Payroll management
Recurring payroll management for U.S. small and mid-sized businesses — scheduled processing, multi-state compliance, and year-end reporting led by a Certified QuickBooks Payroll ProAdvisor — payroll tax filings are submitted on the schedule your payroll platform or CPA/EA handles. Fixed monthly fee, integrated with your bookkeeping.
Intuit certifications
Every engagement is reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor (QuickBooks Online Level 2, Payroll) — verification on request. Intuit’s ProAdvisor program becomes ProPartner Accountants in early 2027; the certifications continue.
Payroll management is the recurring service that operates your payroll correctly — scheduled pay cycles, federal and state tax withholding, quarterly 941 and state unemployment filings through your payroll platform with the liabilities reconciled by us, direct deposit and pay stubs, employee onboarding, multi-state compliance, and year-end W-2/1099 reporting — delivered by a Certified QuickBooks Payroll ProAdvisor and integrated with your bookkeeping. Typically $150–$800+/month.
Payroll management is the recurring professional service that operates an employer’s payroll function correctly — running scheduled pay cycles, calculating and withholding federal and state taxes, filing quarterly 941 returns and state unemployment filings, generating pay stubs and direct deposits, processing employee onboarding and offboarding, tracking PTO and benefits deductions, handling multi-state payroll and remote-worker compliance, and producing year-end W-2 and 1099 reporting. TechBrot delivers it as a fixed monthly engagement led by a Certified QuickBooks Payroll ProAdvisor, fully integrated with your QuickBooks bookkeeping; payroll-tax returns are filed through your payroll platform or by your CPA or EA, and TechBrot keeps the payroll liabilities reconciled.
Engagements typically run $150–$800+/month depending on employee count, state coverage, and complexity. Payroll often pairs with monthly bookkeeping — the two integrate cleanly and the combined cost is materially lower than running them with separate providers.
Multi-state capable · integrates with QuickBooks bookkeeping. Not affiliated with Intuit Inc.
Multi-state payroll triggers registration in each state, multi-state withholding rules, unemployment in each state, and reciprocal-state coordination. The compliance load grows non-linearly with each new state.
A single remote employee in a new state creates payroll nexus there. Registration, withholding setup, and state unemployment all need to happen before the first paycheck.
State payroll-tax notices, unemployment audits, and reciprocal-state questions arrive without warning. Professional management responds correctly and resolves them without penalties.
Self-managed payroll consumes 5–15 hours per cycle once you have multiple employees, benefits deductions, and multi-state work. That time costs more than professional management does.
If payroll and bookkeeping run separately, monthly reconciliation gaps compound. Integrated payroll-and-bookkeeping management eliminates this category of error entirely.
Provider switches mid-year require careful coordination — YTD totals, prior filings, state accounts, direct-deposit migration. A botched switch produces months of cleanup work.
3–5 days before pay date. Hours and data are captured, then calculations and review (2–3 days out), submission and funding (1–2 days out), and posting and reconciliation on pay date — a fixed four-phase cadence every cycle, so nothing is rushed the night before.
A single employee in a new state creates payroll nexus there. Before their first paycheck we register the business in that state, open withholding and unemployment accounts, and apply any reciprocal-state agreement — the core of multi-state payroll-tax handling.
Filings (941s, state withholding, SUTA, new-hire reporting) are made through your payroll platform — QuickBooks Payroll files them automatically — or by your CPA or EA; a named Certified Payroll ProAdvisor keeps the payroll liabilities reconciled under firm-level quality review. Deadlines are tracked; if a state notice arrives, the operator responds and resolves it within the agreed service window.
Approve hours and confirm any changes — new hires, terminations, bonuses, PTO. That’s it. Calculations, withholdings, deposits, pay stubs, and the bookkeeping posting are operated for you; payroll-tax filings go out through your payroll platform or tax professional, and we keep the liabilities reconciled.
W-2s for employees and 1099s for contractors, prepared by the IRS and state deadlines (W-2/1099 to recipients by January 31) and filed through your payroll platform. Quarterly 941 and state unemployment filings go out through your payroll platform throughout the year, with the liabilities reconciled by us.
Every cycle runs the same four-phase cadence — so nothing is rushed the night before pay date.
Hours imported from time-tracking, salaried employees verified, bonuses and reimbursements captured, PTO requests reconciled, new hires and terminations confirmed.
Gross-to-net calculations run, federal and state withholdings computed, deductions applied, multi-state allocations verified. The operator reviews for anomalies before submission.
Payroll submitted, direct deposits funded, tax withholdings transmitted to federal and state agencies on schedule through your payroll platform. Pay stubs published to employee portals.
Direct deposits land. Payroll journal entries post to QuickBooks. Liabilities reconciled. State notices, employee questions, and amendments handled within agreed service windows.
Multi-state payroll-tax handling is the work that scales non-linearly with every state you employ in: registering the business in each state where an employee actually works, opening state income-tax withholding and state unemployment (SUTA) accounts, applying reciprocal-state agreements between neighboring states, and filing in every jurisdiction on its own schedule. A single remote hire in a new state creates payroll nexus there — registration, withholding setup, and unemployment all have to happen before the first paycheck, not after.
Every state where an employee actually works requires registering the business and opening state income-tax withholding and state unemployment (SUTA) accounts.
