MBO Partners

MBO is spectacularly unsuited to work with consultants, researchers, and independent service providers. MBO knows that consultants and many others don’t fit its processes but does not apply any intelligent discretion nor does it cede the 5% fee it levies on consultant billings to its clients. As a result MBO causes a tremendous amount of thoroughly unnecessary work and expense for both the clients and consultants that they supposedly serve. Don’t just take my word for it — read the company’s responses to other reviews below — MBO seems to put the onus on the consultant to initiate conversations with MBO to understand their processes (and shamelessly further waste the consultant’s valuable time) rather than the other way around as it should be.
I run my own 2 person S-​Corp consultancy writing research reports and typically only interact with clients over the phone. In some cases, I would describe my services as more of a product rather than hourly labor. I directly bill my clients for the reports and receive payment via check or ACH to my business bank account. The process takes me 2 – 5 minutes on my side and likely the same amount of time on the client side. My EIN is on the invoice so there is absolutely no doubt about compliance. With MBO it has taken me more than 20 hours to date (and I still haven’t been paid as of day 45 after delivering the report) to gather a laundry list of unnecessary and private documents, go through the process of getting insurance quotes BUT not actually being required to purchase insurance (I wonder what the brokers think of that process), get enrolled in their system, drug tested (with no reimbursement for parking, gas, and time spent getting tested), submit invoices for both my fees and calculate/​add MBO’s 5% fees on my billings in Fieldglass, follow up on the status of the unpaid invoice which they blame on yet another third party (not the client) with whom I’ve never interacted with. I’d estimate that my clients have spent more than 7 hours corresponding with me and MBO just trying to navigate the process — unsuccessfully I might add to date.
I advise any small consultancy as well as clients to avoid working with MBO based on my experiences with this utterly useless provider of Byzantine processes and myriad excuses for the failure of those processes that has the gall to charade about under the pretense of providing «the support and white-​glove service befitting a true independent professional.»
To date, there hasn’t been a single MBO employee that can describe to me what this support and white-​glove service is or what they are providing me for a 5% ride on my fees. Nor could I find anyone at MBO that could describe what service they were providing the client in my situation. I could potentially understand a one time vetting, background check, drug screen (if appropriate) fee but an ongoing 5% fee in perpetuity for being an unnecessary and mismanaged invoice middleman is flagrantly excessive.
UPDATE:
After numerous phone calls and emails to various MBO ‘Business Managers’ and ‘Talent Managers’, MBO quickly rectified the situation and wired the funds to my business account. MBO also did not take a fee in response to my demand for compensation for my time which I did appreciate but it was hardly commensurate. I’ve contemplated bumping my review up to two stars for the quick resolution and fee drop but have decided against it. In this case MBO wasted 20 hours of my time, an estimated 7 hours of my clients time, and provided no tangible or demonstrable value to either myself or the client. I see in other reviews below this seems to be a recurring theme with MBO that they claimed that they were working on over a year ago but I saw no evidence of an improvement. At the very least they could advise their clients of situations where it does not make sense for their ‘services’.
UPDATE 2:
MBO’s response to my review is indicative of everything wrong with this company and their lack of understanding of what they are providing the client. I am not an independent contractor but rather an employee of an S-​Corp. MBO employees advised me that I raise my fees to cover the time required to comply to MBO’s ridiculous requirements and further burden my client with needless administrative work. I try to keep my overhead as low as possible so as to deliver my products at a good value to clients. If I raised my fees to cover my time, I would, based on the 5% surcharge that MBO makes me add into my fees, be also increasing the revenue that MBO received. The optics on MBO’s system are warped so as to make the consultant rather than MBO appear to be nickel and diming the client. I doubt this weak subterfuge will endure much longer as it becomes more transparent. Currently MBO has no incentive to reduce the inefficiencies of the process as they are likely to make more on any consultant that actually bills the client for the time spent following their processes.

