Feature
Self-Directed Care Payroll Software
Complete payroll inside the platform, generating checks and direct deposits for employees and vendors without a third-party processor.
Payroll capabilities at a glance
- Checks and ACH direct deposit generated in-system — no external payroll processor
- Multi-employer, multi-FEIN payroll under a single fiscal agent operation
- Federal, state, and local tax calculation with jurisdiction-aware withholding
- Overtime, differentials, retroactive pay, and multi-rate employees handled natively
- Pre-payroll validation against authorizations and verified visit data
- Payroll registers, journals, and general-ledger exports produced every run
Payroll is the operation a Fiscal Employer Agent lives or dies by. It runs on a fixed calendar, it is visible to every caregiver the moment it goes wrong, and it carries real tax liability. ArborSoft runs the entire cycle inside the platform — calculation, approval, disbursement, and reporting — with no third-party processor in the middle.
Disburse without an outside processor
ArborSoft generates printed checks and ACH direct deposit files directly. The same run pays employees and vendors from the same ledger.
Removing the external processor removes an entire class of problem: no file handoff to reconcile, no separate portal to administer, no gap between what your system thinks it paid and what the processor actually sent, and no per-transaction margin paid to a middleman on every check.
Run many employers as one operation
In a self-directed program, each consumer’s common-law employer is a separate tax entity with its own FEIN, its own deposit schedule, and its own filing obligations. A fiscal agent may administer thousands of them.
ArborSoft keeps every employer distinct where it must be — withholding, liability, and tax filings are all tracked per FEIN — while processing them together in one payroll run. Adding your five-hundredth employer does not add a five-hundredth payroll process.
Calculate what actually happens in home care
Home and community-based care generates pay conditions that generic payroll packages handle awkwardly:
- Multiple rates per employee. A caregiver serving three consumers may earn a different rate for each, and a different rate again for respite versus habilitation.
- Overtime across consumers. Hours worked for several consumers under the same employer may need to aggregate for overtime.
- Differentials. Weekend, overnight, and holiday premiums applied by rule rather than by hand.
- Retroactive rate changes. When a program backdates a rate increase, ArborSoft recalculates affected periods and produces the retro amount as a distinct, explainable line.
- Live-in and exempt arrangements. Configured per program so exempt situations are handled consistently.
Validate before money moves
Pre-payroll validation runs against upstream data before a single check prints. ArborSoft confirms time is backed by a verified visit, the service was covered by an active authorization with sufficient balance, the employee is active with current credentials, and the employer is enrolled and tax-ready.
Exceptions surface on a review queue with enough context to resolve them, rather than as a pile of failed records after the fact.
Close the books every cycle
Each run produces the documentation the back office and auditors need: payroll registers by employer and by employee, tax liability summaries per FEIN and jurisdiction, check registers and ACH transmission records, general-ledger journal entries, and employer-cost reporting for grant and program budgeting.
All of it exports in the formats accountants and payers expect, and the tax figures flow straight into tax reporting and magnetic media filing without re-keying.
Payroll is one module of the ArborSoft fiscal agent platform — see how it fits into self-directed care and FMS operations.
Payroll questions
- Does ArborSoft require a third-party payroll processor?
- No. Payroll is calculated, approved, and disbursed entirely inside ArborSoft. The system generates both printed checks and ACH direct deposit files for employees and vendors, so there is no handoff to an outside processor and no reconciliation between two systems.
- Can ArborSoft handle payroll across many separate employers?
- Yes. Fiscal Employer Agents commonly run payroll for hundreds or thousands of common-law employers, each with its own FEIN. ArborSoft holds each employer as a distinct tax entity while processing them together in a single payroll run, so scale does not multiply the operational work.
- How does payroll connect to visit verification?
- Verified EVV visits flow directly into payroll as payable time. Because the visit was already validated against the authorization when it was captured, payroll is working from data that has been checked rather than re-checking it, which is what removes most of the manual review from a pay cycle.
- Can an employee have different pay rates for different consumers?
- Yes. Caregivers frequently serve more than one consumer, sometimes at different rates or under different programs. ArborSoft holds a rate per employee-consumer-service combination and applies the correct one automatically based on the service delivered.
Works alongside Payroll
Every ArborSoft module shares one record set, so data entered once flows everywhere it is needed.
- Tax ReportingAutomate federal and state payroll tax filings across every employer FEIN you administer, from one system.
- Vendor PaymentsPay goods-and-services vendors by check or ACH from the same ledger as payroll, with 1099 tracking built in.
- Magnetic MediaGenerate compliant magnetic media and electronic filing formats for federal and state submissions directly from payroll data.
- Electronic Visit VerificationCapture compliant visit data by mobile, telephony, or web, and validate it against the authorization the moment it arrives.
See Payroll in ArborSoft
Request a walkthrough of the platform and we will show you how authorizations, EVV, payroll, billing, and tax filing work together in a single system.