Payroll for small business

Payroll that can answer for every dollar.

Runbook is full-service payroll built around a verifiable liability record. Pay employees and contractors, file taxes, handle corrections, and keep the facts, rules, approvals, and settlement trail tied to every run.

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Full-service payroll Tax filing Money movement Contractors Liability tracking Corrections

Small business team helping a customer at a salon checkout counter — Payroll for real teams, changing schedules, worker questions, and small business cash timing.

Payroll run June 28 payroll

Ready for approval

Employees18

Contractors4

Tax filings5

Alerts2

Gross payroll$42,860.00

Employee taxes$7,904.18

Employer taxes$3,380.54

Net pay$31,575.28

Direct deposit batchScheduled

Local tax noticeEvidence ready

Worker paystubsPublish on payday

Illustrative display. Production payroll figures must come from engine lineage.

No AI in payroll math Rules as content Correction history Advisor-ready records Verifier-first

Trust and security

Payroll trust has to be engineered, not implied.

Runbook's trust story has two parts: a verifiable payroll record and the operational controls a payroll company must earn before live funds, filings, and sensitive worker data move through the system.

Read the trust model

Accounting team reviewing printed financial documents and a laptop — Built for the audit trail accountants, operators, and support teams need after payday.

Deterministic payrollNo AI in payroll math; user-visible figures come from engine lineage.

Private worker dataPayroll data stays private; proof uses digests and verification artifacts.

Human approval boundaryAgents may propose; humans approve; the engine validates before records are written.

Live-funds gateMoney movement waits on key custody, monitoring, incident response, backups, security review, and provider controls.

Run payroll in minutes while liabilities stay visible.

Most buyers ask practical questions first: can I pay my team, file taxes, switch providers, and get help when something goes wrong? Runbook should answer yes, then show how each accrued payroll liability was created, settled, and preserved.

Payroll takes just a few clicks

Preview gross-to-net, employer taxes, cash required, pay dates, exceptions, and approvals before the run is released.

Learn more about payroll

Taxes and filings stay on track

Track accrued federal, state, and local payroll liabilities, deposits, quarterly filings, W-2s, 1099s, and filing status from the same payroll record.

Hours, tips, and changes flow into payday

Bring in time, tips, commissions, reimbursements, benefit deductions, garnishments, and multi-rate work without hiding the source facts.

Corrections preserve the original run

Late facts and amended records produce reviewable deltas instead of overwriting history.

runbook

Net pay $31,575.28

Target outcome for every customer

Payroll should feel simple on payday and still be explainable months later.

Read why proof matters

Employee value

Make a real difference with payroll people can understand.

Workers should not need a support ticket to understand pay, tax forms, direct deposit changes, YTD totals, reimbursements, or why a correction happened.

Learn about worker self-service

PaystubsEvery run, correction, and year-to-date total in one place.

Tax formsW-2s, 1099s, withholding records, and document access.

Pay explanationsPlain-language support backed by source facts.

New hire setupEmployee data, withholding, payment method, documents, and eligibility.

ContractorsW-9 collection, contractor ACH, 1099 tracking, and year-end records.

SwitchingPrior payroll imports, YTD checks, wage bases, and mid-year continuity.

Hiring and onboarding

Get new workers ready for payday without making payroll messy.

Runbook needs the same practical coverage buyers expect from Gusto, QuickBooks, Paychex, ADP, OnPay, Square, and Justworks, with a stronger record underneath.

Explore business types

But wait, there’s more.

TimeHours, PTO, tips, job codes TalentHiring, onboarding, lifecycle changes InsightsPayroll register, liabilities, exports New businessFirst payroll, setup, compliance basics RemoteMulti-state facts and local tax trails

Let’s find the right payroll plan for your business.

Choose from full-service payroll, advisor-assisted setup, CPA review, and liability-first workflows as the product comes online.

Compare plans

See how Runbook should stack up against other payroll providers.

Category parityPayroll, taxes, workers, reports, support

Proof advantageEvery material number traceable to facts and rules

Correction modelLate facts handled without rewriting history

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Get started for free

You’re three steps away from a stronger payroll record.

Create an account

Set up the company profile, payroll contacts, EIN, locations, and payroll calendar.

Add your people

Add employees and contractors, tax details, direct deposit, pay rates, and year-to-date facts.

Run payroll

Preview pay, taxes, funding, filings, and proof artifacts before approving the run.

Get started

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Runbook do?

Runbook is being built as full-service payroll: payroll runs, worker records, tax filing, direct deposit, contractor pay, reports, support workflows, and proof artifacts.

Does Runbook file taxes?

Tax deposits, federal/state/local filings, W-2s, 1099s, notices, and amendments are part of the product scope and claim ledger.

What makes Runbook different from Gusto?

The goal is category parity on the expected payroll workflows, plus verifiable lineage: source facts, rule content, calculations, corrections, and a Quittance record.

Can accountants use it?

