Gusto Reviews

Gusto makes it easy to interface with all your employees, making direct deposits and tax forms a breeze.

Honestly, I can't find any downsides that outweigh the benefits of Gusto for our small business. If anything, it challenges me (as a manager with not a lot of administrative experience, as we don't have a separate department to take care of it) to learn the ins & outs. This can be a learning curve when it comes to, say, automations and admin permissions, but a gentler one than I would expect.

Employees are able to punch in and out using anything with an internet connection. Additionally, you can turn on Geolocation so that you can ensure the employee is actually on-site when they punch in & out. Best yet, they can actually leave notes in regards to what tasks were completed for the day. It's very helpful to have this built-in tracking feature for accountability with my very small staff.

Unfortunately, there is no effective scheduling tool (at least in my opinion), which forces me to go to another software provider for employee scheduling. Ideally, both scheduling and payroll could be done through the same web based software. This would also make it easier to compare scheduled vs. actually worked hours.

Does the basics well. Otherwise not very much to particularly like.

I have experienced significant issues with customer service. When you need help from their tax support specialists the delays are from 6-8 weeks. There is no way to get a supervisor or tax support person on the phone. They really dont seem to care about customer retention. We are planning to move our business. We cant afford to run afoul of taxing agencies because of no response from Gusto.

Gusto is great for it's payroll and benefits platform. They do exactly as they say they are going to do and take care of all tax liabilities on time, with no concern of being wrong or late.

Their customer service is terrible. You typically get a representative that tells you the same thing that is in their knowledge base and then can't escalate you to talk to someone actually knowledgeable but can request a call back. The call backs don't happen and you receive an email, which typically doesn't answer your question because the initial representative didn't pass along the information correctly.

I appreciated how ready it was to use from both the management side to the hourly side. It's easy to click on, out, and approve both. As well as handle time off requests and time of banks. Overall easy to use.

How long it took everything to load and how often I saw that terrible pig. Regardless of device or internet speed and connectivity.

The ease of use and the accuray. They also submit all the tax forms for me which save me a ton of time!

nothing really, it was easy to get started. Support is always super helpful and incredibly fast!

Great interphase, great user experience, user-friendly, and just beautiful to look at.

Features are fine for what I use. In the future, if my team expands and I need to use more features I will put a review.

What we liked most about Gusto is the ease of use. It was very easy to understand.

We could not find anything that we disliked about this software.

I get to manage my payrolls professionally

Gusto is not internationally, I only use when I'm in United States only.

Gusto allows you to run payroll, effectively, upon sign-up. The system has numerous features that help to ensure that you are reminded when payroll is supposed to be run (as an administrator its something that is frequently forgotten when extremely busy), automatically tabulates and prepares tax documents for employees and contractors and even assisted with the preparation of forms for SBA Loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. The software is straightforward and is fairly self explanatory. Gusto is also a great onboarding tool that allows you to collect a significant portion of information needed to effectively onboard an employee and comply with state and federal requirements (E-verify, etc.) Overall, the software is excellent for its price point and well worth the money.

The only con associated with Gusto is the lack of customizable report options. Obviously, this con is more of a company or need specific issue. We found that utilizing Gusto for certain reporting needs for data generation was cumbersome or not really possible. However, I must also say that there have only been two instances over the last 1-2 years that we have encountered this problem and were able to successfully obtain this information from other resources.

-It's web based
-one login for staff for access to all clients.
-MFA ability for each login
-ability to control which clietns assigned to which login.
- like other payroll engines, it does automatic paymetns (immediately) and automatic filings
- multiple reports available, quarterly/monthly/yearly, etc.
- tracks PTO, SIck, and auto generates if needed,
- great integration with Tsheets for time clock

There is no ONE consolidated report for all clients on a custom period.

EG, if I wanted a 1st quarter payroll report, with selected clients on each row of the report, and the columns having the headings for say, different data points like "gross payroll, net pay, 401K deferred, 401K roth, IL state tax paid, 941 done?" then that style of report is ONLY available if you pull that report down client by client, NOT for all clients or selected clients as a consolidated report.

Email alerts are not there for specific things, like if a client exceeds a payrol amount or if a large net reimbursement check is done.

There is NO mobile app.

There is NO standard custom 401K year end "Annual census" report which ties in all the data points for a 5500 filing.

Gusto also competes with providers for health insurance and 401K. Financial advisors like me only want Gusto to do the payroll part, not compete with us on the benefits part.

