WageTime is payroll for office and clerical staffing agencies, where temp-to-hire is the plan: a mid-week conversion gets its final check and clean offboarding in one pass, and the record stays on file for the next assignment.
Office and clerical staffing is a $13.3 billion segment in 2025, down 8% and forecast to slip again (SIA), and it runs on one of the thinnest markups in staffing, roughly 25-50% over pay rate. Payroll here is not a warehouse production line. It is a relationship desk where the goal of most temp placements is to end, where “office” does not mean “exempt,” and where a second revenue line pays commissions on people who never draw an agency paycheck.
Office and clerical placements are built to convert: the temp works a trial period, the client likes her, and she moves to their payroll. Conversion is the win, and on your side it is a mid-cycle final check, a closed assignment, and a record you keep in case she comes back. Payroll that treats every departure as a surprise termination makes your best outcome your messiest paperwork.
A client puts an office assistant on a flat weekly figure and everyone calls her “salaried,” so nobody pays the overtime. But clerical and secretarial duties do not meet the administrative exemption (29 CFR 541.202). Answering phones, entering AP and AR data, and word processing are named non-exempt work. Salary alone does not exempt anyone, and misjudging it is a back-wage claim per clerk.
You run a temp desk and a direct-hire desk. The temp desk pays W-2 clerks weekly. The direct-hire desk earns a one-time placement fee on a candidate who goes straight onto the client’s payroll and never onto yours, and your recruiter earns commission on it. Two revenue models, one internal payroll, and generic software that only understands hourly temps handles half of it.
Unlike a warehouse desk, workers’ comp is a small fraction of payroll for office roles, so comp is not the cost that decides the branch. The leaks are unemployment experience rating from constant turnover and pure admin drag on a 25-50% markup. A payroll platform that charges per run, or eats an afternoon per conversion, is spending your thinnest dollar.
Your clerks sit at the client’s front desk, in the client’s building, on hours the client’s office manager approves. Win an account in a downtown tower across a city line and payroll inherits a local tax the HQ address never triggered. The hours arrive from a portal you do not control, and someone has to get them into payroll without re-keying every timesheet.
The assignment ends and the worker comes off your books in one pass: the final check runs off-cycle at no extra cost, so a Wednesday conversion does not wait for Friday, and the record stays on file.
| Temp | Client | Final check |
|---|---|---|
| Ramos, ElenaReceptionist · last day Jul 22 | Halstead Legal Group | Off-cycle |
| Okoro, BlessingAP clerk · last day Jul 23 | Corbin Accounting | Off-cycle |
| Tran, KevinData entry · last day Jul 21 | Meridian Insurance | Off-cycle |
| Diaz, PriscillaOffice asst · last day Jul 23 | Halstead Legal Group | Scheduled next run |
Replaces the surprise mid-week termination and the hand-cut final check every time a placement succeeds.
Usually not: purely clerical and secretarial work does not meet the FLSA administrative exemption (29 CFR 541.202), so a receptionist or AP clerk on a flat weekly figure still earns time-and-a-half past 40, which WageTime computes automatically.
| Employee | Pay basis | Overtime |
|---|---|---|
| Priscilla D.Office assistant · non-exempt | Salary $780/wk | OT over 40 |
| Blessing O.AP clerk · non-exempt | $23.00/hr | OT over 40 |
| Marcus T.Office manager · discretion | Salary $1,240/wk | Exempt, no OT |
| Elena R.Receptionist · non-exempt | $21.50/hr | OT over 40 |
Replaces the blanket “she’s salaried, so no overtime” setting that underpays a clerk who is non-exempt by her duties.
Yes: WageTime runs your W-2 temps and internal staff in the same payroll, the directly placed candidate never appears in it, and your recruiter’s placement commission settles through tiered structures you configure.
Replaces the second spreadsheet where recruiter commissions and fall-off clawbacks get tracked outside payroll.
From the client’s office, on the client’s supervisor’s approval: WageTime imports the clock hours so nothing is re-keyed, codes them to each client and department, and taxes each clerk by the worksite address.
| Client / cost code | Approved hrs | Local tax |
|---|---|---|
| Halstead Legal GroupHALSTEAD-DT · 6 staff | 231.0 | Center City wage tax |
| Corbin AccountingCORBIN-AP · 4 staff | 152.5 | County occupational |
| Meridian InsuranceMERIDIAN-CS · 9 staff | 342.0 | No local income tax |
| Braxton RealtyBRAXTON-ADMIN · 3 staff · new | 114.0 | City payroll tax |
Replaces the timesheet re-key from the client’s portal, and the city wage tax nobody noticed until the notice arrived.
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 demoThe assignment ends and the worker comes off your payroll. WageTime issues the final check as an off-cycle run at no extra cost, closes the assignment on the record, and retains the employee’s data in case a future assignment brings them back. The conversion fee your front office bills the client is separate; WageTime handles the payroll side.
Usually not. Clerical and secretarial duties, like reception, data entry, and word processing, do not meet the FLSA administrative exemption (29 CFR 541.202 and 541.203), and a weekly salary alone does not exempt anyone. So a salaried office temp is generally still non-exempt and earns overtime past 40. WageTime pays exempt and non-exempt staff in one run.
Yes. WageTime runs your W-2 temps and your internal recruiters and account managers in the same payroll. A directly placed candidate goes onto the client’s payroll and never onto yours; what runs here is your recruiter’s base plus placement commission, set up as tiered commission pay codes, with a fall-off reversal entered as an adjustment.
While a clerk is on assignment through your agency, your agency is the employer of record: you pay the wages, withhold and file the payroll taxes, and issue the W-2, even though the client’s office manager directs the day-to-day work. WageTime runs that model natively, with weekly pay and every filing handled automatically.
You can until a placement converts mid-week, a “salaried” clerk turns out to be non-exempt, or your recruiter earns a commission on a candidate who was never on your payroll. Those are the breaking points, and WageTime is built around them. For front-office recruiting and client invoicing you will still use your staffing software; bring it to the demo.
$50 a month for the company plus $10 for each person actually paid that month, with unlimited runs. Weekly pay costs the same as biweekly, a mid-week conversion check costs nothing extra, and a slow month costs less because you only pay for people paid. An agency paying 35 clerks and 3 internal staff is $430 that month.
A temp your client just hired away, a “salaried” clerk who worked past 40, and one recruiter’s placement commission. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo company: you will see the conversion final check run off-cycle, exempt and non-exempt office staff paid in one run, recruiter commissions with a fall-off reversal, and client-approved hours coded by account.
Book a 20-minute demo