Run payroll for W-2 employees
About running payroll
Square Payroll helps you pay your whole team from the Payroll tab of your Square Dashboard by importing time cards or manually entering the work hours. Square calculates your taxes for you and automatically emails your employees to let them know when they get paid.
If you use Square Shifts, you can automatically import your team member’s commissions from your sales into your payroll run. Commission importing works alongside importing timecards, tip importing, and automatic payroll. Commission wages that are imported into your payroll runs also appear in your Square Payroll reports and your team member’s pay stubs.
Once you run payroll, employees with a Square Payroll login will receive an email containing a link to view their pay stubs. Payroll debits appear separately on your bank statement from card payment credits and debits processed through your Square Point of Sale app.
Before you begin
To make sure your direct deposit recipients receive their pay on payday, process payroll by 8 PM PT on your due date. Learn more about how to edit your Square Payroll payment schedule.
To import commissions from your team’s Square Shifts timecards, you need to set up commission tracking. Learn how to set up commission tracking.
These instructions are for paying W-2 employees. To pay your contractors, learn how to run payroll for contractors.
Run payroll for W-2 employees
You can run payroll for your W-2 employees from your Square Dashboard or the Square Team App.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard and select Staff & payroll > select Pay Employees.
- Select Regular Payroll > Start Run.
- Confirm your Pay Period and Pay Date.
- Select the Payment Method: Use Employee’s Payment Method or Pay All Employees by Check.
- If you are using time cards with Square Shifts (or a supported third-party timecard application), if you enabled tip importing or commission importing, or if you require your team to declare cash tips when clocking out or switching jobs, select Import time and wages > Import to import your employee’s hours, tips, or commissions for the pay period.
- For team members that worked multiple rates during the pay period, hours are imported for each job and rate they worked.
- If you are not using timecards, manually enter the number of hours worked and any additional dollar amount earned (if applicable) for each employee into the appropriate columns:
- Rate: The employee’s hourly wage.
- Reg Hours: Number of hours worked at regular hourly wage.
- Overtime: Overtime hours worked (1.5x the hourly wage).
- Additional: Additional wages associated with the pay period, such as commissions. These amounts will be taxed as income and included in the employee net pay.
- Select (+) icon next to Gross Pay and select any additional line items you need to pay employees for and enter those amounts.
- Double: Twice the hourly wage.
- Tips Already Paid: Amount tips paid out in cash. This amount should already have been paid to your employee and will not be sent in your pay run.
- Paycheck Tips: Amount of tips you want to pay to your employee for the pay period. This amount is paid to your employee through Square Payroll.
- PTO: PTO hours used in the pay period. This option is turned on by default if you set up PTO with Square Payroll.
- Sick Leave: Sick Leave hours used in the pay period. This option is turned on by default if you set up sick leave with Square Payroll.
- Commissions: Commissions earned by an employee for the pay period. This option is turned on by default if you set up commission tracking.
- Select Continue.
- On the Adjustments screen, confirm deduction/contribution amounts and make any necessary edits. You can also add reimbursements if needed. Adjustments may apply if you set up employee benefits or post-tax deductions. If you use Guideline or SimplyInsured for benefits, changes to the employer contribution must be made directly with Guideline or SimplyInsured, respectively.
- Select Continue.
- Review the detailed breakdown of the pay run and the bank withdrawal. Select Confirm Withdrawal to approve and process the payroll for the current pay period.
- If this is your first time using Square Payroll, confirm pricing to complete the pay run. To accept, select Next.
- If you are paying employees by printed check, select Print Checks to download a PDF file of your employee checks.
- Open your Square Team App and select Payroll > Run payroll.
- Select Regular Payroll > Start Run.
- Select the Payment Method: Use Employee’s Payment Method or Pay All Employees by Check.
- If you are using timecards select Add shift for a specific day. Verify the team member, location, hourly rate, and clock-in information, then select Save.
- Select Continue to Hours and Earnings.
- Select Import time and wages to import the employee’s hours, tips, or commissions for the pay period.
- Select Continue to Adjustments. From this screen, view and edit any deductions.
- On the Review screen, review the detailed breakdown of the pay run and the bank withdrawal.
- Select Confirm Withdrawal to approve and process the payroll for the current pay period.
Employees with a Square Payroll employee dashboard will receive an email containing a link to view their pay stubs. Payroll debits appear separately on your bank statement from card payment credits and debits processed through the Square app.