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Managed Payroll for Fast-Growing Companies
Managed payroll for a growing company is about the trip lines ahead: federal obligations attach at 10, 11, 15, 20, 50 and 100 employees, each measured on a prior-year count, so the payroll system has to see the line coming rather than report it afterward. BEG runs it for $45 per employee per month, all-inclusive, inside the payroll software you already use, live in 3 to 5 business days.
Growth changes the law in steps, and nearly every step is measured on the previous year. COBRA looks at the prior year's typical business days, the ACA at the prior year's average FTEs, OSHA recordkeeping at the prior year's peak, FMLA at 20 workweeks in the current or prior year. The practical consequence is that a company that crosses a line in October is usually covered from the following January, and the payroll count is the only record that shows when it happened.
The lines are not all counted the same way. The IRS e-file rule counts information returns, not people. OSHA counts peak employment. The ACA converts part-time hours into full-time equivalents at 120 hours a month. FMLA counts heads in workweeks. WARN counts full-time employees only. A growing company with part-time, seasonal or contractor-heavy staffing can be over one line and under another at the same headcount.
Price scales with the count and nothing else: $45 per employee per month at every size, with no monthly minimum. Nothing in the fee changes as thresholds trip; the ACA forms, COBRA notices and EEO-1 snapshot are inside the rate.
The federal threshold ladder, with what each line asks of payroll
| Any size | FLSA minimum wage and overtime. Applies to any enterprise with $500,000 or more in annual sales, or any employee engaged in interstate commerce, which in practice is nearly every employer. Exempt salaried staff must earn at least $684 a week; the 2024 increase was vacated and the 2019 level restored by a May 2026 technical amendment. Regular-rate overtime on every non-exempt employee; a salary test on every exempt one. [DOL, FLSA salary levels] |
|---|---|
| Any size | Federal employment taxes. Withholding, Social Security and Medicare, FUTA, quarterly Form 941 (or annual Form 944 when annual liability is $1,000 or less), and W-2s. New employers deposit monthly for the first year; the lookback period sets the schedule after that. A deposit calendar that changes as liability grows, and a next-day deposit whenever $100,000 accumulates. [IRS Publication 15] |
| 10+ | Electronic filing of information returns. Ten or more information returns of any type in a year, counted together, must be filed electronically. Ten W-2s alone trip it. Paper W-2 and 1099 filing ends at this line; the e-file setup with the SSA and IRS has to exist before January. [IRS Topic 801] |
| 11+ | OSHA injury and illness recordkeeping. Employers with 10 or fewer employees at all times during the prior year are exempt from routine OSHA 300 logs. At 11 the exemption ends unless the industry is on the low-hazard list. Headcount is measured across the whole company, so a second location can end the exemption without any one site reaching 11. [OSHA recordkeeping, 29 CFR 1904.1] |
| 15+ | Title VII, ADA, GINA and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Federal discrimination law reaches private employers with 15 or more employees for 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year. Accommodation and leave decisions start needing documentation; pay data by protected class becomes discoverable. [EEOC, coverage of federal EEO laws] |
| 20+ | ADEA (age discrimination). Applies to private employers with 20 or more employees. Severance and early-retirement paperwork needs ADEA-compliant releases, with the 21-day and 7-day windows. [EEOC, coverage of federal EEO laws] |
| 20+ | COBRA continuation coverage. Group health plans of employers with 20 or more employees on more than 50 percent of typical business days in the prior year must offer continuation coverage. Termination triggers an election notice; below 20 the state mini-COBRA law, if any, governs instead. [DOL, COBRA] |
| 50+ | FMLA. Employers with 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks are covered; an employee is eligible after 12 months and 1,250 hours if 50 employees work within 75 miles of their site. Up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave with benefits maintained, which means leave tracking and benefit deductions continue while pay stops. [DOL, FMLA] |
| 50+ | ACA employer shared responsibility. An employer with 50 or more full-time plus full-time-equivalent employees on average in the prior year is an applicable large employer. Part-time hours are aggregated at 120 hours a month per FTE. Offer affordable coverage to 95 percent of full-time staff or face a 4980H assessment, and file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C every year from payroll hours data. [IRS, applicable large employer] |
| 100+ | WARN Act. Employers with 100 or more full-time employees must give 60 days written notice of a plant closing or mass layoff. Pay in lieu of notice and final-pay timing on a layoff of 50 or more at one site get planned with counsel, not run as an ordinary termination batch. [DOL, WARN] |
| 100+ | EEO-1 report. Private employers with 100 or more employees, and federal contractors with 50 or more, file the EEO-1 workforce demographic report each year. Job category, sex and race or ethnicity have to sit in the HR record for every employee before the filing window opens. [EEOC, EEO-1 data collection] |
What managed payroll costs at a growing company
$45 per employee per month at every headcount, all-inclusive, inside the payroll software you already use, with no monthly minimum and no setup fee. Nothing in the fee changes as a threshold trips; the ACA forms, COBRA notices and EEO-1 snapshot are inside the rate. Live in 3 to 5 business days from signing.
Managed Payroll, Handled.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which federal laws attach at which headcount?
E-filing of information returns at 10 returns, OSHA logs at 11 employees, Title VII, the ADA, GINA and the PWFA at 15, the ADEA and COBRA at 20, FMLA and the ACA employer mandate at 50, WARN and the EEO-1 report at 100. State thresholds are often lower.
Are thresholds measured on this year's headcount or last year's?
Mostly last year's. COBRA, the ACA, OSHA recordkeeping and the EEO-1 all look back at the prior calendar year in some form. FMLA uses the current or prior year. The e-file rule uses the returns due for the year being filed.
Do part-time employees count toward the thresholds?
It depends on the law. FMLA and Title VII count part-time employees as employees. The ACA converts their hours to full-time equivalents. COBRA counts them as fractions. WARN counts only full-time employees. Payroll hours data is what makes each count possible.
When should a growing company move from payroll software to a managed service?
When a threshold or a complication makes the compliance work larger than the processing work: the first ACA filing, the first FMLA leave, a second state, a garnishment, or the first e-file year. Headcount alone is a weak signal; the obligations attached to it are the real one.
How is the BEG price calculated as the company grows?
Headcount times $45 per employee per month, all-inclusive, with no monthly minimum and no setup fee. Nothing in the fee changes when a federal threshold trips.
Related Resources
Anthony leads payroll solutions at Business Executive Group, a national managed payroll firm serving businesses across industries. BEG manages payroll at $45 PEPM, all-inclusive, with deep expertise in compliance, multi-state filing, and industry-specific payroll requirements. Get instant pricing at beghr.com.
Authoritative source: U.S. Department of Labor: Wage and Hour Division
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