Do you want to partner with a company that’s optimizing the accounting industry?
Here at Gusto, we partner with accountants to provide their clients with essential people-based services like health insurance, 401(k)s, HR, and many other benefits. Our automation and software integration can improve your workflow so that you have more time to advise your clients.
Gusto, along with our partners at CPA Academy, hosted an exceptional webinar about the benefits of partnering with Gusto titled “Introduction to People Advisory Powered by Gusto.” You can watch the full webinar here.
Our webinar featured Jaclyn Anku — the Partner Education Manager at Gusto. Before her time at Gusto, she worked as a Partner Program Manager at Xero.
After you finish reading this article, Part One, make sure to check out Part Two and Part Three of this webinar series. In Part Two, you’ll learn about Gusto’s People Advisory Program and Gusto Pro. In the final article of this webinar series, we’ll address frequently asked questions regarding Gusto’s partnership program and our People Advisory services.
In this part, Jaclyn will teach you all about Gusto’s values, the benefits of People Advisory, and how technological advancements are transforming the accounting industry. Let’s get started!
Gusto’s mission and values
Here at Gusto, we believe that accountants and bookkeepers are the small business world’s unsung heroes. We proudly partner with accountants and we help them bring the best out of their firms. Gusto’s mission is to enable accountants and small businesses to use their work to improve their lives:
“Gusto is much more than just a software provider or and offers more than just your typical partner program. We truly see ourselves as your partner. And as a partner, we think it’s important for you to know that, like you, our decisions are based on values and are guided by our mission, which is to create a world where work empowers a better life.”
– Jaclyn Anku
Gusto’s mission is based on three pillars: peace of mind, having a great place to work, and obtaining personal prosperity. Our values shape our relationship with our partners because we aim to create a work atmosphere that empowers small businesses and constructs positive work environments:
“Peace of mind means making it easy for your clients to build great teams and stay compliant in the process. This enables them to focus on building a great place to work where employees feel valued and energized and can … save towards personal prosperity in both the short-term and the long-term.”
– Jaclyn Anku
When you partner with Gusto, you’re partnering with a powerhouse people platform. We provide full-service payroll, benefits, and HR to our partners’ clients, so small businesses can create a great place to work while getting the most out of their teams. We help businesses onboard effectively and seamlessly pay, insure, and support their workforce. Gusto also offers invaluable tools for accountants so that they can address their clients’ unique needs:
“Each aspect of the product plays a role in keeping your clients’ teams happy, healthy, and successful. And one of the most important ways we serve our customers is to empower our accounting partners with new tools and programs to grow your clients’ businesses and your own, by expanding the services you provide.”
– Jaclyn Anku
We enable accountants to assist their clients beyond financial planning and accounting. Through Gusto, you’ll be capable of helping your clients with a wide range of consulting services that will improve their teams and optimize their businesses.
Gusto’s People Advisory
At Gusto, we care about the future of accounting, and we’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about how to improve the accounting industry. Accountants have always played a vital role in the development of businesses. Their ability to offer various financial services and valuable guidance helps businesses during both prosperous and challenging times.
“It’s clear to us that accountants have long possessed the skills to advise businesses through all kinds of circumstances, everything from rapid growth to surviving recessions, given your financial acumen and unique understanding of small business needs.”
– Jaclyn Anku
Accountants have played a critical role in saving small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. From the beginning of the crisis, accountants stepped up and secured PPP loans for struggling SMBs. Many more small businesses would have failed if they didn’t have trusted, people-centered accountants guiding them through the crisis.
In many cases, accountants gave advice and direction to small businesses that surpassed traditional financial services. Accountants have long been equipped with the knowledge to help small businesses beyond accounting, but they’ve focused primarily on conventional financial services:
“Those skills have traditionally remained underutilized as the profession has instead focused on building credibility and reliability through the more compliance-oriented services of tax, insurance, bookkeeping, and payroll.”
