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Atlantic Payroll Let us handle your payroll needs, so you can get back to doing what you enjoy—running your business. Payroll Services

Your payroll tax deposit schedule for 2027 was settled back on June 30, and most Cape Cod owners have never heard of the...
10/13/2026

Your payroll tax deposit schedule for 2027 was settled back on June 30, and most Cape Cod owners have never heard of the rule that did it.

The IRS calls it the lookback period. For a business that files Form 941, it's the four quarters ending June 30 before the new year, so for 2027 that's July 2025 through June 2026. If the payroll taxes you reported across those four quarters come to $50,000 or less, you deposit monthly. Over $50,000, you deposit semiweekly, which ties each deposit to your paydays instead of once a month. It's all laid out in IRS Publication 15 (https://www.irs.gov/publications/p15).

For a seasonal business that window takes in last year's full summer, so a bigger crew than usual can move you onto a different schedule without anything else about the business changing.

It's worth confirming which schedule applies before the first payroll in January, because deposits made on the old schedule can end up late even when the money was in the account the whole time.

If you've been unhappy with your payroll provider since roughly June, this is the month the decision actually has to get...
10/08/2026

If you've been unhappy with your payroll provider since roughly June, this is the month the decision actually has to get made.

Payroll conversions are cleanest at a calendar year boundary. Move on January 1 and your year-to-date wages, withholding and quarterly filings all start fresh in one system, and nobody has to reconcile two sets of W-2 data in February. Move in the middle of a quarter and someone, usually you, ends up stitching the history together.

Working backwards from January 1, the setup, the data migration and a parallel run before you go live take the better part of a quarter. That puts the decision in September and October, not December.

For what it's worth, we don't charge an onboarding fee for that setup work, which removes at least one reason to keep putting it off.

https://www.stevenmellardcpa.com/payroll-services-cape-cod/

Seasonal staff accrue sick time on Cape Cod, and the math trips people up because it runs off hours worked, not off whet...
10/07/2026

Seasonal staff accrue sick time on Cape Cod, and the math trips people up because it runs off hours worked, not off whether someone's "full time".

The rate is one hour of earned sick time for every 30 hours worked, from their date of hire, per § 148C (https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXI/Chapter149/Section148C). They can't use any of it until day 90, which is why a lot of summer hires accrue a balance they never touch and then, once the season's over, get to carry it into next year.

Whether it's paid or unpaid comes down to headcount. At 11 or more employees it's up to 40 hours of paid sick time. Under 11, it's the same 40 hours, unpaid.

Worth knowing that the count includes full-time, part-time and temporary staff, so a summer roster can push a winter-quiet business over the line without anyone noticing.

Two things about unused sick time that Cape Cod employers get backwards in opposite directions.The first: when a seasona...
10/05/2026

Two things about unused sick time that Cape Cod employers get backwards in opposite directions.

The first: when a seasonal employee leaves in September with earned sick time they never used, you're not required to pay it out. Massachusetts is explicit about that in § 148C(d)(7) (https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXI/Chapter149/Section148C). Plenty of owners write those checks anyway because they assume it works like vacation time.

The second, and this is the expensive one: if that same person comes back next summer, the hours they banked don't necessarily vanish. Up to 40 hours of unused earned sick time carries into the next calendar year, even though they still can't use more than 40 hours in any one year.

For a business that rehires the same crew every May, that's a balance you need to be carrying forward in your records right now, while you still remember who worked what.

Every year a Cape business gets to the end of the season, opens the workers' comp audit letter, and finds out they owe a...
10/01/2026

Every year a Cape business gets to the end of the season, opens the workers' comp audit letter, and finds out they owe a lump sum they didn't budget for.

That happens because most policies estimate your payroll up front and reconcile it later. If you ran a bigger crew than you projected, and on the Cape that's most summers, the true-up lands after the revenue has already slowed down.