It’a a pain to be a contractor /​consultant — getting worse and worse — and if you’re not incorporated and don’t want to deal with all the tax/​financial stuff — MBO Partners is a totally reasonable way to go.
Yeah — there’s paperwork — yeah there’s a lag from when you first start a new gig billing through them — BUT once all the bureaucratic stuff gets rolling — it’s fine.
I’ve taken out my frustration and vented at them plenty of times — but it’s not them — it’s the companies that use vendors who won’t pay you on a W2 and make you work CTC.
I usually work on a W2 — but have used them off and on for over 15 years (maybe longer — since way back when they were based in NJ) when a company will only pay me a decent rate — or will only hire me for a project on a 1099. It’s better than being incorporated (for me).
The UI is good — nice dashboards, etc.

(ONLY GAVE A STAR BECAUSE I HAD TO) MBO is TERRIBLE, I can not, by the life of me understand why a huge corporation would ever use a company like this.
Since, I am a temporary employee my payroll is outsourced through MBO (sure wish it wasn’t). The first red flag was them asking me to get my I-​9 form notarized but did not need to be stamped by the notary…(blank stare). I have never had to do this in California.
My first check came… on Saturday when I am to be paid on Friday. The next week my check never came. I believed it was never mailed. It has been a nightmare ever since. I have never had an issue with an outsourced payroll company. NEVER!!!
Independent and Major Corps… NEVER hire this company. It might cost you legal obligation later, especially if they wont pay on time.

I never knew such a company existed until I was hired by a wonderful payor client as an independent consultant. In order to commence the project engagement I have to unfortunately, do this via MBO Partners. Be forewarned that MBO hands you a laundry list should you decide to go corp to corp, you do not get a phone call, but a very long email with demands for different types of documents along with a demand of assigning your current insurance coverage to them, a flawed business model.

EDIT: I just had a 20 minute phone call with one of MBO’s SVPs as a direct result of the following review, and it was very pleasant. He expressed a sincere desire to learn what went wrong with how my project was handled, and said they would be investigating and learning from it.
Honestly a lot of the fault lies with my original client, too. I should have made that more clear in my review. This was not solely MBO’s fault, though they certainly made things quite frustrating as well. The SVP told me he would be discussing the project with the (very large) client as well to prevent future contractors from having to go through what I did.
I’m bumping my star grade up one to account for this unexpected customer service, but I’ve decided to leave the original review just for clarity.
ORIGINAL REVIEW
MBO is one of the most unnecessary, convoluted middlemen I’ve ever encountered. I am a professional voiceactor, and work with many production companies and media manufacturers to provide narrations and overdubs for news reads, promo videos, etc. My clients usually have no trouble receiving their files from me, and mailing a check to my business. I then handle my own taxes.
Well, enter MBO. After being informed (after a month of follow-​ups with my client) that they couldn’t just simply mail me a check, I was forced to register with MBO. MBO informed me that since I didn’t have $ 1,000,000 of commercial and professional liability insurance for my one-​man home-​operated LLC (a policy that costs hundreds of dollars per year and is completely unnecessary for my business), that I couldn’t be registered as a vendor for my client.
Not being a vendor means that they suddenly get authorized to levee their taxes and fees, rather than letting me file my own taxes like every other client I work with. So now my simple $ 200 fee for a quick 2 minute video narration is $ 155, and they are telling me that to even get that, I need to have something notarized (an extra fee), fill out pages of forms, and potentially even get a background check. I just want my (expletive) check.
What an absolute disaster. If you are a company considering partnering with MBO, DON’T DO IT. If you’re a vendor considering working with a company that uses MBO, DON’T DO IT. I’m about this close to just letting them keep the audio file for free, because this has been an immense headache and a disappointment from the absolute beginning.

Add me to to the long list of unhappy contractors forced to work through the costly and inefficient go-​between that is MBO. The fees, additional taxes, and cumbersome processes cost us and our client money with no discernible benefits. Avoid if at all possible.

