Case Studies

Company Focus: Lunarch Studios
Lunarch Studios is a team of 5 gaming enthusiasts with the vision of advancing the art of online strategy games. Currently, they have developed a computer strategy game called Prismata, a fresh competitive strategy game that is innovative, skill testing, and simply a joy to master.

Check out their website here  if you haven’t already, and try out their game.

 The Problem

 Lunarch Studios is a client with whom ACE Consulting Group has a long-standing relationship which dates back to the fall of 2014. Lunarch Studios approached ACE Consulting Group with 2 problems: How do we pay our employees with varying pay structures and how do we apply for the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit?

 The Approach

 The task of payroll was challenging due to Lunarch Studios’ array of employees with different tax claim codes and different amount of hours worked in different time periods. To overcome this issue, we created a unique payroll structure for each employee using the specific claim code applicable to the employee and accurately accounted the number of hours in each period.

 Throughout our engagement, we wrote and mailed cheques and pay stubs to the employees. We created timesheets for each employee to personally fill out regarding the amount of hours they dedicated to work for the working pay period. During pay day, we then totalled up the number of hours worked for the week and allocated it to the applicable base rate for the employee. We continued to assist with payroll throughout the summer despite our unofficial operating year ended in April.

 Lunarch was also looking into their application of the OIDMTC, a tax credit for digital media corporations. This tax credit would allow the client to receive a tax credit of 35% or 40% of eligible expenditures. To assist with the client’s application, we worked closely with the founder to ensure the accuracy of their books and organized expenses to meet the criteria.

 For example, there would be expenses that could be classified under art or marketing. However, after discussing with our client and applying professional judgement, we worked out how it would be best for the company to recognize expenses for the OIDMTC.

 The Result

 We helped Lunarch Studios understand the payroll structure in terms of the amounts to remit for the monthly remittance and the process of submitting the remittance form.

 At ACE Consulting Group, we have expanded our services to include payroll, a service that many start up companies are requiring for their operations. With our expertise and experience, we can ensure that our services will be of great asset to your operations!