Payroll Companies & Payroll Services in Rockford, IL

John Morrissey Accountants, Inc. is a family-owned accounting and tax practice based in Rockford, Illinois, with an additional office in Belvidere. The firm describes a history of more than 50 years in the area. Its clients include owner-run companies, non-profit groups and individuals who need help with taxes and finances. Payroll is one item in a wider menu of services, so a business can keep several back-office tasks with a single provider.

Payroll and Business Support

The firm positions its payroll offering for owners who feel they are losing too much time to paying employees. The idea is to hand off that routine work so the owner can concentrate on operating the company. Payroll sits beside bookkeeping, cash flow management and financial reporting in the firm's business services. A Rockford client quoted on the site credits the team with prompt, accurate handling of payroll, sales taxes and annual filings for a small business.

The practice is part of a group called the Morrissey Family Businesses, which brings together expertise in accounting, payroll and human resources. Its leadership team includes professionals from all three companies.

• Payroll solutions tailored to a business's needs
• Small business accounting and bookkeeping
• Part-time CFO services and cash flow management
• Help with bank relationships and internal controls
• Guidance on buying or selling a company, succession planning and starting a new venture
• QuickBooks setup, training, tune-ups and answers to user questions

Tax Services

Tax work covers both individuals and businesses, including planning aimed at lowering liability by legal means. The firm also prepares estate and trust returns. For people in trouble with the IRS, it offers audit representation, assistance with unfiled returns, back taxes, payroll tax problems and offers in compromise, and it can help clients obtain their IRS file. Individuals can also get one-on-one budget and goal-setting guidance.

The firm lists specialized knowledge in a number of fields, among them building trades, dental and medical practices, the hospitality trade, legal practices, production companies and property businesses.

People and Approach

The staff is led by John F. Morrissey, EA, who serves as president, and John J. Morrissey, CPA, who is president and CEO of the group's staff management company. Other team members include accountants and tax managers, a CPA who supervises tax work, and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.

The site shows the year each person joined, and the tenures range from 1993 for the IT professional to recent hires. The firm describes itself as large enough to offer deep expertise yet small enough to stay personal.

Its stated values center on trust, ethics and community involvement, and it says referrals from satisfied clients have driven its recent growth. New clients may schedule a free first consultation. Existing clients can use a secure portal, a secure file-sending page and a payment center, and the firm publishes a monthly email newsletter plus tax checklists, due-date information and calculators.

Market Dimensions, Inc. is a payroll service provider based in Rockford, Illinois. It has served employers across Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin for over four decades. The firm combines payroll processing with a human resources information system (HRIS) on one platform. It suits businesses that want both modern software and a local team they can call directly.

How They Work With Clients

The company's approach is built on relationships. Each client works with dedicated payroll professionals who learn the details of that business, such as shift differentials, paid time off rules and wage garnishments. Clients can run payroll themselves through the software or hand the whole process to the staff.

Self-service is offered as a choice rather than an obligation, so owners without payroll expertise can rely on the team instead. Services are tailored to each employer. The firm can also prepare the data that outside parties need, such as accountants, retirement plan providers and workers' compensation auditors.

Core Payroll and Tax Services

• Paychecks, direct deposits and pay advices, with paperless stubs available online
• Source-to-gross and gross-to-net calculations
• Withholdings for insurance, retirement plans and court-ordered garnishments
• New hire reporting and annual W-2 preparation and delivery
• Personal local delivery of payroll
• Full payroll tax service, including collection, remittance and quarterly federal, state and local filings
• Monthly unemployment reporting and quarterly unemployment tax returns
• Standard registers for payroll, deductions and direct deposit, plus departmental labor distribution and custom reports in several electronic formats

Optional Add-On Services

Beyond core processing, clients can add web access for supervisors and employees. Through this access, staff can check pay history, vacation balances and basic forms. The TimeForce time and attendance system turns any internet-connected computer into a time clock, and approved hours flow straight into payroll.

The firm also helps employers work out whether Affordable Care Act reporting applies to them, and it can produce Forms 1094-C and 1095-C. Payroll clients may also join a multiple-employer 401(k) plan sponsored by sister company Staff Management, Inc. Investment management for the plan comes from Savant Capital Management, and recordkeeping and administration come from BlueStar Retirement Services.

Pooling employers in this way is intended to lower plan costs compared with a standalone plan.

Background and Affiliations

Market Dimensions operated independently for about 30 years before joining the Morrissey Family Businesses. Its sister organizations are John Morrissey Accountants, Inc., an accounting, tax and consulting firm founded in 1972, and Staff Management, Inc., a professional employer organization and HR consultancy founded in 1983.

Through this group, payroll clients can draw on accounting and HR expertise from all three companies. The group describes honesty, integrity and reliability as its guiding principles. The firm operates from its office on Morsay Drive in Rockford and is open weekdays during standard business hours.

Wood CPA's Ltd is a certified public accounting firm based in Rockford, Illinois. It holds an Illinois license and names payroll as one of its core areas of focus. The firm works mainly with small and mid-sized businesses that want to hand off the administrative burden of paying employees. It also offers a wider range of accounting, tax and advisory work for companies and individuals.

Payroll focus

The firm sees payroll as a function that federal rules and tax regulations have made increasingly complicated for owners of smaller companies. Its own materials note that owners commonly spend about a full working day each month processing pay, which adds up to roughly a dozen working days over a year.

Wood CPA's presents its payroll offering as a way to reclaim those hours for selling, developing products and serving customers. It does not promote a single packaged plan. Instead, the firm describes tailoring its payroll arrangements to each client's circumstances, and it invites prospective clients to talk through their requirements during a no-cost initial consultation.

Payroll rarely stands alone, so buyers may value the related capabilities available at the same firm:

• Resolution of payroll tax problems, plus help with IRS liens, levies, wage garnishments and payment plans
• Bookkeeping and small business accounting
• Business tax preparation and tax planning
• IRS audit representation and assistance with unfiled returns or back taxes
• QuickBooks setup, training, tune-ups and discounted software purchases
• Part-time CFO support and cash flow projections

Broader business services

Beyond payroll and bookkeeping, Wood CPA's provides audits, reviews and compilations at different assurance levels for stakeholders such as lenders and investors. It also handles:

• Forensic accounting for disputes
• Business valuation
• Preparation for bank financing
• Strategic and succession planning for family-owned companies
• New business formation
• Guidance for non-profit organizations seeking to protect their tax-exempt status
• Internal control assessments with recommendations for improvement

For individuals, the practice offers personal financial planning, estate planning and elder care services.

Working with the firm

Clients can reach the team by phone or email with accounting questions. The firm maintains a secure online file delivery tool and a client portal for exchanging documents. Other resources for clients include a monthly email newsletter, financial guides, online calculators and a tax center with due dates and rates. The firm describes its tax work as efficient, affordable and discreet, and states that its client service rests on a set of three guiding principles.

For Rockford-area employers comparing payroll providers, Wood CPA's Ltd is a local CPA practice where payroll processing sits alongside tax resolution, QuickBooks expertise and general accounting. That lets a business coordinate several financial functions with one firm rather than spreading them across separate vendors.