Welcome to Playground Payroll, where you can seamlessly pay your employees. Replace your current payroll provider to consolidate your systems into one place.
Currently, payroll is available to everyone except the following:
Non-profits outside of California, Texas, New York, & Florida
Businesses with multiple locations
Join Playground Payroll today and enjoy benefits like
Automatic tax filing with local, state, and federal agencies
Built-in time tracking
Automatic W2s & 1099s
Employee direct deposit payment with automatic deductions and tax calculations
Free migration of previous provider payroll data
401k, Workers Compensation, and health insurance integrations
Activate Payroll Subscription
Payroll is located on the left sidebar. Click the blue Get Started button on your Payroll tab to purchase the subscription and begin onboarding. Payroll is $40/month + $10/employee per month. The first $40 monthly fee is charged up front. The per-employee price will not be charged until you start running payroll.
💡The subscription must be purchased with a credit card. Your credit card will not be used to fund payroll. You will add your payroll banking information in Step 2.
Book Payroll Onboarding Call
Meeting with your onboarding or account manager is an important step to onboarding to payroll. You cannot run your first payroll until you have your payroll onboarding call.
Once the subscription is activated, you will receive an email confirmation. This email will have a link to book your payroll onboarding call with your account manager.
If you cannot find your subscription activation email, you can email your onboarding or account manager from Playground. Navigate to the Support button in the top right corner of your screen and click the Send Email button in the onboarding or account manager section.
💡 You cannot run payroll until you have met with your account manager to approve the payroll setup. The payroll setup can take 1-3 weeks. Your account manager will communicate your company's timeline.
Confirm Authorization
Enter your company details by clicking the blue Start Onboarding button. The next two steps, which take less than 10 minutes to complete, are essential for initiating the onboarding process.
Next, you will enter your company's legal name and address.
🚨 Be sure to type this information exactly as it is registered with state and federal agencies.
Choose Your First Payroll Date
This is the first date that your employees will receive pay.
💡 The soonest possible date is three weeks from the current day. However, in some cases, an expedited timeline may be possible. Please reach out to your account manager to request an expedited setup.
Select Your Payroll History.
You have three options for payroll history. Review the explanations below to determine which one applies to your business. It's crucial to accurately identify your previous payroll process because our team will migrate your historical payroll data for the year.
I have never run payroll before | Select this if you're a new company that has never paid. This also applies if your business has only used 1099 contractors and will now pay its first W2 employee through Playground Payroll. |
I currently use another payroll software | Select this if you currently pay your employees using another payroll software such as Gusto, ADP, Quickbooks, etc. |
I currently run payroll manually | Select this option if you run payroll without the assistance of payroll software. |
When the Confirm Authorization step is complete, you will be brought to the Payroll home screen.
Complete Profile
From the Payroll home screen, select the blue Complete Profile button in the top right corner.
In this step, you will enter your company details, payment method, and tax setup and sign filing authorizations. Below is a brief description of the steps required in each section.
Company Details
Enter your company's industry, company type, legal name, and legal address.
🚨 Be sure to enter your company's legal name and address exactly as it is registered with the state/IRS.
💡 If you do not remember your company type (Sole proprietorship, Partnership, LLC, C-corporation, S-corporation) you can reference your most recently filed tax return or your articles of incorporation/organization.
Payment Method
Authorize check to debit payroll funds from your account and then connect the bank account you will use to fund payroll. You can connect your account by logging into your bank account via Plaid, or you can provide the account details manually.
💡 Plaid is an online payment processing platform known for its robust security measures, making it a safe choice for online payments.
Tax Setup
Enter your company's Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) and local/state agency account numbers. Be sure to double-check that you are entering the correct numbers.
🚨 Incorrect tax account numbers can result in late filings and penalties.
If you just started your business, you must apply for state and sometimes local payroll taxes. If you have applied for the taxes, but have not received your account information yet, select "I have applied for an account number but have not received it yet". You will be able to go back and add this information later.
Filing Authorizations
Sign the forms on this screen to grant Playground authorization to process your payroll and submit tax filings and payments on your behalf.
Create Your Pay Schedule
The first two steps of onboarding are now behind you!
You're all set to create your pay schedule. To do so, click the blue Create Pay Schedule button on your Payroll home screen.
💡 As a reminder, the earliest possible pay date is three weeks from the date you finish the first two onboarding steps. To request an expedited setup, reach out to your account manager.
First, choose your pay frequency. Be sure to confirm that your pay schedule is compliant in your state. See below for a description of the pay frequency options.
Weekly | Employees are paid on the same day each week, such as every Friday. |
Every other week (bi-weekly) | Employees are paid every other week on a specific day, commonly every other Friday. |
Twice a month (semi-monthly) | Employees receive their wages on two specific dates each month, typically on the 15th and the 30th. |
Monthly | Employees receive their wages on a specific date each month. This is uncommon and may not be compliant with labor laws in some states. |
💡 It is best practice to pay child care workers weekly or bi-weekly. It is industry standard to pay employees on Fridays for the period that ended the previous Friday.
🚨 Hourly employees should never be paid on a semi-monthly or monthly pay schedule, as it will result in incorrect overtime calculations.
Next, you will choose your first payday and your first-period end date. The payday must be at least five days after the period end date. It is common to have a one-week delay between the period end date and the payday. For example, if your period ends on Friday, your employees will receive pay the following Friday.
If you selected a semi-monthly (twice a month) pay schedule, you must also designate your second payday. Typically, this will be 15-16 days after your first payday.
Invite Your Staff to Payroll
From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to Payroll and then click Home.
Click the white Manage button in the top right corner of your screen, then click Enroll Staff.
The Enroll Staff page will open. Toggle on any employees that you would like to add to payroll.
Enter the employment type, pay type, amount, date of birth, and start date for all staff that you are adding to payroll.
Click the blue Next button in the top right corner of the screen.
Review and confirm that all information is correct.
Click the blue Finish button and then press Continue to acknowledge that this action will allow your staff to sign up for payroll.
The employees added will now be able to complete their payroll onboarding by following the instructions in this article.
💡 If you select do not enroll a staff member, you can add them to payroll in the future by reopening the Enroll Staff window.
Meet With Your Account Manager
Your onboarding is almost finished! Before you can run payroll in Playground you must meet with your account manager or onboarding specialist. On this call, your account manager will confirm the information you've entered thus far and communicate your setup timeline.
💡 It is not required that all steps in this article be completed before you meet with your account manager. If you have not completed all steps, you must bring your tax and banking information to the payroll onboarding call.
If you are coming from another payroll software, your account manager will initiate the embedded setup process. With an embedded setup, Playground will migrate your year-to-date payroll history and employee information. This allows a seamless transition of payroll taxes. This will also allow employees to receive only one W2 at the end of the year.
Run Your First Playground Payroll!
The Playground Payroll team will contact you to let you know that your Payroll onboarding is complete and that you are ready to run your first Payroll.
On or before your payroll deadline, select the blue Create Payroll button in the top right corner of your Payroll home screen. Then select run next payroll!