Setting up the company is a breeze. It walks you through every step to help make sure you have all the information correct. It'll even show you how to get state and local tax numbers, if needed.
Setting up employees is even easier! All you need is the employees name, pay rate, and email! How crazy is that. After you enter that information, and email gets sent to the new employee to fill out all their paperwork online. Remember though to get their i-9 forms, because once they are done filling out their paperwork, you'll need to verify their i-9 docs, but it's way too easy!! Haha.
Let's run payroll. Well, if it's the same each time, you can have it set up to go auto. Set it and forget it! If not, again, they make it easy. Click run payoll. Enter the times for your employees, days off, yada yada, and then submit. If you need to make a change to an employee while running payroll, just click on their name and it pulls them up for editing.
Gusto submits all tax payments and reports too. Even submits child support!

One time deductions. I would love to see that feature. As for now, you have to create a deduction on the employee screen, then go back to the process payroll screen. I wish it could be added to the other more detailed pay options.

We used to do around payroll through a company called pay soft.. or ProPay maybe another name for it. The program was decent a little bit cumbersome and the check stock was extremely expensive. They did their own payroll as a bureau. As a result of having their own proprietary software built they also sold it which was overpriced and in the long run didn't make us money. Just being a recommendation agency essentially and controlling if you ever clients payroll through gusto it's made us more money and they offer way more than ADP or paychecks ever has offered us.

There's not much I don't like about this software besides maybe the fact that it isn't really a software that you download it's an internet interface so if you're internet somehow becomes unreachable or it's down you can't really print out checks with proper taxes withheld. This is An occurrence few and far between and can always be advanced and then paid back once you can access it again. A desktop GUI that just calls in the website would be a handy tool for owners and accountants to be able to take more effort into their own hands on payroll

There are many products available that handle payroll, benefits, and employee database. My favorite thing about Gusto is that it uses a very human and personal approach to what could very easily be a cold and lifeless system or department.

I love the option to add contractors through he payroll system too.

The gusto customer service team is top notch.

Turbo Tax integration is fantastic

There’s very little to complain about with Gusto. I do wish it had a more catered option for freelancer one man band type of operations.

Gusto's self-onboarding and employee communication is leaps and bounds ahead of their competition, as is their clean, user-friendly interface.

Customer service has been struggling recently. There should be a way to have a salary that doesn't change when the hours are changed. The other downside is that if there is an error, you have to void the entire payroll. An option to void a single check would be a great improvement.

Auto-sync and tax payments are the best features of the product that go above other products. Gusto will file the taxes for you, will send corrections if need be, and keeps track of all of that for your ease of mind. Their customer service team is above reproach, always willing to look into a problem and resolve it as soon as possible.

This is nitpicky, but the layout of the website often changes slightly. It would be nice if there was more consistency in the format. But the tool itself is above reproach.

These guys make me compliant with the evolving landscape of HR and payroll without distracting me from the core functions of my small business. They made on-boarding from my old payroll system easy. They found mistakes I'd made and helped me to correct them so even my tax history was compliant. Their customer service is excellent and I'm incredibly pleased with their Homebase integration. Super clean!

While the onboarding was much smoother than I anticipated, it was still a bit more cumbersome than described. It's definitely a hands-on process.

Gusto has been a great resource for us to handle our own payroll processing & HR management in-house. It is super easy to set up and manage and has a really intuitive user interface. Onboarding new employees is a snap, time-tracking is simple to manage for both employees and managers, and running payroll only takes us a few minutes twice a month. Having employees able to manage their own banking info and paycheck splits and W4s has saved our HR dept a ton of time and headaches. And we love having an online library of company forms and documents we can distribute to employees quickly and easily. Also, their customer support is amazing. We are signed up for the Conceriege level service and have a dedicated team of customer service people who are knowledgable and friendly and responsive and have helped us out with innumerable questions.

Moving from our previous payroll processor (ADP) to Gusto was easy, because we decided to do it at the beginning of a new fiscal year. The one issue we did experience was in setting up our company's Federal and State tax filing details. Gusto does not assist you with this, so we had to track down all of our company's employer account #s and UI tax rates and filing frequencies for the 3 different states where we have employees and manually enter it into Gusto. We ended up making a mistake on one state's filing frequency, which ended up costing us a bit of $$ in penalties. It would have been nice if Gusto had been able to assist us with this as part of the switch over from ADP. Also, Gusto does not offer benefits administration in our state (yet). Hopefully that will be coming soon, as it would be nice to handle payroll and benefits through one platform. And they could cut down on the number of "recommended" services from affiliated companies that pop up on the admin dashboard these days.

