Payroll for cleaning crews, recorded where it belongs

I run payroll so your crews get paid on time every pay period, and I record each payroll run in the books the right way. Labor then shows up against the jobs and contracts it belongs to, which is the number a cleaning company actually needs to price its work.

Payroll is where your labor cost gets recorded. If payroll lives in one system and the books live in another with nothing tying them together, you can pay everyone correctly and still have no idea which jobs make money. This page covers what my payroll service includes, what employer payroll involves under federal rules, the employee or subcontractor question, and why the recording matters as much as the paycheck.

What payroll with me includes

• Crews paid on time, every pay period
• Each payroll run recorded in the books, with wages and employer costs in the right accounts
• Labor tied to the jobs and contracts it belongs to, so your job profit reports include it

Which filings and deposits your payroll provider, your CPA, or I handle gets settled before the first run, in writing, so nothing falls between the cracks.

What employer payroll involves

Once you have employees, federal rules add a set of recurring duties. Here is what the IRS describes, in plain terms. This explains what the rules are; it isn’t advice on your specific filings.

• Employers deposit and report the federal income tax withheld from employees’ pay, along with both the employer and employee shares of Social Security and Medicare taxes.
• Most employers file Form 941, the Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return, each quarter. Employers the IRS has notified in writing about the Form 944 program file Form 944 instead.
• Federal unemployment (FUTA) tax is reported on Form 940, an annual return.
• Forms W-2 must be furnished to employees and filed with the Social Security Administration by January 31.
• Employment tax deposits follow one of two schedules, monthly or semiweekly, and employers determine which one applies before each calendar year begins.

Source: IRS, Employment taxes (last reviewed November 24, 2025)

Source: IRS, Depositing and reporting employment taxes (last reviewed June 29, 2026)

Employment tax records have their own retention rule: keep them for at least 4 years after the tax becomes due or is paid, whichever is later.

Source: IRS, How long should I keep records? (last reviewed June 30, 2026)

Employees or subcontractors?

Plenty of cleaning companies run a mix of W-2 employees and 1099 subcontractors, and the difference changes everything about payroll. Subcontractors don’t go through payroll at all. I covered how each one shows up in the books in 1099 subcontractors vs. W-2 employees. Whether a particular worker is an employee is a legal question, so that call belongs with your CPA or an employment attorney.

Why the recording matters as much as the paycheck

This is the part most payroll setups skip. Why go to the trouble of tying payroll to jobs? Because a payroll report tells you what you paid, and only the books can tell you what each job cost. When every single payroll run lands against the right jobs, you can see that the office contract carries its weight and the Tuesday route doesn’t, or the other way around.

That same labor number is what drives pricing. If you want to test a job before you quote it, the job profitability estimator on the homepage runs the math with your own labor cost.

I’m a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep payroll accurate and recorded; tax positions and filing questions go to your CPA.