Outsourced Payroll Services for CPA Firms

Accountably is a staffing and recruiting agency that helps US CPA, EA, and accounting firms hire talent from India across tax, accounting, payroll, and finance. Accountably offers offshore staffing services, placing full-time offshore employees from India who work inside your firm's workflow, on your software and SOPs.

Accountably places payroll professionals in India across your clients' whole payroll cycle, from employee changes and the pay run to tax deposits, quarterly returns, and year-end W-2s.

If a payroll role can be performed remotely, Accountably can fill it with A-players from India.

Here are some examples of the roles we can fill:

• Payroll: payroll specialists, senior payroll specialists for multi-state clients, and payroll leads who review the runs
• Payroll review and year-end processing: senior CAS specialists
• The books the payroll posts into: bookkeepers, staff accountants

Accountably's staffing model is fully managed: we handle the employment contract, payroll, tax compliance, benefits administration, and salary disbursement for every hire, so you get the talent without the administrative overhead.

That is the payroll for your own hire. Your clients' payroll is the work your hire does: it stays on each client's own payroll platform, your firm keeps ownership of it, and you approve every run.

This matters most for firms that don't have an established entity or employer of record (EOR) infrastructure in India.

You direct the day-to-day work; Accountably handles everything on the back-end.

Our staffing model also includes onboarding support, equipment coordination if needed, and ongoing HR support for as long as the engagement runs.

Dedicated hires and build-operate-transfer teams go through the same vetting and shortlisting process; a white-label team is staffed and run by its assigned manager.

The core difference between dedicated offshore talent and a white-label delivery team is who directs the work. With dedicated offshore talent, your payroll specialist works inside your workflow and you direct the work like any member of your team; with a white-label delivery team, Accountably's manager runs the team, with its own reviewers, and you review the finished work.

Recruiting differs between the models. Dedicated hires go through the same recruiting process as build-operate-transfer teams, while a white-label team is staffed and run by its assigned manager.

Dedicated offshore talent is the right fit if you run payroll for clients all year and want a full-time payroll specialist inside your workflow.

A white-label delivery team makes more sense if your volume spikes in busy season and you'd rather review finished work. Firms serious about long-term offshore control can also choose build-operate-transfer.

If you're not sure which fits your situation, mention it on the discovery call, and the team will walk you through all three options.

Accountably quotes every payroll seat before you commit. Accounting seats start from about $11 an hour, which comes to roughly $1,800 to $2,500 a month for a full-time seat. Senior seats, such as a senior payroll specialist who owns your multi-state clients or the payroll lead who reviews the runs, are quoted on request.

One seat usually carries payroll for a portfolio of clients rather than a single account. For a dedicated hire, Accountably prices the seat, not the employee or the pay run, so a client who adds employees doesn't add a per-employee fee. White-label work is billed per return for tax work; other work is priced by scope, agreed on your discovery call.

The rate can vary by role and seniority, so you will get the specific figures on your discovery call, where we will walk you through the total cost for the role you need to fill.

But even with Accountably's fee included, a payroll hire in India through Accountably can still save your firm up to 60% compared to an equivalent US hire.

For firms that don't have an existing international payroll setup or in-country legal infrastructure, the staffing model removes that work entirely. Accountably handles the employment contract, your hires' own payroll, tax compliance, and benefits administration.

You direct the work. Accountably owns the employment relationship.

Also, with Accountably you pay nothing until you hire. The search, sourcing, shortlisting, and your interview stages all happen before any fee is due. If Accountably does not place someone, you owe nothing. A dedicated hire has a 60-day minimum commitment.

The 45-day replacement guarantee is included. If a placement does not work out within 45 days, Accountably finds a replacement at no additional charge.

Outsourced payroll services hand some or all of your clients' payroll work to a team outside your firm instead of in-house payroll staff. That team processes multi-state pay runs, posts the payroll journals, and prepares the federal and state deposits, 941 filings, and year-end W-2s, while your firm keeps ownership of the payroll and approves every run.

