Square Payroll Features & Billing
Square offers two payroll services: Employees and Contractors, and Contractors Only. Our Employees and Contractors Payroll is for businesses that hire both W-2 employees and 1099 contractors. We handle everything from state and federal tax payments and filings to paying your team by direct deposit. Our Contractor Only Payroll is for businesses that hire self-employed independent contractors. We handle everything from contractor direct deposit to filing Form 1099-NEC. Learn more about the difference between W-2 Employees and 1099 Contractors.
There are no fees for running payroll more often, which means you can pay your employees and contractors as many times as you need in a given month at no additional charge.
Payroll Features
Below are more details on what’s included with each of our payroll services.
| Features | Contractors Only | Employees and Contractors |
| Simple, flexible pricing | $6/contractor paid per month | $35/month + $6 per person paid per month |
| Unlimited payroll runs | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Pay W-2 employees | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Pay 1099 contractors | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Generate, file and mail W-2s at year end | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Generate, file and mail 1099s at year end | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Automated Federal tax payments and filings | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Automated State agency tax payments and filings | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Access to the Square Payroll App | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Online accounts for your team | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Direct deposit or manual check pay options | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Split direct deposit paychecks to multiple bank accounts | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Time tracking, shift scheduling, and overtime calculations | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Tip importing | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Custom reporting | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Automated payroll for on-time payments | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Calculated pay for new hires and terminations | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Benefit deductions and company contributions | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Post-tax deductions (i.e. garnishments) | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Employee reimbursements | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Off-cycle payments for flexibility | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Paid Time Off (PTO) and Sick Leave Tracking | ✖ | ✔️ |
| New hire reporting | ✖ | ✔️ |
| Integrations with Square POS, Homebase & more | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Integrations with QuickBooks Online for accounting | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Integration with AP Intego for workers’ comp | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| U.S.-based phone support | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Pay Contractors | Pay Employees & Contractors |
Note: At this time Square Payroll does not support Household Employers and Agricultural Employers. Square Payroll is only for businesses that file Form 941 or Form 944.
Payroll Billing
You will be billed on the 1st of the month (or first business day if the 1st lands on a weekend) for the previous month’s payroll fees.
Billing is based on the payroll send date, not on the pay date. For example, if payroll is submitted on January 31st but the employee/contractor pay date is February 5th, fees for these employees and/or contractors will apply to the month of January and be billed February 1st.
Note: You won’t be charged for Square Payroll until you’ve processed your first payroll run. You’ll then pay the $35 subscription fee each month, even if no payroll runs are processed in that timeframe. You are not charged the $6 per employee fee for team members that you do not pay during the monthly billing period.
Billing Method
Square Payroll allows you to pay your fees through either the bank account linked to payroll or to a credit/debit card.
To link a payment card:
Visit Settings > Account & Settings > Business information > Pricing & Subscriptions in your online Square Dashboard.
Click Update payment method.
Select Credit Card and enter your credit card details.
Click Confirm.
Note: If you are subscribed to any additional services from Square, adding a payment card will change your billing preference for all services. If the payment for your Payroll subscription fails, the ability to send direct deposit payments to your team will be disabled until your subscription fees are successfully paid. You will still be able to issue manual check payments to your team while direct deposit is disabled.
If you are not currently processing payroll for your team, you can pause your Payroll subscription from the Payroll Settings tab of your online Square Dashboard. Your subscription will resume after 9 months or when you process payroll again, whichever is sooner.