The criticism of MBO Partners here is largely misplaced. The problem comes when firms try to force unqualified and unsophisticated (from and employment compliance perspective) contractors to work through companies like MBO. For qualified independent consultants and the companies that use these consultants MBO provides a valuable service and do it well.

If a negative star could be given, my experience with MBO Partners would more than surely deserve one.
Chronological Summary:
— My company provided a bid to large company for consulting services
— Large company accepted bid, but required engagement with MBO
— MBO contacts us to schedule a vetting process and mandatory orientation. Their email assumes that I will be the resource working on a contract assignment with large company.
— At this point, we have not decided whether to engage with MBO, or what MBO’s services, fee structure, and contractual agreement entail.
— We write an email to clarify:
1. That the resource working on assignment is not me, but an employee of the company.
2. That the individual is a W-​2 and that we have payroll and accounting, as well as our own EIN and L&I account at the Federal and State level.
— We ask for:
1. Information regarding the services that MBO would provide to our company.
2. Fee arrangement
3. Whether MBO requires a Master Agreement as part of the engagement and if so, whether they could furnish a copy.
— We receive a response containing:
1. That the employee would remain our W-​2 employee.
2. That their fee is 4.1%. Yes, let’s keep in mind that this our employee for whom we must provide equipment, space, necessary training, and we also have to pay taxes by virtue of being her employer.
3. No mention of what MBO services include.
4. And the highlight of this email, a PDF file of an actual agreement executed between MBO and one of their clients, yes you read correct, a PDF of the actual contract. This contract contained in addition to the client’s personal name and business name, address, and type of entity, the business’ TIN number. Yes, that would be the business’ social security number, which depending on how the business is registered with IRS could be a number assigned to it, or the owner’s social security number.
— We respond as soon as we see this email:
1. To let them know that what they sent was a PDF of the actual contract b/​t them and another party. That it contained personal/​confidential information.
2. To confirm that we scheduled a phone call with them
Following research, our company decides to not engage with MBO, for various reasons which you can deduct from this review. And I am not even mentioning their contract here, because there would just be much to mention. I have a law degree (J.D.), by the way, that’s one of the reasons why I am the person who reviews and signs contracts on behalf of the company.
— We send an email to inform of our decision to not engage with MBO.
1. We receive an email response to the effect that speaking with MBO is «mandatory» and that MBO would still call me.
2. No mention or acknowledgement regarding my message about the contract they sent me, although they are responding to the message so it stands to reason that they read it or at least received it.
Horrified.
EDIT 6÷29÷12
This company is a train wreck. They have kept contacting us with the following points:
1. Implying that the plethora of negative reviews I have seen all over the web are not «real» reviews.
2. When I asked to be provided the Master Agreement that I would be asked to sign as part of the engagement with the particular large company, they did not send me anything instead their VP of Marketing told us that a phone call would be necessary for them to know what to send us, because many of the negative reviews stem from ICs and small service providers being enrolled in the wrong programs. Who enrolls businesses in the wrong programs you might ask? I guess that would be MBO.

if i could rate 0 stars, i would.
i was forced last minute to join w/​MBO after accepting a job and blocking off my scehdule.]
it has been an absolute nightmare.
if you can do anything… AVOID this company.
crooks.

