Product

Payroll first. Liabilities visible. Proof in every layer.

Runbook is being built as a payroll system, not a proof demo. It tracks the payroll lifecycle from accrued wages and taxes to calculation, approval, settlement, filings, reports, worker support, corrections, and a record that survives questions.

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Finance operator reviewing business reports on a tablet — Payroll needs operator-grade visibility before money moves.

PAYROLL LOOPReviewable

WorkersEmployees + contractors

Run typesRegular / off-cycle / final

TaxesFederal / state / local

LiabilitiesAccrued / settled / open

RecordQuittance + verifier

PayFileCorrectProve

The payroll workflow we have to own.

This is the practical checklist buyers expect before the deeper proof story matters.

Set up company

Legal entity, jurisdictions, tax accounts, pay schedules, bank rails, and reporting preferences.

Add workers

Employees, contractors, pay rates, tax elections, direct deposit, deductions, reimbursements, and documents.

Capture work and changes

Hours, PTO, tips, bonuses, commissions, off-cycle items, prior-provider YTD, and approvals.

Calculate accrued liabilities

Gross pay, net pay, employee taxes, employer taxes, deductions, benefits, reimbursements, and funding needs.

Approve, pay, and file

Direct deposit, checks, contractor payments, tax deposits, filings, W-2s, 1099s, and notices.

Reconcile and seal the record

Facts, rules, calculations, open/settled liabilities, corrections, reports, and verification travel together.

See payroll correctness in motion.

This is the product demo buyers should understand in one pass: Runbook starts with ordinary payroll work, keeps every material fact tied to time and evidence, then carries the answer through approval, settlement, filing, reconciliation, correction, and proof.

Work performed

Hours, salaries, tips, commissions, reimbursements, benefits, deductions, and jurisdiction facts enter the run.

Liability accrues

Runbook calculates gross wages, employee withholdings, employer taxes, net pay payable, and agency amounts payable.

Approval records

The payroll admin approves the run, exceptions, cash needed, filing scope, and the knowledge horizon for the record.

Cash settles

Net pay, tax deposits, contractor ACH, benefit remittances, and returned-payment events attach to the same run.

Filing evidence lands

Quarterly returns, W-2s, 1099s, receipts, notices, amendments, and support files are linked to the liability they settle.

Answer stands up

The correctness record preserves source facts, rules, approvals, settlements, filings, corrections, and verification data.

CORRECTNESS RECORDJune 28 payroll

Run stateApproved

Liabilities4 open / 7 settled

Evidence18 linked files

VerifierReady

Facts capturedHours, rates, elections, locations

Rules appliedFederal, state, local

ApprovalsOwner + payroll admin

CorrectionsLate tip import pending

Illustrative display. Production payroll figures and statuses must come from engine lineage and recorded events.

The same payroll truth, six different views.

Runbook should not be one dashboard stretched across every user. Each role needs a different surface over the same payroll record.

Owner

Payroll command center

Cash required, open liabilities, approval deadline, exposure, tax calendar, and what remains unsettled.

$47,812Total cash needed

Payroll admin

Run review console

Worker deltas, exceptions, funding, tax deposits, filing queue, approvals, and correction history.

2Exceptions to clear

HR admin

Payroll-ready onboarding

W-4, I-9, direct deposit, documents, compensation changes, job status, locations, and terminations.

5/6Forms complete

Worker

Pay explained

Paystub, YTD, tax forms, direct deposit, withholding elections, reimbursements, and why-pay-changed notes.

1Correction note

CPA

Review and reconcile

Payroll journal, liability rollforward, filing receipts, exports, notice packets, and verification trail.

ReadyJournal export

Support ops

Issue packet builder

Returned ACH, missed payday, worker dispute, filing rejection, tax notice, and amendment workflows.

3Evidence links

Illustrative product surfaces. These are roadmap views until the underlying workflow, permissions, and data lineage are implemented.

Accrued liability report

The correctness report accountants will actually use.

A payroll register tells you what ran. The liability report should show what the business accrued, what was settled, what remains open, and which evidence supports each line when the answer is questioned.

CreatedWage, tax, deduction, benefit, reimbursement, and employer liabilities generated by the approved run.

SettledNet pay, tax deposits, contractor ACH, filings, and remittances matched back to the run.

OpenAmounts not yet paid, filed, cleared, reversed, corrected, or evidenced.

LIABILITY REPORTJune 28 payroll

LiabilityAmountStatus

Net pay payable$31,575.28Settled

Employee withholding$7,904.18Scheduled

Employer payroll taxes$3,380.54Open

Benefits deductions$1,246.00Settled

Reimbursements$418.90Settled

Local tax deposit$428.60Evidence ready

Payroll journal Deposit receipt Rule snapshot Quittance

Illustrative display. Production amounts must be derived from the engine and marked with lineage.

