IRS-accurate withholding
Federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and FUTA are calculated with the current IRS Publication 15-T percentage method, including wage-base caps and Additional Medicare Tax thresholds.
Payroll & 1099 contractor software for small business
Simple payroll and contractor payments, calculated right and recorded for you.
Ideal Workforce is built for small businesses running W-2 payroll, paying 1099 contractors, or both. IRS-accurate withholding, encrypted employee data, and a self-service portal every employer, employee and contractor logs into on their own — with quarterly filing packages prepared and ready to submit.
- IRS Pub. 15-T withholding
- Authenticated encryption at rest
- Role-based access control
- Active IRS e-file provider
Built for owner-operators, office managers and small accounting teams — anyone who needs payroll and contractor payments done correctly without a dedicated payroll department.
How Ideal Workforce works
From signup to your first payroll register, in a handful of steps.
1
Set up your company
Pick a plan, add your company and state tax details, and sign your Form 8655 reporting agent authorization online.
2
Add your people
Add employees and 1099 contractors yourself, or send each of them a secure self-service link to fill in their own details and W-4.
3
Run payroll
Enter hours or confirm salaries, and Ideal Workforce calculates federal withholding, Social Security, Medicare and FUTA automatically.
4
Everyone self-serves
Employees see their own paystubs, contractors see their own payment history, and you keep a full company payroll history on record.
5
File with confidence
Download your quarterly filing package. You make your own tax deposits and file your own returns — we hand you the numbers, not a surprise.
A look inside the platform
Illustrative previews of the actual employer, employee and contractor experience.
Employer dashboard
Everything about your company, on one screen
Active employees, upcoming pay dates and quick links to run payroll, manage people and review your tax center — scoped to your company only.
- Active employee and contractor counts
- Next pay period at a glance
- One click into payroll, people and tax center
Active employees7
Contractors2
Next pay dateSep 12
Run PayrollReady
Employees & Contractors9 people
Tax Center941 prepared
Running payroll
Enter hours, review the math, approve
Federal withholding, Social Security, Medicare and FUTA are calculated for every employee from IRS Publication 15-T — you review and approve, not guess.
- Salaried and hourly employees in one run
- Live gross-to-net preview before you approve
- Every run kept on record for your payroll history
EmployeeGrossNet pay
I. Singh$1,384.62$1,079.44
M. Alvarez$960.00$782.10
R. Odom$1,120.00$901.67
Approve & finalize
Employee portal
Paystubs your employees can find themselves
Every employee logs into their own account to see current and past paystubs, their W-4 details and their home address on file — no more asking the office for a copy.
- Full paystub and pay period history
- Self-service W-4 and address updates
- Nothing visible to any other employee
Pay periodNet pay
Aug 16 – Aug 29$1,079.44View
Aug 2 – Aug 15$1,079.44View
Jul 19 – Aug 1$1,062.10View
Contractor portal
1099 payments, tracked separately from payroll
Contractors log into their own portal to see payment history and year-to-date totals, kept cleanly apart from W-2 withholding logic where it doesn’t belong.
- Payment history and year-to-date totals
- Ready for 1099-NEC prep at year end
- No employee data visible, ever
Year-to-date$14,200.00
Payments8
Aug 22, 2026Freight relay$1,775.00
Aug 8, 2026Freight relay$1,775.00
Payroll reports
A full history, not a spreadsheet you have to keep
Every pay period, every paycheck run, every company on record — with payroll registers and quarterly filing packages you can download as PDFs any time.
- Payroll registers by pay period
- Quarterly filing packages, ready to download
- Year-to-date totals feeding your W-2s and 1099s
Payroll register — Aug 16–29PDF
Q2 2026 filing packagePDF
Q1 2026 filing packagePDF
Tax filing status
Know exactly where your filings stand
Your Tax Center shows each return as it’s prepared, with the figures ready for you to file. Ideal Workforce does not transmit returns on your behalf today.
- Form 941 and Form 940 figures, prepared each period
- State registration details tracked alongside federal
- Nothing filed without you reviewing it first
Form 941 — Q3 2026Prepared
Form 940 — 2026In progress
NJ-927 — Q3 2026Prepared
Screens above are illustrative previews of real Ideal Workforce functionality, not live customer data.
Everything payroll should be, and rarely is
Built specifically for small businesses that need it done right, not just done. See the full feature list →
Encrypted by design
Social Security numbers and bank account details are encrypted at rest with Fernet -- AES-128-CBC with HMAC-SHA256 authentication, so a tampered value is rejected rather than silently decrypted. No one, including our own staff, sees a full number in the app unless they specifically need to.
Three portals, one system
Employers, employees, and 1099 contractors each get their own scoped, self-service login. Nobody sees data that isn’t theirs. That’s enforced at the database level, not just in the app.
1099 contractor payments
Track contractor payments separately from W-2 payroll, with no withholding logic mixed in where it doesn’t belong, and year-to-date totals ready to hand off for 1099-NEC prep.
Full payroll & company history
Every pay period, every paycheck run, every company on record, with quarterly filing packages you can download as PDFs -- so nothing lives only in someone’s memory or a spreadsheet.
