Payroll, Benefits
& Compliance.
Run For You.
Launch Industries is a Seattle, Washington payroll and benefits partner for small and mid-sized businesses. We set up the payroll system, run the recurring pay cycle, register you in every state where you have an employee, file the quarterly and annual returns, and administer the benefits stack so your team stays covered.
We are Gusto Payroll Advisors with a SHRM Senior Certified HR Professional on staff. That means you get a single team running payroll, benefits brokerage coordination, retirement plan administration, and the Washington-specific compliance (PFML, WA Cares, PSST, L&I) that most national platforms hand off to you. Owner-only access for the sensitive stuff, view-only for your bookkeeper, audit-ready records for year end.
What Our Payroll & Benefits Service Covers
Nine focus areas, one team. Pick the engagement that fits, or combine them into a full payroll and benefits stack.
Payroll System Setup
Gusto, Rippling, or ADP RUN configured from scratch: EIN, state employer accounts, bank links, GL mapping, and pay schedules tuned to your operation. We hand you a system that runs cleanly from day one.
Running Payroll
Weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly cadence with exception handling, off-cycle runs, bonuses, commissions, and tip reporting. You approve, we run, employees get paid on time.
Multi-State Payroll
Registering for SUTA, withholding, and unemployment in every state where you have a remote employee. We handle the paperwork and keep the filings current.
Contractor Payments (1099)
W-9 collection, contractor onboarding, direct deposit or check, and 1099-NEC filing at year end. Fewer Zelle headaches, cleaner books, audit-ready records.
Year-End W-2 & 1099 Prep
Wage reconciliations, fringe benefit reporting, W-2 and 1099-NEC distribution, ACA 1095-C and 1094-C filings for applicable large employers. Done by January 31, every year.
Benefits Enrollment
Medical, dental, vision, life, short and long-term disability. Open enrollment runs, qualifying life events, and broker coordination handled end-to-end through Gusto Benefits or your existing broker.
401(k) & SEP-IRA Setup
Retirement plan setup with Guideline, Human Interest, or Vestwell. Safe Harbor design, employer match modeling, ERISA basics, and ongoing administration so your plan stays compliant.
COBRA Administration
Continuation coverage handled through Gusto's add-on or a third-party administrator. We track qualifying events, send required notices on time, and keep your group plan audit-clean.
WA PFML, PSST & Tip Pooling
Washington Paid Family & Medical Leave, Paid Sick & Safe Time, WA Cares, and hospitality tip-pool calculations configured correctly inside your payroll system.
The Payroll Platforms We Implement
We are hands-on with the three platforms that cover almost every small business situation. We will recommend the right one for your headcount, state footprint, and stakeholder requirements.
Gusto
Our default for businesses under 75 employees.
Gusto starts at $40/month plus $6 per employee for Simple, and scales up through Plus and Premium tiers. It handles full-service payroll, multi-state filings, contractor payments, benefits brokerage, 401(k) integration, and time tracking inside one platform. Launch is a Gusto Payroll Advisor, which means our clients get partner-tier support and discounted onboarding.
Rippling
When payroll, HRIS, and IT need to be one system.
Rippling unifies payroll, HRIS, device management, and app provisioning. We recommend it for tech-forward teams of 30 or more where headcount is growing fast and the IT side (laptops, SSO, app access) matters as much as the payroll side. Pricing starts at $8 per employee per month for the payroll module.
ADP RUN
When the bank, the accountant, or the union expects ADP.
ADP RUN is the right pick when external stakeholders (a SBA lender, a long-tenured CPA, a union benefits trust) already work with ADP and migrating off would cost more than it saves. We support clients on RUN and Workforce Now, and integrate it with QuickBooks Online or NetSuite as needed.
How We Engage
A four-stage engagement: discovery, setup, recurring run, and year-end. Predictable handoffs at every stage.
Discovery
We map your current state: how many employees, in which states, on what platform, with which benefits, and where the breakage is. Multi-state exposure, contractor classification risk, and missing state registrations surface here. You get a written gap analysis in two weeks.
