Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square Payroll

[katieand]

On Tuesday, December 4th at 11am PST, we will host a Live Q&A about Square Payroll. If you’ve been thinking about switching payroll providers, or you’re just curious to learn more about Square’s full-service payroll product, you should check this out. The best time of year for changes in how you run payroll is now! This is because you can start fresh with a new provider at the beginning of 2019, simplifying your setup and tax filing process.

In this Q&A we’ll explain how our product works and introduce our newest features, including benefits like health insurance and retirement savings for your and your team, automatic tip splitting, integrated timecard importing, employer and employee mobile apps, and our nationwide availability. We’ll have Square Payroll General Manager, Caroline Hollis, here to answer all your questions and help you get the most out of Square Payroll for your business.

@caroline has been part of the Square Payroll team since its inception in 2014. In her time on the Payroll team she has been an integral part in building the product from the ground up. She understands that Payroll is critical for both small business owners and their employees. For employers, payroll is often the business’ largest recurring expense. For employees, a paycheck makes up most or all of their income.

A few example questions:

• What does ‘full-service’ payroll mean, and what is included with my subscription?
• Do you really do all my payroll tax calculations and filings?
• What are my benefits options with Square Payroll?
• How does payroll work with the rest of my Square account?
• What can my employees do with the Square Team App?
• Can I run payroll from the Square Payroll mobile app?
• Why did Square build a payroll product?

[caroline]

Hi @carters2018, sorry for the confusion here! It looks like your business is in Kentucky -- Square Payroll will calculate and withhold the local taxes from your employees’ pay, but you will need to file and pay the taxes to your local tax agency. We’ll send you a notification each month that contains all the information you should need to do this (e.g., total wages for the period, total tax to pay for the period).

Square Payroll will file and pay all other federal and state level taxes on your behalf, including Kentucky state income tax and Kentucky Unemployment Insurance (UI) tax. 👌

*Note to other sellers* This is unique to Kentucky. Typically, Square Payroll remits all state and local taxes on your behalf. 

[hello88]

Is there a feature to allow employees/contractors to know how many hours they have worked so far in the day/week?   Some of them work remotely and work on multiple tasks at different times of day.   I asked about this function last year and I thought they said they were working on a beta version.

[caroline]

Hello @hello88 👋 Your employees and contractors can download the Team app from the Apple Store or Google Play store! All the features available on your employee’s online Square Payroll dashboard are also available in the Team app. In addition to these features, team members can use the Team app to clock in/out from their mobile device, view how many hours they have worked in the day, the week, or even select a custom date range. Note that they will not be able to edit their timecards.

[lizdederer]

I'm a solo business owner and will be putting myself of Payroll in 2019.  Some weeks in between sales, I may not have the cashflow to support paying myself.  How do I manage that in the payroll system?

[caroline]

I tagged you in a post above! Let me know if you have any other questions 🙂

[ICounseling]

I recently got an email from the Employment Security Department in Washington State. They are announcing the changes for our state and I would like to learn if Square Payroll will include this changes automatically, or you require some actions on our side. Please let me know. 

Here is the email:

