Emboldened with financing from OMERS Ventures and Charles River Ventures, Wave Accounting is consolidating their position as a leading provider of SaaS business applications, expanding from accounting into payroll with the acquisition of Small Payroll.

“Our intention is to do for small business payroll what we did for small business accounting. Namely, we’re taking something complicated, confusing and expensive for the small business owner, and making it ridiculously easy and affordable.”

Small Payroll was launched in 2009 by Sean Walberg, an application developer in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He discovered a need for a straightforward, affordable payroll tool when he was faced with deductions for a caregiver he hired for his children. “I had worked at a big payroll company, so I understood what needed to be done. Even so, I found it to be a pain to use the government’s online calculators and then keep track of things on spreadsheets. And the payroll companies are too expensive, especially for the little guys.”

Wave Payroll handles all the aspects of payroll that most small business owners will need, including:

• direct deposit to employees’ bank accounts
• calculations of wages and overtime
• withholding deductions; and monthly remitting to the government
• income tax forms (including the Canadian T4) and Records of Employment

All the features will be included in a simple pricing model, for a flat rate of a few dollars per employee per pay run. Wave Accounting and Wave Payroll will operate as complementary but separate applications. Wave Accounting will remain 100% free. Wave Payroll is now in private beta.

For an invitation to the public beta, sign up at: WavePayroll.com