If you're a CPA or bookkeeper with household employer clients, nanny payroll probably lands in your lap the same way every year: a family calls in January because they have a nanny they've been paying informally, they need a W-2 by February, and they have no records.
Managing one client this way is annoying. Managing ten is a systems problem.
The actual problem with nanny payroll at scale
Household employment is treated like a consumer product. Every payroll service targets the family directly — they sign up, enter their nanny's info, run payroll. That works for one family managing their own account. It breaks down when you're the one managing accounts for 15 families who don't want to think about it.
The issues stack up quickly:
- Separate login credentials for each client's account (if they even have one)
- Manual tax calculations when clients bring you wage records in a spreadsheet
- Tracking quarterly deadlines — Form 941 or Schedule H, state unemployment filings, state income tax deposits — across different due dates per client
- W-2 generation at year-end with no centralized tool
- Clients who paid their nanny in cash and have no paper trail
Without a purpose-built tool, this work lives in spreadsheets, sticky notes, and calendar reminders. None of that scales.
What a professional managing multiple households actually needs
One dashboard, multiple employers. You need to see all your client households in one place, switch between them in seconds, and not manage 15 separate logins.
Per-client payroll. Each family has their own employees, their own pay schedules, and their own wage history. The records need to stay separate — you can't co-mingle payroll data across clients.
Tax threshold tracking per client. The FICA threshold is $3,000 per employee in 2026. The FUTA threshold is $1,000 per quarter across all employees for that employer. Each client hits these independently. You need the software to track where each employer stands so you catch thresholds before they become compliance problems.
A consolidated tax calendar. Quarterly filings, deposit deadlines, and W-2 due dates don't all line up across clients. A single calendar view showing every upcoming deadline, sorted by date, lets you plan work instead of reacting to it.
W-2 generation for every client at year-end. The software should produce a complete, ready-to-file W-2 for each employee across all your client households. Not a CSV you then have to format — an actual PDF.
API access for automation. If you're running payroll for 20+ families, you shouldn't be doing it manually through a UI for each one. API access lets you automate calculations, integrate with your existing workflow, or pull data into your tax preparation software.
How NannyKeeper Professional works
NannyKeeper Professional is a single account that manages multiple employer households. You log in once and use an employer switcher to move between clients. Each client has their own:
- Employee roster with wage history
- Payroll run history and pay stubs
- Tax tracking (FICA thresholds, FUTA status, state unemployment)
- W-2s and Schedule H at year-end
- Direct deposit setup (optional, via Stripe ACH)
The employer switcher is in the main navigation. Switching between clients takes two clicks. You're not logging out and back in — it's closer to switching accounts in a multi-entity accounting tool.
When you run payroll for a client, the system calculates all federal and state taxes automatically: Social Security (6.2%), Medicare (1.45%), FUTA (0.6% net after state credit), and state-specific unemployment and income tax withholding for all 50 states. The calculations pull from current-year IRS and state data — you're not maintaining a tax rate spreadsheet.
At year-end, you generate W-2s for every employee across all your client households from one interface. Each W-2 is a PDF ready for the employee and ready to upload to the SSA Business Services Online portal.
The API is available on Professional tier. You can POST a wage amount and state and get back a complete tax breakdown — employer taxes, employee withholding estimates, threshold status, and per-paycheck cost. Documentation is at nannykeeper.com/developers.
The math
Most household payroll services price per family. A family on NannyKeeper Starter pays $10/mo. A family on Plus pays $18/mo. If you're managing their accounts separately — or if they're each managing their own — the costs add up per household.
NannyKeeper Professional pricing: $30/mo base + $6/employer/mo.
| Clients | Professional | Clients self-managed (Starter avg) |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | $60/mo | $90/mo |
| 10 | $90/mo | $180/mo |
| 20 | $150/mo | $360/mo |
| 50 | $330/mo | $900/mo |
The savings increase with scale. At 10 clients, Professional costs half what 10 separate Starter subscriptions would cost. At 20 clients, it costs less than a quarter.
The practical arrangement: you bill your clients your standard hourly rate for payroll management, and you manage the software subscription as part of your service. The $6/employer/month overhead is a line item in your service cost, not a reason to charge each client for a separate subscription.
Quarterly filing calendar
Household employers have two main federal filing paths:
Form 941 (quarterly): Required if the employer withholds federal income tax or has FICA liability and deposits quarterly. Most household employers who run regular payroll fall here.
Schedule H (annual): Filed with the employer's personal 1040. Covers employers who don't meet the 941 threshold — lower-wage, occasional employees.
State filings vary by state. California requires DE-9 quarterly. New York requires quarterly UI filings. Most states have quarterly unemployment insurance reports. A few have monthly income tax deposit requirements above certain wage thresholds.
NannyKeeper tracks the federal deadlines automatically and flags when a client is approaching FUTA threshold ($1,000/quarter aggregate). State filing reminders are built into the tax calendar by state.
Getting started
- Sign up for Professional at nannykeeper.com/professional or nannykeeper.com/signup?plan=professional.
- Add your first client household. You'll create an employer profile with their name, address, EIN (or mark as pending), and state.
- Add their employees. Name, SSN (encrypted at rest), address, pay rate, and pay frequency.
- Set up payroll. Enter their pay schedule and run the first payroll. The system calculates taxes and generates a pay stub PDF.
- Repeat for each client. Additional clients are added from the employer switcher — no new account needed.
If a client needs an EIN and doesn't have one, the EIN concierge generates an SS-4 form and faxes it to the IRS on their behalf.
Ready to simplify nanny taxes?
NannyKeeper handles the calculations, deadlines, and paperwork so you can focus on your family.
FAQ
Can I manage all my clients from one login? Yes. Professional gives you one account with an employer switcher. Each client household is a separate employer record with its own employees, payroll history, and documents.
Who owns the client data — me or the client? You control the Professional account. You can give clients read-only access to their own records if they want visibility into payroll or documents.
What if a client leaves me and wants to manage payroll themselves? Their employer record can be transferred to a standalone account. No data loss.
Does Professional include W-2 generation? Yes. W-2s are generated per employee, per employer, at year-end. They're PDF files ready for the employee copy and SSA upload.
What's the API rate limit? Professional tier: 2,000 requests/day. For higher volume, contact us.
Do you support direct deposit? Yes, via Stripe ACH. Clients on Plus or Professional can enable direct deposit for their employees. The fee is $6 per transfer.