Duddingston Payroll / BG-Demo – QBR
Callcompleted
Duddingston Payroll · 2 Jul 2025 12:45
Lorna Cairns and Euan Drummond report spread-out usage and a same-day fix after a customer-side export change. Daniel Okafor flagged the Growth contract renewal, and Lorna needs her director's input on budget.
What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Lorna Cairns and Euan Drummond report spread-out usage and a same-day fix after a customer-side export change. Daniel Okafor flagged the Growth contract renewal, and Lorna needs her director's input on budget.
What happened: Daniel said daily active people had roughly doubled again against forty licences. The third group joined in June after his session, and Lorna said two of them use it daily.
Customer view: Lorna said fee history was the reason they bought it: employers hear from them first. One sync ticket was caused by the customer's own export change and was fixed the same day, with stale data only for part of a day.
Commercial: Daniel raised the Growth contract at £40k a year, running to 9 Feb 2026 with renewal on 10 Feb 2026. Lorna cannot commit budget without her director, so he will bring a usage and value summary in the autumn.
Watch: Lorna wants a clear signal when a source has not refreshed. Euan's dashboards show team investment.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Theme
QBR, usage and renewal
Importance
renewal
Sentiment
positive
Voice
champion
Who was there
BG-Demo
CRMmade from
Them
CRMmade from
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Daniel to report back by next week on a clear signal for sources that have not refreshed.
- Daniel to set up an hour with Euan on the told-or-not view for the week after month-end.
- Daniel to draft the one-page cover guide and send it to Lorna and Euan.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Lorna needs her director's approval for budget, and that person was not on the call.
- A source went stale after a customer-side export change, and there is no clear staleness signal yet.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Usage is wide and well under the forty-user licence, giving a strong value case for renewal.
- A told-or-not view and a cover guide would deepen reliance on B-Viz.
Transcript
Daniel OkaforHello both, thank you for your time. Lorna, I can see you. Euan, I think we've lost you for a second, or is that just my screen?
Euan DrummondNo, I'm here, sorry. Had to find the right headset. Can you hear me now?- Daniel OkaforLoud and clear. Good, so that's all three of us. How is the team finding it this week?
Lorna CairnsBusy, same as ever. I've the month-end pay dates all stacking up, so let me tell you them first, then we can crack on. Three employers on Friday, one of them a care home group, and they're always twitchy. Right, that's me.- Daniel OkaforThank you, that helps me see the pressure you're under. I'll try to make this useful rather than long. The plan is to look at how it's been used since the last review, what's gone well, what's been bumpy, and what you'd like from the next few months.
- Euan DrummondSounds sensible. Do you want me to talk through the admin side, or is that later?
- Daniel OkaforLet's start with the headline and then come to you, Euan. So, usage first. The average number of people active each day has climbed again. It's roughly double what it was the quarter before, and that followed a big rise the quarter before that. You've forty licences, and you're comfortably under that, so there's headroom.
- Lorna CairnsThat'll be the third group. We got them on in June, after the session you ran. Honestly that was the best forty minutes I spent, it stopped the questions.
- Daniel OkaforPleased it landed. And how are they getting on, the newer managers?
- Lorna CairnsMixed. Two of them are in it every day. One of them still says she prefers her own spreadsheet. I'm not forcing it. When she's embarrassed in front of an employer she'll come round.
- Daniel OkaforHa, fair. Quite often it takes one awkward call. Euan, from your side, are there people you'd say are asking the most questions, or is it spread out?
- Euan DrummondIt's fairly spread. A few heavier users, but nobody dominating. I'd say it's wider than it was in the spring, when it was mostly Lorna's original team. I checked the other morning and I could see people from all the groups asking things.
- Daniel OkaforThat's healthy. When it sits with one or two people, that's the risk if they're off or they leave. Spread is better. Lorna, what are they mostly asking it, do you know?
- Lorna CairnsPay date stuff, mostly. When's their pay date, has anything come in from them, what did we say last time. And the fee questions, because the managers get asked why an employer's being charged for something and they want the history.
- Daniel OkaforRight. And the fees piece is interesting, because that's something you'd never get from one system alone. It pulls from the fee records and the call notes together.
- Lorna CairnsAye. That was the whole reason we bought it. Employers hear from us first, and the managers have the whole picture.
- Daniel OkaforWhich is what I'd like to put in the review notes, if you're happy. In your words, not mine.
- Lorna CairnsYou can use it. Just keep the employer names out.
- Daniel OkaforOf course, no names. Now, on the support side. There were two tickets in the last month, and I wanted to go through them so we close the loop. Euan, you raised both?