Yes. The advisor surface is part of the plan: client payroll review, accounting exports, notice packets, correction trails, and third-party verification.

Is AI doing the payroll math?

No. The calculation path is deterministic. AI can help explain, route, and support, but the payroll record comes from the engine lineage.

Questions? Meet answers.

Compare Runbook

See how Runbook stacks up against other providers.

Compare Runbook

Search the help center

Find answers by payroll workflow, tax topic, or support scenario.

Help center

Give us a ring

Talk through payroll scope, switching, advisors, migration, or liability records.

Contact sales

Request a review

Have a wrong paycheck, tax notice, provider switch, or CPA cleanup question?

Start intake

Where Runbook is different

Payroll that creates its own permanent record.

Gusto and the incumbents make payroll easier. Runbook should do that too. The difference is the liability record each run leaves behind: source facts, evidence, rules, approvals, corrections, payments, filings, and proof that can be checked later.

Explain this numberTrace pay, taxes, deductions, and employer cost back to source facts and rules.

Correct without rewriting historyLate facts produce reviewable deltas while the original run remains intact.

Verify outside the dashboardA Quittance lets a third party check the payroll record without trusting the UI.

See corrections

Source factsHours, rates, elections, locations, imports

Evidence vaultTimecards, deposits, filings, notices, provider docs

RulesFederal, state, local, effective dates, citations

RecordApproval, settlement, correction, Quittance

The Runbook standard.

Payroll begins as an accrued liability, not a cash disbursement. Runbook is designed around what has to be calculated, settled, reconciled, corrected, and proven when the run gets questioned.

Operational eventTraditional payroll systemsThe Runbook standard

Normal run executionGenerate dashboard totals, paystubs, and reports that often live apart from their source evidence.Show the accrued wage, tax, deduction, and employer liabilities, then bind settlement and proof into one payroll record.

Retroactive correctionOverwrite history or bury the change in vague adjustment lines on a future run.Append the correction while preserving the original run and showing the exact delta.

Tax noticeSend the user digging through emails, bank confirmations, exports, and old provider files.Compile a response packet from the payroll record, liabilities, payments, filings, and evidence vault.

Accountant reviewDepend on screenshots, manual exports, and explanatory emails.Give advisors the chain of facts, supporting evidence, and verification path.

Built for every payroll participant.

A payroll company has to serve more than the owner. Runbook should give every party a clear view of the same record.

Owners

See the cost and exposure.

Preview payroll, taxes, cash required, open liabilities, exceptions, and approvals before money moves.

Payroll admins

Run the cycle cleanly.

Prepare runs, review deltas, approve liabilities, release payments, track filings, and correct late facts.

HR admins

Feed payroll with clean facts.

Onboarding, W-4s, I-9s, direct deposit, compensation changes, documents, and terminations flow into payroll.

Workers

See pay and understand changes.

Stubs, YTD, tax forms, direct deposit, and explanations tied to the payroll record.

CPAs

Review evidence, not screenshots.

Client run review, accounting exports, liability rollforwards, correction trails, and notice response packets.

Support ops

Handle the messy cases.

Mid-year switching, local taxes, garnishments, filing issues, missed facts, returned payments, and amendments.

The payroll support surface matters.

Support cannot be a contact link. It has to become product: a structured workflow for the problems that make payroll stressful.

Missed paydayFunding, payment status, worker communication, and remediation steps.

Returned ACHReturn reason, reversal, repayment, worker record, and reconciliation.

Filing rejectionAgency response, affected period, amended packet, and evidence.

Tax noticePayroll record, liability, deposits, filings, source documents, correction history, and response draft.

Worker disputePaystub explanation, source facts, approval record, and correction path.

Provider switchPrior payroll imports, YTD checks, wage bases, local taxes, and W-2 continuity.

NowCorrectness sandboxCleanup, switching, correction, Quittance, verifier, agent-safe artifacts.

NextPayroll preparationCompany setup, worker setup, YTD import, run review, reports.

ThenFull-service payrollLive payroll, direct deposit, tax deposits, filings, year-end, support.

AfterPayroll operating systemWorker portal, advisor console, integrations, APIs, agent-mediated operations.

Grand product scope

Not niche. Payroll infrastructure.

The ambition is not a narrow audit wedge or a middleware layer. The ambition is a payroll company with a better liability record model: employer console, payroll admin console, HR workflows, worker portal, advisor console, tax operations, money movement, support, and records that can be checked later.

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The Margin

Payroll education that earns trust.

A serious payroll company needs guides, calculators, local tax explainers, comparison pages, switching checklists, and support playbooks. Runbook's library should teach payroll as something that can be checked.

Open resources

Checklist Switching payroll mid-year Template Payroll notice response packet Guide Missouri and Kansas payroll Explainer Can payroll be proven?

Run payroll like a real company. Keep records like an auditor will ask.

Early access for small businesses, advisors, and builders who want complete payroll with proof built in.

Start with a review