- Organization: The Riley Farm Rescue
- Location: Canterbury, CT
- Interesting fact about The Riley Farm Rescue: The organization has 300 animals in its care, including farm animals, reptiles, and exotic animals.
- Interesting fact about Marla Riley: She has a master’s degree in nursing and an MBA.
Animal lover Marla Riley was working as a nurse when she got some chickens for pets and started learning about the welfare of farm animals. She started rescuing birds and small animals and eventually turned her new passion into a nonprofit, The Riley Farm Rescue. As the organization grew, Marla hired employees. From her experience working as a nursing supervisor for two hospitals, she knew right away that she would need a software to track her employees’ time. She found ezClocker and immediately liked its ease of use and affordability. Now, the app saves her time and money that she’s able to put towards animal care. As her team grows, she knows that she will continue to depend on ezClocker.
Marla Riley turned her passion for animals into a nonprofit animal rescue organization.
From Caring for People to Caring for Animals
Nurse Marla Riley has been an animal lover her whole life. Growing up, her dad was an animal behaviorist who studied reptiles, and the family had reptiles, ferrets, and a rat for pets. Then, in 2015, she decided to get chickens. She started to notice that each chicken had its own quirky personality and developed a love for them, which led her to begin to rescue birds and other small animals.
As she rescued these animals, Marla began learning more about the meat and dairy industries and decided to go vegan. She started going to animal auctions – where farm animals were sold to be slaughtered. She bought animals at auction and took them home to take care of them. In 2017, she turned this new passion into a nonprofit organization, The Riley Farm Recue. Now, the organization has grown to care for 300 animals, including cows, goats, reptiles, sugar gliders, guinea pigs, and feral cats.
“ezClocker is super easy. I can pull up people’s timesheets and send my bookkeeper everybody’s hours for the week. It’s so simple.”
Easy for Everyone
As The Riley Farm Rescue grew, so did Marla’s network of volunteers. Eventually, she realized she needed more steady help, so she started hiring employees. Because of her experience with staffing management in her role as a nursing supervisor for two hospitals, she knew right away she’d need the help of a software to keep track of her employees’ hours. Within a week of hiring her first staff member, she looked for a time-tracking app and found ezClocker. Right away, she liked its affordability and its ease of use.
“ezClocker is super easy,” she says. “I can pull up people’s timesheets and send my bookkeeper everybody’s hours for the week. It’s so simple. And I need simple because I work full time [as a nurse], plus I have the sanctuary. I’m really busy.”
One feature that Marla really liked is being able to easily change the calendar dates to look at different pay weeks or the whole month. “I can do everything that I need to do on it,” she says.
Marla, at the Riley Farm Rescue.
Marla emailed ezClocker’s customer support. “They emailed me right back within hours. That’s very good customer support, in my opinion.”
Speedy Support
Before long, Marla had hired enough employees that she needed to upgrade her membership to a higher tier. She didn’t know how to do this, and she assumed contacting customer service would take too long, because that had been her experience with other apps. Instead, she did a trial with a competing app. But she discovered that the app was not straightforward for either her or her employees. Some of her less tech savvy employees could not figure out how to use the app at all. This was totally different from her experience with ezClocker. “Not one person complained to me about not understanding ezClocker,” she says.
Finally, Marla emailed ezClocker’s customer support to upgrade the app. “They emailed me right back within hours and told me exactly how they could help me upgrade,” she says. “That’s very good customer support, in my opinion.” Marla switched back to ezClocker right away.
ezClocker saves Marla money. With its GPS feature, she knows that employees are clocking in and out when they’re on the property.
Saving Time and Money
ezClocker’s ease of use saves Marla time that she doesn’t have to spend figuring out an app that’s difficult to use or that doesn’t always work. With a full-time nursing job and a nonprofit to run, this is critical.
The app also saves Marla money. With its GPS feature, she knows that employees are clocking in and out when they’re on the property, and that they cannot clock in early from another location.
ezClocker also helps Marla with budgeting. “It’s really easy for me to look at everybody’s time, see when they’re punching in and punching out, look at their hours for the week, and be able to look at my budget compared to what the payroll is going to be,” she says.
The money Marla saves with ezClocker will help The Riley Farm Rescue continue to increase staff. “That means the animals are getting more care and more eyes on them.”
Providing Better Animal Care
The time that Marla saves with ezClocker is time that she’s able to spend with the animals, which she believes benefits their welfare. “It’s one less thing I have to worry about,” she says. “So I can actually hang out with a goat once in a while. They definitely enjoy the extra attention.”
In addition to time, the money that she saves is more money that she can spend toward animal care, including feed and veterinary bills. The money saved will also help The Riley Farm Rescue to continue to grow. Although Marla doesn’t want the number of animals in her care to grow beyond 300, she would like to increase her staff. “That means the animals are getting more care and more eyes on them,” she says.
Marla knows that as her team grows, ezClocker will be right there with her. “I just love using it!” she says.
