Live Q&A: Ask us anything about Square Payroll

[alexak]

On December 18th, we hosted a live Q&A about Square Payroll. If you’re looking for a fresh start in 2021, this is the best time of year to switch payroll providers. It simplifies the setup and tax filing process so you can kick off the new year on the right foot. 

In this Q&A we covered the basics of pricing, how the product works, and how to switch to Square Payroll for the new year. We also introduced you to the newest features we launched in 2020 that help you manage your cash flow, pay your team faster, schedule your team, and help your team access benefits at no cost to you.

So what are these new features? 

• Instant Payments and On-Demand Pay to give you flexibility and control around your payroll schedule. 
• Your employees and contractors can now directly sign up for benefits for themselves - at no cost to you! Square employees can get access to benefits like 24/7 in-app healthcare through Galileo and health insurance, retirement savings, and tax withholdings through Catch.
• Square Scheduling (coming soon!) makes everything you need to manage your team from scheduling, tracking and payroll easily accessible in 1 place. 
• We partnered with Bambee to help you access a dedicated HR Manager to customize your internal HR policies and a suite of powerful HR software tools to help you store important documents.

Square Payroll General Manager, @caroline, answered questions and helped sellers get the most out of Square Payroll for their businesses.

A few example questions: 

• What are direct to employee benefits and how much do they cost? 
• What does “full-service” payroll mean, and what is included in my subscription? 
• How long does it take for my employees to receive their direct deposit? 
• How do I use Instant Payments?

[pch9]

Please provide more clarification for employers with a scheduled pay date of Fri Jan 1, 2021. Can you confirm that payroll processed for Jan 1 pay date will actually be paid in 2021? Due to the Holiday, when will employees actually receive direct deposit? At my previous payroll company we were able to have employees paid early if the pay date fell on a Holiday. How does Square handle this? Thank you.

[caroline]

Hi @pch9, thanks for your question! Direct deposits do not process on federal banking holidays which includes January 1, 2021. This means your pay date will be moved one business day earlier to December 31, 2020 and these wages will be recorded in 2020 (including W-2s).

If you are looking to switch over to Square Payroll with a fresh start in 2021, you should process your scheduled payroll with a January 1, 2021 pay date with your previous payroll company and then switch to Square Payroll for all future payruns.

[cidercreek]

Can you help me understand why the paydate would need to be Jan 1 2021 and not December 31st, 2020? 

[ashc]

Hi @cidercreek,

The time for this Q&A for Payroll has passed. Please reach out to the Payroll team directly for any further questions.

[pessosices]

Hey friends!

I was using Alice for Pre-Tax spending benefits, and I see that this relationship was terminated. I completely understand why, it wasn't reliable and hard to use - but it was a great idea and a great benefit to offer. Are there plans for a replacement company for this?

Thanks!

[caroline]

Hi @pessosices! Thank you for this thoughtful question. We do not have a new pre-tax spending benefit to offer at this time, however, we will keep you up to date with new offerings that come out. We plan to use the resources that we invested in maintaining Alice to invest in new benefits offerings in 2021. In fact, you may have seen we already launched Direct to Employee benefits! While direct to employee benefits do not include pre-tax spending at this time, your team can access the following health and savings benefits - all at no cost to you! 

• Galileo Health provides 24/7 in-app healthcare so your team can get affordable care anytime, anywhere from a team of expert doctors. No copays or deductibles to worry about.
  
  
• Catch is a personal benefits provider that gives your team direct access to health insurance, retirement plans, and free savings accounts.

[crystal-meadow]

Why can't I use Square Payroll without an uninsurance account number (which is NOT required in my state)? My state department of labor told me that I do not need a UI account until I pay someone more than $1500 in a quarter. As a small business with one part time employee, I will never meet this requirement. The state indicated that it creates unnecessary work for them that Square requires a UI account because they are having to create accounts and then make them "inactive" so Square doesn't erroneously put money in the account. Is there a reason the UI account can't be an optional field?

