Sunlover Reef Cruises: Modernising payroll and people management

Sunlover Reef Cruises has been taking guests out to the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns since 1991. Today, the award-winning eco-tourism operator runs daily departures across four vessels, offering everything from snorkelling and scuba diving to helicopter packages. With over 100 employees spanning boats, shore operations, and seasonal peaks, workforce management is no small task.

We spoke to Ismail Hudson, Payroll and HR officer at Sunlover, about what it has meant to combine workforce management and payroll in one system.

The challenge 

Sunlover's workforce is complex. Staff operate under an EBA and multiple Modern Awards, across different vessels with position-based pay rates. Divers, cruise attendants, and marine crew all hold certifications, such as marine tickets, dive certs, medical certificates, and visa documentation. These all need regular tracking and renewing.

Before foundU, payroll and rostering were run through two separate platforms that didn’t talk to each other. Every pay cycle involved manually transferring data between systems. HR was largely paper and spreadsheet-based: onboarding, compliance records, certificate expiry dates, and policy management all included manual and time-consuming processes.

The solution 

When Sunlover started evaluating platforms, they struggled to find a provider that could implement the EBA. In foundU, it was straightforward: annual allowances could be handled through the pay slip edit process and position pay rules could handle everything else.

foundU also offered Sunlover a single platform for rostering, time and attendance, and payroll. Data flows from the roster all the way through to payroll and super with no manual transfer required.

The digital onboarding module also replaced the paper process entirely. Sunlover could enable staff to onboard themselves, upload compliance documents and set expiry dates with notification triggers to prevent lapses. This visibility made it far easier to manage crew credentials, a legal and safety requirement.

"found’s simplicity and seamless workflow has saved the business time, money and ensured complete accuracy when it comes to payroll & HR. The system is complex enough to handle complicated EBA’s and large workforces while also being streamline and smooth to work with. The foundU support team is extremely responsive and always helpful when there are technical questions. You will not find a better organization to work with! ” 

The result 

Sunlover now runs payroll from a single platform. Rosters feed into time and attendance, which feeds into payroll with no manual steps or duplicate data entry.

Sunlover has a platform that as simplified workforce management and payroll, and is built to scale with them.

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