What is Tourney Direct Payroll?

operatordirectorLast verified Oct 5, 2026

Tourney Direct Payroll lets you pay your own 1099 contractors and W-2 employees by direct deposit, right from your portal. You set up your organization once, add your people, and Teddy texts each of them a secure link to set up their pay. After that, every payroll is: enter pay, approve, done.

Where:

Payroll in the left sidebar of your portal. Its pages are Organization, Employees & Contractors, Hours & Pay, Approve & Pay, Reports and What's next.

The big picture

Tourney Direct is the easy front end. A licensed payroll provider sits behind the scenes and handles the hard parts: withholding and filing taxes for W-2 employees, filing year-end forms, and moving the money. Tourney Direct never holds your money. Pay comes straight out of your own bank account and goes to your people.

Because payroll moves money on your behalf, every business has to be verified before payments can go out. You only do this once per EIN.

Setup

Company setup takes about 15 minutes if you have your business, owner, and bank details on hand. The very first thing you're asked is who you plan to pay: 1099 contractors, W-2 employees, or both. Your answer decides how much setup you have to do; see PR-02. If you pay people from more than one business, see PR-11.

What your staff experience looks like

Your staff never log into a portal or create a password. They get a text from Teddy, the Tourney Direct assistant, with a secure link. They tap it, spend about five minutes setting up their pay, and they're set. Teddy texts them each time they're paid. See PR-09.

Good to know

Payroll is for paying your own W-2 employees and 1099 contractors. It's separate from paying coaches, officials, event staff and athletic trainers through your events, which the Tourney Direct team handles with you through the end of 2026.
The Payroll Quick Start guide walks through the whole thing on a few pages, with a PDF to share.
Questions about the portal can go to the Ask Teddy button on any payroll page or to info@tourneydirect.com. Questions about which tax options to choose should go to your own accountant or tax advisor; Tourney Direct can't give tax advice.
Ready to start? See PR-03 for the full organization setup walkthrough.