WageTime is payroll for finance and accounting staffing agencies: the January wave onboards in bulk, busy-season overtime computes itself, and the CPAs, bookkeepers, and interim controllers you place all clear in the same cycle.
Whether a given accountant is exempt depends on that role’s actual duties, not its title, and worker classification is a decision for you and your advisors. WageTime provides payroll, not legal or tax advice. Screens use a demonstration environment with sample data.
Finance and accounting staffing does not run like a warehouse desk. It runs on a calendar that peaks January through April and again at every year-end close, on a credentialed roster that is expensive and hard to replace, and on an exemption line that splits the same team in two. BLS projects roughly 120,000 accounting and auditing openings a year while CPA-exam participation is down more than 30% since 2016, so the people you place are hard-won, and a payroll stumble on one of them costs more than the run.
Tax season, year-end close, and audit season pack the year’s hours into a few months. You onboard a wave of temporary accountants in January, run heavy overtime through April, and wind the whole thing down by May. That is a seasonal production cycle, not a steady headcount, and a payroll platform that meters every run or handles onboarding one hire at a time bills you exactly when volume is highest.
A certified public accountant generally meets the FLSA learned-professional exemption, and so may a senior accountant exercising real judgment. A bookkeeper, an AP or AR clerk, or a staff accountant doing routine entry usually does not, because routine work is not exempt work. One placement desk fills both ends of that ladder, and paying a non-exempt staff accountant a flat salary does not make her overtime disappear.
An interim controller covers a maternity leave on a day rate. A project consultant runs an ERP conversion on a flat engagement fee. A fractional finance pro splits a week across two clients. None of that is one hourly temp wage, and generic payroll that knows a single rate per person cannot build the package your recruiter quoted or code it to the right engagement.
The CPA you placed in February has a license that renews on a state cycle, with continuing-education hours due on a deadline that differs by state: 40 hours a year in one, 80 every two years plus ethics in another. A lapsed license mid-assignment is your placement problem, and a spreadsheet of renewal dates is not a control.
Your accountants sit inside client finance departments, in the client’s building, on hours the client’s controller approves. Win an engagement in a city across a tax line and payroll inherits a local withholding your HQ address never triggered, on a check that has to be right the first time for a professional who reads their own pay stub closely.
A January-to-April spike lands on WageTime’s unlimited runs, priced by how many people you pay ($50 per company plus $10 per person paid that month), not by how many times you run payroll.
Replaces the per-run fees that pile up every time you add a March payroll, and the manual re-onboarding of temps who were here last spring.
Credentials and duties draw the line: a CPA generally meets the FLSA learned-professional exemption (29 CFR 541.301), while bookkeepers, clerks, and staff accountants doing routine work generally do not, so they earn time-and-a-half past 40.
| Accountant | This week | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Dana R.Controller, CPA · Learned prof | Salary, no OT | Exempt |
| Priya M.Sr. acct, CPA · Learned prof | Salary, no OT | Exempt |
| Marcus T.Staff acct · Routine work | Hourly, OT over 40 | Non-exempt |
| Elena O.AP bookkeeper · Routine work | Hourly, OT over 40 | Non-exempt |
Replaces the one-size exemption assumption that files a bookkeeper like a CPA and turns a busy-season week past 40 into a back-wage claim.
Day rates, flat project fees, and hourly temp pay run as pay codes in one WageTime payroll: an interim controller’s five-day rate, a milestone engagement fee, and a weekly temp all clear in the same cycle, coded by engagement.
Replaces the side spreadsheet where interim day rates and project fees get tracked outside payroll and hand-coded to the wrong client.
WageTime tracks the three things that move: licenses, jurisdictions, and hours. CPA licenses and CPE deadlines live on the employee record with expiration alerts, worksite taxes resolve by geolocation, and client-approved hours import without re-keying.
| Accountant | Renews | Client worksite |
|---|---|---|
| Dana R.CPA · Due soon · Columbus OH | 47 days | Halloran Mfg |
| Priya M.CPA (PA) · Sharon Hill PA | 118 days | Delmar Retail |
| Marcus T.CPE hrs 14/40 · Columbus OH | Dec 31 | Halloran Mfg |
| Grace L.CPA · Due soon · Louisville KY | 52 days | Vantage Health |
Replaces the renewal-date spreadsheet and the local tax nobody noticed until an accountant flagged their own pay stub.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoWageTime runs on unlimited runs, so a January-to-April spike costs nothing extra per run. You are billed $50 per company plus $10 per person actually paid that month, weekly cadence and off-cycle checks included, and the overtime engine handles busy-season hours automatically. Bulk onboarding and rehire flows staff the wave, and the bulk termination wizard winds it down.
Usually the answer is yes to both. A certified public accountant generally meets the FLSA learned-professional exemption, and some non-CPA accountants doing professional work may too (29 CFR 541.301). Accounting clerks, bookkeepers, and routine staff generally do not, so they earn overtime past 40. WageTime pays both in one run; the classification itself is your call with counsel.
Usually yes, if the duties are non-exempt. Salary alone never exempts anyone, and after the 2024 overtime rule was vacated the salary-level floor is back to $684 a week, with the duties test deciding above it. A bookkeeper or staff accountant doing routine work on a flat salary is generally still non-exempt and earns time-and-a-half past 40 hours.
WageTime pays day rates for interim executives, flat-amount project fees for a defined engagement, and hourly pay for staff temps, all in one run and coded to the client engagement. A legitimate 1099 consultant runs alongside your W-2 temps, with W-2s and 1099s both filed at year-end, so consulting comp and weekly temp pay settle together.
Yes. CPA licenses and CPE requirements live as credentials on the employee record, with date-driven expiration alerts at 30, 60, and 90 days. Because CPE hours and renewal deadlines vary by state, the alert surfaces a renewal before it lapses mid-assignment instead of after, and the documents stay on the employee record.
You can until tax season doubles the run, a “salaried” staff accountant turns out to be non-exempt, or an interim controller bills a day rate. Those are the breaking points: seasonal surge, the exemption ladder, and consulting pay. WageTime is built around them. For front-office recruiting and client invoicing you will still use your staffing software; bring it to the demo.
A tax-season roster, one CPA and one bookkeeper on the same engagement, and an interim controller on a day rate. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company: you will see the surge run on unlimited runs, exempt and non-exempt accountants paid in one cycle, day-rate and project pay coded by engagement, and CPA license alerts on the record.
Book a 20-minute demo