Payroll Software for Staffing Agencies Compared
Staffing agencies run two payrolls, not one. Compare pay and bill platforms against general payroll, with setup times and the onboarding gap they leave.
Payroll Software for Staffing Agencies
Agencies run two payrolls that need different software: internal recruiters on ordinary SMB payroll, and placed workers on a pay and bill system that ties hours worked to client invoices
A staffing agency has two payrolls, and most comparisons of payroll software for this industry write as though it has one. Your recruiters and account managers are ordinary employees who need ordinary payroll. The workers you place at client sites need something else entirely: a system that pays them for hours worked and simultaneously invoices the client for those same hours at a different rate.
That second capability is called pay and bill, and it is the dividing line in this market. General payroll software does not have it, because a normal employer has no client to invoice. Buying Gusto or OnPay for placed workers means tracking bill rates and margins somewhere else, which works at ten placements and stops working well before a hundred.
This comparison separates the two problems, covers 10 platforms across both categories with setup times and what pricing is actually published, and addresses the cash flow structure that makes this industry different from any other employer.
Two payrolls, not one
The first decision is recognising that you are buying for two populations with almost nothing in common operationally.
| Dimension | Internal staff | Placed workers |
|---|---|---|
| Who they are | Recruiters, account managers, admin | Temps and contractors at client sites |
| Typical count | 5 to 50 | Tens to thousands |
| Pay frequency | Biweekly or semi-monthly | Often weekly |
| Turnover | Normal | Very high by design |
| Client invoicing | None | Required, tied to the same hours |
| What they need | Ordinary SMB payroll | Pay and bill platform |
| Typical cost | Published, per employee | Quote-only, by volume |
The turnover row is what drives most of the operational difference. Placed worker populations churn continuously by design, which means onboarding is not an occasional event but a continuous process running alongside payroll.
The invoicing row is what drives the software difference. Everything about a general payroll platform assumes the money flows one way: out to employees and to tax agencies. A staffing platform has to model money flowing out to workers and in from clients, derived from the same time record.
What pay and bill actually means
The capability that separates the two categories, and the one worth understanding before you evaluate anything.
| Step | General payroll | Pay and bill platform |
|---|---|---|
| Worker submits hours | Yes | Yes, often with client approval |
| Calculate worker pay | At the pay rate | At the pay rate |
| Withhold and remit taxes | Yes | Yes |
| Calculate client invoice | Not supported | At the bill rate for the same hours |
| Report gross margin | Not supported | Pay rate against bill rate per placement |
| Handle overtime billing rules | Payroll side only | Both sides, often with different rules |
Rows four through six are the whole difference. A placed worker submits 40 hours; you pay them $22 an hour and invoice the client $34 an hour, and the margin on that placement is the spread. A general payroll platform produces the first number and knows nothing about the second.
The overtime row is a subtler trap. Client contracts frequently specify a different overtime multiplier for billing than the statutory one you owe the worker, which means the pay calculation and the bill calculation diverge on the same hours. Handling that in a spreadsheet is where margin errors live.
10 platforms at a glance
Grouped by category. The Pay and bill column is the fastest way to tell which half of your problem a platform addresses.
| Platform | Category | Pricing | Pay and bill | Client invoicing | Runs payroll | Setup time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TempWorks | Staffing-native | Quote | 10 to 16 weeks | |||
| Avionte | Staffing-native | Quote | 8 to 14 weeks | |||
| Bullhorn | Staffing-native | Quote | Weeks | |||
| Greenshades | Staffing payroll | Quote | Weeks | |||
| Gusto | General SMB | $49 + $6/ee | Days | |||
| OnPay | General SMB | $49 + $6/ee | Days | |||
| ADP RUN | General SMB | Quote | 2 to 4 weeks | |||
| Rippling | General, modular | $35 + $8/ee | Weeks | |||
| Deel | Global contractor | $49/contractor | Days | |||
| FirstHR | Onboarding layer | $98 to $198 flat | Days |
Staffing-native platforms for placed workers
Four platforms dominate this category in the US, and none publishes pricing. All four are genuine implementations rather than signups.
