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Switching

Nobody changes payroll providers casually

It is the one system where a mistake means someone does not get paid. So here is what it would actually involve, including the parts that are genuinely annoying.

  1. Week 1 · Step 1

    Gather what you already have

    Company tax registrations, your pay schedule, worker records with rates and deductions, and year-to-date totals from your current provider. Most of this is one export.

    Your part: Pull the reports. We tell you exactly which ones.

  2. Week 1 · Step 2

    Import and reconcile

    Year-to-date figures matter more than anything else: they drive wage-base caps, so a bad import shows up as wrong withholding months later.

    Your part: Confirm the totals match your last payroll register. Nothing else.

  3. Week 2 · Step 3

    Run one payroll in parallel

    The same period, calculated in both systems, compared worker by worker. Any difference is investigated before anything goes live.

    Your part: Look at the comparison. If it does not match, we do not switch.

  4. Week 3 · Step 4

    Cut over at a quarter boundary where possible

    Switching mid-quarter is possible but makes quarterly filings messier. If your timing allows it, waiting a few weeks is worth it.

    Your part: Pick the date. We work back from it.

The honest part

What actually goes wrong when people switch

These are the four failures that cause almost every bad payroll migration. Any provider that does not talk about them is hoping you find out later.

Year-to-date totals imported wrong

Social Security and unemployment both have annual wage bases. If the year-to-date figures are off, withholding is quietly wrong for the rest of the year.

Tax agency accounts not transferred

Your state and federal accounts need the new provider registered as an agent. This takes weeks in some states and is the single most common cause of a late filing.

Deductions dropped in the import

Garnishments and court-ordered withholding are legal obligations. If one does not come across, the employer is liable, not the software.

Everyone forgets the contractors

1099 workers usually live in a different corner of the old system and get missed in the export.

Migration is not built in this demo

The import tooling, the parallel-run comparison, and the agency registration workflow are described here as the intended process. None of them exists in this build, and PayPulse is not a licensed payroll provider, so nobody can actually switch to it today.