Payments happen on the agency's schedule, not yours. There is nothing to log in to and approve each cycle — once the underlying payroll is run, the deposit is queued and sent on time. What you can control (per client) is when the client's bank is charged for the tax — see "When the client is charged" below.
Federal deposits
Federal income tax withheld, the employer and employee shares of Social Security and Medicare, and FUTA tax are deposited to the IRS through EFTPS. The schedule depends on the client's deposit frequency: monthly clients deposit by the 15th of the following month; semiweekly clients deposit twice a week on a fixed schedule tied to pay date.
Crossing a lookback threshold can move a client from monthly to semiweekly between years. If that happens, the deposit schedule on the client record needs to update for the new year, or the system will under-deposit.
State deposits
State withholding and state unemployment deposits follow each state's own schedule. Some states use ACH debit, where we pull from the client's funding account on the agency's schedule. Others use ACH credit, where we push from a Payrollix-controlled account. A handful still require a portal upload of payment instructions. Whichever path the state requires, Payrollix handles it.
ACH timing for deposits
Standard ACH for tax deposits settles in one to two business days. To meet a deposit deadline, the funds need to be available on the trigger date. We initiate the debit from the client's funding account in time for settlement to land before the deadline.
Same-day ACH is used where the deadline is tight and the bank windows permit. The cost is higher, so it is used only when standard timing would miss.
When the client is charged (deposit scheduling)
By default, Payrollix funds each tax deposit as part of the payroll collection: when a payroll is processed we debit the client's bank for net pay plus the payroll taxes, hold the tax, and credit the agency by the due date. In effect the client is charged for the tax the day payroll runs, even if the deposit isn't due for weeks (e.g. a month-end monthly depositor whose federal deposit isn't due until the 15th).
To keep the client's cash until the tax is actually due, turn on deposit scheduling per client:
Where: Clients → [the client] → Settings → Taxes tab → Tax Deposit Scheduling.
- Collect & deposit taxes at the due date (toggle, off by default). When on, payroll taxes are left OUT of the payroll collection — only net pay is pulled at payroll time. Each deposit then fires its own debit from the client's bank a few banking days before its due date, and is credited to the agency as soon as that debit clears. The client keeps the tax in their account until then.
- Default deposit timing — how many banking days before the legal due date each deposit should land.
0= on the due date (keeps the client's cash the longest);1–2clears a day or two early as a safety buffer. Weekends and Federal Reserve holidays are always skipped in this math, so a holiday can't compress the window and make the deposit late.
You can also fine-tune an individual deposit's date on the client's Tax Payments page ("Upcoming deposits" list): each row shows the legal due date, an editable deposit date (never later than the due date), and the date funds will leave the client's bank. FSET/direct-debit states (where the agency pulls from the client on the filed return) show "agency debits client" instead of a bank-debit date.
Trade-off: collecting at the due date means the client's account must have the funds when the debit fires. If it doesn't, the deposit can be late and incur an agency penalty — under this model the client carries that responsibility. Leave the setting off to have Payrollix collect the tax at payroll time and remove that risk.
Where to see deposits
Every tax deposit appears on the client's tax-payments list with the amount, the agency, the period it covers, and the settlement date. Deposit acknowledgments from EFTPS and state agencies are attached to the record as they come back.