TempWorks
Built around high-volume light industrial staffing, meaning hundreds of daily assignments, weekly pay cycles, and complex pay and bill rules. Its depth in that specific profile is the reason agencies choose it, and it unifies ATS, CRM, and back office on one database covering multi-state payroll tax, weekly filings, and year-end processing.
It also offers payroll funding through a sister company, which addresses the cash flow problem and the software problem in one relationship. Third-party reports put pricing in the range of $80 to $130 per user per month with implementation fees on top, and implementations at roughly 10 to 16 weeks.
Avionte
Covers light industrial but is stronger for agencies with clerical, professional, or mixed placement books where recruiter experience and speed to fill matter more than maximum pay and bill configurability. It supports W-2 and 1099 side by side, handles ACA and WOTC, and gives gross margin visibility to both recruiters and finance.
Its BOLD Back Office can run standalone with open APIs, which matters if you want to keep an existing ATS. Implementations run roughly 8 to 14 weeks, faster than TempWorks.
Bullhorn
Strongest as a front office: ATS and CRM depth is what agencies buy it for, with Pay and Bill built specifically for the staffing industry layered on. Payroll itself is frequently delivered through partners such as Greenshades rather than natively, which is worth confirming during evaluation.
For an agency where recruiter productivity and candidate pipeline are the binding constraint rather than back-office throughput, that ordering is correct.
Greenshades
A payroll and tax compliance product rather than a full staffing platform, commonly deployed alongside Bullhorn to provide the payroll layer that Bullhorn routes to partners. Multi-state tax compliance is its strength, which matters for agencies whose placements follow client locations across state lines.
General payroll for your internal team
Your recruiters and account managers are ordinary W-2 employees, and this half of the problem is priced transparently.
| Platform | 5 internal staff | 10 internal staff | 20 internal staff | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patriot Full Service | $62 | $87 | $137 | Internal staff only, cheapest |
| Gusto Simple | $79 | $109 | $169 | Single state only on this tier |
| OnPay | $79 | $109 | $169 | All 50 states included |
| ADP RUN Essential | ~$99 | ~$119 | ~$159 | Third-party estimate, quote-only |
| Rippling | $75 | $115 | $195 | Estimate, modular pricing |
A ten-person internal team runs roughly $87 to $119 a month depending on platform, which is a rounding error against staffing-native back-office costs and worth choosing on ordinary criteria: published pricing, multi-state handling, and how good the HR tooling is.
Gusto and OnPay both cost $49 plus $6 per employee, and the difference for an agency is multi-state: OnPay includes all 50 states while Gusto Simple covers one and requires an upgrade. Since recruiters increasingly work remotely, that matters more than it used to. Patriot is cheapest at $37 plus $5. Our small business payroll comparison covers these in depth.
When general payroll can cover placed workers too
There is a narrow case. An agency with a small number of long-term placements, no complex bill rate rules, and a willingness to track invoicing in accounting software can run everything through general payroll. OnPay in particular does not charge for a worker who received no payment in a given month, which suits variable staffing volume better than most.
That arrangement breaks on three things: placement volume beyond what a spreadsheet can track, bill rates that differ by client or by overtime rule, and any need for real-time margin visibility. Most agencies hit at least one of those well before a hundred placements.
The cash flow problem no software solves by itself
Structural to the industry and worth understanding before evaluating platforms, because it shapes which vendors make sense.
Placed workers typically expect weekly pay. Corporate clients typically settle invoices on 30, 60, or 90 day terms. The agency funds the gap, which means wages plus employer taxes plus insurance for several weeks before any client money arrives. The paradox is that landing a large contract makes the problem worse rather than better: fifty placed workers is four to eight weeks of upfront payroll against a single future invoice.
| Approach | How it works | Typical terms |
|---|---|---|
| Self-funded | Agency carries the gap from working capital | Limits growth to available cash |
| Payroll funding | Provider advances payroll against invoices | Offered by staffing-native vendors |
| Invoice factoring | Factor advances against verified invoices | 85 to 95 percent advance, 1.5 to 3.5 percent fee |
| Bank line of credit | Traditional borrowing | Assessed on your financials, not client credit |
Factoring is worth understanding because it is assessed differently from a bank facility. A factor underwrites your clients' creditworthiness rather than your agency's operating history, which is why a young agency placing workers at large stable employers can often access it when a bank line would be declined.
