Terms of Service

Checkmate Payroll provides payroll calculation, tax withholding computation, time and attendance tracking, HR document storage, and client-billing tooling for United States businesses. Checkmate is a software provider. It is not a bank, not a licensed money transmitter, and not your employer of record. You remain the employer, the tax filer of record, and the party legally responsible for paying your people correctly and on time.

You are responsible for the security of your credentials and for every action taken under your login. Sharing an administrator login is a breach of these terms. Multi-factor authentication is available and strongly recommended for any account with payout authority.

ACH is a batch network with published settlement windows, not a real-time system. Standard transfers are initiated on the next banking day after authorization and typically settle in approximately 48 hours (two banking days), and may take longer across weekends, federal banking holidays, or when a receiving institution places a hold. Timelines shown in the application — including the countdown in the Funding Health indicator and the availability timestamps in the Cash Flow Drawer — are good-faith estimates based on network norms, not guarantees.

You are responsible for authorizing payroll early enough to hit your pay date. Checkmate is not liable for a late paycheck caused by authorizing a run inside the clearing window, by a bank holiday, by a receiving-bank delay, or by a processor review. Instant payouts settle in minutes but only for eligible debit-card destinations; anyone without an eligible card is paid on the standard rail and is subject to the timelines above.

Payroll math — federal and state withholding, FICA, local taxes, benefits and garnishments — is computed deterministically from the data you enter and from published rate tables. Rate tables are maintained on a best-effort basis and some future-year figures are provisional estimates, labelled as such in the product. You are the tax filer of record and must review pay stubs, filings and rate assumptions with a qualified CPA. Checkmate does not remit taxes on your behalf unless a separate written agreement says so.

Records are retained for seven years, then flagged for reviewed deletion, as set out in our Data Retention Policy, which forms part of these terms.

Checkmate uses machine-learning models for the AI Office Manager, Billing Concierge grouping and the Buddy support chat. AI output is advisory only; every payroll figure and filing is computed deterministically. You are responsible for reviewing AI output before it reaches an employee, client or tax authority.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Checkmate is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, nor for lost profits, lost goodwill, or missed payroll deadlines arising from user error, incorrect or incomplete data entry, insufficient funding, manual check entries, or a third-party outage or decision at Stripe, Plaid, Twilio, Resend or any financial institution. Our maximum aggregate liability for all claims is limited to the subscription fees you paid in the twelve months preceding the claim. Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

You may close your account at any time from Settings → Right to be Forgotten. We may suspend an account that breaches these terms or that is used to process fraudulent payments. Suspension is not a refund. Records we are legally required to retain survive termination for the retention period.

Copyright notices go to legal@checkmatepayrolls.com with your signature as rights-holder or agent, the asset path, a description of the work, your contact details, a good-faith statement that the use is unauthorized, and a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate. We act promptly under 17 U.S.C. §512(c) and handle counter-notices under §512(g).

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules.