• Home
• Payroll Software
• Payroll Mate

Payroll Mate Feature List

Why pay a payroll service every month when you can pay $239 a year — with no monthly fees — for all your payroll needs? Payroll Mate® is complete payroll software for accountants, small and mid-size businesses, agricultural employers, non-profits, local governments, schools, household employers and the self-employed. It gives you better control over payroll, easier access to employee and wage information, simpler reporting and record-keeping, and keeps employee information confidential.

Payroll Mate 2027 calculates net pay, federal withholding, Social Security, Medicare, and state and local payroll taxes. It supports different pay periods, prints checks, and prepares forms 941, 943, 944, 940, W-2 and W-3. It works with accounting software including QuickBooks, Sage 50 and Quicken. Watch actual customers (not paid actors) describe their experience with Payroll Mate.

• Calculates federal and state payroll taxes automatically. Built-in federal withholding and state withholding for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Tax tables and formulas are updated during the year through the automatic update feature.
• Exports payroll data to QuickBooks and Sage 50. A great alternative to QuickBooks Payroll and Sage payroll. See the Payroll Mate and QuickBooks FAQ.
• Federal payroll forms. Prepares and prints forms 941, 940, 943, 944, W-2 and W-3, ready to sign and send.
• Multiple pay frequencies. Weekly, biweekly, semimonthly and monthly payroll.
• Multiple pay types. Salary, hourly pay, overtime, double overtime, bonus and commissions.
• Complete payroll reports. Journal Summary, Journal Detail, Tax Liability, Deposit Requirement, Employee Earnings, Employee List, Payroll Totals, Payroll Detail, Taxes & Deductions, State Taxes and Pay Periods. The Deposit Requirement report shows how much to deposit for each tax, including Form 941 taxes that are usually deposited through EFTPS.
• Exports reports to Excel, CSV and PDF. Also text, rich text and image formats — useful for sending payments to a tax agency or 401(k) provider.
• Vacation and sick time accrual. Set hours earned per check and the yearly maximum for vacation and sick time. Payroll Mate calculates hours earned and used on each check (you can override them), can show them on the pay stub, and includes a leave report.
• Vendor and 1099 Center. Pay contractors, track vendor checks, run reports and print forms 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC and 1096. Learn more about the Vendor and 1099 Center. Requires Payroll Mate Option #6.
• Prints signature-ready checks. With detailed pay stubs, on laser and inkjet checks. Payroll Mate fills empty space on the amount line with asterisks so no one can alter the amount.
• General ledger and Quicken export. Export payroll to general ledger entries for your accounting software, or to Quicken QIF format.
• State payroll forms. California DE 9 and DE 9C, Texas C-3 and C-4, New York NYS-45, Florida RT-6, Illinois 941, Illinois IDES monthly reporting and Illinois UI-3/40. Requires Payroll Mate Option #5.
• Password protection. Keep payroll confidential with a password, and mask employees’ Social Security numbers on pay stubs.
• Free updates during the tax year. Delivered automatically over the internet, or installed manually if your computer is offline.
• Tutorials website. Step-by-step instructions you can browse and search from inside Payroll Mate.
• Free technical support. By email and live chat from our US-based team.
• Unlimited custom income, tax and deduction categories. Other payroll software locks you into built-in items or limits how many you can create. Payroll Mate does not.
• Faster than online payroll. Payroll Mate runs on your own computer, so it does not depend on an internet connection or an online service being available.
• Imports employee information. Import employees and payroll setup from a spreadsheet exported from QuickBooks, Sage 50, ADP, Paychex and other systems.
• Social Security and Medicare. Calculates, tracks and reports Social Security tax (6.2% for the employee and 6.2% for the employer, up to the annual wage base) and Medicare tax (1.45% each, with no wage limit), plus the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages over $200,000.
• Federal unemployment tax (FUTA). Calculates, tracks and reports FUTA tax, which is paid by employers only, on Form 940 — including Schedule A for credit reduction states.
• State unemployment tax (SUTA). Enter your state unemployment rate for each quarter and the wage base. Payroll Mate calculates SUTA on every paycheck and tracks it for reporting. The flexible tax engine also handles cases such as Washington workers’ compensation (employee deduction and employer contribution).
• State disability insurance (SDI). Some states, including California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, have disability insurance programs. You control who pays the tax, the rate and the wage base.
• Direct deposit. Creates NACHA (ACH) direct deposit files that you send to your bank, with no per-transaction fees from us. Requires Payroll Mate Option #2.
• Multi-company. Up to 10 companies with up to 75 employees each. Option #3 adds up to 100 companies with up to 1,000 employees each.
• New York City tax. Calculates, tracks and reports NYC personal income tax.
• Pay per mile, per piece or per bucket. Ideal for trucking companies and farms.
