Pangea Software Inc. is best known as a Mac game developer, but on Thursday the company broadened its library with the release of Pangea Payroll, a simple Mac OS X application that helps small businesses calculate payroll taxes. Best of all, it’s free, and it’s being released with its source code.
The software was developed as an in-house tool by Pangea President Brian Greenstone. Greenstone, fed up with the commercial software he was using, decided to make his own software to help him calculate federal payroll taxes for his employees. (Pangea, based in Texas, doesn’t have to worry about calculating state taxes.)
“This is a very simple application which lets you track payroll data for your employees. It calculates the federal taxes to deduct from the wages and keeps track of each payment you enter,” reads the Web page.
Pangea Payroll has been released as beta software, and Pangea is careful to disclaim any liability if something goes wrong. In fact, the company strongly recommends that small business owners verify calculations with their accountants to make sure the calculations are accurate.
Also included with Pangea Payroll is the Xcode source code that was used to write the application. Pangea asks that anyone who wishes to distribute modified Pangea Payroll code consult them first.