HR consulting / PEO software, built around IRS and multi-client co-employment model

Arkathos gives a hR consulting a workspace tailored to how the work actually runs — This workspace is built around running multi-client payroll, benefits, and labor-law compliance as the outsourced HR/PEO back office. Arkathos tailors a hR consulting workspace around 5 agents: Marshall, Treasury, Scribe, Watchtower, Herald.

Compliance a hR consulting can't afford to miss

Watchtower tracks every license, bond, insurance policy, and continuing-education requirement for a hR consulting, with renewal cadences and staged reminders so nothing lapses.

• A hR consulting must maintain a PEO (Professional Employer Organization) registration / license, through the State labor, licensing, or insurance agency (varies by state; e.g., TX Dept. of Licensing & Regulation, FL DBPR Board of Employee Leasing Companies, NJ Dept. of Labor Div. of Employer Accounts, NY Dept. of Labor), which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a PEO registration / license, through the State Dept of Labor / Insurance Dept, which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a General business license, which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a PEO surety bond / financial-assurance bond, through the State licensing agency (positive-working-capital assurance satisfied via surety bond, letter of credit, or audited financials), which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a CPEO certification (Certified Professional Employer Organization), through the IRS, which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a Fidelity bond (employee dishonesty / commercial crime coverage), through the Surety / commercial insurance carrier, which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a ESAC accreditation, through the Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC), which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a IRS Certified Professional Employer Organization (CPEO) certification, through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which has no fixed renewal cycle.
• A hR consulting must maintain a CPEO surety bond, through the Surety Bond Provider, which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a ESAC accreditation (PEO financial-assurance accreditation), through the Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC), which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a Multi-state employer / SUTA registration, through the State Dept of Labor (Unemployment Insurance), which has no fixed renewal cycle.
• A hR consulting must maintain a SHRM-CP / SHRM-SCP certification, through the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), which renews every 3 years.
• The SHRM-CP / SHRM-SCP certification carries a continuing-education requirement of 60 hours every 36 months (60h HR professional development PDCs (Advance Your Education / Organization / Profession; no subject-area minimum and no mandatory ethics credit)).
• A hR consulting must maintain a HRCI PHR (Professional in Human Resources) certification, through the HR Certification Institute (HRCI), which renews every 3 years.
• The HRCI PHR (Professional in Human Resources) certification carries a continuing-education requirement of 60 hours every 36 months (1h Ethics (required, counted within the 60; effective Jan 1, 2021), 59h HR / General recertification credit).
• A hR consulting must maintain a Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI), which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a Fidelity bond / crime insurance (client payroll funds), through the Insurance Provider / Surety, which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a HRCI SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) certification, through the HR Certification Institute (HRCI), which renews every 3 years.
• The HRCI SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) certification carries a continuing-education requirement of 60 hours every 36 months (1h Ethics (required, counted within the 60; effective Jan 1, 2021), 15h Business recertification credit, 44h HR / General recertification credit).
• A hR consulting must maintain a Professional liability (Errors & Omissions) insurance, through the Commercial insurance carrier, which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a Certified Payroll Professional (CPP), through the PayrollOrg (American Payroll Association), which renews every 5 years.
• A hR consulting must maintain a General liability insurance, through the Commercial insurance carrier, which renews every year.
• The Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) carries a continuing-education requirement of 120 hours every 60 months (120h Payroll administration, compliance & tax).
• A hR consulting must maintain a Cyber liability insurance, through the Commercial insurance carrier, which renews every year.
• A hR consulting must maintain a Workers' compensation insurance, through the Commercial insurance carrier / state workers' compensation fund, which renews every year.

Everything Arkathos runs for a hR consulting

These are the agents set up first for a hR consulting — and because it's one platform, every plan includes all 16 Arkathos agents. Also included whenever you need them: Sentinel, Guardhouse, Quartermaster, Courier, War Room, Armory, Mint Warden, Vault Keeper, Bulletin Board, Client Portal.

• Marshall — Payroll runs, Employee & HR records, Tax withholding & filings, Time & PTO tracking.
• Treasury — Invoicing & payment collection, Expense tracking, Accounting & bookkeeping, Business tax prep & filing, Recurring billing & subscriptions, Financial dashboards & reports.
• Scribe — Document & contract templates, E-signature, Proposal & form builder, PDF / Word export.
• Watchtower — License & permit tracking, Certification & continuing-education (CE) tracking, Renewal reminders & alerts, Compliance document vault.
• Herald — SEO & get-found content, Social media scheduling, Email & newsletter campaigns, Brand voice & content studio, Review & reputation growth, AI-overview & directory visibility.

Your tailored hR consulting workspace

These are net-new, hR consulting-specific capabilities — not a generic CRM bolted onto your industry.

