The basics
- What is LivyPayroll?
- LivyPayroll is a payroll web application for U.S. small businesses. It lets you create pay stubs, calculate tax withholding, and email pay stubs directly to employees.
- Is LivyPayroll right for me?
- LivyPayroll works best for business owners who have a basic understanding of payroll. If you're new to running payroll, the how LivyPayroll works guide is a good place to start. We're also happy to answer basic payroll questions over email.
- Does LivyPayroll pay my employees or deposit taxes with the IRS on my behalf?
- No. LivyPayroll is not a full-service payroll provider. It calculates withholding and generates pay stubs, but tax deposits and direct deposits are your responsibility. This keeps LivyPayroll significantly more affordable than full-service providers.
This page covers the questions our support team hears most: backdating pay stubs, why your stub history locks as you go, how Social Security/Medicare maximums and W-4 carry forward, what LivyPayroll calculates for you, and how billing works across active and inactive employees. If your question is about getting set up or running your first payroll, the how LivyPayroll works guide and FAQ are good starting points too.
Backdated pay stubs
A common assumption when people sign up is that they can immediately generate a full year (or more) of historical pay stubs to "catch up" their records. LivyPayroll doesn't work that way, and that's by design: payroll history has to be built one accurate pay run at a time, in order, so that year-to-date totals and withholding stay correct.
Here's what's included, and what isn't:
Up to 60 days back
Backdate freely within this window using the self-serve tool.
More than 60 days back
Pricing depends on how far back and how many employees. The further back, the larger the discount per month.
If you need to bring in more than 60 days of payroll history, that's not something the self-serve tool is built to do on its own, and it isn't something we charge a flat rate for either, since the amount of work involved depends entirely on how far back you need to go and how many employees are involved. Email us with how many months you need and how many employees, and we'll quote it. The further back the history, the larger the discount we apply per month.
Why older stubs lock
Once a pay stub exists in LivyPayroll, the stubs before it lock. You can keep adding new pay runs going forward, but you can't go back and edit a stub that already has runs after it.
This isn't a software limitation we'd remove if we could. It's how payroll records have to work:
- Accuracy chains forward. Every pay run's year-to-date totals, Social Security, and Medicare withholding are calculated based on everything that came before it. Change an old stub, and every stub after it is now wrong.
- Stubs are records, not drafts. Once a stub has been generated and (in most cases) sent to an employee, it's a record of what they were actually paid and what was actually withheld. Editing it after the fact would mean the employee is holding a pay stub that no longer matches what's on file, which creates real problems if they ever need it for a loan application, a tax question, or an IRS review.
- It protects you, too. A locked, sequential history is exactly what you want to be able to point to if the IRS ever has questions about a former or current employee's pay.
If you genuinely entered something wrong on a recent run, contact us. Depending on how recent it is and what changed, there are ways to correct it without compromising the integrity of the record, but it has to go through us rather than a self-serve edit.
Social Security and Medicare maximums
Every year, the IRS sets a maximum amount of wages subject to Social Security tax (the wage base). Once an employee's year-to-date wages hit that maximum, Social Security withholding stops for the rest of the year, both for the employee's share and the employer's matching share. Medicare tax has no wage base cap, though an additional Medicare tax applies to wages above a threshold for higher earners.
LivyPayroll tracks each employee's year-to-date Social Security and Medicare wages automatically, run after run, and stops deducting Social Security once they reach the annual wage base. You don't have to watch for it or calculate it yourself; it's handled the same way, every time, for every employee.
Vacation pay
Vacation pay is a per-employee setting, configured on the employee's profile. There are two modes:
Paid out each period
Calculated as a percentage of gross wages and added to every paycheck automatically. Most common for hourly employees with irregular schedules.
Accrued
Builds up as a running balance on the employee's profile and is paid out as a lump sum when they actually take vacation. More common for salaried employees.
Both are configured the same way: set the percentage, choose the mode, and LivyPayroll takes care of the calculation and the line item on the pay stub from there. If you're not sure which applies to your employees, check your state's employment standards: some states have specific rules about accrued vacation pay and payout on termination.
Bonuses, retirement contributions and piecework
LivyPayroll handles several earnings and deduction types beyond a standard hourly or salary wage. Here's how each works:
Bonuses
Bonuses can be added to any pay run as a separate earning. LivyPayroll calculates the additional tax withholding correctly for bonus payments (which the IRS treats differently from regular pay under supplemental wage rules) so the right amount is deducted at the time it's paid, not corrected later at year-end.