Setup
We open the right accounts (federal EIN, state withholding, state unemployment), build out the payroll platform, migrate employees and historical YTD wages, and sync the payroll feed into QuickBooks Online or Xero so bookkeeping stays clean.
Run
Monthly cadence: we run payroll on the schedule you choose, handle the exceptions (terminations, bonuses, garnishments, fringe benefits), reconcile to the bank, and flag anything unusual before it becomes a problem.
Year-End
W-2 and 1099-NEC distribution, ACA reporting for applicable large employers, retirement plan true-ups, and a clean handoff into the new tax year. You start January without a year-end fire drill.
Common Payroll & Benefits Use Cases
Eight scenarios we run for clients on a regular basis. If any of these sound like you, the next step is a 30-minute call.
First Employee Hire
Going from solo founder or contractor-only to your first W-2. EIN, state employer accounts, workers' comp (where required), I-9 collection, W-4 setup, and a Gusto account configured so payroll runs cleanly on day one.
First Out-of-State Remote Hire
You're in Washington and you just hired someone in Texas, California, or Florida. We register you for the right state accounts, set up withholding, file the new-hire report, and keep the multi-state filings current going forward.
Replacing a Bundled HR & Payroll Service
TriNet, Justworks, or Insperity charging 4 to 7 percent of payroll, with you locked out of the relationship with your own carriers? We model the direct-stack alternative (Gusto plus a broker plus a 401(k) provider) and run the migration once you see the math.
Migrating Off QuickBooks Desktop
Intuit is sunsetting QuickBooks Desktop Payroll. We move you to Gusto or QuickBooks Online Payroll, migrate YTD wages, reconcile filings, and protect the year-end so nothing falls through the cracks.
Cleaning Up Contractor Payments
Paying contractors through Zelle, Venmo, or random checks? We move them onto a 1099 workflow inside the payroll system, collect W-9s, and set you up to file 1099-NEC at year end without scrambling.
First 401(k) for a 5-Person Team
Modern providers (Guideline, Human Interest, Vestwell) make a Safe Harbor 401(k) feasible for businesses under ten employees. We model employer match cost, integrate the plan with Gusto, and run enrollment so your team actually signs up.
Switching Brokers Mid-Year
You can change health insurance brokers without changing carriers or renewal dates. We coordinate the agent-of-record letter, the carrier handoff, and the benefits-platform reconfiguration so coverage never lapses.
Severance & COBRA After a Layoff
Layoffs require careful handling: final paychecks per state law, accrued PTO payout, COBRA notices on the clock, severance agreements drafted with counsel, and a respectful exit experience. We coordinate the payroll side end-to-end.
Compliance & Filings We Handle
The actual forms and registrations we file on behalf of clients, grouped by jurisdiction. Multi-state coverage included.
Federal
Washington State
California
Multi-State
Tools & Platforms We Support
We are vendor-neutral. If you are already on one of these, we will plug in. If you are shopping, we will recommend the right fit for your size and growth plan.
Payroll
Benefits
Retirement
HSA / FSA
COBRA
Time Tracking
HRIS / Onboarding
Doctegrity Telehealth Add-On
Learn moreDoctegrity is a $15 per employee per month telehealth membership that gives your team 24/7 access to licensed physicians, mental health counseling, prescription discounts, and dental and vision savings. It is not insurance, it is a wellness benefit, which means there are no carrier underwriting hoops and the employer can offer it as a flat-rate benefit on top of (or instead of) a traditional health plan.
For businesses that cannot yet afford full group health insurance, Doctegrity is a way to offer real medical access to the entire team without committing to a $500 to $900 per employee monthly premium. For businesses that already have group health, it is a low-cost supplement that improves retention and reduces the friction of getting care. We administer it inside your existing payroll system as a pre-tax or post-tax payroll deduction.
Bundled vs Direct Payroll
The single biggest cost decision in small-business payroll. We model both and let you choose with full information.
Bundled all-in-one services like TriNet, Justworks, and Insperity wrap payroll, benefits, HR support, and workers' comp into a single co-employment relationship. They typically charge 4 to 7 percent of total payroll, or roughly $100 to $200 per employee per month. The upside: better group health rates through pooled risk, one bill, and HR support included. The downside: you do not own the relationship with your carriers, switching is painful, and the math stops working once you have 30 or more employees.
