Welcome to Zeal!

This guide walks you through the essential steps to set up your company, add workers, and process your first payroll.

If this is your first time using Zeal—or your first time running payroll—this guide is the best place to start.

Estimated time: 30–60 minutes

Before You Begin

Make sure you have access to:

• Your Zeal partner account: 📄 Partner Onboarding

• Your company’s legal business information

• Federal and state tax information

• A business bank account for payroll funding

• Employee or contractor information (if applicable)

Step 1: Create Your Company

Everything starts with creating your company in Zeal. During onboarding, you’ll verify your business, connect your payroll funding account, and complete the agreements required to begin processing payroll.

Goal: Create your company and complete the required onboarding.

Tasks

• 📄 Create a Company

• 📄 Complete Company Onboarding

During company onboarding, you’ll verify your business, connect your payroll funding account, and complete the agreements required to begin processing payroll.

💡 New: Follow the in-product onboarding checklist

Zeal now includes a built-in onboarding checklist that guides administrators through each implementation task directly within the platform. As you complete setup, the checklist tracks your progress and highlights what’s left, helping your team get up and running faster.

Step 2: Set Up Payroll Taxes

Before payroll can be processed, Zeal needs to know which federal and state tax accounts apply to your business. During tax setup, you’ll review your tax cards and provide any information needed for tax calculations and filings.

Goal: Configure the tax accounts Zeal uses to calculate, pay, and file payroll taxes.

Tasks

• 📄 Tax Setup

Step 3: Add Your Workers

Now it’s time to add the people you’ll be paying. Whether you’re hiring employees, contractors, or both, Zeal will guide them through onboarding so they can securely provide the information needed for payroll.

Goal: Add the people you’ll be paying through Zeal.

Employees (W-2)

• 📄 Create and Onboard Employees

• 📄 W-4 Forms

Contractors (1099)

• 📄 Create & Onboard Contractors

Step 4: Configure Payroll

Before your workers can be paid, you’ll need to configure a few payroll settings. This includes assigning work locations, deciding what information workers will complete during onboarding, and collecting bank account information for direct deposit.

Goal: Configure the basic information workers need before they can be paid.

Employees (W-2)

• 📄 Set Up Work Locations

• 📄 Configure Employee Onboarding

• 📄 Worker Bank Accounts

Contractors (1099)

• 📄 Configure Contractor Onboarding

• 📄 Worker Bank Accounts

Step 5: Run Your First Payroll/Send Your First Payment

You’re ready to pay your workforce.

If you’re paying employees, you’ll create and submit a payroll. If you’re paying contractors, you’ll create contractor payments instead.

Goal: Review your workers and submit your first payroll.

Employees (W-2)

• 📄 Run Payroll

Contractors (1099)

• ​📄 Contractor Payments and Payment Items

You’ve completed the essential setup needed to run payroll or send contractor payments with Zeal.

Next, you’ll likely want to customize onboarding and learn more about payroll operations. Continue to 📄 Getting Familiar: Managing Payroll to learn how to get the most out of Zeal.