Product Update: February 2026

Welcome to this month’s update of newly released features. In January, we successfully completed year-end tax filings and W-2 delivery across the platform, helping teams close out tax season with confidence.

Alongside year-end work, we focused on reducing manual effort across reporting, payment exceptions, and compliance. You can now access early custom reports, send cleaner contractor payments with line items and deductions, receive alerts when payments fail, and provide workers with clearer W-2 detail for overtime and tips—while strengthening identity verification across workflow.

Pay

Custom Reports (Early Access) - We’ve launched the first version of custom reports to early access customers, starting with an enhanced Worker Summary report. This update introduces grouping, filtering, and sorting, making it easier to analyze worker data without exporting and reworking files manually. If you’re interested in custom reports, please contact your customer success manager.

Overtime & Tips Detail on W-2s - To support recent federal changes, Zeal added details to worker W-2s showing earnings attributable to federally defined overtime and tips, making it easier for workers to identify eligible wages and claim applicable tax refunds without manually reviewing pay stubs.

Line Items & Deductions for Contractor Payments (Dashboard): Following last month’s API release, contractor payments now support itemized line items and deductions directly in the dashboard. Teams can pass through equipment fees, bonuses, reimbursements, and adjustments with visibility into how payouts are structured.

Failed Payment Notifications - Admins can now receive webhook notifications when a worker payment fails. This helps teams identify returned direct deposits faster and build workflows that resolve issues before they turn into payroll delays or support escalations.

Updated Balance Cap Calculations - We updated how balance caps in accrual policies work. Now when a worker uses time accrued for a policy, that time is deducted from the balance cap. As they work and accrue time, it is added back to the balance cap up to the balance cap limit.

Onboard

Improved Worker Identity Verification - We made behind-the-scenes improvements to worker address and Social Security Number verification to strengthen compliance and ensure more accurate identity data across workflows.

If you’re looking to upgrade your worker and admin experience, or optimize your workflows and cash flows, please contact us. We’d love to show you how our solutions can help you reduce costs, improve worker retention, and unlock new revenue streams.