New capability reduces errors, reconciliation time, and risk for teams calculating leave pay

DENVER, Aug. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — AbsenceSoft, a leading provider of leave and accommodations management SaaS solutions, today announced Payroll Calculations, a platform module that connects leave administrators and payroll teams by bringing pay calculations into the same system used to manage employee leave.

A single employee’s leave can trigger three, four, or five overlapping policies at once, each with a different pay percentage, salary cap, and eligibility window. Yet many HRIS platforms don’t handle these calculations, leaving organizations to rely on spreadsheets, manual handoffs, and institutional knowledge. Nationally, many HR teams continue to manage leave-related compliance manually with spreadsheets, according to AbsenceSoft’s 2026 State of Leave and Accommodations Report. Reliance on manual processes not only creates compliance exposure from overpayments or underpayments but a miscalculated or delayed paycheck can directly damage employee experience and erode trust: 40% of employees say they would consider leaving their job after a poor leave experience. Payroll Calculations simplifies the process by applying the relevant policies and calculations within AbsenceSoft. For one customer with approximately 1,900 covered lives, biweekly payroll processing time dropped from 16 hours to two hours, an 87% reduction.

Leave administrators gain a single, authoritative pay estimate to share with payroll, replacing the back-and-forth guesswork that slows cases down and helping them close faster. Payroll teams get policy-compliant leave pay calculations generated directly from the platform, reducing errors and reconciliation work that comes with estimating from the other side. Employees are paid accurately and on time during one of the more stressful periods of their working lives.

Unlike other solutions that are detached from an organization’s compliance data, Payroll Calculations is built into the AbsenceSoft Compliance Engine™ (ACE). This provides greater visibility and control over each calculation. Pay is automatically recalculated whenever a leave date adjustment, status adjudication change, and base wage or pay order changes, with a complete audit trail throughout.

It draws on an employee’s pay history and applicable policies, including company-paid programs, short-term disability, and state wage replacement benefits, to calculate gross leave pay. It accounts for state benefit offsets so employers pay only their portion, and generates pay-period-level breakdowns ready for export to payroll.

“Payroll and leave have lived in separate systems for too long, costing organizations time, money, and trust,” said Jaclyn Zhuang, Chief Product Officer at AbsenceSoft. “AbsenceSoft’s Payroll Calculations closes that gap. The pay estimate now lives inside the same compliance engine our customers already trust, so the calculation and the policy logic that drives it finally live in one place. Early adopters in financial services, healthcare, retail and other industries are already seeing the difference, and we’re excited to bring this to the organizations that rely on AbsenceSoft every day.”

Southern Illinois Healthcare has been among the early customers implementing Payroll Calculations. Their experience so far offers a preview of the impact the module is designed to have once fully live.

“Our current process for calculating leave related pay is manual and time consuming, which is exactly why we wanted early access to Payroll Calculations. We’re excited to see what it does for our team once we’re fully up and running” said Esther Kabwe, HR Leave and Absence Case Navigator.

“Before AbsenceSoft launched Payroll Calculations, we calculated employees’ leave of absence related payroll manually,” said Mike Roedig, CIO at Charles Taylor, a third-party administrator (TPA). “We were really excited and eager to get going — we’ve already started to see where the time savings will come in, and we’re really excited to be able to have clients run these reports themselves without any intervention from us.”

“As a TPA managing leave of absence programs across a large book of employer clients, keeping payroll calculations accurate and consistent has always been a priority,” said Bethany Kinerson, Sr. Client Services Manager at OneDigital. “Having that functionality built directly into AbsenceSoft has really simplified our process. Once we have an employer’s data, configuration is straightforward, and the onboarding process has been very helpful. For a team like ours handling this at scale, that kind of efficiency really does make a difference.”

After a successful customer beta, Payroll Calculations becomes generally available August 18 as a separate add-on to the AbsenceSoft platform.

For more information, visit https://absencesoft.com/payroll-calculations/.

About AbsenceSoft

AbsenceSoft is a leading provider of leave and accommodations management SaaS solutions. We deliver scalable, easy-to-use, and configurable software to easily and efficiently manage 200+ statutory policies like FMLA, ADA, and PWFA. Our software streamlines and automates leave and accommodations processes, ensuring compliance with federal and state regulations while elevating the employee experience. Built by leave professionals, for leave professionals, AbsenceSoft is trusted by employers across industries, Third Party Administrators (TPAs), and Professional Employee Organizations (PEOs) to manage over seven million lives. We are widely recognized for our top-tier customer service and robust customer community engagement. Learn more at absencesoft.com or follow the company on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Jordan King

386.688.1821

419998@email4pr.com 

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SOURCE AbsenceSoft

LONGUEUIL, QC, July 29, 2026 /CNW/ — On August 3rd, media representatives are invited to the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) John H. Chapman Space Centre to attend the live broadcast of a technical briefing about NASA’s Crew-13 mission featuring a panel of experts, followed by a news conference with the Crew-13 crewmembers, including CSA astronaut Colonel Joshua Kutryk.

Both events will take place at Johnson Space Center in Houston, but journalists at the CSA can ask questions in real time. After the conference, CSA experts will be available on site to give interviews. Please note that Joshua Kutryk will have limited media availability.

Upon arrival, media must show a piece of photo ID at the gate and then report to the reception desk.

Virtual participation
Media may also participate in the events virtually. Interested media should register with the CSA’s Media Relations Office and will then receive a Teams link.

This will be the first space mission for Joshua Kutryk, making him the fourth CSA astronaut to go on a long-duration mission aboard the International Space Station and the first to go to space as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The launch is slated for no earlier than mid-September 2026. Joshua’s crewmates are NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov.

