Hazelgrove Lending Group, based in Redding, CA, explains the California employer account number for owners hiring their first employees: how it differs from a federal EIN, how to look it up, why funding partners ask about payroll records, and a cash checklist for the first payrolls, linked to working capital and lines of credit.
Two different numbers: state employer account and federal EIN
The California employer payroll tax account number is easy to confuse with the federal Employer Identification Number (EIN). They are separate numbers from separate agencies. The EIN identifies the business for federal tax purposes; the state employer account number is used for California payroll tax reporting. Confirm with each agency which numbers apply to your business.
Searches such as 'california employer account number edd' and 'california employer tax account number' all point to the state payroll account. 'California employer identification number' usually means the federal EIN.
California employer account number lookup
If you already registered but cannot find the number, it appears on registration correspondence and on payroll tax notices and filings. A payroll provider that runs your payroll will also have it on file. Keep it with your EIN, your fictitious business name filing and your entity records, because funding partners and payroll services may ask for the same set.
Why funding partners ask about payroll
A request to cover payroll is one funding purpose, and partners reviewing it look at payroll as well as deposits. Clean payroll records (registered accounts, filed returns, wages matching what the bank statements show) make that review clearer. Unfiled payroll returns or unpaid payroll taxes can stop a review outright.
Running payroll yourself or through a service
A payroll service calculates withholding, files payroll tax returns and keeps records a partner can review; doing payroll yourself saves the fee but leaves every filing and deposit on your calendar. Either way, keep payroll reports that match the wages leaving your bank account, because a mismatch is something a partner reviewing a payroll request may question.
Cash checklist for the first payrolls
- Set the pay schedule (weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly) and note each payday for the next three months.
- Add gross wages plus the employer's share of payroll taxes for each payday.
- Line those dates up against when customers, clients or insurers actually pay you.
- Find the weeks where payroll lands before the money that funds it.
- Decide how to cover those weeks: cash on hand, a line of credit, or short-term working capital.
For a gap that comes once, working capital sized to it can be enough. For a gap that repeats every month, a line of credit drawn on payday and repaid when receipts arrive may fit.
A hypothetical first-hire example
Illustration only. A Redding, CA bookkeeping firm hires two employees at a combined $9,200 in gross wages a month, plus employer payroll taxes. Clients pay monthly, about three weeks after invoicing. For the first two months the firm pays wages before the new hires' billable work is collected, roughly $20,000 including taxes. That is the gap to plan for, not the firm's whole payroll.
Shasta County had 4,508 employer establishments in 2023, 2,376 of them with fewer than five employees (County Business Patterns), so small payrolls are a large part of the county's employer base. Further guides live on the resources page.
