2023. The year of Simplicity.
Simple. Clear. Valuable.
That was our 2023 goal as we tweaked and reviewed our service offerings for you. Personally, I get frustrated working with vendors when I can’t easily calculate what my all-in-annual cost should be, and I don’t want you to have that same friction with our team.
So, in light of that, I want to introduce you to our 2023 Guide to Pricing which will include how much our services cost, how to identify the best service package for you, and all the ancillary fees to be aware of when working with my team.
Keep in mind, we do not ask you to sign any long-term contracts at Whirks. Our service is month-to-month, and we want to earn the right to be your partner month-over-month. That’s our commitment.
The Basics
We have three basic fees to know about – a one-time implementation fee, a monthly recurring fee, and year-end administration costs. It’s important to pay attention to the monthly recurring fee because it’s the primary driver of your cost to work with us.
How to identify the right package for me
We’ve built our services like a restaurant menu at a nice steak house. You have an entrée (our service package) and then based on your preferences, you may also order a cocktail, an appetizer, or a premium side. At Whirks, we call these add-ons. Our add-ons are really specific to the type of organization you have, so we like to break those prices out separately (A la carte) so you have the freedom to pick and choose what you need and want. Some of you are super tech-savvy and will love our ancillary products like Recruit and Hire or Learn and Grow. Some of you never ever want to handle another worker’s comp audit, and will choose to add our complimentary add-on, Pay-as-you-go workers Comp. Some of you have a small business and just want payroll to run smoothly. There’s room for each of you at Whirks! So let’s dive in.
There are three service packages at Whirks: Core, People, and The Whirks.
WHIRKS CORE
Designed for businesses who need and want traditional payroll service
Monthly Fee ($125 monthly or $10.25 Per employee per month)
This service package’s monthly processing fee costs $125/month per legal entity until you have more than 13 employees (yes, that’s per month, NOT per payroll processed). When you have more than 13 employees, that flat rate changes to a $10.25/per employee per month rate.
One-Time Implementation Fee (15% of your annual cost)
The one-time investment to get started in this package is always 15% of the annualized fee. For a small business of $125/month, the one-time implementation fee would be $225. Let’s say you have 25 employees and chose the core package. Your one-time fee would be $460.
Year-End Administration (tax filing & w2s)
The year-end costs include a $140/annual tax filing fee and $7 per W2 issued. For a company with 25 employees who issued 25 w2s, the year-end cost would be $390. Generally, year-end administration costs align with the one-time implementation fee unless you’re in a very high-turnover industry and you have a lot of W2s at year-end. Most payroll companies do break these fees out separately, so for ease of comparing, we break these out as well.
Who is a fit for CORE?
If you’re a growing small business, and you want to make sure your employees are paid on time, you can use technology to communicate and onboard your new hires, and not worry about payroll taxes, we suggest the Whirks CORE package.
The Whirks Core Package includes:
- Electronic Onboarding of New Hires
- Payroll Processing (Direct Deposit, Paycard, and Paycheck options)
- Payroll Tax Filing
- Employee Self-Service Apps
- Workers’ compensation insurance
WHIRKS PEOPLE
Designed for businesses who need payroll and HR support
Monthly Fee ($250 monthly or $15.25 Per employee per month)
This service package’s monthly processing fee costs $250/month per legal entity until you have more than 16 employees (yes, that’s PER MONTH, NOT per payroll processed). When you have more than 16 employees, that flat rate changes to a $15.25/per employee per month rate.
One-Time Implementation fee (15% of the annual cost)
The one-time investment to get started in this package is always 15% of the annualized fee + $1,500/month which covers a brand-new employee handbook or reviewing your current handbook. We curate a ‘living’ employee handbook for our clients, so we proactively add or update policies for clients as federal and state regulations change. In addition to the employee handbook, we implement HR essentials – on-call support for you to HR experts on our team, labor law posters delivered to your door, monthly workshops, and an annual HR Risk assessment. For a small business of $250/month, the one-time implementation fee would be $1,950. Let’s say you have 25 employees and chose the PEOPLE package. The one-time fee would be $2,185.
Who is a fit for PEOPLE?
If you’re a growing business and you value having an HR resource you can call anytime, we suggest the Whirks PEOPLE package. The People package includes everything in our core package AND what we believe are the HR Essentials (tactical HR to help you avoid lawsuits and HR Jail) for small business owners:
The Whirks People Package includes:
- Electronic Onboarding of New Hires
- Payroll Processing (Direct Deposit, Paycard, and Paycheck options)
- Payroll Tax Filing
- Employee Self-Service Apps
- Workers’ compensation insurance
- Living Employee Handbook (we update it for you every time federal or state laws change and apply to your business)
- Labor Law Posters delivered to your physical locations (again, as they update, we send you new ones to post in your breakroom for DFOL protection)
- Annual HR Risk Assessment
- HR on-Call (phone call or email away from our in-house HR experts when you have people concerns.)