Small, medium and large businesses are in

New program starts Jan. 1 About this message: In 2017, Washington’s Legislature passed a paid family and medical leave law. Starting in 2020, Washington will be the fifth state in the nation to offer paid family and medical leave benefits to workers. A premium of employee gross wages will fund the program, with the cost shared by both employees and many employers. The Employment Security Department (ESD) administers the program. This is the first email in a five-part series designed to help employers prepare for the legal requirements that kick in on Jan. 1, 2019. For more information now, visit www.paidleave.wa.gov/employers. Be there for care Many important things in life happen outside the workday. People we care about become ill. Families welcome new members. Big moments that require extra attention come along for all of us. Washington’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave program is an essential benefit that will ensure every eligible employee can take paid time for care when they need it most. Starting in 2020, eligible employees may take up to 12 weeks: To care for themselves through serious illness or injury To care for a loved one who is seriously ill or injured To bond with a child coming into the family through birth, adoption or foster placement  For certain military-connected events Starting Jan. 1, 2019, employers of all sizes must either start withholding premiums from employee paychecks or opt to cover their employees’ premiums themselves. Employers that average fewer than 50 employees do not have to pay the employer portion of the premium but must still withhold the employee portion or cover it themselves and meet all reporting requirements. Employers who choose to withhold premiums from their employees may withhold up to about 63.333% of the total premium. The employer is responsible for paying the other 36.667%. For more information on calculating premiums, download our Employer Toolkit and go to www.paidleave.wa.gov/premium-calculator. Small businesses Unlike the federal unpaid Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), businesses of all sizes must participate in the Paid Family and Medical Leave program. Employers that average under 50 employees do not have to pay the employer portion of the premium but must still withhold the employee portion or cover it themselves and meet all reporting requirements. If you are a public or private employer with even one employee in Washington, you’ll very likely be a part of Paid Family and Medical Leave. Employers that average fewer than 50 employees and choose to pay the employer share of the premium may be eligible for cash assistance grants when an employee goes on Paid Family and Medical Leave starting in 2020.

[katieand]

Whoops - your post got stuck in our spam filter, and we just rescued it. We had a similar question from @Bartwine and EJ answered it here! Let us know if you have any other questions.

[deanszestybooch]

1. Our managing members get paid a flat salary with a fixed after tax amount. However, they also collect tips when they work the counter. Because of this, the tax amount is always changing and I'm currently required to fiddle with the numbers to get the net pay to the predetermined fixed salary amount. Is there any way to manually calculate the amount of payroll tax due per employee and eliminate the trial and error process to land on a set net pay amount?

[caroline]

At this time, Square Payroll does not offer a payroll tax calculator that would calculate a specific amount of gross pay based on the net pay you enter. We typically recommend customers use an online payroll calculator such as paycheck city. Note that taxes can vary for the same gross pay amount based on each employee’s withholdings and the taxes that have been withheld so far.

We appreciate this feedback and will look into potentially building out this tool within Square Payroll to simplify running payroll for businesses like yours, @deanszestybooch. Keep an eye out for updates on this!

[joan1]

I set up payroll earlier this year and have found it so easy.  

1. I have the same question about accepting EIN.
2. I also want to make sure Square files the 1099 on my behalf or is that something I have to do.
3. will I be able to make payroll using the app

Thanks

J

[caroline]

So glad to hear you’ve found our product easy to use @joan1!

Square Payroll currently does not support 1099 contractor payments to an EIN. Unfortunately we do not have a good estimate on when this feature will be available but we will contact you as soon as it is!

Square will file all 1099-MISC forms on your behalf at the end of the year. Under each contractor’s profile under the employment type section, please make sure to check the box that states “Automatically file Form 1099-MISC for this contractor.”

And yes, you can absolutely use the Square Payroll app! The app was built to save you time and give you the ability to manage payroll on the go. All the features available on your online Square Payroll dashboard are also available in the app, including running payroll. Download the app from the Apple Store or Google Play store.

[CGulloDC]

We have been using square for years, but we have never had an employee. We want to hire one in 2019.

I have a federal tax ID number. What do I need from NYS and how do I find the necessary application? I’ve tried to navigate their website and i can’t seem to find an answer to my question. 

Thank you!

[caroline]

Congrats on hiring your first employee, @CGulloDC! To get started with payroll in New York, we will need your New York Withholding Identification Number, New York Employer Registration Number and your Unemployment Insurance (UI) Rate. Your New York Withholding Identification Number will be the same as your nine digit Federal EIN. You can apply for both your New York Employer Registration Number and UI rate by registering your business with the state online here. The NY Department of Labor will mail your tax IDs to you, which can take anywhere from 1-2 weeks to receive.

If you have additional questions about this you can read more here or contact our team of Payroll Specialists at [Redacted].

[BBC]

Hello - 

I want to pile on the request for reporting cash tips per shift. An input field on the timecard would be perfect as we enter tips the following day. Currently we cannot use the auto payroll feature (we use it as a reminder). The process now is to cancel the auto payroll and run the pay period adding cash tips - it would be incredibly nice to have this all work automagically!