- Euan DrummondI raised both, yes. One was a how-to, really, about building a view for a group of employers on the same pay cycle. The other was a sync one. We'd changed how one of our exports is set up, and after that the records from that source stopped moving.
- Daniel OkaforYes, I remember. How long did that take to come right?
- Euan DrummondSame day, in the end. Your support folk were quick, they pointed out the change had broken the mapping, and we fixed it together. It wasn't a fault, it was us. I should have told you about the export change beforehand.
- Daniel OkaforNo need to apologise at all. It's really useful that you flagged it quickly. If you're changing a system that feeds it, a quick message to me or to the team is the best habit, and then we can check it's still loading.
- Euan DrummondI'll do that. I'll add it to our change checklist, actually. Then it's not down to my memory.
- Lorna CairnsGood. Did anyone get the wrong data in the meantime?
- Euan DrummondNo. It was just stale for that one source for part of a day. Nothing wrong, just old. I checked the morning figures against what we had.
- Lorna CairnsThat's the bit I wanted to hear. If something's old, the manager needs to know it's old.
- Daniel OkaforAbsolutely. And that's a fair thing to ask us for, a clear signal when a source hasn't refreshed. Let me take that away and come back to you by next week on what's available today, rather than guess.
- Lorna CairnsThank you. Right, what about the dashboards? Euan was saying he's built a couple.
- Euan DrummondYes. Growth includes the dashboard builder, so I made one that shows upcoming pay dates by employer, and one for open queries by client manager. They look at it on Monday mornings. It's quite basic, I'm still learning the thing.
- Daniel OkaforThat's more than basic, that's the team investing in it, and I don't say that lightly. Could we look at one together before the end of the call? Share your screen if you're comfortable.
- Euan DrummondSure. Give me a moment. Can you see it?
- Daniel OkaforI can see a list. Is that the pay dates one?
- Euan DrummondYes. It's sorted by the date, soonest first. And this column is the client manager responsible. The colours are just what it gave me.
- Lorna CairnsCan you add whether the employer's been told? Has the client been told, that's what I'd want to see in the next column.
- Euan DrummondI'm not sure we hold that as a field anywhere. It might be buried in the call notes. Daniel?
- Daniel OkaforI think it could be inferred from the calls and the messages, but I wouldn't want to say it'd be reliable until I've tried it on your data. Shall we try it properly, on a call of its own, rather than live with the clock running?
- Lorna CairnsAye, that's sensible. We'll not get it right first time on a quick look.
- Daniel OkaforAgreed. So that's one action for me. I'll set up an hour with Euan to try the told-or-not view, and I'll report back to you, Lorna.
- Euan DrummondThat works. Not the week of the month-end run, though.
- Daniel OkaforUnderstood, I'll suggest the week after. Now, I want to touch on the contract, only briefly, so nothing comes as a surprise. You're on Growth at £39,600 a year, and the contract runs to 9 Feb 2026, with renewal on 10 Feb 2026.
- Lorna CairnsRight. That's a way off yet.
- Daniel OkaforIt is. I'm not asking for anything today. I'll come back to you well ahead, in the autumn, with the picture of what you've used and what it's been worth, and we can talk about it then. I'd just rather you heard it from me first.
- Lorna CairnsThat's fair. You know I can't commit anything on budget without speaking to my director anyway, so the earlier the better.
- Daniel OkaforCompletely understood. I'll make sure what I send is something you can take straight to them.
- Euan DrummondCan I ask something on the admin side? If more people come on, do we need to change anything with the licences?
- Daniel OkaforNot at the moment. You're well under forty, so no. If you ever got close, we'd talk about it then, and that would be a good problem to have.
- Euan DrummondGood. I'll keep an eye on the count regardless.
- Lorna CairnsLast thing from me. The summer cover. Managers on holiday, others picking up their employers. I'd like a little guide for them, just a page, on how to find the history on an employer they've never looked after.
- Daniel OkaforThat's a lovely idea and quite quick for me to do. I'll draft it and send it to you and Euan for comment, so it sounds like your team and not like us.
- Lorna CairnsPerfect. Thanks, Daniel.
- Daniel OkaforSo just to close the loop on today. I'll look into a clear signal for sources that haven't refreshed and come back to you by next week. I'll set up the hour with Euan on the told-or-not view, for the week after month-end. I'll draft the one-page cover guide. And Euan, you'll add the export change to your checklist.
- Euan DrummondDone, already open in front of me.
- Lorna CairnsGood. That's all from us. I've a pay run waiting.
- Daniel OkaforThank you both for your time, and best of luck with Friday. Speak soon.
- Lorna CairnsThanks, Daniel. Cheers, Euan.
- Euan DrummondCheers all.
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