What's included in the payroll price?

A dedicated specialist rather than a call centre, unlimited deductions and garnishments, direct deposit, federal and state tax filing and payments, employee self-service with mobile access, a custom general ledger report, PTO tracking, monthly training, and the HR Support Center. Tax filings and year-end processing are billed separately as they occur.

Is there a setup fee?

Yes. There's a one-time implementation fee covering account setup, migrating your wage and tax history, and running a parallel payroll before go-live. It scales with complexity, so you'll get the figure for your specific situation before you commit to anything.

How does pricing work for seasonal businesses?

The per-employee fee applies only to people actually paid in that run, so your cost moves with your real headcount. A business running twenty people in summer and six in winter pays for twenty in summer and six in winter. That suits Maine's seasonal businesses considerably better than a flat monthly subscription for a fixed employee count.

Does pay frequency change what I pay?

Both, in effect. The base fee applies every time payroll runs, so moving from weekly to biweekly halves that portion of your annual cost. For a 10-person business that's roughly $1,100 a year in base fees alone. Check your state's minimum pay frequency rules before changing anything, since Maine requires employees be paid at least every 16 days.

Paper Trails > How much does payroll cost?

How much does payroll cost?

Payroll at Paper Trails starts at $43 per payroll run plus $4.50 per employee paid in that run, so a 10-person business paid biweekly spends about $88 per payroll, or roughly $2,756 a year once quarterly tax filings, year-end processing, and W-2s are included. There's a one-time implementation fee to get set up, and optional services like time tracking and benefits administration are priced separately.

Most payroll companies make you request a quote to find out any of this. Here's the whole picture, so you can work out what you'd pay before you talk to anyone.

Payroll Pricing Estimation Calculator

1 How many employees do you pay on average per pay period?

2 Do you pay employees in states other than Maine?

3 What is your pay frequency?

4 In addition to payroll, which services are you interested in?

Timekeeping New Hire Onboarding / Offboarding Benefits Administration Applicant Tracking (iSolved Hire) Expense Management Learn & Grow (LMS)

Per Pay Period

Annual

Your Estimated Cost Per Pay Period

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Please Note

This is just an estimate — final pricing may vary based on your business needs, complexity, number of states, and other factors. Pricing does not include a one-time implementation fee. Contact our team for an exact quote.

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Key Takeaways from this Article

Payroll pricing has two parts: a base fee each time you run payroll, and a per-employee fee for everyone paid in that run.
Rates start at $43 per run plus $4.50 per employee for weekly and biweekly payroll.
A 10-person biweekly business runs roughly $2,756 a year all in, including tax filings and W-2s.
You're only billed for employees actually paid in a given run, so seasonal headcount doesn't cost you in the off season.
Pay frequency matters as much as headcount, because the base fee applies to every run.

How Much Does Payroll Cost?

Pricing is built on two numbers: a base fee charged each time payroll runs, and a per-employee fee for each person paid in that run.

Pay frequency	Base fee per run	Per employee paid
Weekly	Starting at $43	Starting at $4.50
Biweekly	Starting at $43	Starting at $4.50
Monthly or quarterly	Starting at $125	$6.00

The per-employee fee only applies to people actually paid in that run. If you're a seasonal business running twenty people in July and six in February, you pay for twenty in July and six in February.

What That Looks Like in Practice

A business paying 10 employees biweekly:

$43 base plus $4.50 × 10 employees, which is $88 per payroll.

Add a hire and the next run is $43 plus $4.50 × 11, so $92.50. Nothing else changes.

Over a full year, that 10-person business at 26 pay periods comes to $2,288 in payroll processing. Adding the quarterly tax filings, year-end processing, and W-2s brings the total to roughly $2,756 for the year, which works out to about $23 per employee per month.

That figure covers payroll and tax filing. It doesn't include implementation, or add-ons like time tracking or benefits administration.

What's Included in the Base Price?

