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Payroll · San Francisco

Best Payroll Software for San Francisco Businesses

San Francisco employers manage city minimum wage, paid sick leave, and health care spending requirements alongside California payroll requirements. Keka helps San Francisco businesses manage these requirements and keep payroll accurate and compliant every cycle.

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Trusted by 12,500+ growing companies

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PAYROLL COMPLIANCE

Stay compliant with San Francisco payroll requirements

One payroll flow for time, leave, and attendance

Attendance, leave, and timesheets sync directly into payroll. Fewer exports, less reconciliation, and fewer mid-cycle corrections.

No compliance surprises on payday.

San Francisco’s minimum wage, California’s daily overtime rules, and state tax withholding — validated before errors reach a paycheck.

Built for San Francisco’s fast-moving workforce

Support salaried employees, hourly teams, and contractors across flexible schedules, shift-based work, and distributed teams — without adding payroll complexity.

WHY SAN FRANCISCO PAYROLL IS DIFFERENT

San Francisco follows rules at three levels

California, San Francisco, and federal law each set their own requirements, from wage floors to overtime rules and health care spending. A miss at any level can show up on an employee’s paycheck.

1 / 3

San Francisco minimum wage

San Francisco minimum wage is $19.61/hour from July 1, 2026. Employees who work in San Francisco must be paid at least the city rate.

2 / 3

Paid Sick Leave Ordinance

Employees earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Employers with 10 or more employees may cap accrual at 72 hours.

3 / 3

Health Care Security Ordinance

Covered employers must make health care expenditures for employees who work eight or more hours per week in San Francisco. Keka syncs those contributions into payroll.

ATTENDANCE AND TIMESHEET SYNC

Process payroll on approved hours, not estimates

Once timesheets and leave requests are approved, those hours sync directly into payroll. Overtime, absences, and payable time are calculated automatically with less manual entry and less pre-run reconciliation.

Approved work hours and leave sync instantly with payroll
Overtime and absences auto-calculated
Manual checks before every cycle reduced significantly

PROACTIVE ERROR DETECTION AND GUIDED FIXES

Payroll errors flagged before every pay run

Keka surfaces missing data and configuration gaps before processing begins. Each flagged item comes with guided next steps, not just an alert.

Missing tax setup and FEIN verification flagged before processing
Alerts include clear instructions for resolving issues

MULTIPLE PAY RATES AND PIECE-RATE COMPENSATION

One payroll flow for every pay model your team uses

Set different pay rates by role, shift, or location. Keka applies configured rates across every payroll cycle.

Per-hour, per-annum, and per-piece pay types natively supported
Different rates across roles, shifts, and locations in a single employee record

SECURITY, SCALE & RELIABILITY

Built for scale.  Trusted for security.

Keka stays updated with every federal, state, and local payroll rule – so you never worry about tax changes or compliance gaps.

SOC2

ISO 27001

GDPR

Keka is not just an HRMS. It’s our operations backbone. From admin to board-level reporting, we rely on it every day. Payroll used to take 5-7 days. With Keka, it’s done in just 2-4 hours.

Biren Kumar Dash

Vice President - Varmora

Keka has helped us increase transparency and trust across the organisation. This is now our source of truth for people intelligence.

Elizabeth Joseph

Director of People and Culture - Land Sterling

Keka helped our managers in building accountability, empathy and it really made a difference in creating a very collaborative culture. Keka also surpassed our employee expectations with its easy-to-navigate UI and simple dashboards.

Rahoul Srivastav

HRBP - Noise

Workforce Planning Highest User Adoption

FULL COMPLIANCE COVERAGE

Full San Francisco and California payroll compliance coverage

SF / California requirement	What Keka does	How it helps
San Francisco minimum wage$19.61/hr as of July 1, 2026	Validates pay rate against employee work location before saving	Flags violations
California statewide minimum wage $16.90/hr as of January 1, 2026	Applies state floor for employees working outside San Francisco	Flags violations
California daily overtime 1.5x for the first 8 hrs on the 7th consecutive day · 2x after 8 hrs on that day	Synced from approved timesheets; daily thresholds applied per California rules	Timesheet-synced
California state income taxProgressive rates · SDI contribution rate 1.3% as of January 1, 2026	Withholds at the correct rate for each California employee	Auto-withheld
California Paid Sick Leave Minimum 5 days or 40 hours/year · Accrues from first day of work	Tracks accrual and usage against the annual cap	Accrual-tracked
SF Health Care Security Ordinance (HCSO)$4.11/hr (100+ employees) · $2.74/hr (for-profits 20–99, nonprofits 50–99) · Tracked per quarter	Benefits contributions sync into payroll each cycle via SimplyInsured and Guideline	Contribution-synced
W-2/1099 Annual federal and state filing	Generates and files W-2s and 1099s for employees and contractors	Auto-filed
Benefits, garnishments, deductions401(k), child support, health premiums	Automatically factored into every pay run	Auto-deducted

INTEGRATIONS

Plugs into the finance and HR stack you already run

QuickBooks

Sync payroll journal entries to your QuickBooks chart of accounts each cycle.

Xero

Auto-map deductions, taxes, and benefits to your Xero accounts.

NetSuite

Push payroll runs, headcount, and accruals into your NetSuite general ledger.

Sage Intacct

Send each pay cycle's data into Sage Intacct without manual exports.

Guideline

401(k) contributions deducted and remitted to Guideline every pay run.

Slack

Payroll approvals, alerts, and error flags delivered to your Slack channels.

Okta

Single sign-on and SCIM user provisioning across the Keka platform.

Keka Marketplace

50+ more apps across HR, finance, and operations.

Compliance Library

California payroll and compliance resources

Stay current on California employment law.

California Overtime Laws California Minimum Wage 2026 California Lunch Break Laws California Leave Laws California Paycheck Calculator

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Keka handle payroll for both San Francisco city employees and employees working outside San Francisco in the same account?

Yes. Keka supports location-based pay rates and validates each employee’s wage against the applicable minimum in a single payroll run.

How does Keka handle W-2 employees and 1099 contractors together?

Keka runs both through a unified payroll engine. You can process salaried employees, hourly employees, and contractors in the same cycle, with the correct withholding and filing applied to each.

What happens if an employee's pay rate is below the minimum wage for their location?

Keka flags the violation before the record saves and before payroll processes. The alert includes a direct link to the step where the rate can be corrected.

How does Keka handle California's daily overtime rules?

Overtime is calculated from approved timesheets. Keka applies California’s daily thresholds — 1.5x after 8 hours and 2x after 12 hours in a single workday — automatically, without manual calculation.

How does Keka handle benefits deductions in payroll?

Contributions from Guideline (401k) and SimplyInsured (health) sync automatically into payroll each cycle. Benefits data syncs into payroll to reduce manual exports and duplicate entry.

Can employees manage their own benefits enrollment?

Yes. Keka’s self-serve portal lets employees explore and enroll in benefits independently. Updates reflect in payroll automatically.

What payroll reports does Keka generate?

Keka includes built-in reports covering cash requirement forecasts, pay register, contractor payments, tax liability, and payroll journal — available before and after every run.

One payroll system for every San Francisco payroll obligation

Federal, state, and local payroll requirements — handled automatically from start to finish.

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