. 

“They (our former provider) had pretty high fees, so we switched over to AllianceHCM because it was already part of the onboarding process and everything was electronic,” said Nicole. “With them (our former provider), we were still filling out papers manually and sending them off that way. And so we’ve actually noticed, with AllianceHCM’s WOTC service, we were getting more credits than we were with the other company, which was really good. And AllianceHCM’s fee was cheaper.”

In 2020, when the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) became a tax credit employers could claim, AllianceHCM reached out to Nicole to ensure she was aware of the ERTC and offered to help Moreland/Bishop apply for those employer tax credits, as well.