What is payroll operations with CapEasy?
We run the operational side of payroll inside the system you already use, and book the journal entries correctly. Payroll is also the service where the line between operations and regulated filing is sharpest, so it is worth being precise about which part is ours.
Payroll operations for a US company starts with the pay run itself: gross wages, withholding for federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and any state and local taxes, netted down to what actually hits an employee's bank account. Behind every pay run sits an employer-side tax liability — the matching FICA contribution plus FUTA and SUTA — that has to be calculated, tracked and deposited on a schedule the IRS sets, not one the business chooses. Getting the pay run right is table stakes; getting the liability tracking right is what keeps a company out of a penalty notice eighteen months later.
The calendar is quarterly at its core. Form 941 reports federal income tax withheld and both halves of FICA for each quarter, and it has to tie to the deposits actually made during that quarter — a mismatch between what was deposited and what 941 reports is one of the more common triggers for an IRS notice. Deposit frequency itself is assigned by the IRS based on a prior lookback period of liability, semiweekly or monthly, and a company that grows fast can find itself bumped into a stricter deposit schedule mid-year without anyone flagging it in advance.
The services inside payroll operations
4 services, each with its own page — scope, process and the licence line stated before you buy anything.
| Payroll processing | Pay runs prepared, checked and ready on the same cadence every period. |
| Contractor payments | Contractor records, payment runs and the data your filings will need. |
| Form 941 support | Quarterly payroll figures prepared and reconciled for whoever files the 941. |
| W-2 and 1099-NEC support | Year-end payee data reconciled through the year, not reconstructed in January. |
Why it matters
| Without a system | With CapEasy |
|---|---|
| People paid late or incorrectly | Pay runs on schedule, every cycle |
| Payroll journals that never tie to the bank | Payroll ledger that reconciles |
| Year-end reconciliation done from scratch | Your filer gets clean numbers, on time |
What we need from you
People
- Employee master data
- Employment contracts
- Salary structure
- Benefits and deductions
- Start and leave dates
Each cycle
- Attendance and overtime
- Leave records
- Bonus and commission
- Reimbursements
System
- Payroll software access
- Prior payroll reports
- Registration references held by your filer
How it runs, step by step
- Setup
- Employee onboarding in the payroll system
- Salary structure configuration
- Benefits and deductions setup
- Each pay run
- Gross-to-net calculation in the system
- Overtime and bonus adjustments
- Deductions processing
- Booking & reconciliation
- Payroll journal entries
- Payroll ledger reconciliation
- Liability reconciliation
What lands with you, every cycle
- Processed pay runs
- Payslips
- Payroll journals
- Payroll reconciliation statement
- A filing-ready payroll pack for your authorised filer
Who does what
Your payroll provider or CPA remains the filer of record for 941/944, W-2 and 1099. We operate the system and book the entries; we do not file, and we do not determine worker classification. Here is the licence line in the United States, stated before you buy anything — each of these is carried out by your CPA or enrolled agent:
- Issue compilation, review or audit reports — those are restricted to licensed CPA firms.
- Prepare or file federal or state tax returns.
- Represent you before the IRS, or respond to notices on your behalf.
- Determine sales-tax nexus, or worker classification.
- Advise on which entity to form, or draft formation documents — that is legal work.
Payroll operations in United States
Form 941 has to tie to your deposits, not just your payroll register
Form 941 reports quarterly federal income tax withheld plus employee and employer Social Security and Medicare tax. The IRS reconciles the deposits a company actually made against what 941 says was owed for that quarter — a shortfall or an unexplained over-deposit is what generates a mismatch notice. 941 is prepared and filed by your CPA or enrolled agent; the reconciliation that makes it filing-ready is a payroll operations job.
W-2 and 1099-NEC: January 31, no grace period
W-2s go to employees and to the Social Security Administration, 1099-NECs go to contractors and to the IRS, and both are due January 31 regardless of weekends or fiscal-year timing. Late or corrected filings carry per-form penalties that scale with how late they are. The practical implication is that year-end payroll data — final pay runs, bonus adjustments, contractor totals — needs to be locked well before the deadline, not reconstructed against it.
Form 8655 stays with your CPA or agent, not with us
Form 8655 is the IRS's Reporting Agent authorization — it's what lets a third party file returns and make deposits on an employer's behalf. That authorization is a filing relationship between the employer and a licensed CPA or enrolled agent; we don't hold it and don't file under it. What we produce is the reconciled, deposit-ready payroll data that the person holding the 8655 authorization actually files.
Deposit schedule is assigned, and it can change mid-year
The IRS assigns a semiweekly or monthly federal tax deposit schedule based on the total tax reported in a prior lookback period, not on a company's preference. A business that grows its headcount or payroll spend can be moved from monthly to semiweekly deposits without a formal notice arriving first — the trigger is in the numbers, not in the mail. Payroll operations tracks the lookback liability so a schedule change doesn't get discovered via a late-deposit penalty.