• Multi-client co-employment model (Marshall): A client-company object owning its own FEIN, pay schedule, WC class codes, benefit plans, and worksite-employee roster; every Employees/Payroll/Time/Onboarding view filters by client. Marshall is single-tenant today and can't separate one client's workforce from another's.
• CPEO aggregate employment-tax filing (Treasury): File aggregate federal employment tax under the PEO's FEIN with per-client Form 941 Schedule R allocation, generate Form 8973 client start/end reports, and track the CPEO surety bond and quarterly assertions. Filings is single-entity today.
• Per-state SUTA + anti-SUTA-dumping engine (Treasury): Maintain each client's SUTA experience rate per state, apply correct successor/predecessor rates at client onboarding to comply with anti-SUTA-dumping law, and flag states where a client lacks registration. Payroll calc has no client-by-state experience-rate concept today.
• Benefits admin: ACA 1095-C, COBRA, Section 125 (Marshall): ALE look-back measurement tracking with 1094-C/1095-C generation, COBRA qualifying-event letter automation, and Section 125 cafeteria + 401(k) deduction handling under the PEO master plans. None of this exists in the current payroll flow.
• Jurisdiction-aware living handbook engine (Scribe): Build per-client employee handbooks from a policy library, auto-flag policies needing revision when a client's state law changes (CA/NY harassment training, paid-sick-leave, etc.), version the handbook per client, and push e-sign acknowledgments to affected employees. Scribe templates are static today.
• PEPM / %-of-payroll admin-fee billing (Treasury): Auto-compute each client's recurring PEO admin fee per cycle from that client's headcount (per-employee-per-month) or processed payroll (% of gross) and generate the recurring invoice. Treasury only issues one-off invoices today.
• State-mandated training tracker (Watchtower): Assign and track completion of state harassment-prevention and other mandated trainings per employee per jurisdiction, store completion certificates, and drive renewal cadence with overdue alerts.
• Worksite-employee HR helpdesk (Guardhouse): An employee-facing HR helpdesk where a client's worksite employees open tickets (PTO, benefits, payroll questions) answered against that client's own policy KB, routed to the assigned HR consultant. The vertical notes explicitly call for this; Guardhouse exists but isn't client-scoped.

The agents and tabs you get

Marshall for a hR consulting surfaces Employees, Departments, Payroll, Time tracking, Onboarding, Chat. Treasury for a hR consulting surfaces Financial sheet, Transactions, Invoices, Filings, Payroll calc, Payroll coverage, Chat. Scribe for a hR consulting surfaces Documents, Templates, Tasks, Chat. Watchtower for a hR consulting surfaces Overview, Compliance items, Policies, Calendar, Chat. Herald for a hR consulting surfaces Brand voice, Compose, Schedule, Get found, ✦Studio, Chat.

Frequently asked questions

best all-in-one software for hr consultants

HR consultants juggle CRM, projects, invoicing and compliance across many clients, so all-in-one platforms (Shrlock, Zoho, BambooHR) beat stitching 5 tools together. Arkathos bundles CRM, scheduling, invoicing, payroll and compliance under 16 agents at flat pricing.

what software do i need to start a peo

A PEO needs integrated payroll, benefits, workers' comp, billing and compliance that all talk to each other; PrismHR is the common back-office engine. Verify NAPEO involvement and that systems integrate to keep overhead down.

how much does a peo cost per employee per month

Roughly $40-$160 per employee per month, or 2%-12% of gross payroll. NAPEO cites ~$1,395/employee/year average. Watch setup, termination and workers'-comp audit fees adding 10-25%.

hr consultant vs peo whats the difference

A PEO co-employs your staff under its own EIN and handles payroll, benefits and compliance continuously; an HR consultant advises project-by-project without co-employment. PEOs bill per-employee/percent-of-payroll; consultants bill hourly or per project.

how do hr consultants manage multiple clients

The average consultant uses 5+ tools, so separate client workspaces, a CRM, task tracking and secure per-client document storage are essential. Arkathos keeps each client's CRM, scheduling, invoicing and compliance isolated in one platform.

best crm for hr consultants with client portal

Nimble, Pipedrive and Insightly are common picks; look for a client portal to share updates and documents, plus automations for repeat steps. Arkathos includes CRM plus client-facing scheduling and messaging without per-seat fees.

how to bill hr consulting clients on retainer

Use time-and-billing tools (Harvest, FreshBooks, Everhour) that support retainer, fixed-fee, milestone and hourly billing at once, with separate invoice lines per deliverable. Arkathos handles invoicing, retainers and payments alongside the rest of the practice.

hr compliance tracking software for multiple clients

You need dashboards that track deadlines, multi-state labor laws and document deadlines per client without overlap, with encrypted storage and alerts. Tools like Mineral, Namely and SixFifty specialize; Arkathos folds compliance tracking into its per-client workspaces.

do i need a peo or hr consulting software as a small firm

If you only advise clients episodically, HR consulting software (CRM, invoicing, compliance) is enough; a PEO adds co-employment overhead and capital ($200k+ startup). Solo and small firms usually want flat-priced all-in-one tools, not a PEO license.

What licenses and insurance does a hR consulting need?

Arkathos tracks 21 items for a hR consulting, including PEO (Professional Employer Organization) registration / license, PEO registration / license, General business license, CPEO certification (Certified Professional Employer Organization). Each renewal and expiration is monitored in Watchtower with staged reminders.

What continuing education is required for a hR consulting?

The SHRM-CP / SHRM-SCP certification carries a continuing-education requirement of 60 hours every 36 months (60h HR professional development PDCs (Advance Your Education / Organization / Profession; no subject-area minimum and no mandatory ethics credit)). The HRCI PHR (Professional in Human Resources) certification carries a continuing-education requirement of 60 hours every 36 months (1h Ethics (required, counted within the 60; effective Jan 1, 2021), 59h HR / General recertification credit). The HRCI SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) certification carries a continuing-education requirement of 60 hours every 36 months (1h Ethics (required, counted within the 60; effective Jan 1, 2021), 15h Business recertification credit, 44h HR / General recertification credit). The Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) carries a continuing-education requirement of 120 hours every 60 months (120h Payroll administration, compliance & tax). Watchtower logs hours by category and flags shortfalls before the deadline.

Which Arkathos agents does a hR consulting get?

Arkathos tailors a hR consulting workspace around 5 agents: Marshall, Treasury, Scribe, Watchtower, Herald.

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