Straight answers, including the unflattering ones.

Keystead Vault is ongoing. It tracks every filing deadline, holds the documents and details that currently live in your head or a drawer somewhere, and makes sure someone else could step in if you couldn't. It's $100/year per business, capped at $300.

Salary Sherpa answers one question, once: what salary can you defend paying yourself as an S-Corp owner? You get a researched report with the methodology behind it. It's a one-off purchase, $400.

They're independent — plenty of people use one and never touch the other.

Keystead Vault, absolutely — it has nothing to do with your entity type. Sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp, or a holding company with four subsidiaries underneath it. If your business has a deadline to keep track of, or an action somebody has to remember to take, it is built for you.

Size doesn’t change it either. A one-person shop has the same problem as a fifty-person one, just concentrated in fewer heads. What matters is whether the things that keep the business running exist anywhere outside your own memory.

And there’s the longer reason. You built something. A vault is how you make sure it holds up when you are not there to hold it together — for a week, or for good.

Salary Sherpa, no. Reasonable compensation is an S-Corp requirement specifically. If you're a sole proprietor or a single-member LLC taxed as one, you don't pay yourself a W-2 salary and there's nothing to defend.

No. Start with whichever problem is louder. If you're worried about missed filings or what happens when you're not there, that's Keystead Vault. If you're worried about the salary you've been paying yourself, that's Salary Sherpa.

Three things. It tracks every filing deadline you owe — estimated payments, sales tax, annual reports, return due dates — and reminds you before they're due. It holds the paperwork and the details behind it — the operating agreement, filed returns, insurance, the EIN, key contacts, and where the logins live. And it lets you share the right parts with a spouse, a partner, a successor, or your accountant.

Rather than read about it, you can open the free demo and click around a real vault. Or see more on what it does →

Documents yes, passwords no. Your legal and tax paperwork is stored; credentials are not. Keystead points to where each login lives and how a successor would get in. It never copies the passwords themselves — so it never becomes a single basket holding your credentials, and nobody ends up locked out either. It's the map, not the keys.

Free to build and preview your entire vault. Paid is $100/year per business, capped at $300 no matter how many businesses you own. Your personal tax vault is included, everyone you invite is free, and there's a 14-day trial followed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Yes — there's a live demo with a full sample vault. No signup, no card, no data of your own required. Try the demo →

No. Keystead Vault organizes information. It isn't a will, a trust, or a transfer of ownership, and it isn't legal or estate advice. It makes the handover practical; your attorney makes it legal.

A reasonable compensation reporting service for U.S.-based S-Corporation owners. For $400 we deliver a detailed compensation report — no guesswork, no stress. Use it with your next return, or keep it in your audit file.

You complete a short questionnaire about your business, the roles you fill, and how your time divides between them. From your answers we generate a report aligned with IRS guidance on reasonable compensation, and a person reviews it before it goes out.

To be fully compliant you'll also want written job descriptions, time tracking, and other documentation backing up your choices.

Most people finish in 15–20 minutes, and faster if they already know their duties and time breakdown. The more prepared you are, the stronger the report.

• Your current W-2 salary, if any
• Distributions taken last year
• Your business's expected revenue and net income this year
• The salary of the highest-paid employee doing similar work, if applicable
• Roughly how your time splits across management, operations, sales, service or production, and admin

The more accurate you are, the better the report reflects reality — and the better it holds up under scrutiny.

No. We're not the IRS and this isn't one-size-fits-all. Your report gives you a specific recommended number, the range it sits inside, and the reasoning behind both. The final decision — and the responsibility for backing it up — is yours.

We love you, but no. You know your business best, and we don't want to guess. If you're unsure how to answer something, ask your tax advisor or accountant. Better yet, document it now so you're ready if anyone asks later.

Generally yes. Reasonable compensation isn't one-and-done — it moves with your role, your hours, your business income, and the market. Refresh it when something material changes, and at minimum treat a report several years old as weaker than a current one.

No. The service is intended for adult S-Corp owners only.

No. The report isn't submitted to the IRS. It's a tool to guide and document your compensation decision. It doesn't replace supporting documentation like job descriptions, hour logs, payroll records, and industry comparisons.

Without those, your S-Corp is still exposed — even if the report looks perfect.

Treat it as a starting point:

• Set up consistent payroll
• Track the hours you work in each role
• Keep written job descriptions
• Save the report in case of an audit

The IRS wants a full picture, not just a number.

Technically yes, and it's risky without documentation to support it. The IRS expects reasonable compensation, and in an examination they look at the work you actually did — not what you intended.

Then your S-Corp isn't in compliance, and the protections that come with your election may not hold up the way you're assuming.

Not really. Salary Sherpa is built to guide decisions going forward. Justifying a number for a past year needs documentation from that time, not a report created afterward. Talk to your tax advisor about prior years.

Only if the number actually aligns with the data you enter. If the goal is to make the report match a figure you've already chosen, that defeats the purpose — and it won't hold up if anyone looks closely.

No, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. Nothing prevents an examination.

What documentation changes is the position you're in if one happens. Reasoning prepared in advance and dated for the year in question is a different conversation than a number reconstructed after a notice arrives.

ScorpEase builds software that takes the administrative work of owning a business off the owner. We're a small company — a tax pro, an HR compensation specialist, and a twenty-year owner-operator. Both products started as work we were already doing by hand. More about us →

Data is collected through secure forms and stored encrypted. We never sell or share your information. Keystead Vault additionally logs every change and access grant in a tamper-evident record, and never stores credentials at all.

No. ScorpEase provides research, documentation, and organizational tools. Using our products doesn't create an accountant-client or attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific situation, talk to your own CPA or attorney.

Yes — both products have a firm-side offer, including a referral share on Keystead and volume arrangements for Salary Sherpa. See the firm offer →

Email us. Confused about your report, unsure where to start, or scared of the IRS — we'll walk you through it, no jargon and no judgment. Contact →