Switching
Switching payroll providers, without the January surprise
Why employers move
Support stopped working
The same issue explained to a third person, or a ticket that has been open long enough to become its own problem.
The bill kept moving
Per-run charges, year-end fees, an extra state, an amendment — none of it in the original quote.
Payroll outgrew the software
Self-service was fine until multi-state, or job costing, or a tax notice arrived.
One person holds it all
Payroll works because a single person knows how, and that person would like to take a holiday.
When you can switch
At the start of a year
The simplest case: no year-to-date balances to carry, because the year has not started. The trade-off is that it is the busiest time for every payroll provider, so it needs to be arranged well in advance.
At a quarter boundary, or mid-year
Entirely workable. Year-to-date wage and tax balances have to be carried across and reconciled against your filed returns, which is real work — but it is known work, and doing it at a quarter boundary means a clean line in the filing record.
Who does what during the move
We handle
- Reconciling year-to-date wage and tax balances
- Configuring employees, rates, deductions and accruals
- Setting up filing and deposit authorizations
- Validating the setup against your existing records
- Verifying the first live payroll after it runs
You provide
- Payroll registers and filed returns for the year to date
- Current employee records, rates and deduction details
- Bank authorization for payroll funding
- Signed tax authorizations
- Notice to your current provider, at the point we agree
The stages, in order
Stage 1: Discovery and assessment
We look at how you run payroll now, what states are involved, what your current provider holds, and whether there is anything in your history that needs cleaning up. This is where we find out whether switching is straightforward or not.
Stage 2: Year-to-date reconciliation
Your year-to-date wage and tax balances are carried across and checked against your filings. This is the stage that determines whether your W-2s are right in January, and it is done before your first payroll rather than after it.
Stage 3: Funding and authorization setup
Bank authorization for payroll funding, and the tax authorizations that let us deposit and file on your behalf. We tell you what each one permits before you sign it.
Stage 4: Configuration and test validation
Employees, pay rates, deductions, benefits, accruals and time integration are set up and validated against your existing records — not against what we assume they should be.
Stage 5: Preview and approval
You see a full payroll preview and check it against what you expected before anything is processed.
Stage 6: First payroll verification
After the first live run we verify it landed as expected — payments, taxes, deductions and reporting — rather than waiting for you to notice if it did not.
Stage 7: Handover to your ongoing service
Once the first cycle is verified, you move into the normal rhythm: you send changes, we prepare, you approve, we process.
Before you give notice to your current provider
Ask them three things in writing, and do it before you tell them you are leaving.
What data do I get back?
Payroll registers, filed returns and employee records — and in what format.
How long do you retain my records?
And how do you eventually delete them.
Who files the final returns?
Whether they file the quarter you leave in, or you do.
Timing the notice matters too. We will tell you when to give it — usually once authorizations are in place, so there is no gap where neither provider is responsible for a filing.
Common questions about switching
Get a switching assessment
Tell us who you use now, how many people you pay and when you would want to move. We will tell you what switching would actually involve — including if we think you should stay where you are.