Josh has always worked in a payroll bureau environment and has worked alongside many of the people who now make up the Ascend team. His passion has always been around the operations side of payroll. How can things be improved? What gaps or friction points are making things more difficult than they need to be?

That curiosity led him to set up Payroll Savvy, a consultancy that helped businesses get the best out of their payroll through best-practice advice, training and smarter use of technology.

In March 2025, Ascend acquired Payroll Savvy, and Josh joined as Operations Director. It reunited him with colleagues he’d worked with for over a decade, all sharing the same client-first values.

As Operations Director, Josh’s focus is on how Ascend works behind the scenes. He oversees the processes, quality checks and systems that get every payroll out accurately and on time, so clients get a service that feels effortless from their side. He’s also closely involved with Luna Software; as their development partner, he is able to give a payroll pro’s view on how the platform develops.

For Josh, it all comes back to building something exceptional.

“I’ve always been fascinated with what goes into building a truly exceptional payroll service. It was one of the drivers behind me setting up Payroll Savvy.

With Ascend, I have the opportunity to fast-track this shared vision with a team of people I know, admire and trust, and be part of a payroll service to be proud of.”

That’s what drives him every day: making sure Ascend’s service is one the whole team, and every client, can be proud of.