Payroll Companies & Payroll Services in Birmingham, MI

Paymasters, Inc. is a payroll and human resources provider based in Birmingham, Michigan, a short drive from Troy. It works only with restaurants. The firm calls itself the first national payroll company built solely for the restaurant trade. It serves operators across the United States, from single locations to multi-unit franchise groups, and its products are designed to handle the high staff turnover, spread-out teams and tipped wages common in food service.

Background

The company was founded in 2003. Since then it reports paying millions of restaurant and hospitality workers across the country. It also says its average client payroll is larger than that of the publicly traded payroll providers, which suggests many of its clients are larger, multi-location operators. Its stated mission is to make clients' work simpler. Its listed core values are honesty, integrity, dedication, innovation and vision, and it says it favors long-term client relationships over short-term profit.

How It Works With Clients

Each client gets a dedicated payroll specialist instead of a general support queue. Paymasters says these specialists are well trained, have strong tools and are authorized to fix problems on the spot. The company also highlights its experience moving clients over from other providers. Its platform is meant to be all-in-one, so employers and employees can handle hiring, pay and benefits in one connected system.

Payroll and Workforce Services

A key feature is point-of-sale integration. Hours worked and new-hire details flow from the restaurant's POS into the payroll software automatically, which cuts down on manual entry and keying errors. One franchise owner with 16 locations, quoted on the company's site, said a custom POS connection made his payroll process fully automated. The full range of services includes:

• Payroll processing with automated import of time data
• Automatic capture and validation of new-hire data
• Applicant tracking, including posting to job boards, video interviews and background checks
• Paperless onboarding with digital signing of company and government forms
• WOTC screening, with Forms 8850 and 9061 prepared and tracked
• HR coaching, a library of policy templates, and a tool for building employee handbooks
• Benefit administration for medical, dental, vision and retirement plans
• COBRA notices, premium collection and eligibility tracking
• Online open enrollment and electronic links to benefits carriers
• Recovery of missed or under-collected deductions

Affordable Care Act Support

Paymasters also helps restaurants meet federal health coverage rules. Its ACA tools show which employees must be offered insurance, track staff whose average hours are close to the 30-hour threshold so managers can plan schedules, and file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C.

Other reports cover affordability under the safe harbor tests, the large-employer calculation based on full-time equivalents, and reporting across related business entities for controlled-group rules. For buyers comparing providers, the firm's appeal is its restaurant-only focus, its POS-driven automation and having one specialist assigned to each account.