Charlotte metro · NC and SC · firms of 10–150
HR consulting for Charlotte law, CPA, and medical firms.
Headquartered in Charlotte, for firms of 10 to 150. On site within 45 minutes of Uptown.
Free. 20 minutes. No pitch deck. You leave with a scope, a price, and a date.
Most common Charlotte finding
The SC state line One employee in Fort Mill, Rock Hill or Indian Land makes you a South Carolina employer.Service area
Where we show up in person.
Audit interviews and the Load Report walkthrough happen at your office anywhere in the ring below. Firms outside it are served remotely, from Charlotte.
(704) 787-1261 · info@pillarpeo.com
Mon–Fri 8:00–6:00 ET · in-person meetings by appointment
Say “on site” on the call and we come to your office. Free · 20 minutes · no pitch deck.
The line you may have crossed
Staff in York or Lancaster County?
One person working from Fort Mill, Rock Hill or Indian Land makes a Charlotte firm a South Carolina employer. It's the most common finding on Charlotte audits, and it's four obligations, not forty.
Yes — then South Carolina expects four things, from day one
- SC withholding and unemployment registration. Form WH-1605 filing cycle, plus new-hire reporting in South Carolina, not North Carolina.
- E-Verify on every new hire, within 3 business days. South Carolina requires it of all employers; North Carolina only at 25+.
- Written wage notice, and 7 days' notice before any pay change. North Carolina has no seven-day rule.
- Final pay within 48 hours, or the next payday, at the latest 30 days. The North Carolina next-payday habit is late in South Carolina.
No — all staff work in North Carolina
- Workers' comp is required at 3 employees in NC, and the count includes part-timers.
- E-Verify starts at 25 employees, measured on hiring day, not at year end.
- The Charlotte Non-Discrimination Ordinance applies inside city limits regardless of size.
- The North Carolina Wage and Hour Act (NCGS 95-25) sets the pay-notice, deduction, and final-pay rules the handbook has to match.
- A single remote hire in any other state starts the whole list again in that state.
Both sides of the state line are priced into the same fee. No per-state add-on.
Why Charlotte firms call us
The same four things, over and over.
Charlotte's professional firms compete for associates, CPAs and project engineers with employers that have whole HR departments. A 30-person firm has an office manager with a payroll login. Here's where the gap shows up.
| Finding | How often | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| SC office never enrolled in E-VerifyFort Mill, Rock Hill, Indian Land staff | Most firms | 1 week |
| Charlotte NDO not reflected in the handbookOrdinance effective 2022, inside city limits | Common | Project |
| Salaried staff called exempt by titleParalegals, designers, bookkeepers | Common | 2 weeks |
| PEO renewal accepted unbenchmarkedIncrease taken at face value | Common | Free comparison |
Free · 20 minutes. We tell you on the call which of these applies to you.
Services in Charlotte
Same services. These are the local specifics.
Every price is fixed and quoted before work starts.
| Service | The Charlotte specifics | Price |
|---|---|---|
| HR Audit | On-site interviews at your office; Charlotte NDO and SC cross-border checks included. | $2,500–$6,000 |
| Handbook, NC + SC | One handbook, two state addenda, Charlotte NDO language, one manager training session. | $2,500–$3,500 |
| Fractional HR | Half a day on site each month for the 20-hour and 40-hour tiers. | $2,000–$6,000 / mo |
| PEO exit or switch | Timed to January 1; payroll and tax registrations in both states handled. | $3,000–$10,000 |
| PEO comparison | Every provider active in the Carolinas, quotes normalized so they compare line for line. | Freeprovider-paid, disclosed |
Every price above is quoted on the scope call and never changed mid-engagement.
What we put in writing, in Charlotte
Three promises you can hold us to.
Each one is in the engagement letter, and each one is checkable against the report you receive.
Local commitment
We come to your office, on both sides of the state line.
