Gusto Next is our annual conference that celebrates our community through serving up thought-provoking keynotes, interactive breakout sessions, and a chance to build community and share expertise, all while staying ahead of industry trends—and having a little fun while we’re at it.
This year, with a theme of Unlocking Possibility, we focused on unlocking the talent you need to grow—both across the country and around the world. We focused on leveraging incredible new technologies to unlock scale. And we focused on unlocking your team experience by putting people back at the center of your business. With Next in a Nutshell, we’ve distilled the key takeaways from each of those themes to give you actionable insights for your business in the coming year.
Dive into our second theme below: unlocking scale.
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The coming year is all about getting more done with less busywork. Technology bloat and app fatigue are real, and cobbling together solutions from fragmented apps and platforms can feel like a full-time job.
“Am I even saving time with this?”
Gusto is here to help you navigate these changes. We’re building cohesive, future proof architecture for our code base that leverages and consolidates your data while putting more power at your fingertips and more hours in your day. Simplified workflows will save valuable time and resources, while increased automation means flawless and compliant payroll calculations—and the peace of mind that comes with them.
Let’s talk about AI
The way we’re interacting with computers is changing. Sure, we still click on icons and drag and drop things. But large language models like Chat GPT have made it possible to interact with computers just by telling them what you want. In your own human words.
Have you tried Chat GPT for work yet? 22% of accountants have. You can have it write emails for you, research tax law, help you come up with content ideas, help you write that blog post or marketing copy. It doesn’t replace a human, but it can help a human ideate, create, and do it faster.
At Gusto, we’re using the same technology behind Chat GPT to simplify complexity in your workflows.
Gusto’s Applicant Tracking System
Gusto’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS) helps you attract and hire the talent you need to grow your business. You can use the ATS to post jobs, screen candidates, manage the interview process, and more. Job postings are the first thing potential hires see when they’re thinking about applying, and it’s important they represent who you are as a business.
Not only will our AI job description writer craft the description for you, it will include any things that must be included by law in your local hiring market. Things like salary range, physical demands, and equal opportunity disclaimers.
And of course, you can continue to tweak that description until it reflects your culture and values. We’re focused on “Human in the loop” iterations—where AI generated content is still supported by a real live person.
Report Assistant
The AI report assistant allows you to easily extract meaningful reporting data from Gusto. Just ask Gusto the question, and it will tell you the answer.
“How much did I pay for FUTA last quarter?”
“How much did we pay out in bonuses last year?”
“Where are my employees located?”
The report assistant automatically selects the columns, time frame, and data you need to answer your question and spits out your answer for you. It’s intuitive and language based, so you don’t have to fiddle around with charts and columns to get the information you need.
Improved customer service
Of course, technology can’t solve all of our problems. And we are committed to providing the human piece when technology falls short. Because sometimes, you just need a human.
This year, we’ve shifted our customer support from generalist to specialist. We’re creating a “software to service” model that provides quick, accurate support centered around your needs. We’ve reduced the number of repeated touch points, and we’ve increased our speed to resolution.
| 65% year-over-year reduction in tax resolution open cases | 62% reduction in time to answer phone since January | 37% year-over-year decrease in engagement case time resolution |
And, for our accountant partners, we’ve expanded hours of operation—from 8am to 8pm EST (5am to 5pm PST).
Simplifying payroll
Things are getting more complex, and we’re committed to keeping up, simplifying that complexity for you.
| 80% of SMBs spend over 5 hours per pay period on payroll-related tasks | 33% of US employers make payroll errors—leading to payroll fines | $845 Annual average penalties incurred by 40% of US small businesses each year |
- PAYROLL WORKSHEET – Payroll in Gusto is currently 4 steps, which we’ve always thought was pretty fast. But often, data you need is on a previous page. Which means hitting that back button and letting it reload again.
Payroll worksheet brings ALL the data you need in one place and takes that 4-step process and brings it down to just TWO. That means less jumping back and forth and less time watching Penny while you wait for the page to load. It’s easier, faster—and with higher confidence and fewer errors.
- Run bonus and off cycle payroll faster – Just what it sounds like. Bonus and off cycle payrolls are now easier and faster, too.
- Collaborative payroll – Making the payroll experience collaborative reflects the way your team actually works outside of Gusto. It’s faster, simpler, and more powerful.
- New roles & permissions system – We’re giving you the power to assign more granular control to let people do what they need to do without giving them access to the whole enchilada.
- Bulk compensation update – We’re addressing a huge pain point for larger companies, making it simple to give annual raises across the board.
- Streamlined expense review – Easily see what’s missing where, and who forgot to upload a receipt. Get expenses submitted faster with fewer errors.
- Audit trail – See who did what, where, and when, so you can track down internal errors and solve problems faster.
- Recipes for tasks – With increased complexity in the way you hire and pay your team, there are ever more tasks to stay on top of. Which is why we’ve created recipes for tasks. If you regularly hire people in Arizona, you shouldn’t have to do each of those steps manually every time. Recipes will run those tasks automatically.
- Always-on compliance – Compliance used to be a dump truck unloaded at the end of the year, but our new model is powered by automations to run regular checks on critical data. If an employee changes their address, a notification pops up right when you need it—keeping you on top of tasks, and saving a mountain of compliance come year-end.
Time kiosk
| 58% of all US employees are hourly | 49% of employers say they’re inaccurately tracking time | $11btotal cost in inaccurate time tracking |
Not only is paying hourly workers complex and time-consuming, it’s also error prone and subject to serious compliance regulations. While Gusto has always supported time tracking, payroll, and compliance for hourly workers, we’re providing a whole new way to increase accuracy and accountability while providing invaluable peace of mind.
Gusto’s Time Kiosk is a centralized clock-in location that you can set up on any internet-connected device. No more clocking in from cell phones in the parking lot. Your team can easily clock in and out for breaks and meal times—and it all seamlessly syncs to payroll with worry-free compliance.
Gusto Pro
JUST FOR OUR PARTNERS
Introducing AI-powered payroll flow
Complex payrolls for accountants tend to take about 50 minutes, and 60% is spent manually preparing data in a spreadsheet. While we’ve always offered CSV upload, only 1% of accountant-run payrolls were leveraging it. Why? Because the template was too rigid.
With the power of AI, we now offer smart import for CSV files in any format. AI maps the data where it needs to go, even for hourly workers with multiple roles and pay rates, misspelled nicknames, messy spreadsheets—whatever you can throw at it.
Client data is cleaned, mapped, and added to payroll in minutes.
When you’re ready for client review, we’ve added a “Request Client Approval” button, which means you don’t have to export payroll, jump over to your email, attach the file, write a note, and hit send. It’s one click and you’re good to go.
For clients where you share responsibility—maybe they run payroll but you help resolve issues—we’ve added client and accountant roles to help limit the number of emails that come in each day. When your client runs their payroll without issue, you don’t need to know about it.
Multi-payroll assistant
And to keep all your clients and tasks in order, we’ve added the multi-payroll assistant.
Multi-payroll assistant tells you where to focus your attention. See all tasks for all your clients in one at-a-glance dashboard, tailored based on your role. As our valued partners, we’ve expanded your access for things like state tax registration numbers, limiting time spent on the phone with CX. And when you do need to reach out, you can now see all of your client issues in one place, along with an estimated resolution time.
Watch the replays
Take a deeper dive into the Gusto Next speeches that help you Unlock Scale:
And for the full slate of Gusto Next content, head over to https://gusto.com/next-2023
