About ACE FMS

ACE FMS is a California-based Financial Management Service (FMS) that supports individuals and families participating in the state’s Self-Determination Program (SDP). Through SDP, individuals with developmental disabilities receive budgets to secure services and support from their communities including hiring personal assistants, caregivers, and service providers.

As an FMS, ACE plays a critical operational role: verifying worker eligibility, managing payroll and HR, paying vendors, and ensuring funds are used in compliance with program requirements. For families hiring in-home support, ACE plays a critical role in becoming the employer of record. They manage payroll and HR for thousands of employees across California.

Founded after CEO and co-founder Peyman Dadmehr personally experienced the limitations of the existing FMS providers, ACE was built to modernize a system long held back by manual processes and outdated technology. The company’s mission is simple but ambitious: make accessing essential services easier, faster, and more transparent for families who rely on them.

The Challenge: Antiquated Systems in a High-Trust Environment

Before ACE entered the market, most FMS providers relied on highly manual workflows or, in some cases, no real systems at all.

Enrollment and onboarding often required families and workers to complete dozens of paper forms, bundled into large scanned PDFs. Even standard documents like W-4s and state tax forms were frequently non-fillable, forcing families to print, hand-complete, scan, and email documents back without confirmation or visibility into status.

Vendor payments followed a similarly fragmented process. Invoices were passed between families and providers via email, manually approved, and then processed with limited automation. ACE recognized that these challenges extended to payroll as well. There were no centralized portals, no real-time status updates, and no reliable way to scale operations without adding significant and costly administrative overhead. 

For payroll, ACE  initially partnered with Paychex, attracted by its pricing and API claims. But as employee volume increased, cracks appeared:

• Inability to support a Fiscal/Employer Agent model
• Limited and poorly documented APIs
• Slow processing speeds for payroll submissions
• Support delays stretching from days to weeks
• Onboarding dead ends caused by legacy account conflicts
• Inability to meet ACE’s internal commitment of one-business-day response times

For an organization responsible for paying thousands of workers, many of whom depend on timely payroll, these delays created operational risk, employee frustration, and mounting stress for the team.

For a company looking to support people as a Fiscal/Employer Agent, the EIN limitation was a deal-breaker.

The Solution: A Fully Integrated, API-First Payroll Partner

When ACE began searching for a new payroll provider, the requirements were clear:

• Ability to support many EINs
• Open, well-documented APIs and webhooks
• Fast, reliable payroll processing at scale
• Responsive, knowledgeable support
• A partner willing to collaborate and evolve alongside a growing platform

That search led ACE to Zeal.

Zeal’s API-first architecture allowed ACE to treat payroll not as a standalone system, but as infrastructure embedded directly into its own platform. Employee data including personal information, tax elections, direct deposit details, addresses, and reimbursements is collected once through ACE’s portal and automatically synced across payroll and payment systems.

“We don’t want our clients or employees logging into five different systems,” said Peyman Dadmehr, CEO of ACE FMS. “Our portal is the hub. Zeal lets us keep everything in sync behind the scenes.”

Payroll runs that previously required constant monitoring now process in seconds. ACE verifies counts and totals directly in Zeal’s Dashboard, while internal reconciliation tools use the API to compare Zeal data against ACE’s system automatically and flag discrepancies without manual spreadsheets.

Just as importantly, Zeal’s support model aligned with how ACE operates. Direct Slack access to account and support teams replaced call centers and ticket queues, enabling same-day resolutions during critical payroll windows.

Results: Faster Payroll, Lower Risk, Less Anxiety

Since moving to Zeal, ACE FMS has achieved measurable operational improvements:

• ~50% reduction in payroll processing time - Payroll runs that once required two full days now complete in a fraction of the time, with faster API submission and verification.
• Elimination of manual reconciliation workflows - Automated data syncing and reporting replaced spreadsheet-based comparisons and exports.
• More reliable onboarding - API-driven employee setup removed dead-end account issues and reduced friction for new hires.
• Lower operational stress for payroll teams - Faster processing and responsive support reduced the need for multi-day payroll buffers and constant follow-ups.
• Improved service reliability for families and workers - Consistent, timely payroll helped ACE maintain its one-business-day response commitment.

“One of the biggest differences is peace of mind,” said Dadmehr. “You’re responsible for thousands of people getting paid. Knowing you can reach your partner and get answers immediately changes everything.”

The Impact: Infrastructure That Supports the Mission

With Zeal supporting streamlined operations and a better worker experience, ACE can focus on expanding access to services for more families who depend on them.

They are currently focused on serving more participants across California and unlocking support for individuals with larger budgets, a segment historically underserved due to the working capital and operational complexity involved. Longer-term, ACE plans to extend its model into new services and new states, bringing the same modern experience to more communities.

Zeal’s flexibility, speed, and partnership-driven approach give ACE confidence that payroll will scale alongside the business instead of becoming a bottleneck.