Media who have questions or wish to interview a CSA expert are asked to contact the CSA’s Media Relations Office.

Additional information

Biography of astronaut Joshua KutrykCrew-13 missionJoshua Kutryk’s science activities International Space Station

Website: www.asc-csa.gc.ca
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SOURCE Canadian Space Agency

All preferred stock structure links up to $25 million in total consideration to execution at the Union County Campus, with $20 million earned only as the site achieves defined development milestones on the path targeting up to 150 MW of AI-ready capacity

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., Aug. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Z Squared Inc. (Nasdaq: ZSQR) (“Z Squared” or the “Company”), a computing infrastructure company expanding into AI infrastructure, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the membership interests of Paradox Data, LLC from Paradox Infrastructure LLC. The transaction, initially contemplated as a majority interest acquisition under the binding letter of intent announced on June 25, 2026, has been expanded to a full acquisition of Paradox Data.

Paradox Data’s flagship asset is the Union County Campus at 713 Industrial Road, El Dorado, Arkansas, a data center development site with an existing electric service arrangement with Entergy Arkansas providing for energy service of up to 8.0 MW, an executed land contract for the acquisition of adjacent land, and a development pathway targeting up to 150 MW of AI-ready capacity over time through a combination of utility power and on site generation. The site supports Z Squared’s previously announced Phase 1 objective of developing 100 MW of AI-ready capacity for workloads across multiple U.S. sites.

Execution aligned, non-cash consideration. The aggregate consideration consists entirely of newly designated Series A Convertible Preferred Stock of Z Squared, with no cash payable at closing and no debt financing:

At closing: $5.0 million of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock convertible into common stock at a fixed conversion price of $7.45 per share.Milestone payments: Up to $20.0 million of additional convertible preferred stock, earned only upon achievement of four defined development milestones at the Union County Campus: the first tied to initial energization of AI compute capacity at the existing site, and the remaining three tied to aggregate site capacity thresholds of 50 MW, 100 MW and 150 MW, each earned in installments upon receipt of binding requests for service for the additional capacity and upon energization of that capacity.

“This is ‘scale with discipline’ in contract form,” said David Halabu, Chief Executive Officer of Z Squared. “Eighty percent of the total consideration is earned only as the Union County Campus achieves defined execution milestones: capacity requested, then capacity energized. This deal structure keeps our acquisition currency aligned with execution and continues to closing this transaction quickly.”

Execution support. In connection with the development of the Union County Campus, Z Squared has engaged A2 Advisors, a strategic advisory and executive management firm focused on digital infrastructure: data centers, power, real estate and the capital markets that support them. A2 Advisors is expected to support the Company across site development planning, project delivery, vendor and partner alignment, and leasing and capital strategy for the campus build-out, bringing operator level execution experience to each phase of the development.

“We are excited to be building a highly efficient, technology driven data center with the help of A2 Advisors,” stated Jeffery Harris, Chief Technology Officer of Z Squared. “Following closing, our focus will be the utility, generation, engineering and customer workstreams required to move toward large scale capacity.”

Mr. Harris holds an indirect minority ownership interest in Paradox Infrastructure LLC, the seller in the transaction and Paradox Energy, the recipient of the milestone proceeds.

Closing conditions. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary and transaction specific conditions. The agreement provides for closing within 30 days of signing, subject to conditions, with an outside date of September 30, 2026 (extendable to December 31, 2026 under specified circumstances).

Additional information regarding the transaction, including the material terms of the purchase agreement, will be included in a Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that the transaction will close, or that any milestone will be achieved, on the anticipated timeline or at all.

About Paradox Data, LLC

Paradox Data, LLC is developing an AI compute and high-density data infrastructure business at the Union County Campus in El Dorado, Arkansas, including electric power capacity under an existing interruptible service arrangement with Entergy Arkansas and land rights supporting phased expansion.

About Z Squared Inc.

Z Squared Inc. is a computing infrastructure company operating advanced computing equipment and expanding into AI infrastructure. The Company’s strategy is built on three principles: lead with power by acquiring operating sites where power is already flowing; build for AI workloads by converting that capacity into AI-ready colocation where the customer brings the compute and runs what they need; and scale with discipline by deploying conversion capital site by site, against signed contracts and operational readiness. Z Squared’s common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “ZSQR” in April 2026.

For more information, visit www.zsquaredinc.com.

Investor Relations Contact: ZSQR@mzgroup.us 

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “targets,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,” “potential” or “continue,” or the negatives of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, among others, statements regarding: the anticipated closing of the acquisition of Paradox Data, LLC and the timing thereof; the satisfaction of closing conditions; the achievement of the development milestones and the issuance of the related preferred stock; the development of the Union County Campus, including the targeted capacity of up to 150 MW; the availability and expansion of utility power and on-site generation; the acquisition of adjacent land; the Company’s previously announced Phase 1 objective of developing 100 MW of AI-ready capacity; the expected contributions of A2 Advisors; and the Company’s strategy and planned expansion into AI infrastructure, data center development and power generation.

Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied, including, among others: the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern; the risk that the transaction does not close on the anticipated timeline or at all; the risk that the closing conditions are not satisfied; the risk that the development milestones are not achieved in whole or in part; risks related to the availability, cost and interruptible nature of electric power at the Union County Campus and the Company’s ability to secure additional utility power and on-site generation; risks related to permitting, construction, equipment procurement and the development of data center capacity; customer demand for AI-ready capacity; dilution resulting from the issuance and conversion of the preferred stock issued in the transaction; volatility in digital asset prices and the economics of the Company’s mining operations; and the other risks and uncertainties described under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at www.sec.gov.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as may be required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement.

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SOURCE Z Squared Inc.