How do I simplify payroll compliance?

Looking for the easy way out of payroll compliance? That’s why you’re having such a hard time.

I saw a founder on LinkedIn bragging about “solving” six-state compliance. His brilliant solution was...

...wait for it...

...a Slack app.

Let’s be clear. Compliance isn’t hard because you need to access payroll from your browser.

Swapping tools can’t fix broken workflows. As soon as the first edge case comes up, this guy will be all-caps typing into Slack with the same fury as if he were in a browser.

Thinking that maximum complexity = employees in 6 states was the first yellow flag that this guy was a mark. The alternative solutions he listed were big red ones. They were all overkill. 

Compliance in six states isn’t all that hard for someone who knows what they’re doing. If compliance issues keep popping up after setup, that just means that your setup was wrong.

He described his "ideal solution" with a textbook definition of a PEO. So why didn't any of the vendors he considered mention it?

Instead someone sold him this... Slack App.

I looked at the product. Maybe the service is fine, but the pricing model makes no sense. Obviously “doing things that won’t scale” until they hit product-market fit and the subscription fees balloon.

Outsourcing may get things running, but it traps you into an inflexible system. Whether it’s an EOR, a PEO (technically a type of EOR, but I digress), or a staffing agency, you’re going to be shoehorned into whatever process is convenient for them. 

They’ll limit your options.

They’ll extend your lead times.

They’ll misunderstand you half the time.

And they’ll charge extra for it.

That doesn’t mean you need to ditch your payroll provider. You just need someone to set it up properly so it doesn’t keep breaking.

“Meeting you where you are” doesn’t mean living in Slack. It means translating your unique business into settings and planting signposts on your side of the screen that help you stay compliant.

Simple stuff that you can set and forget, like workflows, checklists, templates. 

In short: infrastructure.

If you think a magical app can "solve" the challenges that come with building and paying a team, I have a bridge to sell you.