Retirement plan contributions
You can add a retirement plan contribution (such as a 401(k) deferral) as a line item on a pay stub. It shows up on the stub for the employee's records and, where applicable, is excluded from taxable wages for federal income tax purposes.
Piecework
For employees paid by output rather than by the hour (common in trades, agriculture, and manufacturing), LivyPayroll supports piecework pay. You set the per-unit rate on the employee's profile, and enter the number of units completed each pay period. LivyPayroll calculates gross pay from there, and still applies minimum wage top-up rules where they apply in your state.
W-4 and tax withholding
W-4 information is entered the first time you run payroll for a new employee, not during initial employee setup. LivyPayroll prompts you for the employee's filing status and any adjustments when generating that employee's first pay stub.
From that point forward, the W-4 settings carry over automatically on every subsequent pay run. You don't need to re-enter them each time.
If an employee's situation changes (a new dependent, a second job, additional withholding they want), you can update their W-4 directly on a pay stub at any time. The new setting becomes the default and carries forward from that point on, the same way the original one did.
Tax deposits
LivyPayroll generates a tax liabilities summary for each deposit period so you know exactly what you owe for federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare, along with any applicable state withholding. You submit federal deposits yourself through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) and state deposits through your state's revenue agency. LivyPayroll does not remit on your behalf.
When setting up your company in LivyPayroll, you choose your deposit schedule. The IRS assigns your schedule based on your total tax liability during a prior lookback period, so use whichever one the IRS has you on:
Printing checks
LivyPayroll is formatted for standard U.S. payroll check stock. Checks are not provided by LivyPayroll; you order them separately from any office supply or check printing service that carries standard payroll check stock (widely available online).
To print a check, open the pay stub you want to print, click Preview Pay Stub, then select Print Check from the top menu. The layout aligns automatically to the check fields; no manual positioning needed.
Multiple companies, one account
Yes. A single LivyPayroll account can hold as many companies as you need. Each company has its own employees, pay schedule, state, and history, fully separated from the others, but you manage them all from one login without separate subscriptions or separate sign-ins.
To add or switch between companies, go to Home → Bookkeepers. From there you can create a new company, rename an existing one, or switch your active company.
This applies whether you're a business owner running payroll for more than one of your own companies, or a bookkeeper or accountant managing payroll for a roster of clients. If the latter sounds like you, our guide on running a bookkeeping practice with LivyPayroll goes deeper on the multi-client tools available under Bookkeeper Pro.
W-2s
LivyPayroll generates W-2 forms for your employees based on the payroll history you've run through the year. To access your W-2 reports, go to Home → W-2 Reports.
W-2s are generated per tax year. Make sure all pay runs for the year are entered and confirmed before generating your W-2s, since the forms pull from your year-to-date totals for wages, Social Security and Medicare tax, and federal and state income tax withheld.
Active employees and billing
LivyPayroll is priced per active employee, not per company and not per seat. This means your bill reflects the people you're actually running payroll for right now, not your total headcount over time.
What happens when someone leaves
When an employee stops working for you, you don't need to delete them to stop being billed for them. Give them an end date on their employee profile, and they become inactive: their full pay history and tax records stay intact and accessible (which you'll want for W-2s and any future questions), but they no longer count toward your active employee total or your bill.
Cancelling your subscription
You can cancel at any time, either by emailing support@bizstubs.com or by going to Home → My Subscription → Manage Subscription. Your payroll history and employee records remain accessible until the end of your current billing period.
Before you contact us
A lot of questions we get are answered faster by self-serve resources than by waiting on an email reply. Worth checking first:
- Setup and first payroll questions: the how LivyPayroll works guide walks through company setup, adding employees, vacation pay settings, W-4, and running your first pay cycle step by step.
- Quick answers: the FAQ covers the most common questions about plans, features, and how LivyPayroll handles specific situations.
If you've checked those and you're still stuck, or your question is specific to your account, your data, or your billing, that's exactly what email support is for. Include your company name and as much detail as you can about what you're seeing; it helps us get you a useful answer on the first reply instead of a round of clarifying questions.
Get in touch
Email support@bizstubs.com for account, billing, and payroll questions. Need to talk it through? Ask in your email and we'll set up a phone appointment at a time that works for you.