Free employer tools

Price the claim before it shows up on the tax notice

Planning calculators for restaurant operators — not worker benefits, not tax filings. Start with the unemployment claim: owners usually price the weekly check, not the SUTA rate on the whole payroll.

Calculator · 50 states + D.C.

Unemployment claim cost calculator

Enter state, headcount, and your SUTA notice rate. See the illustrated UI charge and three-year tax impact.

Worked example · Texas

$4,312

Illustrated UI charge · 1 claim · 14 weeks

Extra SUTA / 3 years
$4,590
Payroll in the model
50 employees

Why a tools page, not another software page

Operators do not wake up looking for “employee documentation software.” They wake up looking at a claim letter, a SUTA notice, or a GM who swears the file is “around here somewhere.” These tools answer the money question first. Docu-Coach answers the file question second.

The unemployment calculator is the first one because the search intent is clear: does an unemployment claim cost the employer, and how much. The short answers are yes, and more than the weekly benefit, because an awarded claim can raise the experience-rated SUTA percentage applied to every employee still on the schedule.

What the calculator is actually doing

  1. 1 · Weekly benefit

    Lesser of 50% of average weekly wage or the state’s maximum weekly benefit.

  2. 2 · Account charge

    Weekly benefit × weeks collected × awarded claims. That charge hits the employer UI account, not the former employee’s pocket.

  3. 3 · Three-year SUTA

    An illustrated rate bump on taxable payroll. For a typical restaurant, do not add the charge on top of this tax — the charge is what drives the rate.

The number is not the whole problem

A charged claim is expensive. A claim that should not have been charged is a documentation failure. Hearing officers do not tour the dining room. They read dates: same-shift incidents, handbook acknowledgments, attendance patterns, and a coaching chain that existed before the termination memo.

Use the calculator to decide whether contesting is worth the hours. Use the file to decide whether you can contest at all. Docu-Coach is the floor-level system of record — 10-second voice capture, timestamps, and an exportable timeline. It starts at $50/month for 50 employees and one location.

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