Each capability below is in the product today. Where a step still takes a person — because an agency offers no other route — it says so under the description.
Payroll for North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Forms 1099 are handled by a separate product and are not part of PayrollPro.
Most small firms re-key the same numbers into a third-party filer and find out weeks later whether the return was accepted.
The return is built from the payroll that produced it and transmitted through the IRS Modernized e-File system as a Reporting Agent. Nothing counts as filed until the IRS acknowledgement comes back Accepted — the platform waits for that word and shows it.
An employee who lives in one state and works in another is where generic calculators quietly get it wrong.
Each state's own formula, including Maryland's county rates and the reciprocity rules that decide which state withholds. The NC-4, VA-4 and MW507 drive the math, not a flat percentage.
A deposit follows the date wages were paid, not the date of the return — and a due date that lands on a Saturday moves. Getting either wrong is a penalty.
Every deposit is dated from the pay date per IRS Publication 15, rolled to the next business day when it falls on a weekend or federal holiday, and each state's own frequency rule is applied separately — Maryland is measured by its largest quarter, North Carolina and Virginia by monthly average.
An employer that fails to withhold a support order becomes liable for the amount itself. The limits are not a single percentage: they depend on the order, on disposable earnings, and on what else is already being withheld.
Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act is enforced in the engine: 50 to 65 percent for support depending on circumstances, and the lesser of 25 percent or the amount above 30 times the federal minimum wage for ordinary garnishments. Legal order comes first — levy, then support, then creditors, then voluntary — and anything that could not be withheld is recorded as arrears with its reason.
When a check amount disagrees with the pieces it is made of, nothing in a normal payroll report points at it.
Every line subtracts pre-tax, taxes and post-tax from gross and compares the remainder to the net that was actually paid. A register only reads as balanced when the arithmetic closes and every person was paid.
Sending a client to a platform branded with someone else's name tells them who actually runs their payroll.
Logo, colour and your own domain on the client's screens and in every email the platform sends. It is how the product ships, not an upgrade.
The questions that interrupt a payroll week are 'where is my pay stub' and 'what did I pay in taxes last quarter'.
Employees get their own stubs and W-2s. The employer sees its own payrolls and taxes, read-only, enforced in the database rather than by hiding a button.
Adding help usually means handing over the whole book of clients.
Scope is enforced by database policies, not by the interface, and it is independent of the person's role. Filing to the IRS stays with the owner, because that signature is the owner's personal credential.
Filing W-2s client by client means one upload per client, every January.
One EFW2 file carries every employer the firm serves, in the format Publication 42-007 specifies for a third-party submitter, including the tax year 2026 records for tips and overtime.
What still takes a person: The file is uploaded to the Social Security Administration's Business Services Online. SSA's web service is currently closed to new submitters, so this step is a person uploading one file per season.
Withholding and unemployment are different agencies in all three states, which means two filings per state per quarter, each in its own format.
The quarterly wage file for North Carolina's unemployment system, the NC-3 annual reconciliation, and Virginia's VA-6 and Maryland's MW508 are built from the payroll that is already in the system — byte for byte against each agency's published layout.
What still takes a person: Each agency takes the file through its own portal. Virginia is the exception: it accepts a server-to-server transfer, which is on the roadmap.
Platforms that move your clients' money hold it first. That is a different business with a different licence, and it puts a third party between the employer and its own payroll.
PayrollPro builds the file — NACHA for net pay, CCD+ with TXP addenda for tax deposits — and the employer originates it from its own account. The money never passes through the firm or through us.
What still takes a person: The employer uploads the file to its bank, or enrols for ACH credit with the agency. That is the design, not a gap.
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