OnPay

OnPay advertises unlimited pay runs and schedules in Payroll Essentials, including off-cycle payments. That does not remove the need to select the right pay period, workers and payment method. Review an ordinary run and a bonus or contractor exception before assuming a recurring process covers both.

The employer remains part of the tax workflow: OnPay's help center says it files using information and authority supplied by the business and may ask for missing details or action. A finance owner should inspect the payroll filing and tax-liability views after the first cycles and resolve notices promptly, even when filing is automated.

The service can report new hires to states and provide self-service onboarding and document storage. OnPay's price comparison places core onboarding in Payroll Essentials, while the HR add-on lists expanded workflows, PTO management and other staff tools. Confirm the exact onboarding documents and approval tasks the business needs before buying an add-on.

Employees can use their own accounts for items such as pay stubs, tax forms and personal or banking details, subject to employer setup. Decide who can edit pay-critical details and how a change is checked before payroll closes. A self-service record is convenient, but it is not a substitute for employer verification of pay and tax data.

OnPay offers payroll reports with saved custom views and exports for payroll expense analysis. Its pricing page also describes accountant access and general-ledger connections. Test the desired department or location split and the accounting mapping against one completed run before treating an export as reconciled books.

In a controlled evaluation, build a small fictional or sanitized payroll with an hourly employee, salaried employee and contractor. Review hours, a bonus, a deduction, payment methods, taxes, a report and an accounting export. Treat this as a buyer test plan, not a pay run completed for this profile.

Confirm state coverage and registrations, direct-deposit turnaround, approval roles, worker-count billing, required add-ons and accountant access in the employer's own account. Vendor pages describe available workflows; they do not prove that this employer's tax filings, deposits or integrations are active or correct.

Before changing payroll providers, inventory the reports, letters, files and tax forms your team will need, then test a permitted download of a sample report and tax form. OnPay says payroll tax forms remain available after you stop using its payroll service and that reports, letters, forms and files can be downloaded. Treat the lifetime-access promise as specific to payroll tax forms; verify access to every other record you need and keep your own copies before a switch.

Before submitting payroll, inspect the final wage totals, employer debit date and direct-deposit date. OnPay's current guide describes an immediate void option after submission and a limited dashboard deletion window before payroll funds are drafted. Agree who checks the confirmation and contacts OnPay promptly if an error is found; verify the actual account's cutoff rather than assuming a submitted run can always be reversed. No pay run or bank action was tested here.

If an outside accountant may submit payroll, review two permission levels before granting access. OnPay's March 2025 help article says an individual's Submit Payroll permission depends on the Accountant/Bookkeeper organization's Submit Payroll setting, and that organization-level permission applies to every user at the firm. It says an individual permission change takes effect immediately. Use a fictional approval scenario to decide who should submit, then verify the controls in the current account before assigning access.

Before changing the company bank account used for payroll, allow for OnPay's separate verification process. Its September 2025 account-and-billing FAQ says to request and return a Bank Account Change Request Form; OnPay then sends test transactions and asks the company to confirm their amounts. The new account is not used for payroll until those amounts are verified and OnPay's ACH team confirms the change by email. Check the current steps and timing with OnPay before relying on the replacement account for a scheduled pay run.

If workers split direct deposit between accounts, check the routing for both a regular paycheck and a smaller off-cycle payment. OnPay's current Help says a split can use percentages or fixed dollar amounts, and an employee can add multiple bank accounts. Its employee guide says a check smaller than a configured fixed amount goes entirely to that account, and the split also applies to off-cycle checks such as bonuses or commissions. Use a fictional small-check scenario to confirm the intended allocation before relying on it.

Before a direct-deposit payday near a US federal bank holiday, check OnPay's current holiday schedule and the account's pay-run Review dates. OnPay says ACH does not process on federal bank holidays; a holiday after submission but before the expected deposit can add a business day to the turnaround, and some paydays on or shortly after a holiday require running payroll one or two business days early. Have the authorized payroll owner verify the actual submission deadline, employer debit date and displayed direct-deposit date before approval, then recheck after any change to the run.

During an OnPay migration, entered worker records do not by themselves give employees portal access: OnPay says the employer must invite each worker separately after checking the address. Its Help Center recommends a personal email so pay information and tax forms remain reachable if a company mailbox is lost, and says a wrong-address invitation can be revoked and reissued. Before relying on employee self-service, have the authorized payroll owner reconcile the invitation list and check a permitted sample sign-in. Verify which historical records the account actually contains.

OnPay uses different statuses for a worker who leaves. Its Help Center suggests Inactive for a temporary or seasonal departure or someone likely to return; an inactive worker is removed from payroll and, OnPay says, is not counted toward its monthly rate. Terminated is intended for a permanent departure, records a reason and date, and retains the worker's pay history. A scheduled termination can be cancelled before its effective date; after that date, the guide says to use Rehire to return the worker to payroll. Before using either route, walk through fictional exit and return cases and check final-pay timing and former-worker portal access as separate steps.

For a worker who also has Company User administrative access, treat three exit decisions separately. OnPay says archiving that Company User removes administrative access but keeps the employee profile. Its Employee Portal is a separate dashboard for paychecks, pay history and W-2s, and OnPay says employees retain portal access. Before a real departure, have the authorized payroll owner walk through a fictional dual-role worker: which company permissions should end, whether the employment status should be Inactive or Terminated, and how the person will reach later payroll records through the portal. Check the actual invitation and access state; do not assume that archiving the admin user decides payroll status or verifies portal sign-in.