Who this is for
Team payroll budgets fail through averaging. A plan that says 'five people, about $70k each' hides the senior hire at $110k, the state-by-state withholding differences, and the loaded costs stacking on every role. Budgets built role by role survive contact with reality; budgets built on averages get rebuilt in month four.
The workflow: model each planned role through the calculator individually to understand its paycheck reality, record its gross, then apply your loaded-cost multiplier and start date. The roll-up of those rows, not a headcount average, is the payroll budget. The guidance below covers timing, multipliers, and the raise cycle people forget to include.