- Audit interviews and the 90-minute walkthrough on site, within 45 minutes of Uptown
- Fort Mill, Rock Hill, and Indian Land are inside the ring, not an add-on
- Charlotte NDO and NC Wage and Hour Act checks in every Charlotte audit
Josiah SherrillFounding Account Executive · your first callProcess guarantee
Fixed fee quoted on the scope call, never changed mid-engagement.
- $2,500, $4,000, or $6,000 by headcount band
- NC and SC priced into the same band, no per-state add-on
- Written Load Report and a 90-minute findings call, both included
Emily SnooksChief Operating Officer · owns deliveryWhat the document does
Every finding cites the rule, so your counsel can verify it in minutes.
- Statutes named: NCGS 95-25, NCGS 95-241, SC Code §41-8-20, SC §41-10-50
- Nine areas, 41 checks, each scored pass, watch, or fail
- Every finding carries a fix, an owner, and a week
Caleb SherrillFounder & CEO · runs the auditCharlotte client quotes are being collected now. Each one replaces a card above, in place, with a name, a firm, a neighbourhood, and a number.
Free · 20 minutes · no pitch deck. On site if you are inside the ring.
Local context
A banking town's HR expectations, at a 30-person firm's budget.
Free · 20 minutes · no pitch deck. Caleb takes the call himself.
Charlotte's professional-services firms compete for the same associates, CPAs, and project engineers as Bank of America, Truist, Atrium, and Duke Energy. Those employers have HR departments. A 30-person firm has an office manager with a payroll login. The gap shows up as misclassified staff, a 2019 handbook, and a benefits renewal nobody benchmarked.
Two things are specific to this metro. The Charlotte Non-Discrimination Ordinance adds protected classes beyond state law for employers inside city limits. And the region straddles the state line, so a firm with staff in Fort Mill, Rock Hill, or Indian Land is a South Carolina employer, with E-Verify for every hire and a seven-day pay-change notice North Carolina doesn't require. We audit against all of it, fix what we find at a fixed price, and stay on as fractional HR when a firm wants a named lead without a full-time salary.
FAQ
Charlotte questions.
Do you come on site in Charlotte?
Yes. Audit interviews and the Load Report walkthrough happen at your office anywhere within about 45 minutes of Uptown, including Fort Mill and Rock Hill. Everything else is remote.
We're in Charlotte but a few staff live in South Carolina. Are we an SC employer?
If they work from South Carolina, usually yes. That triggers SC withholding, SC E-Verify for every new hire, the written pay-change notice, and SC final-pay timing. It's the most common finding on Charlotte audits.
Does the Charlotte Non-Discrimination Ordinance apply to us?
If you employ people inside Charlotte city limits, yes, regardless of size. It adds protected classes that NC state law doesn't cover, and your handbook and complaint process should say so.
How is this different from Catapult or a PEO?
Catapult is a membership association with a broad service menu. A PEO co-employs your staff. Pillar is a small independent firm that does fixed-price audits and projects, fractional HR, and transitions, and brokers PEOs for free when that's the right answer. No membership, no software to buy.
Which other Carolinas metros do you cover?
Raleigh–Durham, Greensboro and Winston-Salem, Asheville, Wilmington, Greenville SC, Columbia SC, Charleston SC, and Rock Hill and Fort Mill. Each metro gets its own page once it has a real local client on it. Everywhere else in the US is served from Charlotte, remotely.
Charlotte
Caleb SherrillFounder & CEO · takes the call himself
Twenty minutes, one fixed quote.
On site if you're inside the 45-minute ring, on a call if you're not. You leave with a scope, a price, and a date.
Free. 20 minutes. No pitch deck. Nothing to prepare.
Or call (704) 787-1261Mon–Fri 8:00–6:00 ET · info@pillarpeo.com
location=charlotte passed as a hidden field so the source is on the booking, not guessed later.
The confirmation screen shows Josiah’s photo and name, so the buyer knows who is joining the call. GA4 meeting_booked fires on the postMessage callback.
- Fixed fee quoted on the call, never changed mid-engagement.
- On site inside the 45-minute ring, NC and SC, at no extra charge.
- PEO comparison: you pay us nothing; the PEO does, disclosed in writing.