• Farm payroll. Pay farm and ranch workers by salary, hour or piece, file Form 943 and Form 943-A, and pay contractors through the Vendor and 1099 Center.
• One-step backup and restore. Payroll Mate reminds you to back up each time you close it. Keep a copy on a flash drive or other portable device, and ideally another copy offsite.
• Multiple jobs and rates on the same check. For example, a restaurant employee who works as both a cook and a server.
• Remote desktop and network use. Runs over a network and in thin-client environments such as Citrix and Remote Desktop Services.
• Form 941 adjustments. Edit adjustments for any day in the quarter; changes flow to the Form 941 totals and Schedule B.
• Church and non-profit payroll. Supports clergy taxable and non-taxable earnings, housing allowance, and exempting or withholding Social Security and Medicare from a minister’s pay.
• Employee notes. Record hire date, termination date, job title, supervisor, evaluation notes, last raise and more.
• Flexible spending accounts, cafeteria plans and fringe benefits. Set up pre-tax FSA deductions and fringe benefits such as educational assistance, group-term life insurance and HSAs.
• Print pay stubs only. Useful when you email pay stubs to employees or write checks by hand.
• Setup wizards. Wizards guide you through creating a company and adding employees. Each new company starts with default income, tax and deduction categories, including federal taxes. An employee’s federal withholding setup should always come from a signed Form W-4.
• Easy employee and check views. Sort employees by any column, group checks by employee or pay period, filter by month, quarter or year, and preview each check before printing.
• One window for each check. Everything you need to create or edit a check is in one window, and taxes, deductions and year-to-date totals update as you type.
• Inactive employees. Ideal for seasonal and part-time staff.
• Single or batch payroll. Create and print checks one employee at a time or in batch.
• Retroactive payroll. Apply changes to a pay period or paycheck after payroll for that period is done.
• Local payroll taxes. City, county, school district, municipal income tax, occupational license fees and more.
• W-2 and W-3 printing. Prints on preprinted red-ink forms. Option #1 adds SSA-approved printing of W-2 Copy A and W-3 on plain white paper. You can also un-approve and reprint W-2s, and print W-2 and W-3 forms after year end at no extra charge.
• W-2 and 1099 e-filing. Export W-2 and 1099 data to W2 Mate for federal and state W-2 e-filing, 1099 e-filing with the IRS IRIS system, and more.
• Wage garnishments. Including more than one garnishment for the same employee, such as child support, student loans and IRS levies.
• Special types of pay. Prizes and awards, gifts, back pay, jury duty make-up pay and moving expense reimbursements.
• Additional withholding. Track additional federal and state withholding for each employee.
• Manual checks and check register. Enter checks written by hand, with a check register report for bank reconciliation.
• Retirement plans. Calculates employer contributions and handles pre-tax deductions such as 401(k).
• Email checks to clients as PDF. Accountants can print clients’ checks to PDF and email them, so clients print them on Payroll Mate compatible check stock.
• ACA forms. Export employee data to our 1095 Mate software for paper and electronic Form 1095-C and 1094-C reporting.
• Work on next year without closing this year. Each year has its own installation and data, and the new year brings over your settings and setup.
• Tips. Tips received directly by employees or paid by the employer.
• After-the-fact payroll. Enter year-to-date totals in easy steps — for example, to produce forms 941, 940, W-2 and W-3 after the fact.
• Email reports. Send payroll reports by email between accountants and clients.
• Check sorting and reprinting. Print checks in any order and reprint selected checks.
• Free trial. Download the free trial — no questions asked.
• Windows compatible. Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, including Windows tablets that run full Windows such as Surface Pro.

Note to software authors and website publishers: this feature list is copyrighted material. Do not reproduce it in whole or in part without written permission.

State Payroll Withholding

Payroll Mate calculates state withholding for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Click your state to learn more.

Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · District of Columbia · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming

Payroll FAQ

Common questions from our customers. Click a question to see the answer.

Payroll Software Screenshots

Other screenshots

• Main payroll window
• New paycheck
• Payroll check preview
• Employee tax setup
• IRS Form 941
• Form 941 preview
• Form 941 adjustments
• W-2 forms
• Email tax forms
• IRS Form 940
• Save payroll report to Excel
• User-defined income
• User-defined tax
• Built-in income types
• Built-in tax types
• Payroll deductions
• Checks by employee
• Checks by date
• W-2 printing options
• Paycheck stub

Payroll Software Resources

• Payroll Mate and QuickBooks FAQ
• Small business payroll software
• Church payroll software
• Payroll Mate software update log
• Payroll Mate tutorials library
• Payroll Mate video tutorials
• Free payroll book (PDF)
• Useful payroll links