Here’s why your paycheck takes so long: Many companies pay in arrears. Which is a fancy way of saying that there’s a gap between the end of the pay period and when you actually get paid. If you’re paid hourly, there’s literally no way to get you paid without a gap. Here’s what’s happening in that time:

For my small business clients (who aren’t considering a PEO), the decision often comes down to Bamboo or Gusto. Both Bamboo and Gusto have clean, easy-to-understand user interfaces with cute graphics that really do make dry and stressful processes less intimidating and occasionally “delightful.” 

When you work overtime, you’re paid time and a half. The OBBBA only applies to the “and a half” portion of your pay. The OBBBA only applies to federal overtime, or hours worked beyond 40 hours in a week.

Many companies with fewer than 200 people will literally sign away legal control of their employees and pay multiple times more for payroll services.  Just so they don’t have to think about state tax settings.

Imputed pay is a type of non-cash benefit whose value is still taxable by the IRS. It could be life insurance, a domestic partner’s benefits, bills your employer paid for you, gifts. Answer: Your payroll person adds an “imaginary” dollar to your paycheck.  That’s imputed pay.

Before you start planning how you’ll spend that “free” paycheck before your finance department re-balances the budget for 2026 you need to know that your payroll provider is probably smart enough to anticipate this. There are two methods that payroll providers use to solve the 27-paycheck problem: Pro rata and pay as usual.

These days, it seems obvious that workers should be able to demand an accurate accounting for their time. But it wasn’t always that way. 

Here are five examples of mundane breakdowns that I’ve seen lead to payroll errors:

Except that something didn’t add up. They didn’t even have employees for half that time, and one of the people they were assessing violations on wasn’t even in the state. 

Letters from government agencies can be real scary sometimes. Especially when they contain words like "Warrant" and penalties with commas in them. By all means, take these letters seriously. But don't let them scare you.

If more people could see the data, maybe they’d want to renegotiate. But they might also have a better understanding of how their value is measured, and therefore find ways to bring more value to the company.

You run a draft payroll the regular way to get the numbers, enter the gross pay into an off-cycle payroll, and it spits out a number that’s off by 17¢ from what regular payroll said.  Why? Whyyyyy?

It drives me crazy when people treat a company’s FEIN (Federal Employer Identification Number) like it’s a big secret. FEINs are public information. 

One month your paycheck covers 9 workdays. The next month, it covers 12. You get paid the same each time. If you leave in the middle of your next pay period, how is your pay prorated?

There is something that payroll administrators can do to mitigate the Big Check Suckerpunch. It’s not shady and doesn’t expose the departing employee to risk.

As someone who’s familiar with the tools and regulations/processes they manage, it’s painfully obvious that most of these complaints are user error. Not because the user is incompetent. Because people underestimate the difficulty of driving an HRIS. 

Most teams frame it like a software switch. In reality, you’re rebuilding your company’s approach to employee data, payroll, benefits, and compliance from scratch.