The challenge: One missed punch could throw off payroll.
“When I opened the gym, I just knew how to lift heavy weights,” he says. “I didn’t know anything about [running] the business.” He learned by doing (sometimes by doing it wrong!) and he needed systems to change with his needs.
At first, his trainers were contractors. Then Kris learned a training business can’t use contractors to deliver the same service it sells. He moved his trainers to W-2s, and suddenly every hour had to be tracked.
That’s harder than it sounds at a gym. Trainers work blocks of sessions and punch in and out before each one. Every trainer earns a different rate, and California requires an hourly wage on top of commission. “If somebody doesn’t punch out, then they get 20 hours of overtime for the day,” Kris says.
Money was tight, too. Two years ago, the gym was struggling to stay afloat, and Kris almost didn’t renew the lease. He went looking for every cost he could cut, including ADP, a payroll provider that charged him extra every time he ran payroll.
Then, in October 2025, the LA Times ran a feature on the gym. In about two weeks, revenue tripled. The gym was finally growing. And that growth brought new pressure on the admin side of the business.
“I was trying to plug every leak in the business, and ADP [my previous payroll provider] was incredibly expensive for what I was doing. Switching to Homebase just made more sense for a business like mine.”
— Kris Herbert, owner of The Gym Venice
The solution: Hours, rates, and commissions that finally add up.
Kris wanted payroll and time tracking in one place. In January, a manager he’d hired moved The Gym Venice from ADP to Homebase. “That’s why we chose Homebase, because we were able to do that,” Kris says.
Then that manager left, and Kris had to learn the system on his own. Without someone reminding them, trainers stopped punching in and out. His first payroll runs took two hours while he fixed missing punches. When he got stuck, he called Homebase for help.
“It’s learning a new system,” Kris says. “You figure out the quirks, and then once you get it, you’re good.”
Now payroll follows a simple routine. Trainers clock in and out in Homebase before each block of sessions. On payroll day, Kris opens their timesheets and checks that each trainer’s punches match their total hours and number of sessions. If someone forgot to clock out, he fixes the time card before it turns into a day of overtime.
Every trainer’s rate is already saved, so Kris doesn’t have to look anything up. Trainers earn an hourly wage plus commission, and Homebase payroll has a place for commissions, additional earnings, and deductions.
Kris also adds notes about bonuses, including what a trainer can work on if they missed one. Trainers see those notes in their own Homebase accounts, so feedback and pay arrive together.
Sick time is tracked, too. When a trainer calls out sick, Kris adds the hours and they come right out of that trainer’s balance. “It’s all synced,” he says. Then he runs payroll.
“In California, you have to give an hourly rate, which is minimum wage, on top of a commission. Homebase has a slot for the commissions, for additional earnings, for the deductions, and it makes it so simple to see.”
— Kris Herbert, owner of The Gym Venice
The results: Payroll in 20 minutes, and confidence in compliance.
Once Kris got the hang of Homebase, payroll dropped from two hours to about 20 minutes. “Payroll used to take me about two hours,” he says. “Now, if everyone’s punches are right, I can get the whole thing done in minutes.”
The only thing slowing him down is missed punches. If every trainer clocked in and out perfectly, Kris thinks he could finish in about 10 minutes. He’s not counting on it, though.
The bigger win is peace of mind. With his trainers on W-2s, Kris has to get hours, overtime, commissions, and sick time right under California law. Now it all lives in one place, synced from the time clock to the paycheck. “It feels good knowing I’m being compliant,” he says.
The team is building the habit, too. Three trainers clock in and out so reliably that Kris doesn’t even check their timesheets. “Anybody who started after Homebase is perfect,” he says.
Longtime trainers are slower to change, so Kris is weighing team bonuses to get everyone on board. For new hires, clocking in is part of the job from day one. As the team grows, clean timesheets become the standard.
That’s made payroll something Kris can trust, and something he can teach.
“I feel more comfortable using [Homebase] because I feel like I’m compliant with California’s labor laws, which is great.”
— Kris Herbert, owner of The Gym Venice
Building a gym he can copy and paste.
Kris has looked at opening a second gym more than once. Each time, he hit the same wall. “If I don’t have the systems in place to leave here, then this would collapse,” he says.
So he’s building those systems first. One of his longtime clients just applied for a new client experience role, and Kris plans to teach her Homebase so she can take over timesheets. “I feel like I’m comfortable enough to do that now,” he says.
That frees Kris to focus on training and on what’s next. He’s already looked at spots from Culver City to Austin, where a longtime client just moved, and a second gym could open as soon as next year.
It took Kris years to figure out his client and his message. Now he’s lining up everything else. “Get all the systems in place for onboarding trainers, how we maintain consistency in training, client experience, payroll processing, all of it,” he says, “so that it’s just copy and paste.”