[jkoontz2]

Similarly, I would really like to see contractors (all of our workers are 1099 contractors) be included in automated tip pooling the way it is for W2 employees.  Car washes, detail shops, message therapists, hair salons, etc frequently work this way, so I think that this change would apply to a large number of Square customers

[caroline]

Hi @jkoontz2, thank you for the feedback! That’s definitely something we’ve heard a lot (not just with tips, but also other types of wages like commissions). We are working to expand our tip splitting functionality in 2021 and will definitely take this into consideration.

[caroline]

Hi @crystal-meadow, this is common feedback we are starting to hear more frequently. Unfortunately we haven’t made unemployment insurance tax account numbers optional in all states because we want to ensure our customers who do need to pay this type of tax set up their account properly and they don’t miss any payments. I understand your situation and appreciate your patience. We will be sure to notify you as soon as this is something we can support!

[vinesandrushes]

I have employees that work near full-time hours but have responsibilities split between front-end customer facing jobs and back-end non-customer facing.  I have the ability to pay different for the job the person clocks in to but not the ability to say one jobs hours are included in the tip pool while another job is not included in the tip pool.  If someone works 10 hours in the tasting room, those hours should be included in the tip pool but the 30 hours they work with winemaking should not be included.  Is this a feature change on the product roadmap?

[caroline]

Hi @vinesandrushes, yes! This is on our radar and something we plan to build in 2021. Specifically, you will be able to set “tip pool eligibility” at the job-level rather than employee-level. We appreciate your feedback!

[DaveH50]

We have a nail salon where the employees are paid twice a month, on the 1st and 15th. Last year I tried Square Payroll but found out that when I tried to run my final pay information for the W2s and 1099s on Dec. 31st, Square said I was too late and had to submit the final numbers by the 24th or so of December. Since the employees are paid 60% of their earnings, not a salary, of course I didn't know what their final paycheck would be until the salon closed on the 31st and I had tabulated everybody's earnings for the biweek. Hopefully Square has fixed this limitation; otherwise I'll have to stick to using a local accountant.

[caroline]

Hi @DaveH50, we recently launched Instant Payments which allows you to pay your employees instantly (if they are paid to the Cash App) or the next business day (if they are paid to an external bank account). With this option, you will be able to run payroll on the 14th or end of the month, to have pay dates on the 1st and 15th. Note that since January 1, 2021 is a holiday, you will need to run payroll on December 30, 2020 to have a pay date of December 31, 2020. 

Another option would be to process this as a backdated off-cycle payment in January. Note that this is only an option if you send a regular pay run with a 2020 pay date first. If you’d like more specific information, our Sales team can follow up with you!

[porktaco]

@caroline I’m looking forward to migrating over to Square Payroll but have been waiting on multi-location support. Do you have any insight on when the capability to host multiple unique locations will be released? Thanks!

[caroline]

Hi @porktaco, we’re looking forward to bringing you on to Square Payroll! At this time we currently only support 1 EIN per Square Payroll account and 1 tax jurisdiction per EIN. We’re working on expanding multi-location functionality in 2021 to support different types of businesses! I would love to better understand how your business is set up and see whether we could support your business today - I’ll have someone from our Sales team reach out.

[rjbetts]

I was told you can't process an employee that lives in a different state than the business is in.  That seems ridiculous.  Shouldn't a multi national company fix something like this?  There are so many cities that are on the borders of states and all companies have employees that live in different states.  If this is not true any longer I would be happy to use the payroll service.

Thanks.

[PawsitivelyDogs]

I have that same question. I have been wanting to use square payroll but can’t figure out how to set it up as I live in one state and my business is in another. 

[caroline]

Hi @PawsitivelyDogs,

I’d need more information or context in order to provide accurate guidance for your specific situation. In general, we can support paying employees that are living in a different state than where your business is located. It might be best for one of our Sales specialists to reach out and learn more about your specific situation to ensure you’re set up correctly - I’ll let the team know!

[caroline]

Hi @rjbetts,

This is a great question, but I’d need more information or context in order to provide accurate guidance for your specific situation. In general, we can support paying employees that are living in a different state than where your business is located. It might be best for one of our Sales specialists to reach out and learn more about your specific situation to ensure you’re set up correctly - I’ll let the team know!