HoneyBook Payroll lets you securely pay your 1099 contractors directly through your HoneyBook account. You can streamline payments, centralize bookkeeping, and automatically prepare for tax season—all in one place.

Before you start

Eligibility: Available to select members who have businesses based in the U.S., with access expanding on a rolling basis
Limitations: During open beta, Payroll supports contractor payments only (no W-2 employees)
Pricing: Free during open beta. Paid plans begin in early 2026.
- Contractor-only payroll: $30/month base + $6/month per contractor paid
- Contractor and W-2 employee payroll: $45/month base + $6/month per person paid

📣 Note

Pricing will only apply once payroll moves out of open beta. You’ll be notified in advance before any billing begins.

Employer experience

Set up contractor payroll

From the navigation menu, select Finance > Payroll
Select Set up payroll
By each of the following setup processes, select Start to complete them:

Let’s get started	Answer a few onboarding questions
Add your work location	Enter the street address your team members physically work at
Get your team ready	You need to add your work location first before you can complete this step Send an invite to each team member to enter their own details and set up direct deposit so they’re ready for payday Each contractor must complete all onboarding steps, including entering tax information and connecting a payment method, before you can submit payroll If you see a message prompting you to contact our Support team when trying to run payroll, it usually means one or more contractors haven’t finished onboarding yet. Ask them to log in, complete their setup, and confirm direct deposit details before retrying. You can finish setup later for team members you don’t plan to pay right away
Fill in your tax info	You need to add your work location first before you can complete this step Enter your federal and state tax information so HoneyBook can automate your taxes
Add company bank account	Enter a bank account for taxes and direct deposit payments Manually adding your bank account takes up to 2 business days to verify it You also have the option to add and verify your bank account instantly with Plaid When you’ve been verified, you’ll receive an email titled “Your HoneyBook payroll is ready!”

Manage your contractors

Add a contractor

From the navigation menu, select Finance > Payroll
Select Contractors > Add contractor
Enter the worker’s:
1. First, middle, and last legal name as it appears on official documents
2. Email address
Select:
1. Invite worker to enter their own info if you want to send them an email invite
2. I’ll enter the info myself if you want to handle this and have their address, tax ID, and direct deposit information
Select Add worker

Other actions

From the navigation menu, select Finance > Payroll
Select Contractors > the three-dot icon by a contractor
You can select:
1. Edit contractor
2. View projects
3. Add to project to assign a contractor to a specific project for easier bookkeeping
4. Delete contractor

Run payroll

From the navigation menu, select Finance > Payroll
Select Run off-cycle payroll
Select workers to include in the payroll run → enter the pay period start and end dates → select Next
Choose the pay date. If you want to include any unprocessed compensations and recurring amounts for the selected pay period, check Include recurring compensations if available
1. By default, we don't include recurring compensations and benefits on off-cycle payroll since they’re calculated on a per-pay-period basis. You can choose to include them as needed with this option.
Select Send payment
On the “Hours and earnings” page, you can select staff members, pay methods, and enter:
1. Service commissions
2. Reimbursements
3. Hourly pay
4. Hours worked
Select Next. Then, on the “Review and submit” page, select Next.
On the “You did it!” page, select Done

Taxes and bookkeeping

Download a payroll report

From the navigation menu, select Reports
Select Download report
Select a time frame, then scroll down to select Payroll
Select Download
You’ll receive a notification when your payroll report has been successfully downloaded

Find your 1099 forms

From the navigation menu, select Finance > Tax Hub
Under “[year] tax documents,” select the year and download icon by your 1099-K or 1099-NEC forms

Update your settings

From the navigation menu, select Finance > Payroll
Select Settings
You can select Edit by:
1. Business info: View or update your business and legal name
2. Addresses: Manage addresses used for filings, paystubs, and work locations
3. Tax info: View and manage your company’s tax information
4. Pay groups: Organize how and when your team gets paid
5. Bank accounts: Manage the account used to pay your team
6. Pay types: Set up and manage pay types like hourly or salary
7. Check printing: For earning statements on plain paper only

Contractor experience

When you invite a contractor, they’ll receive an email titled “Get set up for easy contractor payments.”

In the email, select Set up now
On the “Welcome to HB Inc!” page, select Get started
The contractor will need to:
1. Confirm their identity and contact details
2. Enter SSN or EIN, date of birth, and address
3. Set up a payment method (direct deposit)
When a contractor is paid, they’ll receive an email titled “You received a payment from [company name]”