Pricing detail · Payroll management
What payroll management costs, and what drives the fee.
Payroll management is a fixed monthly fee — $150–$800+/month against a written scope, no hourly billing. This page explains what moves the number within that range and why payroll is priced monthly. For the full price table across every service, see the pricing overview.
Payroll management: $150–$800+/month, a fixed monthly fee against a written scope · no hourly billing · covers pay runs, in-software payroll-tax filings, and year-end W-2/1099 work · the payroll software subscription is billed separately by the provider · exact fixed fee quoted in writing within 3 business days of a free discovery call.
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Payroll pricing, in five questions.
How much does payroll management cost?
$150–$800+/month, as a fixed monthly fee against a written scope — no hourly billing. Where you land depends on number of employees, pay frequency, how many states you run payroll in, contractor/1099 volume, and year-end W-2/1099 work. Your exact fixed fee is quoted in writing within 3 business days of a free discovery call.
Is the payroll software subscription included in that fee?
No. TechBrot’s fee is the management and processing service. The payroll software itself — QuickBooks Payroll, Gusto, or similar — is a separate subscription billed by that provider directly. TechBrot is provider-neutral and recommends the product that fits your business; for software pricing, refer to the provider.
What drives the monthly payroll fee up or down?
Five factors: number of employees, pay frequency (weekly runs cost more than monthly), whether payroll spans multiple states, contractor/1099 volume, and the year-end W-2/1099 workload. The discovery call surfaces these and the written scope reflects them.
Does the fee cover payroll taxes?
It covers payroll-tax handling inside the software. TechBrot sets up and oversees the federal, state, and local payroll-tax filings and deposits the payroll product performs — 941s, state withholding, unemployment, and year-end W-2/1099 filing. Income-tax filing and IRS representation stay with your CPA or EA.
Why is payroll management a fixed monthly fee?
Because payroll is recurring, predictable work. A fixed monthly fee covers every pay run, the payroll-tax calendar, and year-end W-2/1099 work — including the heavy January month — so you can budget the cost and never face a per-run or year-end surprise invoice.
What payroll management costs.
Payroll management at TechBrot is a fixed monthly fee of $150–$800+/month against a written scope — no hourly billing. Where your business lands in that range is driven by real factors: the number of employees, how often you run payroll, whether you pay people in more than one state, your contractor/1099 volume, and the year-end W-2 and 1099 work. The fee is for the management and processing service — the payroll software itself (QuickBooks Payroll, Gusto, or similar) is a separate subscription billed by that provider, and TechBrot is provider-neutral about which one you use. TechBrot manages payroll and oversees the payroll-tax filings the software performs; income-tax filing and IRS representation stay with your CPA. Your exact fixed fee is quoted in writing within 3 business days of a free discovery call.
What drives the monthly fee.
Payroll is always a range because no two payrolls are the same shape. These are the factors that decide where your fixed monthly fee lands — surfaced on the free discovery call, then fixed in the written scope.
Number of employees
More people on the run means more pay items, more deductions, more onboarding and offboarding, and more to reconcile each cycle. Headcount is the single biggest driver of where a payroll fee lands in the range.
Pay frequency
Weekly and bi-weekly runs happen far more often than semi-monthly or monthly ones, so they carry more recurring processing work. The more pay runs per year, the more of the management cycle TechBrot owns.
Multi-state payroll
Each state where you have employees adds its own registration, withholding rules, unemployment account, and filing calendar. Multi-state payroll is materially more work than single-state, and it pushes the fee up accordingly.
Contractor / 1099 volume
Contractors are not on payroll, but 1099 tracking, vendor setup, and year-end 1099-NEC preparation ride alongside the payroll engagement. A heavy contractor mix adds year-end volume that the fee reflects.
W-2 / 1099 year-end work
January means W-2s for employees and 1099-NECs for qualifying contractors, plus annual reconciliations. Year-end is the heaviest month of the payroll calendar, and it is built into the fixed monthly fee rather than billed as a surprise add-on.
Benefits, deductions & garnishments
Retirement contributions, health-premium deductions, reimbursements, tips, multiple pay rates, and court-ordered garnishments each add setup and per-run handling. The more moving parts in a paycheck, the more the cycle takes.
What the monthly fee includes.
