Overview of Setups
Streamline your payroll setup process to enhance relationships, control, and efficiency.
Why Payroll Setups Matter
A flawless payroll run begins long before the first paycheck is issued. Proper setup captures, validates, and links every critical data point—company legal identity, tax registrations, employee details, benefit plans, deposit accounts—to the right agencies. When this foundation is solid, all downstream calculations (taxes, net pay, GL exports, filings) flow automatically and accurately. Done correctly, setup eliminates first-pay errors, prevents state and federal notices, and builds immediate credibility with both the customer and their employees.
Conversely, a single mis-keyed FEIN, missing SUI rate, or incorrect workplace address will ripple through every paycheck and filing, triggering re-runs, amendments, and costly penalties. A disciplined setup process isn't just administrative overhead—it's a risk-reduction, trust-building, and revenue-protecting exercise. Think of it as the launchpad of the payroll lifecycle: invest the time, follow the checklist, and the entire engine runs smoothly.
Benefits of Owning Your Setup Process
Owning the setup phase puts the most influential moment of the payroll lifecycle in your hands. Rather than depending on Check's onboarding teams, your operators collect every data point, validate it in real time, and guide the customer through each decision. This results in faster launches, cleaner data, and a tighter feedback loop between you, your product, and your users.
Benefit | What it unlocks for your team & customers |
Customized Timeline | Pace onboarding around the customer’s pay calendar, blackout periods, or funding cycles. You can rush a single-owner LLC in a day or stretch a 200-employee migration over two weeks—no external queue to navigate. |
Build Customer Relationship During a Critical Time | Setup is when customers reveal pain points, past provider frustrations, and future goals. Guiding them through EIN checks, state IDs, and first audits cements you as the trusted advisor long before renewal time. |
Familiarity With Customer | By keying data yourself, you learn the customer’s corporate structure, fringe-benefit quirks, and edge-case employees. That context pays dividends when troubleshooting payrolls, tax notices, or year-end filings. |
Funnel for New Features & Process Enhancements | Live setups surface real-world gaps. Your ops team can feed those back to product—“we need a bulk SUI-rate importer” or “add Plaid to contractor flow”—and become the engine for continuous improvement. |
Operational Control & Flexibility | You decide which risk checks run, what constitutes an acceptable variance, and when to escalate to compliance. That autonomy reduces back-and-forth and shortens go-live SLAs. |
Upsell & Revenue Opportunities | While gathering bank info and benefit details, you can position add-ons—PTO tracking, time-clock integrations, 401(k) feeds—at the exact moment customers are most engaged. |
Stronger Brand Ownership | When onboarding happens in your UI, with your emails and success calls, the customer associates the entire payroll experience—setup through first payrun—with your brand, not a silent third party. |
Setting up payroll is one of the most critical and complex aspects of onboarding companies. By owning this process, your team gains control, speed, and a deeper understanding of payroll operations, enabling you to:
- Build stronger direct relationships with companies
- Customize your onboarding experience
- Develop internal payroll expertise
- Scale more efficiently with fewer handoffs
Check’s evolving role and How Check Supports You:
Think of Check like your enablers. You lead setup — we back you with expertise and tools. Check out our Webinars that include Setup 101.