Western Grower & Shipper 2018 05 MayJune

As data is recorded in the mobile app, the information is automatically sent in realtime to the Pago cloud servers. The time and production data is immediately visible to labor contractor office staff and the grower field personnel. The data can be used to pay employees and invoice the respective grower. In addition to crew scheduling, time keeping and payroll, Pago also offers labor contractors the ability to track labor costs, monitor crew production efficiency, create grower bills faster, and maximize profitability. For Growers Similarly, Pago provides growers with real-time visibility of productivity of every crew throughout the day. Growers are also able to see how must costs are accruing in real time. To get started, a grower partners with the Pago team and the grower’s farm labor contractors to set up linked accounts, with online contracts that are accessible to each party. The online contracts include detailed compensation and billing parameters that enable time and production tracking and set the financial terms of invoices from labor contractors to growers. Growers can receive invoices from farm labor contractors through the online platform and export cost information to their accounting system for crop costing and initiating labor contractor payments. “We are most proud of how easy the product is to use and the sophisticated technology behind the platform,” said Dodson. To be useful to all growers and farm labor contractors across the nation, time rate and piece rate calculations are compliant with federal and state laws. Compliance rules apply to the jurisdiction where work is performed, and a real- time compliance engine monitors crew and employee time and production data to warn of any compliance issues (e.g., minimum wage, overtime, meal penalties, piece rate pay). A WG PARTNERSHIP Pago is currently headquartered in Fresno, CA, and now has reach in Salinas through the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT). Dodson was one of the inaugural entrepreneurs with a “hot desk” in the WGCIT. Joining the Center two years ago, and experiencing the benefits, he found it only appropriate to have the official

public unveiling of Pago during WGCIT’s “Innovation in the Imperial Valley” event in Brawley this past February. “The Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology has provided us many opportunities to introduce our products to the industry,” said Dodson. “The Pago team especially appreciates the ongoing events where leaders from the industry are invited to meet startups and share ideas on innovation.” Through the support from industry members and the drive, knowledge and

skill of the Pago team, the product is continually being refined to be on the cutting-edge of ag labor platforms. Moving forward, Dodson said he hopes to enhance the product enough to where billing and payment processing can be done at a touch of a button and farmworkers can directly access Pago to receive information such as paycheck stubs and W-2s. Both the web platform and mobile app are available in English and Spanish.

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MAY | JUNE 2018

Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com

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