Getting Familiar: Managing Payroll

Last updated: August 3, 2026

Congratulations on processing your first payroll!

Now that you’re up and running, it’s time to customize Zeal for your business and learn the tools you’ll use every pay period.

This guide covers the features most payroll administrators use to manage workers, streamline onboarding, and confidently process payroll.

Estimated time: 45–60 minutes

Step 1: Customize Worker Onboarding

After your initial implementation, you can further customize how workers onboard into Zeal. Whether you’re hiring employees or contractors, these features help you collect the right information, automate required paperwork, and create a smoother onboarding experience.

Goal: Tailor the onboarding experience to match your company’s hiring process.

Employees (W-2)

Contractors (1099)

Tip: You only need to configure these features if you want to collect additional information or customize your onboarding workflow.

Step 2: Manage Payroll Operations

Once your workforce has been onboarded, you’ll use Zeal to prepare payrolls, monitor payment progress, and resolve issues as they arise. These resources cover the operational tools you’ll use most often throughout each pay cycle.

Goal: Become familiar with the tools you’ll use to process payroll and manage payments.

Employees (W-2)

Contractors (1099)

Step 3: Pay Your Workforce

Zeal supports multiple payment methods for employees and contractors. Learn how each payment method works and what to do if a payment doesn’t go as expected.

Goal: Understand how workers are paid and how to troubleshoot payment issues.

Tasks:

Step 4: Stay Compliant

Payroll compliance doesn’t end after implementation. These resources explain recurring compliance tasks, payroll rules, and how to prepare for quarter-end and year-end processing.

Goal: Understand the ongoing payroll and tax responsibilities that occur throughout the year.

Tasks:

Step 5: Reporting and Support

Use Zeal’s reporting tools to review payroll activity, reconcile payroll data, and answer common business questions. If you ever need assistance, our Support team is here to help.

Tasks

Ready to go deeper?

Continue to 📄 Mastering Zeal: Advanced Featuresto learn about advanced payroll configuration, company administration, banking, benefits, deductions, custom reporting, and other power-user features.





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