Self-Pay payroll: what WagePress™ does and what you do

What Self-Pay payroll covers

WagePress™ calculates federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state withholding from each agency's published guides. Self-Pay also includes check printing on your own preprinted check stock and after-the-fact payroll, which means entering checks already written.

Those features cover different parts of the work. A paycheck calculation tells you the payroll result. A paystub records the result for the employee. A printed check is part of making the wage payment. Year-to-date records carry the payroll history forward.

When you review the plan, ask which part of that work you want help with. Then check who will handle each remaining action.

Set the responsibilities first

Under Self-Pay, the employer moves the money, makes tax deposits and files returns. Write down who will do those jobs in your business. If an accountant helps, agree which actions the accountant will take and which actions still need the owner's attention.

Federal tax responsibility deserves a separate check. Using a payroll service provider generally leaves the employer responsible for federal tax deposits and payments. The IRS distinguishes several third-party arrangements, so review its guidance for the arrangement you use.

Give the payment work a named owner. Give the review work a named owner too. If those are different people, make the handoff clear enough that neither person has to assume the other finished it.

Start with source information

Before calculating pay, gather the records that explain it. Confirm the employee, the pay period, the pay information and any changes you need to review. Use the source records rather than an amount copied from an old message.

For federal income tax withholding, Form W-4 supplies employee information used in the calculation. The IRS describes it as the employee's withholding certificate. Keep questions about that information separate from questions about hours or wages.

If something is unclear, resolve it before relying on the result. The goal is a calculation based on confirmed inputs. A familiar-looking net amount is not a reason to skip that review.

Read the result before writing the check

Compare the paystub with the information you approved. Check that you are reviewing the right employee and pay period. Look at the pay and withholding lines. If a number differs from what you expected, return to the inputs and find the reason.

Do not change a result just to make it match the last check. Pay information and withholding information can change. The useful question is whether this calculation follows the confirmed information for this payment.

When a person other than the owner prepares payroll, keep the review conversation specific. “The hours match the approved timesheet” gives the payer something to check. “It looks fine” leaves the basis for approval unclear.

Make the employee payment

Self-Pay supports checks you write yourself and check printing on your own preprinted stock. Before using printed checks, confirm that the stock and printing setup suit your actual process. Check the printed result before making a payment.

Compare the payment with the reviewed payroll result. Keep the check information with the payroll records in your own process. That gives the person checking the books a way to follow the amount from the paystub to the payment.

For checks already written, use after-the-fact payroll to enter the original payment information. Gather the source records first. Keep any unresolved differences visible for review.

Follow through on taxes and returns

A reminder and a completed deposit are different things. In Self-Pay, you make the tax deposits and file the returns. Keep those actions visible after the paycheck work is finished.

Use official agency information to establish the duties that apply to your business. Do not guess from another employer's process. In Texas, TWC explains that private taxed employers report employee wages and pay unemployment tax. Other employer categories can have different treatment, so that statement alone does not determine your business's obligations.

Keep questions for your tax professional focused: which obligations apply, who will complete each action and what evidence will show it happened. A payroll result should not be treated as a filing confirmation.

Keep a trail someone else can follow

WagePress™ keeps year-to-date payroll records. Your broader employer records need to explain payments and tax actions as well. The IRS's employment tax recordkeeping guidance lists wage payment information, withholding certificates, tax deposit information and copies of filed returns among the records to keep.

Organize your own evidence around the payroll it relates to. Someone reviewing the work should be able to find the pay information, the payroll result and the payment record without asking you to reconstruct the whole conversation.

Keep deposit and filing confirmations with the related records. For a discrepancy, preserve the evidence and the question that needs answering. That is more useful than an unexplained replacement total.

Read the price with the responsibilities

Self-Pay is $0 for up to five employees and $15 per month flat above five. Forms are filed separately at per-form prices. Compare those published charges with the work your business will still handle.

Full Service is a separate choice. Full Service includes direct deposit, tax deposits and returns, state filings and W-2s. Decide which division of work fits the way you want to run payroll.

For Self-Pay, the next step is straightforward: identify who confirms the inputs, who reviews the paystub and who completes payments, deposits and returns. Then compare the plan with that process in mind.

See Self-Pay payroll.

Payroll opens at launch. Texas employers first.