When a payroll answer is questioned, build the packet.

This is the customer moment where Runbook should feel different: the system should assemble the run, liability, settlement, filing, correction, and evidence trail instead of sending the owner to hunt through exports.

Example notice

State agency says Q2 withholding was short.

The owner does not need to know where every receipt lives. Runbook should identify the affected period, pull the payroll record, and show what was accrued, paid, filed, corrected, and still open.

1Affected runsJune 14 and June 28 payrolls

2Liability linesEmployee withholding and employer taxes

3Payment evidenceDeposit receipt, ACH status, bank confirmation

4Filing evidenceQuarterly return, agency receipt, amendment status

5Correction historyLate W-4 update and resulting delta

6Response packetAdvisor-ready summary with linked proof

Parity buyers will look for.

Competitor sites answer these fast. Runbook should make status visible and treat unfinished items as build obligations.

Build obligation

Payroll runs

Regular payroll, off-cycle checks, bonuses, contractor-only runs, final pay, multiple schedules, and unlimited run preparation.

Build obligation

Taxes and filings

Federal, state, and local withholding, employer taxes, deposits, quarterly and annual filings, W-2s, and 1099s.

Planned

Worker portal

Paystubs, W-4 self-service, direct deposit, personal information, YTD, documents, and “why changed” explanations.

Planned

HR and onboarding

Company setup, employee onboarding, I-9/W-4 collection, self-service invitations, org structure, roles, announcements, and termination workflows.

Build obligation

Support operations

Missed payroll, returned ACH, filing rejection, agency notice, worker question, garnishment dispute, and amendment workflows.

Build obligation

Security operations

Role-based access, audit logs, key custody, monitoring, backup/restore drills, incident runbooks, and provider security review before live funds.

Engine-supported

Reports and exports

Pay register, payroll journal, accrued liability reports, MTD/QTD/YTD, worker stubs, accounting exports, and notice packets.

Live

Proof layer

Source facts, rule snapshots, event lineage, derived corrections, Quittance seal, verifier, and claims ledger.

Trust and security model

The payroll record is sensitive before it is provable.

Trust cannot be only cryptographic proof. The product must protect worker data, bank details, tax identifiers, approvals, agent proposals, and provider credentials with explicit controls.

See security posture

Access controlEmployer, advisor, worker, support, and agent roles need scoped permissions and reviewable activity.

Operational readinessMonitoring, backups, incident response, support escalation, provider status, and the live-funds gate must be ready before live payroll.

Data minimizationVerification should expose the minimum necessary evidence while keeping private payroll data off public rails.

Switching payroll without losing the year.

Mid-year switching is not just import convenience. It is accrued payroll liability continuity: wage bases, local taxes, W-2 continuity, and prior-provider facts that need a defensible record.

Switching riskWhat Runbook must captureWhy it matters

Prior wagesYTD wages, taxable wages, employee/employer taxes, deductions, benefits.Caps, W-2 totals, and future withholding depend on the imported baseline.

Local taxesJurisdiction, resident/work location, prior liability, paid status, and rule source.Local payroll is where generic exports often stop explaining themselves.

CorrectionsWhich period changed, what fact arrived late, and how the delta carries forward.The old run stays intact while the new knowledge is recorded.

Year endW-2/1099 totals, filings, amendments, and support evidence.The record has to survive January, not just the first payday.

Payroll Evidence Vault.

Real payroll problems come with messy support files: timecards, EFTPS confirmations, provider letters, worker comp audits, duplicate PDFs, notices, and year-end records. Runbook should turn those into organized payroll evidence.

Attach source documents

Upload timecards, prior-provider reports, payment confirmations, filings, notices, worker comp documents, and support files to the relevant company, worker, period, or run.

Classify and dedupe

Identify document type, period, jurisdiction, tax type, provider, duplicate files, and missing support without exposing sensitive data publicly.

Link evidence to payroll events

Connect each file to the run, accrued liability, payment, filing, correction, notice, or provider switch it supports.

Build response packets

Create advisor-ready packets for agency notices, worker questions, audits, mid-year switching, and year-end reconciliation.

Keep private proof

Store sensitive files privately while proof artifacts expose only the minimum necessary digests, lineage, and verification data.

Preserve history

Late documents and corrections add new events instead of overwriting the original payroll record.

Roadmap posture.

The public site can claim direction aggressively, but every claim needs a build path.

LiveEngine and proofCalculation lineage, correction model, Quittance, verifier.

NextPayroll prepGuided setup, run review, evidence vault, notice packets.

ThenRails and filingsMoney movement, deposits, filings, year-end, support coverage.

AfterSelf-serviceWorker portal, advisor console, integrations, marketplace APIs.

Build payroll around the liability record.

Runbook’s advantage only works if the everyday payroll product is credible first: calculate the liability, settle it, file it, reconcile it, and preserve it.

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