Gusto is easy and straightforward to use. But it doesn’t sacrifice accuracy for ease. What I like most about Gusto is that it makes it easy for small businesses to be legally compliant with complicated wage laws across jurisdictions. I haven’t found a legal error yet — and I can’t say that about any other payroll software or service I’ve worked with over the last 15 years.

I wish the price didn’t jump up so much for time clock feature. Getting clients to use the integrated time clock can be a challenge, and it creates unnecessary problems. It should be included in the base fee.

We are finally done with Intuit Payroll. So difficult to actually talk to a live person when you need help. I did a little research and found that Gusto does payroll for small companies so I decided to give them a try. My thought was that it certainly can't be any worse than Intuit. And WOW - did they ever Overdeliver! The absolute best thing about Gusto is that you don't have to go through a bazillion menus on the phone trying to figure out which number to press so that your call gets routed to the right person. You actually get to talk to a live person when you call their company. Setting up all of the employees has been very easy, nothing difficult to figure out, the flow from one screen to the next is not complicated at all. So far - we love Gusto!

The only thing that I think they could improve on would be integrating your existing numbers into their system. In order to be able to print accurate W-2's at the end of the year, I have to enter my employee paystubs from January 1 through today (May) into their system. It makes sense, I know it has to be done. It is just a tedious job and I'd rather not do it. Although I must say, that the 3 times I ran into a snag while entering the information, I called them and the issue was fixed instantly. Their customer service ROCKS!

We chose to move to Gusto when we looked to simplify and streamline our payroll. As a small business owner juggling payroll and all the other tasks associated with running a business, PTO management, HR management etc., was becoming a big time sink and we did some research and came across Gusto.

Moving to Gusto simplified and automated many of those above tasks. It made it easier to track employee time off requests, made it dead simple and automated getting employees to fill out forms, and sign HR documents. And handling payroll, taxes, and such was so much easier after moving to Gusto.

Once payroll was set up and configured, it runs on Autopilot. This allows me to know that payroll is being done every 2 weeks and that I have nothing to worry about. We hire a new employee and the employee is automatically added to the system and I know that everything is done correctly, including the workmen's comp insurance, etc.

Overall, Gusto allows me to be more efficient with time and ensure everything is being taken care of.

The hardest part for us and the least liked feature in Gusto is trying to set up net-zero paychecks for me and my partner. There was no easy way to set up a paycheck to go completely to taxes. It required some calculations and messing with withholding amounts. Would be nice if there was an easier way to implement net-zero paychecks.

Gusto makes managing employee relations, payroll, and benefits so simple. You truly get a lot of bang for your buck. We're able to manage payroll processing; time/attendance; benefits; onboarding; and salary offers all in place. Their web-based technology has great up-time and is very easy to use. I also like the fact that Gusto does all of your federal and state payroll document filings and return (quarterly and annual). Every form needed to remain in compliance with the feds and state are filed by Gusto on your behalf. That takes the headache away and allows my company to focus on matters that are more critical at this time.

There is not much I can say here other than their support isn't necessarily a phone call away. That said, they answer emails and tickets super quick. I haven't been much in a pinch to need an immediate response to issues, and their self-service support center is rather extensive.

I use Gusto for my clients as well as for our own company. I find it very user friendly, especially for my tech-phobic clients. I also like their tech support. They are easy to reach by phone, chat or email and the technicians are very patient.

The import mapping. This is the only reason I wouldn't give 5 stars. When the payroll is simple, the mapping is fine but for more complicated payrolls, the mapping is a nightmare.
Also, that it imports to Xero as a bill. Clients find it really difficult to grasp how to work with this. In their mind payroll has already been "paid" so when they see it show up as an unpaid bill, they get confused or worried that their employees didn't get paid.

It's like someone was listening to me complain about Quickbooks payroll and ADP (and Tsheets) and made a software just for me. It's so simple - I was using an accountant to run payroll through ADP - Gusto saves so much time I can do it myself.

The reporting tools aren't super robust.

I love the clean, simple, modern, easy to use user interface and user experience - for both the admin and employees in Gusto. It feels robust and relevant, not clunky and convoluted like many other outdated, expensive systems.

I do wish there were some more integrations, and/or that the present integrations were slightly more robust.