– Jaclyn Anku
During 2020, you more than likely helped your clients beyond traditional accounting. Here at Gusto, we’ve developed a program designed to help accountants advise their clients on people-based services. Maybe your clients need additional help with HR or benefits, but you don’t feel qualified to offer advice in those subjects. Gusto’s People Advisory provides a certification program that will teach you people-based consulting services like payroll, HR, and benefits. By partnering with Gusto and completing our People Advisory Certification, you’ll be able to offer your clients a variety of consulting services. You’ll be able to both serve your clients’ people-based needs and add additional revenue streams through advising services. Completing People Advisory Certification will also earn you four CPE credits.
When you partner with Gusto, you’ll also gain access to our network of HR, benefits, and payroll experts that can help you grow your clients’ businesses. You’ll also be able to automate menial tasks through our software so that you have more time to consult with your clients. Partnering with Gusto will transform your firm and give you essential tools for guiding your clients during this difficult time.
The evolving accounting world
Embracing People Advisory is crucial for your firm because of technological advancements. Traditionally, businesses relied on accountants for tax services and payroll, but that’s starting to change:
“Payroll has squarely fallen into the category of a compliance space service, and this has historically worked well. I think clients appreciated the peace of mind that you can provide, getting their people paid on time and taxes paid, and have compensated you accordingly. But about a decade ago, this started changing.”
– Jaclyn Anku
Advancements in technology have reduced the need for traditional accounting services like taxes and payroll. Businesses no longer necessarily need an accountant to handle financial services:
“The advent of new technology like Gusto, for example, cloud-based software, APIs, automation, machine learning, all started chipping away at those legacy compliance services. This made it clear that accountants would need to embark on a new path to stay relevant — enter this notion of the trusted advisor.”
– Jaclyn Anku
As more accounting services become automated and available online, accountants will need to shift into advisory roles. This is where Gusto’s People Advisory comes in. Our program gives accountants the proper tools and training to offer advisory services to their clients. Traditionally, advisory services have been out of reach for accountants:
“It’s interesting to think that despite the advancement of financial advisory, app advisory, and past services more broadly, payroll has languished as a compliance space service and hasn’t made the leap into advisory. Which when you think about it, it’s been viewed as a time-consuming and risky service, and going deeper into people operations has largely stayed in the domain of HR advisors and out of scope for accountants.”
– Jaclyn Anku
Although accountants have historically not provided advisory services, Gusto’s People Advisory services empower accountants to serve as advisors to their clients. With our People Advisory Certification program, you’ll become an expert on advising your clients in HR, benefits, and payroll.
As financial technology continues advancing, accountants will need to find new ways to serve their clients. Learning people-based advisory services from Gusto will enable you to serve your clients beyond financial services, so that you can continue growing your firm while some tasks become automated.
Learn more about Gusto’s partner program
If you’re ready to learn more about People Advisory powered by Gusto, check out Part Two and Part Three of this webinar series. In Part Two, you’ll learn even more about our People Advisory services and Gusto Pro. Part Three features a helpful panel discussion addressing frequently asked questions about People Advisory. The panel included Jaclyn Anku, founder and CEO of Acuity Kenji Kuramoto, and Fintech Entrepreneur Michael Ly. You can also check out the full webinar here.
Gusto’s People Advisory is a great way to consult your clients on various people-based services like payroll, benefits, and HR. When you sign up for Gusto’s partnership program, you’ll immediately gain access to Gusto’s People Advisory, certification program, and Gusto Pro. With Gusto Pro, you’ll gain access to our helpful client dashboards, streamlined workflows, and integration with other beneficial software, like Practice Ignition and Jirav.
Through Gusto Pro’s integrated services, you can track key performance indicators (KPIs) and implement employee engagement surveys to improve your clients’ businesses. You can combine feedback from your clients’ employees with monthly financial statement analysis to gain crucial insights into the businesses you serve.
Partnering with Gusto will optimize your relationship with your clients and help strengthen your firm. If you’re ready to gain access to invaluable accounting resources, sign up here.