If you are an independent consultant and have the option of working as a 1099 sole proprietorship, W2, or corp-​to-​corp (C2C), the best choice is always C2C. For an individual to incorporate, it requires an accountant, lawyer, general liability insurance, and a tremendous amount of time. This can equate easily to a $ 10,000 /​year investment just to «have your own business». I chose MBO because being a C2C is always the best choice, but I also don’t want to be bogged down with incorporation or paperwork. Additionally, as a C2C, you typically get a few more dollars an hour because your employer does not need to pay your burden rate. These extra few dollars an hour typically pay for the fee of services of companies like MBO. MBO acts as a billing agency, or shell company, but they are actually called an «Employer of Record» (EOR) or Portable Employers of Record (PERs). You hire them and in return you become a W2 employee. They handle all your back-​office contracts, billing, expenses, payroll, benefits, and retirement contributions. There are only a few players in this niche market (iprofessional, Pace Pros, Yurcor, Solution Specialists) and when I did my analysis, MBO beats out them out in a few areas. MBO by far has the best retirement «matching» program where you can match your own funds and greatly reduce your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). For example. If you earn 125,000 a year, you can put $ 50,000 into pre-​tax retirement, and have expenses of $ 25,000 (mileage, dinners, office equipment, etc). This means you are taxed at a $ 50,000 year salary bracket. It’s win-​win. Save on taxes while saving heavily for retirement. Once you hire MBO and become an MBO consultant, they have a great website where you can do all weekly expensing and timesheets as well as be informed when your employer pays them. I did not know what to expect after hiring them, but I have been very impressed with their back-​office website and ability to execute on all my needs. To summarize: their fee is irrelevant compared to the W2 alternative, benefits offered, and much reduced tax burden. If you have the option of going C2C, hire MBO and don’t look back.
— — — -Update 8÷9÷2012−−−−
I think a lot of the negative feedback is written by 1099 sole prop consultants who were forced by their client to become a C2C. Also I think if you earn 50k a year, utilizing MBO partners may not make sense. I think MBO probably gets a lot of consultants who earn between 80k and ~300k a year (this is MY guess). If your earnings are below or above these thresholds, you should do your own due diligence to see if a EOR/​PER is a proper vehicle for you.

I wish there was an option for zero stars. Like Eric R, one of my clients insisted on using MBO to pay me. MBO in turn insisted on treating me like an employee instead of a self-​employed freelancer. This enabled them to deduct things like «workers comp» and «unemployment insurance» from my payments.
I will never be able to collect on either of these «benefits» since I am an independent contractor.
Convoluted, bureaucratic and a waste of valuable time. I spend more time straightening out glitches than I do working on the projects I’m trying to bill. Awful.

Screw these money grubbing MBO jerkoffs.
I’m a computer animator. When I was working at an otherwise nice commercial production house in LA they tried to force the Unincorporated Freelancers to go with MBO, who kindly skimmed 2% off the top of our salaries (before taxes!).
I was never an employee of MBO so please don’t try and have my review removed. You can however flag my review for me calling MBO a bunch of greedy inbred ass-​clown deviants :)
Richard S, you claim I want something for nothing; however I never wanted MBO’s «services» the company I was working out tried to force them on us.
However the good news is we’ve finally driven MBO out of our industry so they’ll have to leech off someone else. Good riddance. Now it’s time to go after some of the other scumbags…

I’ve been an «employee» with MBO since before they changed from MyBiz some years ago. I also have paid a percent of salary fee which is well worth not to have the hassle of maintaining my own books. This alone is worth the fee. I have had many associates who have helped make life easier by explaining how stuff works. The company has several benefit plans which you pay for. MBO also sends the tax money you owe to both the Feds and State (this is California which really goes after their taxes). I also pay the employer tax so I get to be a legal employee instead of an illegal «consultant» doing scams on the taxers. MBO payroll system is really good. You have an Internet site with a personal dashboard and you can see on one page where you stand, what payrolls you have had, their billing your client and a little payroll data. They also take care of expenses you can deduct such as medical insurance, IRA, mileage and other items. In all the years with them, I’ve never lost money or missed a payroll that was their fault. I am in agreement with Jone R that whatever the problem is with Eric R, is one that appears to be wanting something for nothing. As far as I know MBO is not a charity. Usual disclaimer — I don’t work for MBO, they just handle my payroll and do a good job.

Simply put, MBO Partners makes my life easier. I essentially work as an independent consultant, but by partnering with MBO I can let them manage all of the «backoffice» administration such as payroll, benefits, invoicing, accounts receivable, and expense processing. This lets me avoid the legal and accounting expenses associated with self-​incorporation, and in general allows me to focus on what I do best — consulting. The folks at MBO Partners are both knowledgeable and friendly, and are true professionals.