Payroll Companies & Payroll Services in Bethesda, MD

Mendoza & Company, Inc. is an accounting and tax practice headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, with a second location in Miami, Florida. Alongside bookkeeping and tax work, the firm runs payroll for employers, positioning itself as an alternative to large payroll processors for owners who would rather hand off pay runs and filings to an accounting team they can reach directly. Its client base includes small businesses, individuals, nonprofits and international companies.

Payroll offering

The firm's payroll program is built around an online portal. New clients are enrolled on the portal at no setup charge, after which the employer submits staff hours from a desktop, tablet or mobile app, a step the firm says takes only minutes per cycle.

From there, Mendoza & Company handles the processing work, and clients can choose weekly or biweekly schedules. Its payroll page describes plans for small employers with up to 49 workers as well as larger organizations with 50 or more.

• Calculation of payroll taxes and remittance of tax deposits
• Federal and state payroll tax returns, including Forms 941 and 940
• Year-end W-2 preparation
• Direct deposit to employees, or checks printed in-house by the employer
• Employee self-service access to pay stubs and W-2s
• Optional integrated HR management for a combined payroll and HR package

The firm's stated case for using it rather than a high-volume processor is that payroll sits inside a broader accounting relationship. Because the same team also keeps books and prepares business returns, clients can raise payroll questions with staff who already understand their finances, and the firm stresses quick, personal responses as a smaller practice.

Accounting and tax resolution

Beyond payroll, the practice provides monthly bookkeeping and write-up work, QuickBooks setup, personal and business tax preparation for 1040, 1120 and 1065 filers, and tax accounting.

A large share of its work involves IRS problems: it represents taxpayers in audits, negotiates installment agreements, partial payment plans and offers in compromise, seeks currently-not-collectible status and penalty abatement, files delinquent returns, and works to release bank levies and wage garnishments.

Payroll tax audits and payroll-related collection issues fall within this scope, which may interest employers with past filing problems. The firm is also an IRS Certified Acceptance Agent for ITIN (W-7) applications.

Team and background

The principal, Alejandro Mendoza, is an Enrolled Agent with accounting and finance degrees from American University and more than two decades of experience resolving tax matters for businesses and individuals.

He describes his approach as largely educational, helping owners read their balance sheets and profit and loss statements, and he has designed his own QuickBooks templates to give new clients an organized chart of accounts. The firm also lists a network of associated advisors that includes tax attorneys, a CPA, a tax defense litigator and a commercial real estate specialist.

Client reviews posted on its site note bilingual staff and relationships with business owners that go back many years.