Managed Payroll · Architecture & Design
Project-coded payroll for AIA billing, licensed PE and architect tracking, partner draw structures, and multi-state licensure compliance. BEG manages all of it at $25-$45 per employee per month. Fully managed, no migration required.
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The Cost of Running It Yourself
How It Works
We map your staff structure, project coding setup, licensed employee roster, partner distribution model, and multi-state presence. You get a fixed monthly cost before anything changes.
We configure project-coded payroll, partner draw structures, PE and architect tracking, and state registrations for any states where your staff works. No migration required.
Every pay cycle, every partner distribution, every quarterly filing, and every year-end W-2. Fully managed by BEG. Your project managers and administrators touch nothing.
What BEG Handles
Architecture firms bill clients based on hours logged to specific projects and project phases. For payroll labor costs to reconcile with AIA billing, payroll must allocate each employee's time to the project codes they worked during the pay period. BEG configures project-coded payroll that maps to your project numbering system, so your labor cost reports by project match the hours your project managers are billing, without requiring your accounting team to manually reconcile payroll to billing records each month.
Architecture and engineering firms often pay credential-based salary differentials for staff who hold PE licensure, AIA membership, LEED AP credentials, or other professional designations. Managing these differentials in payroll requires tracking current licensure status for each employee and updating pay when credentials are earned, renewed, or lapsed. BEG maintains credential tracking for licensed staff and ensures that pay differentials are applied correctly and updated when licensure status changes, reducing the manual tracking burden on your HR and office manager.
Architecture firms structured as S-corps, partnerships, or LLCs often compensate principals through a combination of W-2 salary and owner draws or distributions. W-2 salary for S-corp owner-employees must meet IRS reasonable compensation standards. Draw amounts must be handled separately from W-2 payroll and tracked for tax reporting purposes. BEG manages the W-2 payroll component for principals, coordinates with your CPA on the draw and distribution side, and ensures the W-2 salary structure meets IRS reasonable compensation requirements for S-corp shareholders.
Architecture firms that send staff to work on projects in other states may create payroll nexus in those states, requiring registration with the state's employment tax agency and withholding for employees working there. Short-term project assignments may qualify for temporary worker exemptions in some states, but the threshold varies and must be tracked per employee. BEG monitors the time each employee spends working in each state, determines when registration and withholding obligations arise, and handles state payroll tax registration and remittance for all states where your staff creates nexus.
Architecture and design firms experience intense workload spikes around project submission deadlines, client presentations, and permitting milestones. Non-exempt design staff who work beyond 40 hours in a workweek during these sprints are entitled to overtime. Salaried employees who are misclassified as exempt when they should be non-exempt under the FLSA salary level and duties tests create wage and hour exposure when they work deadline sprints without overtime pay. BEG manages overtime calculations for all non-exempt design staff and can advise on proper exemption classification to reduce your exposure during high-crunch periods.
Comparison
| Capability | BEG Managed | In-House | Software Only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project-coded payroll for AIA billing | ✓ | Manual mapping required | Partial |
| PE and architect credential tracking | ✓ | Manual tracking | ✗ |
| Partner draw + W-2 coordination | ✓ | CPA coordination needed | ✗ |
| Multi-state nexus management | ✓ | Compliance risk | Self-service |
| Deadline sprint overtime calculations | ✓ | Manual calculation risk | Self-service |
| Year-end W-2 production | ✓ | ✓ | Self-service |
| No migration required | ✓ | N/A | Migration often required |
| Fixed all-inclusive monthly cost | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
The Math on Waiting
Architecture firms that cannot allocate payroll costs to projects by code spend time every month manually reconciling billing records to labor expenses. That is project management time going to accounting administration instead of client work. A managed payroll setup that handles project allocation correctly pays for itself in recovered principal and PM time alone.
Your Next Transition Window
Payroll transitions with BEG take 30-60 days. Starting at the beginning of a fiscal year or new billing cycle makes the cutover clean and keeps your project accounting aligned from day one of the new period. We scope your setup, configure project coding, and manage transition so your principals spend zero time on it.
15 minutes. We scope your payroll, give you a fixed monthly cost, and show you what transition looks like.
FAQ
We map your project numbering system and configure payroll to allocate each employee's time to the project codes logged during the pay period. The result is a labor cost report by project that reconciles to your AIA billing records without manual adjustment each month.
BEG manages the W-2 payroll component for principals and coordinates with your CPA on owner draws and K-1 distributions. We ensure the W-2 salary portion meets IRS reasonable compensation requirements for S-corp shareholders, which is the most common compliance issue for architecture firm owners.
No. BEG operates as your managed payroll team inside your existing system. Migration is an option, never a requirement.
Everything: payroll processing, project-coded allocation, PE credential tracking, federal and state tax filing, year-end W-2 production, and dedicated BEG support.
Yes. BEG monitors time worked in each state, determines when payroll tax registration and withholding obligations arise, and handles registration and remittance in all states where your staff creates nexus through project work.
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