Our story begins in Metro Atlanta in 1982, long before online payroll, cloud software, or mobile payroll apps were part of everyday business. That year, John T. McDowell founded Payroll Center, Inc. as a traditional payroll service company built around a straightforward idea: help employers handle payroll accurately, reliably, and personally.
Over the decades that followed, Payroll Center grew alongside the businesses it served. We processed payroll, helped employers manage taxes and reporting, built long-term client relationships, and adopted new technology as the payroll industry changed.
That history also includes an important chapter that is sometimes misunderstood online. The technology that became OnPay was originally developed inside Payroll Center. In 2015, OnPay was spun off as a separate company to pursue a national software-focused path. The original payroll service business did not disappear. It continued serving clients and is the business that operates today as Southern Payroll Services.
So while Southern Payroll Services and OnPay share a common origin, they are separate companies today. Our history is the history of the original payroll service business: Payroll Center, Inc., founded in 1982 and carried forward as Southern Payroll Services.
1982: Our Story Begins With Payroll Center, Inc.
John Thomas McDowell founded Payroll Center, Inc. in 1982. Our company history identifies Southern Payroll Services as the business previously known as Payroll Center, Inc., and John McDowell’s obituary independently confirms that he founded Payroll Center in 1982 and remained its longtime owner and operator.
Payroll looked very different then. There were no browser-based dashboards, employee mobile portals, or self-service payroll apps. Payroll service companies operated as service bureaus. Employers supplied payroll information to specialists who calculated wages, deductions, taxes, checks, and required reports.
Payroll Center was built in that environment. That matters to our history because we did not begin as a software startup. We began as a payroll company, learning the operational realities of paying employees and serving business owners year after year. The technology chapter came later, after decades of hands-on payroll experience.
The Original Payroll Center Model
From the beginning, the business centered on the core responsibilities of a payroll service bureau:
- Processing employee payroll
- Calculating deductions and payroll taxes
- Preparing payroll checks and direct deposits
- Preparing quarterly and year-end reports
- Helping employers manage payroll tax obligations
- Providing direct access to payroll specialists
Just as important was the way the work was delivered. Payroll Center built relationships with individual clients rather than operating as a faceless national call center. That emphasis on personal service still defines Southern Payroll Services today. Our current business continues to emphasize direct access to payroll specialists, flexible processing options, and long-standing client relationships.
A Second Generation and a New Technology Opportunity
A major turning point came when Jesse Burgess, John McDowell’s grandson, joined the family payroll business. Independent reporting places Burgess’s arrival at Payroll Center in 2007. His early focus was practical: identify repetitive payroll work that could be automated and make the existing payroll operation more efficient.
OnPay’s own company history describes that same evolution, explaining that Burgess began by looking for repetitive tasks to automate and then saw the opportunity to move a larger portion of payroll online.
The question was no longer just how to make the payroll clerks inside Payroll Center more efficient. It became a bigger question: could the knowledge accumulated inside a traditional payroll bureau be translated into software that allowed business owners to run payroll themselves online?
Around 2011: OnPay Is Developed Inside Payroll Center
The strongest available evidence places the creation of the OnPay software around 2011. In a 2025 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Burgess said he created the software in 2011 while working inside his grandfather’s traditional payroll company.
That distinction is central to our history: OnPay was originally developed within Payroll Center. It was not a separate outside company at that point. It was technology created from inside the same payroll business our story traces back to 1982.
2013: Taking Payroll Online and Onto Mobile Devices
By 2013, Payroll Center was publicly promoting smartphone- and tablet-compatible payroll access. Clients could calculate payroll, review checks, access reports, review employee information, and manage payroll away from the office.
That functionality seems ordinary today. At the time, it represented a meaningful transition for a business founded in the service-bureau era. Payroll Center was effectively operating two models side by side: hands-on payroll service and increasingly self-service online payroll technology.
2013-2014: OnPay Becomes an Important Part of Payroll Center
By the company’s 30th-anniversary period, OnPay had become an increasingly visible part of Payroll Center’s public identity. A 2013 announcement described Payroll Center as a traditional payroll company moving toward a more online model centered around OnPay.
In January 2014, Payroll Center stated that OnPay was processing approximately $200 million in payroll annually. Even then, the announcement still presented OnPay as a product created by Payroll Center, Inc.
2015: OnPay and Payroll Center, Incs. Become Separate Companies
In 2015, Jesse Burgess and OnPay separated from the legacy Payroll Center business and began operating as an independent company focused on growing the online payroll platform nationally.
The distinction is important to our history. Payroll Center did not become OnPay, and OnPay did not replace Payroll Center. OnPay became its own company, while the original Payroll Center continued operating as a payroll service business.
At the same time, Stacy Baker (McDowell), who had joined Payroll Center in 1997 as a payroll specialist, took over leadership of the legacy company as CEO. Under Stacy’s leadership, Payroll Center continued serving its long-standing clients and maintaining the personalized payroll service model the company had built since 1982.
Meanwhile, Our Original Payroll Service Business Continued
While OnPay pursued the software path, the original Payroll Center business continued serving employers. That continuity is one of the most important parts of our story.
