What Mainspring does

Mainspring is a US-based FinTech company that provides a unified platform for payroll, payment processing, and time & attendance aimed at small and mid-market businesses (typically 10-500 employees) across labor-intensive verticals such as retail, food service, hospitality, auto services, and healthcare. The platform combines three products: Mainspring Payroll (full-service payroll with automated federal/state/local tax deposits and filings, certified payroll, employee self-service, and add-ons including pay cards, on-demand pay, workers' comp, and 401(k)), Mainspring Pay (payment processing with locked-in rates across interchange-plus, surcharge/cash-discount, and dual pricing models, PCI DSS Level 1 / EMV / P2PE security, and next-day funding), and Mainspring Time (cloud-based time and attendance with biometric and GPS capture, automated scheduling, job costing, and certified payroll exports). The three products share native data flows such that approved hours sync from Time to Payroll and payment deposits auto-post to the general ledger. Underlying technology spans a modernized .NET Core and React architecture on AWS (EC2, RDS, S3, Lambda) with GitHub Actions CI/CD, with the company actively migrating from legacy ASP.NET and Clarion systems; supplemental features include biometric Face ID hardware, GPS/geofencing mobile capture, and proprietary ML applied to scheduling and fraud detection.

Revenue mechanics combine subscription PEPM pricing on Payroll, transaction-based fees on Pay, subscription plus hardware revenue on Time, and professional services tied to white-glove onboarding with typical go-live in under 30 days. Distribution is sales-led: a US-based inside team handles Calendly-driven demo and rate-quote conversion; a senior field force (1099 Senior FinTech Consultants spending 40-50% in the field, supported by partner-generated leads) targets multi-location and mid-market operators under named sales leadership. The company is privately held and headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with distributed teams across the US and India and is backed by an unnamed family office.

Name

Mainspring

Legal name

Mainspring

Website

https://themainspring.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Mainspring offers a unified payroll, payment processing, and time & attendance platform for US small and mid-market businesses across retail, food service, hospitality, auto services, and healthcare, combining subscription, transaction-based, and white-glove implementation revenue models under family-office backing.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Payroll and Payments Software

NAICS

Payroll Services (541214), Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services (54121)

SIC

Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)

akta.pro primary industry

Processor Back-End & Switch Providers (Issuer/Acquirer Processing Infrastructure) (FSAMABAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Tokenization, Network Vaults & Credential Management (FSAGABAF)

Keywords

• Payroll processing software
• Payment processing services
• Time and attendance software
• Small business fintech
• Workforce management software

Headquarters

HQ city

Phoenix

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Mainspring Payroll (PEPM): Subscription-based per-employee-per-month (PEPM) pricing for payroll services. No set-up fees. Same-day payroll available as an add-on. Additional revenue from optional add-ons including pay cards, on-demand pay, pay-as-you-go workers' comp, and integrated 401(k) plans.
2. Mainspring Pay (Payment Processing): Transaction-based payment processing with multiple pricing models: interchange-plus, surcharge/cash-discount, or dual pricing. Revenue generated per transaction. PCI DSS Level 1 compliant. Flat-fee ACH for high-ticket invoices and recurring payments.
3. Mainspring Time (Time & Attendance): Subscription or bundled revenue for time and attendance software. Revenue also derived from hardware (Venus Face ID, Thor Fingerprint, Atlas Mobile devices). Certified payroll exports, job costing, and scheduling features included. Typical go-live in under 30 days.
4. Professional / Implementation Services: White-glove onboarding, data migration (employees, taxes, GL), hardware provisioning, and training included as part of implementation. Revenue supplemented by add-on services such as same-day payroll processing.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Mainspring sells an integrated FinTech platform for small and mid-market businesses combining three core products: Mainspring Payroll (full-service payroll with automated federal/state/local tax deposits and filings and custom general ledger exports), Mainspring Pay (payment processing with locked-in rates, multiple pricing models, and PCI DSS Level 1 security), and Mainspring Time (cloud time and attendance with biometric/GPS capture, automated scheduling, and overtime alerts). All three products share one employee record, sync hours and payments automatically, and integrate with general ledgers such as QuickBooks, Sage, and Microsoft.

