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.
Pricing detail · Payroll management
What payroll management costs, and what drives the fee.
Payroll management is a fixed monthly fee — $150–$800+/mo 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.
$150–$800+/mo
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§ 01 · TL;DR
§ TL;DR
Payroll management at TechBrot is a fixed monthly fee of $150–$800+/mo against a written scope, never hourly. It covers pay runs, the payroll-tax filings your payroll software performs, and year-end W-2 and 1099 work. Headcount, pay frequency, states and contractor volume set the fee; the payroll software subscription is billed separately by its provider.
They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.
What stood out the most was TechBrot Inc’s attention to detail.
Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2 and QuickBooks Workforce Certification,
§ 02 · What moves the number
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.
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.
§ 03 · What the fee covers
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 senior bookkeeper
Your senior bookkeeper owns your payroll end to end. No re-explaining when a question comes up mid-cycle.
§ 04 · Service fee vs. software
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+/mo fixed fee covers. You pay the software provider for the platform and TechBrot for running it well.
TechBrot is provider-neutral. TechBrot’s senior reviewer holds an active QuickBooks Workforce Certification, and we operate QuickBooks Payroll, and we also set up and support Gusto payroll alongside QuickBooks, but we recommend the product that genuinely fits your headcount, states, and benefits. The recommendation comes out of the discovery call, with the trade-offs explained in plain terms.
§ 05 · Where payroll tax stops
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. Your year-end package for your CPA is priced in your written scope.
§ 06 · Representative examples
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+/mo 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.
§ 07 · From question to fixed fee
Four steps to a number in writing.
- STEP 1
Free discovery call
30 min · no obligation
- STEP 2
Written scope
within 3 business days
- STEP 3
Fixed fee, in writing
no hourly billing
- STEP 4
Payroll runs begin
A senior bookkeeper
§ 09 · Questions
Questions about payroll cost.
Is the payroll software subscription part of this price?
No. TechBrot’s fee is the management and processing service — running pay runs, overseeing payroll-tax filings, and handling year-end. The payroll software itself, such as QuickBooks Payroll or Gusto, is a separate subscription billed directly by that provider. TechBrot is provider-neutral: we set up and support both QuickBooks Payroll and Gusto payroll alongside your QuickBooks books, we recommend and operate whichever product fits your business, and we don’t quote provider subscription prices — refer to the provider for those.
What factors move the fee within the range?
Five drivers: the number of employees on the run, your pay frequency (weekly and bi-weekly cost more than semi-monthly or monthly because there are more runs per year), whether you run payroll in more than one state, your contractor/1099 volume, and the year-end W-2 and 1099 workload. Benefits, deductions, and garnishments add complexity too. The free discovery call surfaces these and the written scope reflects them.
Does payroll management include payroll taxes?
It includes payroll-tax handling inside the payroll software. TechBrot sets up and oversees the federal, state, and local payroll-tax filings and deposits the payroll product performs — including 941s, state withholding and unemployment, and the year-end W-2/1099 filings. Income-tax filing and IRS representation are not part of payroll management; those stay with your CPA or EA.
Do you handle contractor (1099) payments too?
Contractors aren’t on payroll, but 1099 work rides alongside the payroll engagement: vendor setup, contractor payment tracking, and year-end 1099-NEC preparation and filing for qualifying contractors. A heavy contractor mix adds year-end volume, which is reflected in where the fixed fee lands.
Is year-end W-2 and 1099 work an extra charge?
No. Year-end W-2s for employees and 1099-NECs for qualifying contractors are built into the fixed monthly fee, not billed as a separate add-on. January is the heaviest month of the payroll calendar, and pricing it into the recurring fee is exactly the point of a fixed monthly fee — no year-end surprise invoice.
Why is payroll a fixed monthly fee instead of hourly?
Payroll is recurring, predictable work, so it should be priced predictably. A fixed monthly fee covers every scheduled pay run, the payroll-tax calendar, new-hire and state-registration support, and year-end W-2/1099 work against a written scope. You know the total cost before work begins, and you’re never charged per run or surprised at year-end.
Who exactly do I contract with, and how do I pay?
You contract with TechBrot, Inc., a Delaware corporation, under one written scope. You always pay TechBrot, Inc. directly, by ACH or wire. TechBrot invoices every engagement. No one on our team will ask you to pay through a personal link, a gift card or cryptocurrency. TechBrot is an independent firm and is not affiliated with Intuit.
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