- HR Whirkshops (monthly invite to an online Q&A to discuss HR hot-button issues with other business owners, led by our HR team)
Year-End Costs
The year-end administration fees are for annual tax filing ($140 annually per legal entity) and w2s ($75 base fee + $7/per w2 issued) are per entity. For a company with 25 employees who issued 25 w2s, the year-end cost would be $390. Generally, year-end administration costs align with the one-time implementation fee unless you’re in a very high-turnover industry and you have a lot of W2s at year-end. Most payroll companies do break these fees out separately, so for ease of comparing, we break these out as well.
Just like with Whirks core, we do suggest the complimentary add-on of pay-as-you-go Workers’ Compensation Insurance. If you have existing coverage, we can convert your current policy to Whirks and set it up on the pay-go model or we can quote out a new insurance policy for you to review. We are very competitive on workers’ compensation insurance rates, and can often save owners money by reviewing your existing coverage.
THE WHIRKS
Designed for businesses who want to outsource payroll, HR, employee insurance, and benefits administration entirely.
Monthly Fee ($300 monthly or $21.75 Per employee per month)
This service package’s monthly processing fee costs $300/month per legal entity until you have more than 10 employees (yes, that’s PER MONTH, NOT per payroll processed). When you have more than 10 employees, that flat rate changes to a $21.75/per employee per month rate.
One Time Implementation fee (15% of annual cost)
The one-time investment to get started in this package is always 15% of the annualized fee + $1,500/month. For a small business of $300/month, the one-time implementation fee would be $2,310. Let’s say you have 25 employees and choose the WHIRKS package. The one-time fee would be $3,536.
If you’re a growing business and you value your employees but do not want to lift a finger when it comes to having insurance, offering insurance, and how that relates to your employees paycheck, this is the package for you. The WHIRKS package is designed for an owner who is looking at Professional Employer Organization services or complete concierge and managed services for their employees. This package is NOT a PEO, but it has all the perks of a PEO organization without the co-employement contract and the 2-3% cost of your annual payroll to service it.
Who is a fit for THE WHIRKS?
We built this package for the owner who knows they need offer health insurance to recruit the right people for their team but does not want to handle any of the administrative burden it takes to offer coverage. We also designed this so that you do not have to hire a part-time HR or benefit administration person in order to keep growing. Think about the WHIRKS package like an all-inclusive resort for your employees. In this package, you pay for everything you could need and want for your employees all up front. The cocktails, meals, and entertainment is all included, and we add in what you need when you’re ready for it. The Whirks package includes EVERYTHING IN CORE AND PEOPLE AND:
The Whirks Package includes:
- Electronic Onboarding of New Hires
- Payroll Processing (Direct Deposit, Paycard, and Paycheck options)
- Payroll Tax Filing
- Employee Self-Service Apps
- Workers’ compensation insurance
- Living Employee Handbook (we update it for you every time federal or state laws change and apply to your business)
- Labor Law Posters sent to your studios (again, as they update, we send you new ones to post in your breakroom for DFOL protection)
- Annual HR Risk Assessment
- HR on-Call (phone call or email away from our in-house HR experts when you have people concerns.)
- HR Whirkshops (monthly invite to an online Q&A to discuss HR hot-button issues with other business owners, led by our HR team
- Access to Competitive Insurance rates (Worker’s Compensation, Medical, Dental, Vision, Health, and Supplementals)
- Managed benefit enrollment (annual enrollment, open enrollment, life-qualifying event management)
- Monthly carrier bill reconciliation
- Section 125 Compliance (POPDOC creation, COBRA administration, etc.)
- Employee Benefits Help Line (employees call us with insurance questions)
- Ongoing Benefit Election management by the Whirks team
- Paid Time Off Policy Add-on
- Attract & Hire Add-on
- Give and Volunteering Add-on
- Time & Attendance Add-on
- Pay-as-you-go Workers’ Compensation Insurance Add-on
- ACA compliance Add-on
Add-Ons:
Now that you’ve looked at our entrees, it’s time to review the premium sides! Again, think about add-ons as items you may need, want, or are interested in depending on the type of business you have. Some of our add-ons are complimentary, some have a flat monthly fee, and some have a PEPM rate. Here is the list of our add-ons and a brief description of each.
Attract & Hire – starting at $150/monthly
Attract & Hire is for businesses that want an integrated applicant-tracking solution for hiring. Think about an ATS like a CRM for applicants. It’s what you use to host job descriptions, send ads to an unlimited about of job boards, and how you initiate both your interviewing and hiring practices with your candidates. You can automate interview reminders, skill and assessments, and even extend offers and start background checks through our ATS. We generally recommend Attract & Hire for high turnover industries like restaurants, hospitality, and home care.
