Why choose Worklio Embedded Payroll

US payroll is unusually hard to build. Thousands of federal, state, and local taxing jurisdictions, SUTA/FUTA/FICA, withholdings, benefits, garnishments, deductions, pre-tax versus post-tax rules, and benefit taxability that changes with employee classification — all of it has to be right every cycle. Worklio gives you that engine behind an API, so you can ship payroll in weeks instead of building it for years.

Built for platforms, not for a single employer

The platform was designed from the ground up for organizations that run payroll on behalf of others: payroll service bureaus, PEOs and ASOs, staffing firms and BPOs, accountants and CPAs, VARs and resellers, vertical SaaS and ISVs, and ERP and workforce platforms. Multi-tenancy is the default assumption, not an add-on.

Proven at scale

Since 2017, Worklio has processed $35+ billion in payroll and taxes, paid 2.8+ million employees, issued 4.3+ million W-2s and 1099s, and moved 23+ million ACH transactions. Coverage spans all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

Handles the complex cases

Client sizes from a handful of employees up to 50,000+ employees and contractors in a single run
Multiple divisions, locations, and FEINs processed in one run
Workers' compensation, certified payroll, union payroll, and comprehensive job costing
Employees and contractors side by side

An API you can call from the front end

Worklio exposes 1,000+ endpoints over OAuth 2.0 with Bearer JWT tokens, in two access modes:

Implicit Mode (recommended) — your users authenticate through SSO and call the API directly from your front-end application. No proxy layer, and no need to manage access at the payroll, client, or employee level yourself.
Direct Mode (Resource Owner Flow) — a single system user for all operations. No SSO setup required, but you implement a proxy layer and manage access rights on your side.

Access control is built in. A company admin reaches only that company's data, and employee-level accounts reach only employee-related data, so you never write data-filtering logic. System, Admin, and Employee level accounts are all supported.

Ship it your way

White-label deployment, iFrame embedding, pre-built UI components, fully custom UI/UX, and a branded mobile app. Partners have gone live in as little as three weeks.

Enterprise-grade by default

SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27018, and ISO 9001 certified, and a Microsoft Solution Partner. Worklio is bootstrapped, 100% founder- and employee-owned, with audited financials.

Next steps

Get API access · Test the API · Run a payroll · Webhooks · Front-end library · API reference · Request a demo