There's a version of this that doesn't work that way. Pay-as-you-go ties the premium to payroll as it actually runs, so the number moves with your headcount through the season instead of arriving as one bill after the season.

It won't change what you owe overall. It changes when you pay it, which for a seasonal business is most of the problem.

If your comp premium and your cash flow are fighting each other, that's worth a conversation before renewal.

Q3 payroll closes tomorrow, and the filing that follows it has a wrinkle this year.Form 941 for the July to September qu...
09/29/2026

Q3 payroll closes tomorrow, and the filing that follows it has a wrinkle this year.

Form 941 for the July to September quarter is normally due October 31 (https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/employment-tax-due-dates). October 31 lands on a Saturday in 2026, and the IRS rule is that a due date falling on a weekend or a legal holiday moves to the next business day, so the real deadline is Monday November 2.

Two things worth doing before the quarter shuts:

✔️ Reconcile what you actually deposited against what you withheld, because the return has to agree with the deposits
✔️ Make sure every seasonal employee who came off the books in August or September is reflected in the quarter, not carried into Q4 by accident

If you deposited everything on time through the quarter, you get 10 extra calendar days to file. If you didn't, that grace doesn't apply, and the return is the point where the gap becomes visible.

The Cape season is winding down, which means final paychecks, and Massachusetts treats two very similar situations compl...
09/27/2026

The Cape season is winding down, which means final paychecks, and Massachusetts treats two very similar situations completely differently.

If someone quits, you pay them in full on the following regular pay day. If you let someone go, you pay them in full that same day. Same person, same hours, same money, two different deadlines depending on who ended it. That's straight out of M.G.L. c. 149, § 148 (https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXI/Chapter149/Section148), and it catches owners every single September.

Where it usually goes wrong is the seasonal crew. A shift gets cut short in early September, the owner calls it "the season ending", the employee calls it being let go, and the final check goes out on the regular cycle two weeks later.

If you're closing out summer staff this month, figure out which category each person falls into before you run the last payroll, not after.

W-2s and 1099s are a January problem that gets solved in the fall, and the reason is boring: addresses and taxpayer ID n...
09/25/2026

W-2s and 1099s are a January problem that gets solved in the fall, and the reason is boring: addresses and taxpayer ID numbers.

Every year a batch of forms goes out to a summer employee's college address, or with a name that doesn't match what the Social Security Administration has, and the corrections take longer than the original filing did. Right now those people are still reachable and still remember what they told you in June. By January some of them have moved twice.

What's worth pulling now:

✔️ Current mailing address for every person who worked for you this year, including anyone who's already left
✔️ Legal name exactly as it appears on the Social Security card
✔️ A signed W-9 on file for every contractor you paid
✔️ Any address change for the business itself

The IRS deadline for getting W-2s to employees is January 31 (https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/employment-tax-due-dates), which sounds far away until you're chasing a former line cook in the last week of the month.

We get asked all the time: 'I'm small. Do I really need a payroll service, or can I just run it myself in QuickBooks?'Ho...
08/18/2026

We get asked all the time: 'I'm small. Do I really need a payroll service, or can I just run it myself in QuickBooks?'

Honest answer: under 3 employees you can probably DIY for a while. Once you cross 5 W-2s, the math flips because the time you spend reconciling tax notices is worth more than the service fee.

What Atlantic Payroll handles end-to-end:

✔️ Weekly or bi-weekly payroll runs with direct deposit
✔️ Federal + MA state tax filings (941, 940, M-941, M-3, SUI)
✔️ New hire reporting + onboarding packets
✔️ W-2s and 1099s at year-end
✔️ Multi-state setup for cross-border hires
✔️ HR compliance for sick leave, paid family leave, tip pools

We're not your CPA. We're your payroll department.

Reach out if your last payroll cycle had any 'wait, that doesn't seem right' moments — that's usually a sign.

Address

2759 Main Street
Brewster, MA
02631

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+15088963349

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