What You'll Learn

The rules behind every paycheck.

✓ The six categories of workers, other employee classifications, and the risks of misclassification.

✓ The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and how federal and state laws work together.

✓ Recordkeeping requirements for personnel files.

✓ Pay periods, salary vs. hourly pay, commissions, and other types of pay.

✓ The rules for travel time, overtime, and 1099 reporting.

✓ Employer tax forms, state and local requirements, onboarding payroll files, and employer compliance.

Know the rules before you run the numbers.

Course Curriculum

    1. Course Overview

    1. Employee Classification

    2. Presentation - Employee Classification

    1. Wage & Hour Laws

    2. Presentation - Wage & Hour Laws

    1. Compensation Structures

    2. Presentation - Compensation Structures

    1. Payroll Documents & Compliance

    2. Presentation - Payroll Documents & Compliance

About this course

  • $185.00
  • 9 lessons

This Course Is Step 1 of a Certificate Program

The Mastering Payroll Certificate Program

Payroll Concepts is the first of three courses that take you through the payroll cycle from start to finish.

Step 1: Payroll Concepts
Step 2: Payroll Calculations & Withholdings
Step 3: Payroll & Tax Filings

Get all three for $445 and save $110. A payment plan of 2 payments of $222.50 is available on the full program.
See the Full Program

Hi, I'm Sharon.

Your instructor, and your biggest cheerleader.

I spent 10 years in corporate accounting before I started teaching, and I've now been teaching bookkeeping and accounting for 22 years through continuing education and workforce development programs at universities and colleges.

I hold a Bachelor's degree in Business Education from Temple University, a Pennsylvania Department of Education teaching certificate in Accounting, and I'm a Certified Online Instructor.

But here's what matters most: so many of my students walk in convinced they're "not a numbers person." Most of them are wrong. They just never had it explained clearly.

That's my job. Plain English, step by step, until it clicks.
Read My Story
Sharon deFonteny, Bookkeeping and Business Finance Educator

Questions? Good. Here Are the Answers.

  • Do I need payroll experience?

    No. This course starts with the fundamentals and builds from there, one step at a time.

  • I outsource payroll. Do I need this?

    Yes. A payroll company processes the numbers, but you’re still responsible for them. This course teaches you the rules so you can review what they send and catch a mistake before it becomes a penalty.

  • Is the Bookkeeping Community included?

    Yes. It’s a place for students across all of my courses and Certificate Programs to ask questions, share what they’re working on, and connect with others learning the same material.

  • What should I take after this course?

    Payroll Calculations & Withholdings, the second course in the Mastering Payroll Certificate Program.

Ready to Get Payroll Right from the Start?

Classify correctly. Pay correctly. Stay compliant.