Payroll Center continued to emphasize the qualities that had defined the company for decades: experienced payroll specialists, direct service, practical payroll support, and relationships with businesses that often lasted for many years.
From Payroll Center, Inc. to Southern Payroll Services
Today, we operate as Southern Payroll Services, and our own company history identifies us as “previously Payroll Center, Inc.” That is how we describe the continuity of the business: Southern Payroll Services carries forward the original payroll-service history that began in 1982.
The public record is much clearer about the 2015 OnPay spin-off than it is about a single formal date for the Southern Payroll Services rebrand. For that reason, we do not assign an exact legal-name-change date here. What matters is the documented continuity of the underlying payroll service business and the way our company identifies its own history today.
Today, that legacy is carried forward by John McDowell’s daughter, Stacy Baker (McDowell), who is the CEO of Southern Payroll Services. Her leadership keeps the business rooted in the McDowell family while continuing the personal, service-first approach that has defined the company since John founded Payroll Center in 1982.
More Than Four Decades of Client and Service Continuity
For us, one of the clearest links between Payroll Center and Southern Payroll Services is not a corporate filing or a software release. It is the relationships with the businesses we have served.
Our current website includes customer testimonials describing relationships that stretch back more than 20 and 30 years. Those relationships cross multiple eras of the company: the traditional Payroll Center years, the period when OnPay was being developed inside the business, the years after the OnPay spin-off, and the Southern Payroll Services name we use today.
That continuity is central to how we think about our company. Technology has changed dramatically. Payroll regulations have changed. The ways employers submit payroll have changed. But the value of knowing our clients and being available when they need help has remained consistent.
John McDowell’s Legacy
John McDowell remained connected to Payroll Center long after the OnPay spin-off. Georgia’s 2020 filing still listed him as an officer and registered agent of Payroll Center. He died on December 14, 2025, at age 92.
His obituary remembered him as the longtime owner and operator of Payroll Center, the company he founded in 1982, and noted that he remained proud of the business even after retirement.
The company he started ultimately left two distinct legacies: one became a national payroll technology company, and the other continued the personal payroll-service model on which Payroll Center was built. Today, that original service-business legacy continues under Southern Payroll Services, led by John’s daughter, Stacy Baker (McDowell).
Our History at a Glance
1982
CEO, John Thomas McDowell founds Payroll Center, Inc. in the Atlanta area.
1997
John McDowell's daughter, Stacy Baker (McDowell) joins as a Payroll Specialist.
2007
John McDowell's grandson, Jesse Burgess, joins the family business.
2009
Online payroll technology that later becomes OnPay emerges inside Payroll Center.
2013
Jesse Burgess named Chief Operations Officer
2014
OnPay is processing approximately $200 million in payroll annually.
2015
Payroll Center, Inc. continues servicing payroll clients.
2015
After 18 years with the company, Stacy Baker (McDowell) is named CEO of the Payroll Center, Inc.
2015
Jesse Burgess founds OnPay and splits off as a separate entity.
2019
Southern Payroll Services becomes the new public facing identity of the former Payroll Center, Inc.
2023
Southern Payroll Services becomes a Gwinnett Chamber Member.
TODAY
Southern Payroll Services continues to serve as a payroll services company from Suwanee, GA.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our History
Is Southern Payroll Services the same company as OnPay?
No. We share a common history, but Southern Payroll Services and OnPay are separate businesses today. OnPay was originally developed inside Payroll Center and was spun off in 2015. The original payroll-service business continued and is the business we carry forward today as Southern Payroll Services.
Did Payroll Center simply change its name to OnPay?
No. A more accurate description is: Payroll Center created the technology that became OnPay; OnPay later spun out as a separate company; Payroll Center continued operating; and the legacy payroll-service business is now known as Southern Payroll Services.
What is Southern Payroll Services today?
Today, Southern Payroll Services is a Georgia-based payroll company serving small and medium-sized businesses with flexible payroll processing, tax filing support, online access, direct payroll specialist support, and other payroll-related services. The company is now run by Stacy Baker (McDowell), daughter of founder John T. McDowell, continuing the family leadership behind the original Payroll Center business.
A Payroll Story That Started in Atlanta and Continues Today
Our history stretches back to a time before online payroll, cloud software, and the modern fintech industry. Payroll Center started in 1982 as a local payroll service. Over time, we adapted to new technology and helped create an online payroll platform that ultimately became successful enough to stand on its own.
OnPay’s spin-off is part of our history, and it is a chapter we are proud to explain accurately. But it is only one chapter. The original payroll service business continued.
More than 40 years after John McDowell founded Payroll Center, the same service-first heritage remains visible in Southern Payroll Services: long-standing client relationships, local roots, flexible payroll options, and direct access to experienced payroll professionals. With John’s daughter, Stacy Baker (McDowell), now running the company, that history also remains a family story carried into its next chapter.
The name has changed. The payroll industry has changed even more. Our commitment to making payroll easier for the businesses we serve is the part that has carried through every era.