The practical implication for platform selection is that some staffing-native vendors bundle funding with software, which consolidates two decisions into one relationship. Whether that is an advantage or a dependency depends on how you feel about single-vendor concentration.
Multi-state exposure grows with your client list
Ordinary small employers add states when they hire remotely. Staffing agencies add them whenever a client is in a new state, which makes the footprint expand faster and less predictably.
| Obligation when placing in a new state | Timing |
|---|---|
| State income tax withholding registration | Before the first pay date |
| State unemployment insurance registration | Before the first pay date |
| Workers compensation coverage valid in that state | Before the worker starts |
| Compliance with that state's employment laws | From day one |
| New hire reporting to that state | Typically within 20 days |
Registration is generally required before the first pay date, and late registration typically produces back taxes and penalties running from the worker's start date rather than from the date you noticed. For an agency, this means a new client in an unfamiliar state is a compliance event with a lead time, not just a sales win.
When comparing platforms, ask specifically how additional states are priced and whether the vendor assists with registration or simply files once you have account numbers. The distinction is worth real money for an agency adding several states a year.
The onboarding gap payroll platforms leave open
Every platform above handles paying a worker once they exist in the system. Getting them into the system, compliantly and fast enough that the placement is not delayed, is a separate problem and the one most directly tied to revenue.
The arithmetic is simple. A placed worker who has not completed paperwork cannot start, and a worker who has not started cannot be billed. Industry reporting describes agencies cutting onboarding turnaround from around five days to 24 to 48 hours by moving to digital workflows, with the best mobile forms completed in under ten minutes. Several days of billable time per placement, multiplied by placement volume, is a larger number than any software subscription in this comparison.
| What a placed worker needs | Deadline | Handled by payroll platform? |
|---|---|---|
| Form I-9 with document examination | Within 3 business days of start | Rarely, and never the examination |
| Signed W-4 and state certificate | Before first payroll | Usually collected |
| Direct deposit authorisation | Before first payroll | Usually collected |
| Client site policies and safety training | Before starting work | No |
| Signed placement or assignment terms | Before starting work | No |
| Certification or licence verification | Role dependent | No |
Rows one, four, five, and six are where the delay lives, and they sit outside what a payroll platform does. The I-9 in particular requires physical examination of original documents within three business days of the start date, which for a worker placed at a distant client site is a logistics problem rather than a form problem.
Where FirstHR fits
FirstHR is our product and it does not process payroll, invoice clients, or handle pay and bill. Everything in the tables above does something we do not, and if paying placed workers or billing clients is the problem, one of those platforms is the answer.
What we handle is the layer in the table above that payroll platforms leave open: onboarding workflows with tasks assigned and tracked, e-signature on assignment terms and I-9s with an audit trail of what was signed and when, document management with retention rules, training delivery with completion tracking for client-site requirements, and employee records covering the whole placed population. Pricing is flat at $98 to $198 per month regardless of headcount, which for a business whose worker population churns continuously behaves differently from per-employee pricing.
It sits alongside whichever payroll platform you use rather than replacing it. It is the wrong choice for an agency whose problem is pay and bill configurability, and the right one for an agency whose placements are delayed by paperwork rather than by payroll.
Which platform fits your agency
| If this is you | Start with | Because |
|---|---|---|
| High-volume light industrial, 500+ assignments weekly | TempWorks | Deepest pay and bill configurability at that volume |
| Clerical, professional, or mixed book | Avionte | Faster recruiter adoption and standalone back office |
| Front office is the constraint, not back office | Bullhorn | Best ATS and CRM, with payroll through partners |
| Already on Bullhorn and need the payroll layer | Greenshades | Built to integrate with Bullhorn workflows |
| Under 50 placements, simple bill rates | Gusto or OnPay plus a spreadsheet | Staffing-native platforms are oversized at that volume |
| Internal recruiting team only | Patriot, Gusto, or OnPay | Ordinary SMB payroll at published rates |
| Placing contractors outside the US | Deel | Contractor management and EOR across countries |
| Growing faster than your back office | An outsourced provider | Bundles processing with payroll funding |
| Placements delayed by paperwork, not payroll | A payroll platform plus an onboarding tool | Different problem, different layer |
Two of those rows route away from staffing-native platforms deliberately. An agency placing under fifty workers with simple bill rates does not need an eight to sixteen week implementation, and an agency whose bottleneck is onboarding will not fix it by buying a better back office.