Direct payroll (Gusto or Rippling plus an independent insurance broker plus a standalone 401(k)) typically saves 30 to 50 percent annually. You own the relationships with your insurance carrier, your retirement provider, and your payroll platform. The trade-off is that you (or we) coordinate across three vendors instead of one. For most clients over 10 employees, the direct stack wins on cost, control, and benefits quality.
We will build a side-by-side model showing your actual cost in each scenario, including the benefits piece, and let you choose. If a bundled service is the right answer for your situation (very small headcount with one high-claim employee, for example), we will say so. We do not earn referral fees on either path.
What We Replace, And With What
Before-and-after patterns we see across our payroll and benefits clients. Most of these have a same-quarter fix.
Bundled HR-and-payroll service charging 4 to 7 percent of total payroll
Gusto plus a real insurance broker plus Guideline, saving 30 to 50 percent while keeping benefits competitive.
QuickBooks Desktop Payroll (being sunset)
Gusto with auto-tax filing, multi-state support, and a clean QuickBooks Online sync.
Paying contractors via Zelle, Venmo, or paper checks
1099-NEC contractor payments through Gusto, with W-9 collection and year-end filing automated.
Spreadsheet PTO tracking and printed time-off requests
Built-in time-off accruals, requests, and approvals inside Gusto or Rippling, synced to the pay run.
Owner manually approving timecards from paper sheets
Homebase or When I Work scheduling with mobile clock-in, auto-flowed into payroll.
Annual broker meeting where nothing actually changes
Year-round benefits administration, mid-year plan reviews, and an open-enrollment process employees actually understand.
Security & Trust
Payroll holds the most sensitive employee data in your business: Social Security numbers, bank routing details, wage history, and benefits elections. We design access so the owner (or finance lead) is the only person with full payroll-run authority. Our team and your bookkeeper get view-only or report-only access, never the ability to initiate payments. SSO and two-factor are enforced on every payroll platform we touch.
We only deploy SOC 2 Type II vendors for payroll, benefits, and retirement administration. Gusto, Rippling, Guideline, Human Interest, Vestwell, and the major HSA and FSA administrators all meet that bar. For COBRA and any vendor handling protected health information, we use BAA-eligible providers and document the data flows.
Payroll fraud (especially with remote workforces) usually shows up as a direct deposit change request that did not actually come from the employee. We implement out-of-band verification for any banking change, a 24-hour hold on first-time direct deposits, and dual approval for any wire or off-cycle payment over a defined threshold. The controls are small, the savings when they fire are large.
Why Small Businesses Choose Launch
Four reasons clients keep us on retainer past the initial payroll setup.
Credentialed Team
Gusto Payroll Advisors and a SHRM Senior Certified HR Professional on staff. The work touches tax, labor law, and benefits regulations, so the people doing it carry the credentials to match.
Multi-State Experienced
Most of our clients employ people in three or more states. We've registered employers across the country and know which states are quick (Texas) and which are painful (California, New York, Pennsylvania).
Payroll Synced to Bookkeeping
Launch owns both sides. Payroll runs in Gusto, posts cleanly to QuickBooks Online, and reconciles to the bank without spreadsheet glue. One firm, one workflow, one point of accountability.
Washington Compliance Depth
WA PFML, WA Cares, Paid Sick & Safe Time, Seattle PSST, L&I, ESD, City B&O. The Pacific Northwest has its own compliance rhythm, and we run it for clients every quarter.
Payroll & Benefits FAQ
What does payroll setup cost?
Do you actually run payroll for us, or just set it up?
Can you replace our bundled HR and payroll service?
What happens when we hire someone in another state?
Do you offer benefits brokerage, or do we need a separate broker?
Is a 401(k) realistic for a 5-person company?
How does Washington Paid Family & Medical Leave work?
How does Launch use AI in payroll work?
How long does a payroll system migration take?
Do you support international contractors and remote employees?
Meet the Team
The experts behind this service, ready to support your business.
Payroll & Benefits Capabilities Statement
Download our one-page PDF overview to share with partners, clients, or your team.