One fixed monthly fee covers the whole payroll cycle — including the heavy year-end month — against a written scope.
Scheduled pay-run processing
Each pay run prepared, reviewed, and submitted on your cadence inside the payroll product you use — hours and salaries to net pay, on time.
In-software payroll-tax handling
Setup and oversight of the federal, state, and local payroll-tax filings and deposits the payroll product performs — 941s, state withholding and unemployment, and the rest of the calendar.
New-hire & state registration support
Onboarding new employees into payroll and coordinating the state payroll-tax registrations a new work location requires.
Year-end W-2 & 1099 preparation
W-2s for employees and 1099-NECs for qualifying contractors, prepared and filed through the payroll product, with annual reconciliations.
Payroll-to-books reconciliation
Payroll posted and reconciled against your QuickBooks file so wages, taxes, and liabilities match the books — not a parallel record.
A named ProAdvisor
One Certified ProAdvisor owns your payroll end to end. No rotation, no re-explaining when a question comes up mid-cycle.
The software subscription is separate.
There are two distinct costs in running payroll, and it matters to keep them apart. The first is the payroll software — the platform that actually calculates paychecks, moves the money, and submits the tax filings. That is a subscription billed directly by the provider: QuickBooks Payroll, Gusto, or whatever product fits your business. TechBrot does not resell it and does not quote its price — for that, refer to the provider, because their plans and per-employee pricing change and are theirs to state.
The second cost is the management and processing service — running the pay cycle correctly, overseeing the payroll-tax calendar, onboarding new hires, handling year-end, and keeping payroll reconciled to your books. That is what TechBrot’s $150–$800+/month fixed fee covers. You pay the software provider for the platform and TechBrot for running it well.
TechBrot is provider-neutral. We hold an active Intuit Payroll certification and operate QuickBooks Payroll often, but we recommend the product that genuinely fits your headcount, states, and benefits — not the one that pays us, because none of them do. The recommendation comes out of the discovery call, with the trade-offs explained in plain terms.
Payroll taxes, and where the lane ends.
Payroll management includes the payroll-tax work the software performs: TechBrot sets up and oversees the federal, state, and local payroll-tax deposits and filings — the 941s, state withholding and unemployment accounts, new-state registrations, and the year-end W-2 and 1099-NEC filings — all run through your payroll product on its calendar. That is squarely inside the engagement.
What is not in scope is your income-tax return and any representation before the IRS. Filing the business or owner income-tax return, tax-strategy planning, and responding to the IRS on your behalf stay with your CPA or EA. TechBrot keeps payroll accurate and the books CPA-ready so that handoff is clean — but the income-tax lane belongs to your tax preparer, and we say so plainly rather than blur it. Recurring engagements include a year-end CPA handoff at no extra cost.
How the drivers stack up.
Illustrative shapes only — not quotes. Every fixed fee is set in writing after a free discovery call.
Lower in the range — representative example: a handful of salaried employees, one state, monthly or semi-monthly pay, no contractors, simple deductions. Fewer runs and a single tax jurisdiction keep the recurring work light, so a payroll like this sits toward the lower end of the $150–$800+/month range.
Higher in the range — representative example: a larger team paid weekly, employees in several states, a meaningful contractor roster needing year-end 1099-NECs, plus benefit deductions and a garnishment or two. More runs, more jurisdictions, and heavier year-end volume mean more of the cycle to own — so a payroll like this sits toward the upper end. Your own shape is matched to a fixed number on the discovery call.
Four steps to a number in writing.
Free discovery call
30 min · no obligation
Written scope
within 3 business days
Fixed fee, in writing
no hourly billing
Payroll runs begin
named operator
Questions about payroll cost.
How much does payroll management cost?
Is the payroll software subscription part of this price?
What factors move the fee within the range?
Does payroll management include payroll taxes?
Do you handle contractor (1099) payments too?
Is year-end W-2 and 1099 work an extra charge?
Why is payroll a fixed monthly fee instead of hourly?
Is TechBrot affiliated with Intuit Inc.?
Get your number
Get your exact payroll fee in writing.
A free 30-minute discovery call, then a written fixed-fee scope within 3 business days — the exact monthly number, in writing, before you commit. No hourly billing, no obligation.