Neighboring states with reciprocal agreements change which jurisdiction withholds — applied correctly so employees aren’t taxed twice or under-withheld.
Each jurisdiction files on its own schedule. A single remote hire creates payroll nexus — registration, withholding setup, and unemployment all happen before the first paycheck, not after.
The work scales non-linearly with every state you employ in — which is why multi-state payroll is one of the most common reasons businesses move to professional management.
A 30-minute call reviews your current setup, employee count, state coverage, software, and compliance posture. Written fixed-fee scope within 3 business days.
Typical: 3 business days
New: company setup, state registrations, software configuration, employee onboarding. Transitioning: YTD migration, prior-filings reconciliation, direct-deposit setup, employee notification.
Typical: 2–4 weeks
First payroll run under TechBrot management, with firm-level quality review. Any setup discrepancies resolved before the second cycle.
Typical: first pay date +5 days
Every cycle runs the four-phase cadence. Quarterly 941 and state unemployment filings tracked (filed through your payroll platform), liabilities reconciled, and year-end W-2/1099 preparation handled on schedule.
Typical: ongoing
Default platform for TechBrot engagements. All three tiers — Workforce Payroll, Workforce Premium, Workforce Elite (formerly Core, Premium, Elite). Native integration with QuickBooks bookkeeping eliminates reconciliation gaps.
We set up and support Gusto payroll alongside QuickBooks — set-up, the connection to QuickBooks Online, ongoing support, and running payroll alongside the books. Considered when HR and benefits tools or a distributed team weigh more than keeping payroll inside QuickBooks; we confirm with Gusto that the plan covers your states, contractors and HR needs during set-up. We recommend Gusto over QuickBooks Payroll when the use case fits better.
A separate HR and payroll platform. Considered when a business already runs on Rippling or is weighing it; we confirm with Rippling that the plan covers your states, employees and contractors during implementation.
Separate payroll providers that also offer HR, benefits administration and PEO services. Considered when a business already runs on one of them or wants payroll bundled with those services; we confirm plan coverage with the provider during implementation.
Switching platforms is routine. We handle YTD migration, state-account transitions, employee notification, and prior-filings reconciliation. Most transitions complete in 2–4 weeks.
Part of the diagnostic. We recommend the platform that fits your business — not the one we’d earn more on. Independence is part of the standard.
When payroll and bookkeeping run with separate providers, every month opens a reconciliation gap: the payroll journal has to be re-keyed or imported, liabilities drift, and the two systems disagree until someone fixes them. Run together, the payroll journal posts straight into your QuickBooks file each cycle and the liabilities reconcile automatically — the entire category of error disappears.
It’s also cheaper. A combined payroll-and-bookkeeping engagement with one operator costs materially less than two separate vendors, and you have one named person accountable for both. Most payroll clients run monthly bookkeeping alongside for exactly this reason.
Three tiers; setup and provider-migration are quoted separately as one-time work, and software subscriptions pass through at cost. See the pricing page for full detail.
Fixed fee, scoped in writing
For: Simple single-state payroll, under 10 employees, no contractors, standard benefits, biweekly or semi-monthly cycle.
Most common
Fixed fee, scoped in writing
For: Multi-state payroll (2–5 states), 10–50 employees, contractors, benefits deductions, growing teams.
Fixed fee, scoped in writing
For: 50+ employees, 6+ states, multi-entity payroll, equity compensation, complex benefits, union or prevailing-wage situations.
Every TechBrot payroll engagement is delivered by a named Certified ProAdvisor who holds the Certified QuickBooks Payroll ProAdvisor credential and is multi-state capable. You’ll know exactly who runs your payroll and how to reach them, backed by firm-level quality review and tracking of every filing deadline.
“They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.”Verified client review · Food & Beverage · Verified Clutch engagement
The standard, every file
Payroll and bookkeeping integrate cleanly — combined, the payroll journal posts and reconciles every month with no gap, at a materially lower combined cost than separate providers.
The default platform, professionally configured and operated — Workforce Payroll, Workforce Premium, or Workforce Elite, integrated with your QuickBooks file.
Multi-state employees often mean multi-state sales-tax nexus too — the same team keeps the post-Wayfair sales-tax records your tax professional files from.
If payroll entries never reconciled to the books, a QuickBooks cleanup corrects the file before ongoing payroll posts cleanly.
Setting payroll up correctly — tax accounts, pay schedules, liability mapping, filings — so the file ties out from the first run.
What managed payroll costs at your headcount and pay frequency, before you compare providers.
Talk to a ProAdvisor
No sales script. You speak with a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor who has looked at files like yours — and you get a written fixed-fee scope within three business days.
Tell us what’s wrong with the books. We’ll tell you whether cleanup, catch-up or monthly bookkeeping fits.
Call (877) 751-5575. If we miss you, a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor returns your call within one business day. Written fixed-fee scope within 3 business days. No hourly billing.
Send a few details and a Certified ProAdvisor replies within one business day. Or just call (877) 751-5575.
Book a free 30-minute payroll review. We’ll review your setup, employee count, state coverage, and compliance posture, and deliver a written fixed-fee scope within 3 business days — before any work begins.
Tell us what’s wrong with the books. We’ll tell you whether cleanup, catch-up or monthly bookkeeping fits.
Call (877) 751-5575. If we miss you, a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor returns your call within one business day. Written fixed-fee scope within 3 business days. No hourly billing.