A Head Start grantee runs payroll under a 15 percent admin cap, a 20 percent non-federal match, and funding braided at the classroom. WageTime codes each salary to those rules as it is paid, and keeps the CDA clock on the record.
WageTime is an independent payroll provider, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Office of Head Start, the Administration for Children and Families, or HHS. Program names are used only to describe the funding a grantee administers.
The Office of Head Start funds roughly 1,700 grant recipients to serve about 715,873 children, and those programs employ near 250,000 staff (Office of Head Start, FY2024). Behind each grantee is a small fiscal office running some of the most rule-bound payroll in the sector: labor held under a 15 percent administrative cap, a 20 percent match to document, streams that braid at the classroom, and a roster of teachers whose credentials gate the job.
Head Start caps development and administrative cost at 15 percent of total program cost, and payroll is most of it. When a director's, a fiscal manager's, or a coordinator's salary is not split between program work and administration as it is paid, the year-end true-up becomes a scramble, and a disallowance can land for the amount over the line.
A lead teacher's day is Head Start in the morning, an Early Head Start room after lunch, a few state pre-K slots, and a CCDF-subsidized child in the same class. Every period someone rebuilds that split in a spreadsheet, multiplies it out, and keys it into payroll and again into the general ledger, then does it again when enrollment shifts.
Federal money covers at most 80 percent of approved cost, so a grantee owes a 20 percent non-federal match every budget period and has to document it. Much of the match is people. Right now the labor cost behind it is pulled together by hand from a payroll system that was never coded to produce it by program.
An assistant teacher on a two-year window to finish a CDA, an infant-toddler teacher whose credential renews on a three-year cycle, a family child care provider due to earn one in 18 months, background checks and physicals that recur. Miss a date and a person cannot stay in ratio. In a lean office that is a wall calendar and a hope.
Head Start rosters swell for the program year and thin for the summer, and a per-seat contract that bills the whole roster in a slow month is hard to defend to a policy council reading the budget. Staff turnover near 15 percent means constant onboarding and offboarding on top of it.
WageTime codes every salary as program or development-and-administrative labor as it is paid, so you watch payroll against the 15 percent cap all year instead of reconstructing it at closeout.
| Cost category | Percent | Coded pay |
|---|---|---|
| ProgramPROG-100 · direct services | 70% | $3,150.00 |
| Development & administrationADMIN-15 | 25% | $1,125.00 |
| Non-federal matchMATCH-NF · in-kind coord | 5% | $225.00 |
Replaces the closeout cost reclassification, and the administrative overage nobody saw coming.
A braided classroom funds where the hours happen: WageTime allocates a teacher’s salary across Head Start, Early Head Start, CCDF child care, and state pre-K at the pay line, not in a spreadsheet.
| Funding stream | Percent | Allocated pay |
|---|---|---|
| Head StartHS-0110 | 55% | $2,585.00 |
| Early Head StartEHS-0210 | 25% | $1,175.00 |
| State pre-KSPK-4400 | 20% | $940.00 |
Replaces the braided-funding spreadsheet, and the re-keying into the general ledger.
The payroll side of the match is the coded labor cost and paid hours WageTime keeps by program and stream, exported to your general ledger, so the match narrative starts from real figures instead of a hand-built estimate.
| Funding stream | Paid hours | Coded labor |
|---|---|---|
| Head StartHS-0110 | 512.0 | $16,400.00 |
| Early Head StartEHS-0210 | 384.0 | $12,150.00 |
| State pre-KSPK-4400 | 160.0 | $5,120.00 |
| CACFP nutrition staffCACFP-70 | 84.0 | $2,540.00 |
Replaces the match documented from memory, and the estimate a federal reviewer won’t accept.
An assistant teacher whose CDA lapses cannot count toward ratio, so WageTime keeps every qualification on a dated clock with recurring alerts, and the roster that thins for summer is paid, and priced, as it actually is.
Replaces the wall-calendar credential tracker, and the payroll bill that ignores your roster.
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 codes each salary as program or development-and-administrative labor, and splits a role that does both on set percentages, so the coded labor cost is ready by program and by administration in the general-ledger export. Your fiscal team monitors payroll against the 15 percent line through the year instead of reclassifying at closeout. WageTime supplies the coded labor; it does not compute the ratio or the waiver.
Yes. Set the allocation once as percentages across Head Start, Early Head Start, CCDF child care, and state pre-K, and WageTime divides that salary, its taxes, and its benefits on those percentages every run, then carries the split to the general ledger by stream. Job-cost segments run up to 40 characters and match your grant numbering. Change a percentage when a slot converts and you edit it in one place.
WageTime produces coded labor cost and paid hours by program and stream, exported to your general ledger, so the match narrative starts from real payroll figures. Attested, change-logged, and locked timesheets stand behind each match charge as the after-the-fact record a monitoring review expects. WageTime supplies the payroll numbers and hours; it does not value third-party in-kind donations or file the match, and does not guarantee a review outcome.
Each CDA credential, degree-enrollment deadline, background check, and health requirement sits on the employee record with recurring 30, 60, and 90-day alerts and stored documents, and re-credentialing is tracked as a recurring compliance task. An assistant teacher's two-year CDA window, an infant-toddler teacher's renewal, and a family child care provider's 18-month deadline each get a dated alert. WageTime tracks and alerts on the dates; it does not award the credential.
Most Head Start grantees are 501(c)(3) organizations, which are exempt from federal FUTA tax, and many states still cover them for unemployment while allowing a reimbursable election instead of paying SUTA contributions. WageTime files your state taxes automatically based on how your account is set up. Bring your state and your reimbursable-or-contributory election to the demo and we’ll confirm the exact setup for your organization.
Yes. WageTime holds each position's pay rate with effective dating, so a wage scale by role and step lives in payroll and every rate change is captured in the audit log, and scheduled reports show pay by role for your board and policy council. Federal wage-scale and pay-parity expectations for early-childhood staff are evolving, so WageTime treats your scale as configuration and does not promise a compliance outcome.
One lead teacher whose salary crosses two or more funding streams, your program and administrative cost categories, and the credentials your roster carries. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo program: you’ll watch a salary allocate across streams, see labor code to program and administration for the 15 percent cap, and see a CDA deadline tracked on the record.
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