Product overview

Mainspring offers a unified three-product platform for payroll, payments, and time & attendance. The core products are Mainspring Payroll (full-service payroll with custom GL exports, automated tax management, and HR tools), Mainspring Pay (payment processing with transparent flexible pricing and PCI DSS Level 1 security), and Mainspring Time (cloud-based time and attendance with biometrics, GPS, automated scheduling, and expense reporting). All three products are designed to share data natively — approved hours from Time sync directly to Payroll, and payment deposits auto-post to the general ledger — providing a single unified stack for small and mid-market businesses.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Mainspring Payroll: Full service payroll with custom GL and reporting, US based support, seamless integration with Time.
• Mainspring Pay
• Mainspring Time

Products and services

• Mainspring Payroll Full-service payroll platform with custom general ledger exports, automated federal/state/local tax deposits and filings, electronic garnishments, certified payroll, new-hire electronic onboarding, mobile/web employee self-service portal, pay cards, on-demand pay, pay-as-you-go workers' comp, and integrated 401(k) plans; designed for small and mid-market businesses that want to consolidate payroll with payments and time tracking.
• Mainspring Pay Payment processing platform offering transparent, flexible pricing (interchange-plus, surcharge/cash-discount, or dual pricing) with locked rates, next-day funding (as early as 9 a.m.), support for chip/tap/swipe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, PCI DSS Level 1, EMV, P2PE, tokenization, and rules-based fraud filters; targeted at SMB merchants across retail, food service, hospitality, auto services, and healthcare.
• Mainspring Time Cloud-based time and attendance system with biometrics (face recognition, fingerprint), GPS + geofencing mobile punch, automated scheduling with overtime alerts, unlimited PTO/accrual rules, multi-level (7-level) job costing, certified payroll exports, one-click sync to Mainspring Payroll, and expense reporting automation; designed for labor-intensive SMBs and multi-location operators.
• Time Clock Devices (Venus Face ID, Thor Fingerprint, Atlas Mobile) Hardware time-clock devices including Venus Face ID (touch-free, sub-1-second facial recognition, mask-friendly, Ethernet/Wi-Fi/LTE), Thor Fingerprint (rugged worksites, scratch-resistant sensor, backup battery, Ethernet/Wi-Fi/USB), and Atlas Mobile (GPS + offline punch, iOS/Android app); all use push-to-cloud for real-time synchronization.

Quantifiable outcome

• Save 20-30%+ on labor costs through time theft prevention and overtime management
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability6 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• QuickBookscoreTechnology or IntegrationGeneral ledger integration with QuickBooks. Mainspring's payroll and payment data auto-posts to QuickBooks for seamless accounting reconciliation.
• SagecoreTechnology or IntegrationGeneral ledger integration with Sage. Mainspring syncs payroll and payment data to Sage for accounting and financial reporting.
• Microsoft (General Ledger)coreTechnology or IntegrationGeneral ledger integration with Microsoft systems. Payment deposits and fees auto-post to the general ledger via Microsoft integration.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Paychex: Paychex is a long-established incumbent in SMB payroll with deep multi-state tax-filing infrastructure and time-and-attendance integration. It is the classical competitor to Mainspring Payroll in the small/mid-market segment.
• ADP: ADP is the largest US payroll and HR services provider with Run/Workforce Now covering SMB through enterprise. Its scale, brand and integrations set the standard Mainspring must differentiate against in payroll and increasingly in payments.
• Intuit QuickBooks Payroll: Intuit QuickBooks Payroll is the dominant accounting-anchored payroll product for US SMBs, with native QuickBooks GL integration. It is the most entrenched competitor to Mainspring Payroll given the QuickBooks integration Mainspring markets.
• Block (Square): Block/Square provides SMB payments (Square) plus adjacent HR/payroll and banking services (Square Payroll, Cash App) at massive scale. It competes with Mainspring across payments and increasingly across payroll/payables for SMBs.

Direct peers

• Gusto: Gusto is an all-in-one HR, payroll, and benefits platform purpose-built for SMBs, bundling payroll with adjacent services in a single login. It is the closest direct competitor to Mainspring's unified SMB payroll + time + payments thesis.
• Homebase: Homebase provides time tracking, scheduling and basic payroll for hourly SMBs (restaurants, retail), directly overlapping with Mainspring Time and the payroll integration story. It is a direct rival in time-and-attendance for the same customer profile.
• Clover (Fiserv): Clover is a Fiserv-owned SMB POS and payment processing platform with an app marketplace. It overlaps with Mainspring on merchant payment processing for SMBs, though it leans more POS-heavy than payroll.
• Patriot Software: Patriot Software offers affordable full-service payroll and basic accounting for very small US businesses. It targets the same low-end SMB Mainspring serves and competes on price and US-based support.
• Heartland Payment Systems: Heartland (a Global Payments brand) is a major SMB merchant acquirer offering payment processing, payroll and POS hardware with transparent pricing. Its bundle of payments + payroll + hardware is a direct analogue to Mainspring Pay + Payroll + Time.
• Toast: Toast is a vertical-specific (restaurant) POS + payments + payroll platform for the same labor-intensive SMB verticals Mainspring targets (food service, hospitality). Its combined hardware-payments-payroll stack mirrors Mainspring's three-product bundle.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/themainspring

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mainspring