My other request is to have a feature at employee clock-in where they can pick a different task for that shift. This would be nice for our reporting and understanding labor costs per job. It would also be a time saver and nice for figuring worker comp rates especially if we decide to change to your WC  partner AP Intego. 

Thanks for all the help - love the Square!

J

[caroline]

We agree with you @BBC - automating cash tip reporting would be a big time saver for several of our customers. We appreciate this feedback and will let you know as soon as this feature is available. Keep an eye on the Product Updates section of the community 🙂

Our team is currently building a multiple pay rate feature. This feature will allow you to assign multiple jobs to each employee. Employees can then choose which job they are clocking in/out of throughout the day. This feature will be available in the coming weeks! We hope this is something that will help you to track different jobs employees are working along with reporting.

[Catamount]

Are there any additional fees for IRS reporting like quarterly reports? or getting W-2s?

[caroline]

There are no additional fees, @Catamount! Tax payments and filings are included in our monthly pricing of just $29/month + $5/employee or contractor per month. Square Payroll pays and files all state and federal taxes, including W-2s, at no extra cost. We will also mail W-2s to your employees and provide a digital copy. You can find a full list of all state and federal tax filings that we handle on your behalf here.

[NewLadyLaw]

I am finding communication and getting exactly what I want very difficult.  I wanted to have my payroll twice a month, but was told that was not possible.  I agreed to every two weeks, and I went through the whole sign-up process a second time, and I called to verify that everything would be automatic, and the first payroll was fine, but the second payroll did not get delivered.  I went on line again, and I could not figure out what happened, and the earliest I could get payroll delivered was Friday, Dec 7 (instead of Nov. 30). 

Then I received an email saying that Square was having trouble getting paid for its services.  I went on line, and found that I needed to add a credit card for the payment.  If Square is debiting my bank account for the payroll, why can't you also take your monthly charge out of my bank account as well?  It would cost you less, because there would be no service fee, as there is on a credit card. 

Finally, I wanted to add previous payroll to the Square records, but the system will not let me do it unless I used a previous payroll service or have some form of computerized records.  I am a new business.  I started operations in October (and I tried to get your service set up in October, but it was too hard).  I have ONE employee.  I wrote 2 manual checks for her, and I want to add the dollar amount to her W-2 at the end of the year.  I understand that the way you keep costs down is to keep things automated, but some kind of customer service phone number would be helpful.

And don't say to use the email question box on the website, because I did.  I left 2 questions, and 3 days later, I got a partial answer to one of them and no answer to the second one.  

Thank you for your help.

NewLadyLaw

[RepriseCoffee]

How does Square report workmans' comp to our insurance company? 

Where do we send the payroll information for before switching to Square so accurate W2s are created? 

So far we love Square payroll! Thank you! 

[caroline]

Hey @RepriseCoffee - If you are not using AP Intego for your workers’ comp insurance, you will have to manually send payroll reports to your insurance provider. You can easily download a custom report from the History tab of your online Square Payroll account. If you want reports to sync automatically, you can appoint AP Intego as your Broker of Record.

Square Payroll partners with AP Intego to offer our employers pay-as-you-go workers’ compensation insurance and automate the process of reporting payroll to your insurance company. You can request a quote from AP Intego directly in your Square Payroll dashboard under the benefits tab. After filling out the quote request information, you will see an estimated quote. One business day after submitting your quote request, AP Intego will upload a policy quote for you to review and sign.

When it’s time to run payroll, Square will automatically sync your payroll reports with AP Intego. AP Intego then charges you for workers comp insurance based on the number of employees you actually paid. There are no upfront premiums with AP Intego!

For specific steps on how to switch to Square Payroll, you can read the above question from @MichaelMateria. When setting up your Square Payroll account, we will ask you to confirm each employee’s YTD pay on their payroll profile and to upload a YTD report. We will use this information to ensure the W-2s we file and mail at year end are accurate.

We’re thrilled to hear you’re loving Square Payroll so far!  

[qrobertson]

Can I offer the 401(K) to my part time employees?