Gusto Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

In the fast-paced world of payroll and human resources management, Gusto stands out as a comprehensive solution that caters to businesses of all sizes.

As we make our way into 2024, it’s crucial to assess the latest features, benefits, and potential drawbacks of this platform to determine if it’s the right fit for your organization.

This detailed review aims to provide a thorough understanding of Gusto, ensuring you make an informed decision.

What is Gusto?

Gusto, formerly known as ZenPayroll, is a cloud-based payroll and HR management software designed to simplify the complexities of payroll processing, employee benefits, and compliance.

Launched in 2012, Gusto has rapidly grown to become a trusted partner for over 100,000 businesses across the United States. The platform offers a user-friendly interface, robust functionality, and exceptional customer support, making it a popular choice among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

How Does Gusto Work?

Gusto is a handy tool that helps businesses manage their employees’ payroll and benefits easily. It lets employers onboard new hires smoothly, process payroll with automatic tax calculations, and handle benefits like health insurance and retirement plans.

Employees can also use Gusto to track their time, view pay stubs, and manage their benefits online. Plus, there’s a mobile app for convenient access on the go. Overall, Gusto makes payroll and HR tasks simple and stress-free for everyone involved.

My Favorite Features of Gusto

Gusto’s core features include payroll, employee self service, tax compliance, benefits administration and integrations.

Let’s learn a bit more about each feature:

Automated Payroll Processing

Gusto streamlines the payroll process by automating tasks such as calculating wages, deductions, and taxes. This feature saves time and reduces the risk of manual errors in payroll administration.

Employee Self-Service

Gusto provides a seamless self-service portal where employees can effortlessly access pay stubs, tax forms, and benefits information. This feature empowers employees to handle their payroll tasks independently, such as updating personal details and viewing their payment history.

Employees can either download the Gusto mobile app or log in through the web to access payday data, update tax information, check available PTO, and even clock in and out from their phones. The platform also offers valuable insights into income and provides access to personal tax documents like W-2s.

When we tested Gusto from an employee’s perspective, we found it easy to update personal information, view, and enroll in benefits, and more.

Tax Compliance

Gusto helps businesses comply with federal, state, and local tax regulations by automatically calculating and filing payroll taxes. This feature ensures accuracy and reduces the administrative burden of tax compliance for employers.

You can print labour law posters for on-site employees or send e-notices to remote employees.

The service keeps you updated and automatically alerts employees of any changes to the law to maintain compliance. It costs $10 per month for up to five employees, plus $1 per additional employee per month.

Gusto also has built-in ACA, COBRA, HIPAA and ERISA compliance for benefits administration.

Benefits Administration

Gusto simplifies benefits administration by offering a centralized platform for managing employee benefits, including health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off. Employers can easily enroll employees in benefits programs and track their usage.

When navigating to the benefits section of Gusto’s platform, it conveniently recommends benefits such as health, commuter, life insurance, and retirement plans.

Health benefits: Purchase group health, dental and vision insurance plans through Gusto, and administer benefits on the platform. Employees will be able to opt in or out of benefits through the platform, as well. You can also administer flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts.

Wellness benefits: You have the option of adding custom benefits, such as housing or wellness stipends to your employees’ paychecks, and Gusto will automatically track and tax them accordingly.

Commuter: Manage a commuter stipend or company car perks.

Life insurance: Purchase employee life insurance plans through Gusto and administer benefits on the platform. Employees can opt in or out of the benefit through the platform.

Retirement: Administer a variety of retirement plans, such as Traditional and Roth 401(k).

Gusto goes beyond the standard benefits that HR platforms offer with its college savings, financial wellness and charity matching benefits:

College savings: Gusto partners with Gradvisor to administer a 529 college savings plan in which employees make post-tax contributions to build up savings for college tuition.

Financial wellness: The Gusto Wallet app provides more than just a self-service portal for employees to view their pay stubs. Employees can also split up their paychecks into different accounts or cash cards and see how they spend each paycheck. Employees also have access to high-interest-yielding savings accounts.

Charitable giving: Gusto helps employees automate charitable giving by deducting donations directly from their paychecks and donating to a chosen charity. Employers can choose to match any percentage of employee donations to make their contributions go further, and you can set per-employee match limits.

We tried adding a massage wellness benefit, and setting it up in Gusto was simple. We just named the benefit, entered the employee’s contribution per paycheck, and specified the employer’s contribution for each pay period.

Gusto Integrations

Gusto integrates seamlessly with other business tools and software, such as accounting software, time tracking systems, and HR management platforms. This allows for efficient data exchange and streamlines workflows across different business functions.

Gusto Pricing

Gusto offers three plans for companies looking to manage payroll for both full-time employees and contractors.

Simple: The Simple plan is perfect for startups and small businesses operating in one state, covering essential HR functions.

Plus: Gusto’s Plus package is ideal if your business hires across multiple states and requires additional support for effective HR management.

Premium: The Premium plan offers maximum support and automation to ensure efficient HR operations for small to midsized businesses (SMBs).

For those managing only contractors, Gusto offers a Contractor plan at $6 per person per month.

Regardless of the plan you choose, you can switch to a different Gusto plan or cancel anytime if your business needs change.

Gusto Add-Ons

You can customize any of the Gusto plans with their helpful add-ons. Premium plan members receive discounts and waived fees for features like R&D tax services, broker integration, Guideline 401(k)s and more.

Here are some of Gusto’s additional features:

• International contractor payments
• State tax registration (pricing varies by state)
• R&D tax credits (pay 15% of identified tax credits)
• Workers’ compensation (pay only for premiums, no administration fees)
• Health, life and disability insurance (pay only for premiums, no administration fees)
• Health insurance broker integration ($6/month per eligible employee)
• 401(k) retirement savings (pricing varies by 401(k) integration)

Pros and Cons of Using Gusto

When considering a payroll solution, it’s essential to weigh Gusto’s pros and cons against your specific needs and preferences to make the right decision.

How Is It Different From Competitors?

While many payroll services are available, Gusto distinguishes itself with a strong emphasis on user experience and customer support. Unlike some competitors that provide complicated systems needing extensive training, Gusto is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, even for those without a finance or HR background.

Additionally, Gusto offers personalized customer service and a variety of resources specifically aimed at aiding small business growth. This blend of simplicity, effectiveness, and dedicated support makes Gusto stand out in a competitive market.

The Bottom Line on Gusto

Gusto is an excellent choice for dynamic startups and small to medium-sized businesses seeking a comprehensive range of features and affordable, transparent pricing. Even Gusto’s most basic plan includes advanced features like unlimited payroll and wage garnishments, which are often only available as add-ons with competitors.

Their user-friendly platform and outstanding support make Gusto a great solution for streamlining payroll and HR processes.

Ready to ditch payroll headaches? Give Gusto a try!

Frequently Asked Questions