White label payroll software is the platform an accountancy, bookkeeping or HR firm resells to its clients as its own payroll service: the client sees the firm's badge on the login and the payslips, pays the firm, and calls the firm when a run is wrong. Behind the badge a vendor calculates the withholding, files the returns and moves the money, and the reseller agreement says which of those the firm is answerable for. White label payroll for accountants is the same product sold to the profession that most often resells it. This page sets out what the vendor keeps, what the firm takes on, and how the margin is worked before the agreement is signed.
What the vendor keeps behind the badge
The tax tables, the withholding calculation, the filings and deposits, the year-end forms and the direct deposit rails are the vendor's engineering and, in most agreements, the vendor's liability. The obligations they support are the employer's, described in the IRS's Employer's Tax Guide, and the firm reselling the platform is neither the employer nor the payroll processor of record unless the agreement says so. Read the clause on filings and penalties before the badge goes on.
What the firm takes on: the first call, the onboarding and the price
The firm answers the client's first question, onboards each client's employees and pay schedule, sets the price and carries the relationship. That is where the margin is earned and where the hours go. The free margin worksheet on this site takes the vendor's wholesale price per employee or per client, the platform fee, the firm's price and the onboarding hours and returns the gross margin and the clients needed to cover the fee, which is the figure to negotiate with the vendor.
Pricing a resold payroll: per employee, per run or per client
Vendors wholesale payroll per employee per month, sometimes with a base fee per client, and firms resell it per employee, per run or as a flat monthly fee inside a bookkeeping package. The margin per client changes with the client's headcount under each model, so the book should carry the headcount on every subscription. A firm that prices a flat fee against a per-employee wholesale cost discovers the margin when a client hires.
The client book a payroll reseller keeps
Every client with the platform resold, the headcount, the wholesale and retail price, the vendor, the agreement and the renewal date, plus the date the vendor last changed its wholesale terms. When the vendor raises the per-employee price, the book shows which clients are below margin; when a client grows, it shows what the growth costs. Rebadgo Pro keeps that book and renders the proposal and the price sheet from it under the firm's own badge.
Questions people ask about white label payroll software
Is white label payroll software the same as being a payroll service bureau?
No. A bureau processes payroll itself and carries the processor's obligations. A white-label reseller sells and supports a vendor's platform under its badge; the vendor processes. The agreement says where the line is.
Who is liable if a resold payroll files late?
Whoever the reseller agreement makes liable, which is usually the vendor for its own filings and the reseller for what it entered or failed to enter. Read that clause before selling payroll under your badge.
How do accountants price white label payroll?
Most fold it into a monthly bookkeeping fee or charge per employee. Either way the wholesale cost is per employee, so the book has to carry each client's headcount to keep the margin visible.