Payroll Support for Denver Trades
Payroll setup and support for Denver cleaning, painting and flooring companies — labor burden computed honestly, W-2 vs 1099 handled defensibly, and Colorado's employer rules (Denver OPT, FAMLI, SecureSavings) configured correctly from day one.
Payroll is where trades books go wrong
Labor is the biggest line in every trade we serve — and the most regulated. Misclassify a cleaner, skip an OPT registration, miss FAMLI setup, or bid jobs on bare wages instead of burdened cost, and the damage compounds monthly. Payroll support means those mistakes don't happen quietly.
What we handle
- Platform setup (Gusto / QuickBooks Payroll) mapped cleanly into your books
- Labor burden calculation — your real cost per crew hour, fed into bids and job costs
- W-2 / 1099 record-keeping that survives audits; W-9s collected up front
- Denver OPT registration and monthly/quarterly remittance tracking
- FAMLI premium withholding and SecureSavings compliance at the 5-employee threshold
- Workers'-comp-audit-ready payroll records (painters: this is your afternoon-not-a-season insurance)
- January: clean W-2s and 1099s, no scramble
FAQ
Payroll support — common questions
Do you run payroll or support it?
We support it: setup and structure on a payroll platform (Gusto or QuickBooks Payroll), correct mapping into your books, labor-burden math, and the Colorado layers — OPT, FAMLI, SecureSavings — configured right. The platform cuts the checks; we make sure everything lands correctly.
W-2 or 1099 — how do I know?
Control is the test: if you set schedules, provide equipment and direct the work, the safe answer is usually W-2. Cleaning and trades are heavily audited for misclassification. We keep the records that support whichever classification you and your CPA choose.
What's labor burden and why does it matter?
Wages plus payroll taxes, comp insurance, FAMLI and benefits — usually 1.15–1.35× the wage. Bid with bare wages and every job quietly loses the burden. We compute your real number and bake it into job costing.
What Colorado payroll rules catch small employers?
Denver OPT ($5.75 employee / $4.00 employer monthly over the threshold, owners included), FAMLI premiums (0.9% of wages), SecureSavings enrollment at 5+ employees, and Denver's local minimum wage adjusting every January. All of it is calendar work we track.
Make payroll boring again.
Free Books Health Check — we'll look at how your payroll is set up and flag anything Colorado expects that isn't there.
Get my free Books Health Check