For a CPA or accounting firm, the work usually covers:

• Pay runs on each client's schedule, single-state and multi-state
• New hires, terminations, rate changes, benefit deductions, and garnishments
• Payroll register review against the prior run, and the payroll journal entries for the ledger
• Federal and state tax deposits, prepared for your approval
• Quarterly Form 941s and state unemployment returns, and the annual Form 940
• State and local withholding registrations, new-hire reporting, and state unemployment rate updates
• Year-end W-2s and W-3s, reconciled to the quarterly returns
• Correction filings when something has to be amended

Payments to independent contractors are reported on Form 1099-NEC rather than a W-2. That January work has its own page: 1099 filing.

Outsourced means the work is done by a team outside your firm. Offshore means that team is in another country. With Accountably it is both: your payroll specialist sits in India and works inside your clients' payroll platforms like any other member of your team.

The main difference is cost. A payroll hire in India can save your firm up to 60% compared to a US-based equivalent, due to the lower cost of living in India compared to the US.

With dedicated offshore talent, your firm manages the day-to-day work. Your payroll specialist reports to your managers, follows your workflows and processes, and works as part of your team, just like any other remote employee.

Accountably doesn't direct their daily work or assign client files. You have complete control over their responsibilities and schedules. Think of Accountably as the hiring and administrative partner, not a management layer.

Approval and filing stay with your firm either way. Your payroll specialist prepares each run, the deposits, and the returns and presents them for your approval; filing and submission happen under your firm's credentials. Compliance positions, advice to the client, and contact with your clients' employees stay with you too.

Yes, payroll specialists in India working with US firms work in the same tools your team already relies on: the payroll platform each client already runs, QuickBooks and Xero for the books the payroll journal posts into, and Karbon and TaxDome for workflow and client documents.

The work happens inside each client's existing payroll platform, so there is no migration.

During vetting, Accountably screens explicitly for your stack rather than assuming tool familiarity and runs the assessments you already use.

Onboarding then ramps your payroll specialist on your firm's software and SOPs, from each client's pay calendar to your approval workflow.

If there is a specialized system in your clients' environment, we identify transferable skill paths and flag any ramp time upfront so you can make an informed decision.

Accountably puts every candidate through a rigorous screening process before presentation.

Every candidate goes through Accountably's vetting process, which includes:

• Skills assessment: technical evaluation specific to the role requirements
• Experience validation: Accountably verifies work history
• Software experience: we check every candidate's experience on the payroll platforms your clients run and in QuickBooks and Xero
• Cultural fit: Accountably screens for alignment with US business practices, work style, and your specific firm culture
• Motivation check: Accountably rules out candidates who are just looking for short-term contracts or salary bumps
• Background checks: we run background checks, and every hire works under an NDA

You only see candidates who meet all these criteria. Experienced hires start with onboarding on your software and SOPs. Newer hires first complete our 6-week US tax and accounting program.

Yes. Senior payroll specialists own state and local withholding registrations, reciprocity between states, local taxes, and the state unemployment rate updates at the start of each year.

During onboarding, your specialist maps every client's state registrations, withholding rules, and filing calendar into your SOPs, so the calendar is tracked per client and per state rather than held in someone's head.

When a client hires someone in a new state, your specialist flags the registration and prepares it before the gap turns into a penalty notice.

For the state income tax side of the same clients, see multistate tax preparation.

Every file goes through preparer, senior, quality and final review before it reaches you.

Your payroll specialist prepares the run and the register on the client's platform. The senior reviewer checks the register against the prior period, tests every change, and confirms the tax setup for each state. The quality review ties the register to the payroll journal, and the deposits and returns back to the register. The final review confirms the run is ready for your approval, with variances against the prior period explained in writing.

The checking happens before the run is released, because a payroll error reaches your client's employees on payday.

Yes, payroll files are handled under SOC 2-aligned controls by background-verified staff who work under NDAs.

Payroll data carries pay rates, bank details, and Social Security numbers. Your firm sets the access. We ask for preparer-level access only, with no e-file or bank release rights.

Access is role-based and runs over a secure VPN, files move by encrypted exchange, audit logs record activity, and nothing is stored on a personal machine.

See data security and compliance for the full set of controls.

If a placement doesn't work out within the first 45 days, we find a replacement at no additional cost to you.

And if someone rolls off later, we shadow and hand over during their notice period, so your clients' pay runs never take a hit.

Each client's pay calendar, deposit schedule, and filing dates are written into your SOPs, so the work doesn't depend on one person's memory.