Built to run itself
Cloud-hosted and always on. No software to install, no server to maintain. Just log in from wherever you already work.
Flat, published pricing
A base fee plus a per-worker rate. No sales call, no custom quote. See full plan details →
Essential
Small teams and micro-businesses
$49/mo + $4/worker
- Employee and contractor payroll, calculated and recorded
- IRS Publication 15-T federal withholding
- Paystubs and payroll registers
- Employee self-service portal
- Form 8655 authorization
Most popular
Enhanced
Growing businesses
$79/mo + $5/worker
- Everything in Essential
- Multi-state registration details captured at signup
- Timecard entry for hourly employees
- Quarterly filing packages, prepared for you to file
- Contractor payments tracked for 1099-NEC prep
Complete
Established businesses needing full compliance
$129/mo + $7/worker
- Everything in Enhanced
- Document vault for company and worker records
- Employee and contractor onboarding links
- Full payroll history and quarter/year rollups
- Priority support from our team
Every plan calculates and records payroll and prepares your filing paperwork. Switch plans anytime from your dashboard.
Built like a modern platform, priced like one too
Compare Ideal Workforce Payroll to a traditional legacy provider like ADP RUN or Roll.
| Ideal Workforce | Legacy providers (ADP RUN, Roll) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Flat, published base + per-worker rate | Custom quote, negotiated per client |
| Setup | Self-serve, live in minutes | Sales call and onboarding call required |
| Contract | Month-to-month, cancel anytime | Often a term commitment |
| Per-run fees | None | Common on lower tiers |
| Tax filing | Filing paperwork prepared for you; you file | Filed on your behalf |
Flat published pricing, no hidden per-run fees and no long-term lock-in. We do not publish a savings percentage against ADP: their pricing is quoted per client and unpublished, so any figure we printed would be made up.
Built for everyone on the pay run, not just the admin
Each role logs into exactly what they need, and nothing else.
Employer
Client portal
View your company’s full payroll history, run this period’s payroll, and manage employee and contractor records, scoped to your company only.
Employee
Employee self-service
Log in to see your own paystubs and payroll history, whenever you need them. No more asking the office for a copy.
Contractor
1099 contractor portal
Contractors log in to see their own payment history and year-to-date totals, kept cleanly separate from W-2 employee payroll.
Ideal Workforce staff
Admin dashboard
Full oversight across every client company, with every record change tied to a verified role and scope, not just a login.
Security isn’t a feature here. It’s the foundation.
Payroll data is some of the most sensitive data a small business holds. We treat it that way. Read more about our security practices →
Encryption at rest
SSNs and bank account numbers are encrypted with Fernet (AES-128-CBC plus HMAC-SHA256 authentication), never stored or displayed in plain text.
Strict access scoping
Every client and employee route re-verifies record ownership on the server. A client can’t view another company’s data by guessing a URL.
Secure sessions
Authentication uses HttpOnly, secure cookies with bcrypt-hashed passwords. Nothing sensitive ever sits in browser storage.
Compliance-minded
Run by an IRS-registered e-file provider (EFIN active) with withholding logic built directly from IRS Publication 15-T.
What Ideal Workforce does, and what it does not do yet
Payroll is not a place for pleasant ambiguity. Here is the boundary, in plain terms.
We do
Calculate federal withholding, Social Security, Medicare and FUTA from IRS Publication 15-T; record every paycheck and contractor payment; produce paystubs, payroll registers and quarterly filing packages; keep employer, employee and contractor portals separated at the database level.
We do not move money
The platform does not originate ACH, does not run direct deposit, does not hold or escrow your tax money, and does not remit deposits to any tax authority. You pay your employees and make your tax deposits through your own bank and through EFTPS, exactly as you do today.
We do not file your returns
We prepare the figures and the paperwork. Filing your 941, your state returns, your W-2s and your 1099s remains yours to submit. Ideal Workforce LLC holds an active IRS EFIN, but no return has been transmitted from this platform on any client's behalf, and electronic filing is switched off.
Where we operate
State registration details are collected for New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota. Full automatic state withholding calculation is available for New Jersey today, with other states not modelled yet.
Common questions
Does Ideal Workforce file my payroll taxes for me?
Not yet. Ideal Workforce calculates and records payroll and prepares your quarterly filing package and figures. Submitting your Form 941, state returns, W-2s and 1099s stays yours to do, and electronic filing is switched off today.
Does Ideal Workforce pay my employees for me?
No. The platform does not originate ACH or run direct deposit. You pay your employees and make your tax deposits through your own bank and EFTPS, exactly as you do today.
How much does it cost?
Plans start at $49/month plus $4 per active worker, with flat published pricing and no per-run fees. See the full pricing breakdown.
Which states do you support?
New Jersey has full automatic withholding calculation today. State tax registration details can also be collected for New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota.
Ready to stop wrestling with payroll?
Get started in minutes, or tell us about your business and we’ll walk you through moving your payroll and 1099 contractors onto Ideal Workforce.