What your CPA or enrolled agent receives from us
- A reconciled payroll register for every pay run, tied to hours, pay codes and deductions.
- Gross-to-net calculations with the employer-side FICA and FUTA/SUTA liability broken out separately from the amounts withheld from employees.
- A quarterly 941 workpaper reconciled to actual deposits, ready for your CPA or enrolled agent to review and file.
- Draft W-2 data, reviewed against year-to-date totals, in your CPA or agent's hands in time to finalize before January 31.
- Draft 1099-NEC data for every contractor paid $600 or more, matched against W-9s on file.
- A state-by-state payroll tax account log, flagging any new work location before the first pay run there.
Questions worth asking before you start
Will you deal with the Internal Revenue Service on my behalf?
No. We are a consulting firm — licensed work runs through partner CPA firms. Anything that means dealing directly with IRS — filing, correspondence, representation — stays with your CPA or enrolled agent. What changes is how much work it is for them: they open a file that is already reconciled and coded, not one they have to rebuild first.
Exactly what lands with your CPA or enrolled agent at the end of a cycle?
Processed pay runs, Payslips, Payroll journals, Payroll reconciliation statement, A filing-ready payroll pack for your authorised filer. All of it goes to your CPA or enrolled agent — or straight to you, if you are the one reviewing before it moves on.
Who actually does the work — a person or an AI tool?
A named person on our team owns your file and reviews everything that leaves it. Software does a real share of the grinding underneath it — coding, matching, flagging the obvious gaps — but nothing regulated happens without a person’s judgement, and nothing here is signed or filed by an algorithm.
Do you file our payroll taxes or returns?
No. We run the pay cycle inside your system and book the entries correctly so whatever your authorised filer submits is built on numbers that already reconcile.
Can you handle contractor payments too?
Yes, alongside employee pay runs, with the same reconciliation discipline.
What if we run payroll across more than one country?
We can, provided each jurisdiction’s filing stays with an authorised local filer — we operate the system and the ledger, never the filing itself.
Who actually files our 941 and W-2s — you or our CPA?
Your CPA or enrolled agent files them. We prepare the reconciled payroll data, the deposit-ready 941 workpaper and the draft W-2/1099-NEC data; the person who signs and files is your CPA or agent, using their own IRS authorization.
Do you hold our Form 8655 Reporting Agent authorization?
No. Form 8655 authorizes a CPA or enrolled agent to file and deposit on your behalf, and that authorization stays with them. We're not a party to that filing relationship — we produce the payroll data they file from.
What happens if we hire someone in a state we've never had an employee in before?
That's flagged the moment it shows up on a pay run, because the state needs its own withholding registration and SUTA account opened before that employee's first paycheck, not after.
How do you know if we’re on the right federal deposit schedule?
The IRS assigns semiweekly or monthly deposit frequency off a rolling lookback period of your total tax liability. We track that lookback number every quarter so a schedule change gets caught before a deposit is late.
Can you tell us whether a worker should be a 1099 contractor or a W-2 employee?
No — that determination sits with your CPA or counsel, not with payroll operations. What we do is flag patterns worth a second look, like a contractor with set hours or company equipment, early rather than after a full year of 1099 payments has piled up.
What do we actually get from you before the January 31 W-2 deadline?
Draft W-2 and 1099-NEC data, reconciled against year-to-date payroll totals, in your CPA or agent's hands with enough runway to review and file before the deadline — not assembled in the last week of January.
Do you calculate our employer-side payroll tax liability, or just the employee withholding?
Both. Every pay run comes with the employer's FICA match and FUTA/SUTA liability broken out separately from what was withheld from employees, because that's what your 941 and state filings actually need.
What if a terminated employee's final pay or PTO payout gets missed?
Terminations go through the same exception log as new hires. Final pay, PTO payout and any late-discovered adjustment are held against that employee's W-2 draft until the year is actually closed, not corrected after the fact.
Who reconciles our 941 to what we actually deposited?
We do, before it ever reaches your CPA or agent. A 941 total that doesn't match the quarter's actual deposits is one of the more common triggers for an IRS notice, so that reconciliation happens on our side first.
Does AI touch our payroll numbers directly?
AI does the matching and flagging — tying hours to pay codes, catching a pay run that looks different from the last one, extracting new-hire paperwork into the system. A named person on our team reviews every exception it flags and owns the pay run; AI doesn't file, sign or decide anything.
What happens if our payroll spend grows fast enough to change our deposit schedule mid-year?
We're tracking the lookback liability every quarter specifically so that shows up on our radar before it shows up as a late-deposit penalty on yours.
Do you register us for state payroll tax accounts?
We flag the need the moment a new work state appears on a pay run and hand that off promptly — registration itself runs through the appropriate state channel, but the gap we're closing is the one where nobody notices until a penalty notice arrives.
