Payroll Services In Michigan
Payroll is the one bill a business can never pay late. Miss a tax deposit and a penalty notice follows. Get a deduction wrong and an employee tells you about it before anyone else does. And it is still the job plenty of owners do themselves, late on the night before payday.
We take it off your desk. Our team runs your pay cycle in Gusto, ADP or QuickBooks Payroll, files the federal and Michigan payroll tax returns and prepares W-2s and W-3s at year end whenever a PEO is not already covering them. Because the same people keep your bookkeeping and monthly accounting, every pay run is posted to the ledger and tied to what left the bank.
We work with employers throughout Michigan, and virtually with businesses anywhere in the country. Payroll comes with our Back Office package and can also be scoped on its own. Restaurants, retailers and seasonal businesses each bring their own payroll wrinkles, from tips to summer hiring, and our industry pages cover those in more detail.
Three Payroll Services, One Team Behind Them
Each one can run on its own or alongside a monthly package. Here is what each covers and where to read more.
Payroll Processing (Weekly & Bi-Weekly)
Your pay cycle, run on schedule every week or every other week, whichever fits how your business works. We set up new hires and process terminations, apply deductions and garnishments, and withhold federal and Michigan income tax, Social Security and Medicare correctly on every check. Form 941 goes out each quarter, and W-2s and W-3s go out in January. See how our weekly and bi-weekly payroll processing works and which schedule suits your people.
1099-NEC & 1099-MISC Filing
The 1099-NEC deadline is January 31, and for a lot of businesses the scramble starts about two days earlier. We track contractor payments through the year, collect W-9s before the year closes so nobody is hunting for a tax ID in January, and sort out which payments belong on a 1099-NEC and which on a 1099-MISC. Forms are e-filed, with a Form 1096 where paper filing applies. Here is how 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC preparation and filing works with us.
Workers' Compensation Audit Support
Once a year your workers' comp carrier audits the policy, comparing the payroll you estimated with the payroll you actually ran, job by job. We pull together the payroll records, employee classifications and supporting schedules the auditor asks for, so they get what they need the first time. That matters, because a job in the wrong classification can turn into a premium bill you never budgeted for. More on our workers' compensation audit support.
Moving Payroll Over Without Missing A Payday
Changing who runs payroll feels riskier than it is. Doing things in the right order keeps it quiet.
We Start With Your Current Setup
We review your pay schedule, platform, employee list, deductions and the federal and Michigan tax accounts already in place, and flag anything that was set up wrong before it touches a paycheck.
Year-To-Date Totals Come Across
Switching partway through the year, we carry over every employee's wages and withholding to date, so the W-2s in January cover the whole year and nothing is counted twice.
The First Run Gets A Second Look
Before the first payday on our watch, we check each paycheck for hours, deductions and withholding, and confirm the tax deposits are scheduled to land on time.
Then Payroll Runs On Rhythm
From there it runs on the schedule set in your engagement letter, with quarterly returns filed and payroll entries posted to your books in QuickBooks Online.
Payroll Questions Michigan Employers Ask Us
Which payroll platforms do you work in?
Gusto, ADP and QuickBooks Payroll. If you already use one of them, we usually keep it, so your employees' pay stubs and direct deposit setup stay where they are. If you are starting fresh, we talk through which one suits how you pay people and set it up alongside your QuickBooks Online file.
We use a PEO. Is there still something for you to do?
Usually, yes. When a PEO files your payroll tax returns and W-2s, we do not duplicate that work. We make sure the PEO's reports land correctly in your books, tie them to what left the bank, and handle what the PEO does not, such as contractor 1099s. Without a PEO, the federal and Michigan payroll returns are ours to file.
Can I hand you payroll and keep doing my own books?
Yes. Payroll can be scoped on its own, though it works best next to monthly bookkeeping, since every pay run posts wages, taxes and benefits to the ledger. Either way, the scope is written into an engagement letter before the first pay run, so you know exactly what we handle and what stays with you.
Let's Take Payroll Off Your Desk
Tell us how many people you pay, how often and in which platform. We will come back with a plain answer on what handing it over looks like.