ACA Compliance – $3.25/ per employee per month
Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) are required by law to offer health insurance to their employees. As an applicable large employer, employers are required to offer health insurance that meets minimal acceptable coverage and issue Form 1095s at year-end to confirm that you offered the appropriate coverage at the right time to the right employees throughout the year. Our ACA Compliance Add-on means we will handle the reporting requirements you have as an ALE and issue 1095s on your behalf at year end. For more information about the Affordable Care Act and ACA Compliance, check out this ACA Guide. Please note, ACA is a very serious mandate and the cost of not following ACA compliance can negatively impact a growing organization. If you’d like to talk about your specific questions, contact our sales team to learn more.
Give and Volunteering – Complimentary Add-on
Give and Volunteering is for a business who wants to track volunteer hours, opportunities, and campaigns for their company. Through Give and Volunteering, employers can allow employees to donate to any 501c3 in the United States through their paycheck. Employees can allocate one-time donations or recurring donations to come out of their paycheck. For non-profit minded employers, Employers can even offer a donation match for certain employer-sponsored-non-profits. Give and Volunteer is designed for the employers who want to foster corporate giving and volunteer engagement with their local community.
Learn & Grow – $3.25/ per employee per month
Learn and Grow is for a business who wants an online on-demand training platform to upload video content for new hires and continuing education for existing hires. Through Learn & grow, you can create your own courses, upload content, videos, quizzes, and ensure that new employees and existing teammates stay up to date with your training and learning needs. Learn & Grow is an excellent tool for a company who already has training blocks in place, and need an online way of tracking completion, encouraging and fostering completion, and value single-sign-on access for all employee-related-tasks.
Pay-as-you-go Workers’ Compensation – complimentary Add-on when we are your insurance broker
Pay-as-you-go insurance is an effective cash flow tool for employers. When Whirks is the broker of record for your workers’ compensation policy we pay your premiums on every pay period and handle your workers’ compensation audit for you at year-end. The best part is that you don’t have to pay 25% down on your policy and true it up at the end of the policy period. Reach out for a quote on your insurance needs today. As a complimentary add-on, when we handle your insurance, we will set up pay-as-you-go at no additional cost to you. Check out our blog to learn more.
PTO Management & Accrual Tracking – complimentary add-on
Any employer who offers a paid-time off or sick-leave policy needs this add-on. This is how we automate the accrual of your PTO policy and allows employees to request PTO within your payroll system. Managers receive notifications and can approve or deny these PTO requests. Many employers over-complicate PTO policies, and if yours is tough to keep up with, here are our suggestions for what should be included in your PTO policy.
Time & Attendance – $3.25/per employee per month
If you have hourly employees and want to track their hours directly within our system, this add-on is for you. We have a variety of tracking options like physical clocks (biometric recognition, passcodes, and Pin numbers), as well as clocking in/out from a phone or on any Wi-Fi-enabled device like your employees’ work computer or work iPad. We generally recommend time & attendance for employers with hourly staff that do not track time in their Point-of-sale systems like medical practitioners, hospice care workers, blue-collared manufacturers, or white collar hourly employees.
Work Opportunity Tax Credit Services – Complimentary Add-on
The Work Opportunity Tax Credit is a federal dollar-for-dollar tax credit to employers who hire people in IRS-protected categories such as ex-felons, ex-veterans, or employees who receive social security assistance, food stamps, or disability compensation. WOTC Is based on total wages paid out to the employee every year, and must be reported to the IRS within 28 days of hire or employers forfeit the possible tax credit. Tax Credits start at $2400 per employee. WOTC is a MUST add when employers have large turnover or hire a lot of tipped and hourly workers. Great industries eligible for WOTC are restaurants, hospitality, hotel, manufacturing, transportation, non-medical home care agencies and some medical practices. For more information about WOTC, click here.
Retirement Plan Submission Payments -$50 per payroll process
Retirement Plan Submission are ideal for any company that offers a 401K plan of some kind. We can automate the submission of your payment to your 401K plan (with select plans). This allows us to report 401k changes when employees make changes to their contribution and takes one more to-do off your plate. We don’t currently work with all 401K brokers for this service, so please be to tell your salesperson what provider you’re with so that we can confirm we can automate this for you. **Please note, at Whirks we do not currently offer 401K plans through our service, however, we work closely with 401K advisors and Third Party Administrators to ensure you chose a retirement option that is right for you. If you want help selecting a broker, reach out to sales for the suggested brokers we trust.
At Whirks, we believe in simplifying people complexities and helping you thrive. If you’re interested in scheduling a discovery call, seeing a demo, or exploring what implementation would look like with us, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