Frequently Asked Questions
What payroll software do staffing agencies use?
Most run two systems. Placed workers need a staffing-native platform with pay and bill: TempWorks, Avionte, Bullhorn, or Greenshades. Internal recruiters and account managers can sit on general SMB payroll such as Gusto, OnPay, or Patriot at published rates. Agencies running placed workers through general payroll usually discover the gap at the first invoicing cycle.
What is pay and bill in staffing?
The linkage between what you pay a placed worker and what you invoice the client, driven from one approved time record. The system pays at the pay rate, invoices at the bill rate, and reports the margin between them. General payroll handles only the first half, because ordinary employers have no client to invoice.
Can a staffing agency use Gusto or OnPay for placed workers?
For a small agency with a handful of long-term placements, sometimes. Both handle W-2 and 1099, multi-state filing, and new hire reporting, and OnPay does not charge for a worker paid nothing in a given month. Neither does client invoicing, bill rates, or margin reporting, so you track those separately. That breaks well before a hundred placements.
How long does staffing payroll software take to implement?
Staffing-native platforms are migrations: roughly 8 to 14 weeks for Avionte and 10 to 16 for TempWorks, with the difference attributed to deeper configurability meaning more setup decisions. General SMB payroll for internal staff runs days to a couple of weeks. Avoid scheduling a cutover near year-end while W-2 processing is in flight.
How do staffing agencies fund weekly payroll?
Workers expect weekly pay while clients settle on 30 to 90 day terms, so the agency funds several weeks of wages and taxes upfront. Common solutions are payroll funding from staffing-native providers and invoice factoring, where a factor advances typically 85 to 95 percent of invoice value and releases the rest minus roughly 1.5 to 3.5 percent when the client pays.
What is the difference between recruitment and staffing agency payroll?
The terms mean the same thing, but recruitment is British usage and staffing is American. Searching for recruitment payroll software surfaces UK vendors built around HMRC recognition and auto-enrolment, which a US agency cannot use. The underlying need is identical: pay placed workers, invoice clients for their hours, stay compliant across jurisdictions.
Do placed workers get W-2 or 1099?
It depends on the arrangement, not on the fact of placement. A temp working under your direction and schedule at a client site is usually a W-2 employee of the agency. A genuinely independent contractor on a defined project may properly be 1099. Most platforms support both, but the classification decision and the misclassification liability sit with the agency.
What does staffing payroll software cost?
Staffing-native platforms are quote-only. Third-party reports place TempWorks around $80 to $130 per user per month plus implementation, with Avionte, Bullhorn, and Greenshades quoting individually based on volume and modules. General SMB payroll for internal staff is published at roughly $37 to $80 base plus $4 to $12 per employee.
How fast should placed worker onboarding be?
Faster than most agencies achieve, because a worker who has not completed paperwork cannot start and cannot be billed. Industry reporting describes agencies cutting turnaround from around five days to 24 to 48 hours with digital workflows, and best-in-class mobile forms completed in under ten minutes.
What paperwork does a placed worker need before starting?
Form I-9 with physical document examination within three business days of the start date, a signed W-4 and state certificate, direct deposit authorisation, and acknowledgement of client-site policies or safety training. At volume the constraint is rarely the forms but completing and countersigning them before day one.
Do staffing agencies need multi-state payroll?
More often than most small employers, because placements follow client locations. A worker in a new state creates withholding and unemployment registration obligations, workers compensation coverage, and that state's employment laws. Registration is generally required before the first pay date, so a new client in a new state carries a lead time.
Should a staffing agency outsource payroll entirely?
A real and common option distinct from buying software. Providers offer outsourced back office covering payroll processing, tax administration, invoicing, and often funding as a package. Strongest for agencies growing faster than their admin capacity, since the funding component solves cash flow simultaneously. The tradeoff is cost per transaction and less direct control of client billing.