CLIFTON PARK — The sudden shutdown of a locally based payroll company has left businesses in the Capital Region and across the country outraged and scrambling to pay their employees.

On Thursday, MyPayrollHR sent an automated message to its 4,000 clients: "We regret to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances, we are no longer able to process any further payroll transactions," it read. "Please find alternative methods for processing your payrolls."

The abrupt closing came as a shock to employees of The Shop, said Jared Barton, the operations manager of the Troy restaurant, which employs 26 people. He said employees texted in a panic Thursday morning to tell him last week's payroll had been reversed by a third-party bank they didn't recognize.

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Barton received the automated message from MyPayrollHR later in the afternoon.

"It basically said, 'Find other ways to pay your employees,'" he said, adding several others woke up Friday morning to discover more funds from their bank accounts had been deducted.

Barton's personal bank account balance stood at $1 after the deduction, he said. One staff member told him he had a negative balance of $230.

The deductions have hit particularly hard because they came at the beginning of the month, after many employees had already paid their rent.

"It's basically a seven-layer cake of fraud and immorality that's back-channeling money out of employees' accounts," Barton said.

Calls to MyPayrollHR went unanswered Friday morning, as did a call to Michael Mann, the CEO of its parent company, ValueWise Corporation, also based in Clifton Park.

The website of ValueWise was taken down in recent days.

Barton tried calling MyPayrollHR on Thursday afternoon, and said an employee who picked up told him his own bank account had also been affected. "I hope your balance isn't negative, because mine is," the employee told him.

Barton said he's in constant communication with The Shop's staff, and the restaurant will remain open. He said he's not in charge of the restaurant's finances and couldn't say whether its employees would be paid manually.

Spurred by his outrage, Barton made a public Facebook post about the situation. Within minutes, somebody from North Dakota reached out to him and said her company had also been impacted.

Barton made a public Facebook page titled "Victims of MyPayrollHR." Within hours, the group had about 200 members.

"This is such BS!" one member posted. "We paid our employees this is so wrong — they shouldn't be able to do this WE did nothing wrong!"

"THANK GOD my grandma always told me to keep a little mattress money or we would be SCREWED," another member said.

The camaraderie among other business owners was helpful, Barton said, "but it's also terrifying that this has affected this many people."

Mike Walls, the managing partner of a Texas-based senior-care franchise that used MyPayrollHR, said he's working to establish a line of credit with a commercial bank to cover the funds that have been deducted from his 75 employees.

"I think today's a lot of fact-finding," Walls said. "Who's been hurt, who's been hurt the most — and then trying to determine how we get them financial relief as soon as possible."

One former employee of MyPayrollHR, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, said workers at the company were told during a morning meeting Thursday that all direct deposits from last week and this week were reversed because Mann's bank account had been frozen as part of an "investigation."

The employees were told the company was "trying to resolve the issue" by 1 p.m. and were given the choice to stay and wait, or leave. The former staffer said they fielded about 80 emails and hundreds of phone calls from irate MyPayrollHR clients. She was given a script to read to them.

Everybody was calm during the first meeting, the former employee said. That changed in the afternoon.

"At 1 (p.m.), everyone started crying and freaking out, asking questions," she said.

At that meeting, employees were told "the door was closing" and to go home. The former staffer said she lost three weeks' pay worth more than $2,000, her 401k employer contribution, and her health benefits.

Shortly after 7 p.m., the employees received an email from a MyPayrollHR manager. "I am sorry to inform you that it is now official that MyPayrollHR will no longer be conducting business," it began. "I am lucky to have worked with you all and wish you all the best."

The employees were told to pick up their belongings Friday morning in a parking lot adjacent to a liquor store in "an effort to avoid any safety concerns or potential media attention."

Another former employee told the Times Union he was contacted by a manager who threatened to withhold a positive job reference after the ex-worker posted in the Facebook group.

In a statement Friday evening, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on the Department of Financial Services to investigate the company, which he called "irresponsible."

"This is not how we do business in New York, and we will not allow these bad actors to take money away from the hard-working people in this state," the statement said.

The State Police are also looking into the company's operations. "We have received a complaint from a business owner in Clifton Park," Trooper Kerra Burns said Friday night. "There are no other details at this time."

Linda Lacewell, the superintendent of the Department of Financial Services, said her office has alerted state-chartered banks and credit unions that their customers may have been impacted by the company's shutdown. She said her office will "use every tool at our disposal" to investigate the company for possible wrongdoing.

"MyPayrollHR ceasing its operations, leaving thousands of small businesses and employees without pay is troubling," Lacewell said. "Any financial institution that abandons New Yorkers without providing a satisfactory and alternative course of action must be held accountable. "

Lacewell said that consumers impacted can file a complaint with the department through its website.

Attorney General Letitia James' office declined to comment when asked if it had fielded complaints about the situation, as did the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York. The state Labor Department didn't respond to a request for comment Friday.

Knocks on the door of the company's Clifton Park Boulevard office went unanswered Friday morning. MyPayrollHR's sign had been removed from the wall and business cards advertising a different payroll business had been placed in front of the door.

Kelli Shannon, who works for an insurance company that shares the hallway with MyPayrollHR, said she saw employees moving out of the office abruptly this week.

"It was one of the strangest, most sudden things I've seen," she said.

An employee of MyPayrollHR visited her office while moving out, Shannon said. She inquired about open positions.

Michael.Williams@timesunion.com or Twitter @MichaelDamianW.