When the state compliance tool you rely on changes owner, scope or price, choose its replacement by the jobs you actually used it for. Split the bundle first, then ask which tool covers the job that carries the most risk: the agency notices that keep arriving after every registration.
First: what did you use the old tool for?
A state compliance tool usually bundles several jobs. Before comparing replacements, list them:
- State registration tracking. Knowing where a new hire creates payroll tax, SUI and withholding obligations, and getting the accounts opened.
- Ongoing obligations. The recurring filings and renewals each state expects.
- Agency mail and notices. The letters those registrations generate from then on: rate notices, assessments, filing reminders.
- Adjacent services. Registered agent, handbooks, annual reports.
Most replacements cover some of these jobs, not all. The costliest gap to leave open is the third: a registration is a one-time event, but agency notices keep arriving, and each one carries a deadline with a penalty behind it.
The kinds of replacement
Your payroll provider's own compliance features
Many payroll platforms offer registration and notice features tied to their own payroll data. They are the natural default when every employer you look after runs on that one platform. A CPA firm whose clients use several payroll providers will want something that works the same way for all of them.
Outsourced employment services
Legal-services subscriptions and outsourced employment providers absorb compliance work as part of a much larger relationship. They make sense when you want to hand employment operations over wholesale, not when you want software your team or your accountant runs.
A compliance layer beside your payroll
A tool that does not depend on your payroll provider keeps your compliance record in one place when payroll changes, and lets a firm work every client the same way. This is where Kreto sits: you upload the payroll register as CSV or Excel from the provider you already use.
The questions that decide it
- Does it work with your payroll as it is? One provider, or many? A tool tied to a single payroll platform does not fit a client book that spans several.
- Does it handle the mail? Ask what happens when a rate notice or an assessment arrives: who checks the figures, and who tracks the deadline.
- Does it show its work? When a tool says a state's number is wrong, you want the calculation, especially if you are the CPA signing the response.
- Who approves what goes out? Anything sent to a government agency should pass through your review first.
What Kreto does, and does not
Kreto files state registrations once a person approves them and tracks each one to the state's confirmation. It reads agency notices and tracks their deadlines, checks rate notices against the agency's schedule and Form 941 notices against your payroll, and drafts each reply for you to review and approve. Kreto is not a registered agent and does not provide employee handbooks or file annual reports; keep your current provider for those.
To see how it handles your own notices, start with a free notice scan, or read how Kreto compares.
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