Quite a lot, and it's worth knowing what you're not paying extra for:

A dedicated payroll and HR specialist who knows your business, rather than a support queue
Unlimited deductions, wage garnishments, and reports
Direct deposit on whatever schedule you choose
Federal and state tax reconciliation, payments, and filings
Employee self-service through a mobile app, so people pull their own pay stubs and W-2s
A custom general ledger report that maps to your accounting system or QuickBooks
Monthly training webinars and access to the HR Support Center
HR document, asset, and certification tracking, with E-Verify integration
Workers' comp pay-as-you-go through MEMIC, Eastern Alliance, Acadia, and AmTrust
Paid time off tracking for Maine earned leave compliance
Retirement contribution transmission to supported carriers
TurboTax and Work Number integrations, plus the employee discount marketplace

What Are the Additional Fees?

Tax work is billed as it happens rather than built into the base rate:

Quarterly tax filings: $72 for one state, $40 for each additional state
Year-end processing, which includes Q4 quarterlies: $130
W-2s: $5 each
1099s: $130 base plus $5 each
Tax amendments: $175 per hour, one hour minimum

There's also a one-time implementation fee to build your account, migrate your wage history, and run a parallel payroll before go-live. It scales with how complex the setup is, so a two-person S-corp and a 200-person multi-state employer aren't quoted the same. We'll tell you the number before you sign anything.

What Do the Add-On Services Cost?

Everything beyond payroll and tax is optional and priced per employee per payroll. Time and attendance, benefits administration, expense management, onboarding, applicant tracking, scheduling, and performance tools each have their own rate, generally running from about $0.35 to $4.00 per employee depending on the service and your pay frequency. Applicant tracking is priced monthly by company size instead.

HR consulting is separate again, available hourly or as a monthly package. Those rates are on our HR consulting pricing page.

The pricing page has a calculator where you can put in your own headcount and pay frequency and see the number for your situation.

How Does That Compare to Running Payroll Yourself?

The honest answer is that software alone is usually cheaper. What you're buying at this price is the part that isn't software.

Someone at your business is currently spending hours per pay period on data entry, tax deposits, and quarterly filings, and that time has a cost. More to the point, the federal and state penalties for a missed deposit or a late filing can exceed a year of payroll fees in a single quarter. We go through that trade-off properly in outsourcing payroll versus keeping it in house.

FAQs: Payroll Pricing

Pricing starts at $43 per payroll run plus $4.50 per employee paid in that run for weekly and biweekly payroll. A 10-person business paid biweekly spends about $88 per payroll, or roughly $2,756 a year including quarterly tax filings, year-end processing, and W-2s. Add-on services and the one-time implementation fee are priced separately.
A dedicated specialist rather than a call centre, unlimited deductions and garnishments, direct deposit, federal and state tax filing and payments, employee self-service with mobile access, a custom general ledger report, PTO tracking, monthly training, and the HR Support Center. Tax filings and year-end processing are billed separately as they occur.
Yes. There's a one-time implementation fee covering account setup, migrating your wage and tax history, and running a parallel payroll before go-live. It scales with complexity, so you'll get the figure for your specific situation before you commit to anything.
The per-employee fee applies only to people actually paid in that run, so your cost moves with your real headcount. A business running twenty people in summer and six in winter pays for twenty in summer and six in winter. That suits Maine's seasonal businesses considerably better than a flat monthly subscription for a fixed employee count.
Both, in effect. The base fee applies every time payroll runs, so moving from weekly to biweekly halves that portion of your annual cost. For a 10-person business that's roughly $1,100 a year in base fees alone. Check your state's minimum pay frequency rules before changing anything, since Maine requires employees be paid at least every 16 days.
Time and attendance, benefits administration, expense management, onboarding, scheduling, and performance tools are each priced per employee per payroll, generally between about $0.35 and $4.00 depending on the service and your pay frequency. Applicant tracking is priced monthly by company size. HR consulting is available hourly or as a monthly package, priced on our HR pricing page.

Why We Publish This

Most payroll companies won't give you a number without a discovery call first. We'd rather you work out roughly what you'd pay, decide whether it's worth a conversation, and come in already knowing the answer to the first question everyone asks.

We're a small business too, with a team of 20 running payroll and tax for more than 1,000 businesses and roughly 14,000 employees, mostly across Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. When something goes wrong on a Friday afternoon, you call a person who already knows your account.

Updated: October 2026

Written by: Jon Portanova

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