Counting Carrots
Desktop payroll for Mac and Windows
Payroll for small businesses, on your own computer.
Counting Carrots works out every paycheck, withholding, and employer tax, tells you what to send and when, and fills in your IRS forms. Your payroll stays in a file on your Mac or PC.
Your first payday of the year is free, with everyone on it. Buy a license for the rest of the year.
What it does
Everything a payday needs, in one place
Every paycheck, worked out
Hourly, salaried, or owners paid what you choose. Federal withholding from IRS Pub 15-T, all 50 states and DC, Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and state programs like paid leave.
Fit pay to a budget
Say the most you want to spend on someone, and Counting Carrots works out the pay, to the cent, so pay plus employer taxes fits inside it.
What to send, and when
One list of every payment a payday causes: take-home pay, 401(k) deposits, health premiums, and each tax agency, soonest due first.
Tax forms filled in
Forms 941 and 940 written onto the official IRS PDFs, ready for you to sign and mail, W-2s for every employee, and a checklist of what's due. You file them, and it shows you how.
For owners, too
S corporations, C corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietors. Owner distributions, 401(k) routing, and a year-end package for your accountant.
Private by design
No account and no cloud. It never connects to your bank or moves money, and it never calls home. Share a company file with your bookkeeper over your own network if you like.
Filing your forms
Filing yourself is easier than it sounds
Counting Carrots doesn't file for you, but it walks you through every form. Its checklist shows what's due and when, and each form is three steps:
Make it
When the quarter or year is over, Counting Carrots fills in Form 941 or 940 on the official IRS PDF from your paydays. Sign it with your trackpad or print it and sign by hand.
Mail it
It shows the IRS address to mail it to for your state. Note the date and your certified mail number, and it's recorded.
Make sure it arrived
Check the tracking, mark it filed, and Counting Carrots keeps a copy for the six years you need it.
W-2s are filed online instead: the app has your W-3 totals and step-by-step directions for filing with the Social Security Administration's website.
Always check the numbers with your accountant
Counting Carrots is software, not tax, legal, or accounting advice. We work hard to keep it accurate, but we make no guarantee that any amount, form, or due date it gives you is correct or complete, and we take no responsibility for them. You are responsible for your payroll and tax filings: have your accountant or tax professional check them before you pay anyone or file anything.
Pricing
Your first payday is free. Pay when you're ready.
First payday free
Download Counting Carrots and run your real payroll. Your first payday of each year is free, with as many people on it as you like, and so is everything that follows from it: pay stubs, sending the money, paying the taxes, and making and filing the forms.
One license a year
A license covers one tax year, including every update released for that year. It unlocks every payday after the first that year, and keeps working for that year's corrections and W-2s after the year ends.
Your license is emailed to you right away.