Síclo

About Síclo

Síclo is not just an indoor cycling brand. People who know the brand know there is more going on than bikes, playlists, and a room full of energy. It is a community. One that has grown across Mexico, Spain, and Peru by mixing movement, music, introspection, and that strange but great feeling of leaving a class tired and somehow more alive. From the beginning, Síclo wanted to create spaces where well being sits at the center. No judgment. No pressure to move like someone in a sports ad. Just a place where each person can connect with themselves at their own pace.

The brand has grown far beyond cycling. Today, its classes include barre, yoga, boxing, meditation, and other experiences that make Síclo feel less like a studio and more like a lifestyle community. The idea is simple, but powerful: a healthy mind, a strong body, and a huge heart. That message has connected with thousands of people who ride and train with them every week under the spirit of #TodosSomosSíclo. And when a community grows like that, the inside of the company has to keep up too. The customer experience may be full of music and energy, but behind it there are schedules, teams, payments, expenses, and payroll processes that need to work without drama. Otherwise, the back office starts sweating harder than someone in their first boxing class. As Síclo expanded across different countries, payroll became more complex. More people. More locations. More payment variables. More need for control. The internal team had to manage key processes with the same level of care they bring to the community experience. Because a brand can feel amazing on the outside, but if the internal operation is messy, the pressure eventually shows. Síclo needed payroll to stop feeling like a manual obstacle and start working like a process ready for growth.

What were the main points of friction?

Before Runa, Síclo’s payroll process was very manual. It took time, needed several reviews, and demanded a lot of hand checking from the finance team. Payday became one of those moments everyone knew would require extra attention. Not because the team was careless, but because the process itself left too much room for friction. Numbers had to be reviewed again and again. Validations had to be done manually. And each payroll closing came with that quiet tension of hoping nothing was hiding in the details like a gremlin with a calculator. 

“Payroll day took more time from us than it should have and became an operational bottleneck.”

That is a familiar story for growing companies. At first, manual payroll might feel manageable. Then the team grows, the business expands, payment rules become more specific, and suddenly the process starts taking up space it should not take. It becomes slower. More fragile. More dependent on people checking the same thing multiple times. That is not a good use of a finance team’s time. There was also an extra layer of complexity because Síclo works with an A, B, and C category pay scale. That made payroll calculations more delicate. Different categories, different payment structures, more chances for something to be entered wrong or reviewed late. When that is handled without a specialized system, the risk grows quickly. One small mistake can create questions, rework, and a whole little office storm that nobody ordered. The need for a better solution became clear. Síclo needed technology that could reduce manual work, automate calculations, and give the team more control. Payroll had to stop being a bottleneck and become a process that supported the company’s growth. The finance team needed more time for strategic work, not more hours spent wrestling with manual validations like the spreadsheet had personally offended them.

How has Runa supported their operation?

Runa changed the way payroll is managed at Síclo. The process became faster, more organized, and easier to trust. Automation helped remove manual tasks that used to take too much time and created room for errors. For a company that keeps growing with its community, that kind of change matters. Payroll is one of those processes that should feel steady and predictable. Not exciting. Exciting payroll is usually bad news wearing sneakers. Today, payroll disbursement flows with much less friction. The finance area has better visibility over payments and movements, which makes the process easier to follow and easier to control. That clarity helps the team see what is happening without digging through scattered checks or waiting for someone to confirm the same number again. It also gives leadership better information when reviewing costs and making decisions.

Runa also helped Síclo strengthen expense control. That is important because growth without financial visibility can get messy fast. A company can have great energy, strong community, and packed classes, but if the numbers are not clear, decisions become harder. With more organized payroll information, the team can manage expenses with fewer surprises. And in finance, fewer surprises is basically a love language. Thanks to that order, Síclo can focus more on scaling the business and creating better experiences for its community. The team has more peace of mind knowing that payroll, one of the most important internal processes, is no longer a recurring headache. It now works with more structure, more speed, and less noise. That gives the business a stronger base to keep growing across markets without letting payroll slow down the ride.

Why was Runa the best option?

For a growing company like Síclo, onboarding new employees happens often. That made ease of use a big factor when choosing Runa. The team needed a platform that was intuitive, clear, and simple to adopt. Not a tool that required endless training or made every new process feel like learning a secret code. Runa’s design helped the team start using it without making implementation feel heavy. From the beginning, Runa made daily operations more efficient. It removed many of the frictions that appeared at each payroll closing and gave the finance team a clearer way to manage payments. That mattered because Síclo needed more than payroll automation. It needed control. It needed visibility. It needed a process that could grow with the company instead of needing to be patched every time the team expanded.

Runa also gave Síclo something finance teams always appreciate: clarity over payments and better control over related expenses. When payments are clear, the team works with more confidence. When expenses are easier to see, decisions become stronger. And when payroll stops being a constant source of manual work, people can focus on the business instead of babysitting a process that should already be under control. As Andrés Lankisch says: “today, we have full clarity over payments and much greater financial control, which translates into confidence to operate and grow with processes that are truly ready to scale.” That is the real value for Síclo. Runa helped turn payroll into a process that moves with the company, not against it. And for a brand built around movement, energy, and community, that fit makes a lot of sense.