Payroll Service
Full-stack payroll SaaS for small businesses
The Problem
Small and mid-sized businesses deserve payroll software that doesn't feel like enterprise bloatware or a spreadsheet hack. I wanted to build a clean, full-featured payroll system from scratch — one that handles the real complexity of tax calculation, compliance, and encrypted data handling without the overhead.
What It Does
Pay Run Workflow
Multi-step processing — draft, calculate, approve, process — with automatic tax withholding and garnishment deductions.
Tax Engine
Bracket-based federal and state tax calculation with support for tip pools, overtime, and contractor payments.
Employee Self-Service
Employees view pay stubs, submit time entries, request leave, and manage their own profiles.
Security First
SSNs, bank accounts, and EINs are encrypted at rest with Fernet (AES-128). JWT auth with short-lived access tokens and HTTP-only refresh cookies.
Architecture
The frontend and backend are organized into 9 mirrored feature modules with a 1:1 mapping — each React module talks to exactly one FastAPI router. Background jobs (payment processing, scheduled payroll) run through Celery workers with Redis as the broker.
Screenshots and live demo coming soon.