At the start of this year, we asked you, our reader, what mattered most, and you said “keeping up with all the feature updates.” That’s why we launched this series—The Quarterly Scoop—to help you stay in the know.
In the webinar version below, we were joined by Wyatt Kneaper, CEO of Lighthouse Accounting Group, who’s grown his business immensely after embracing People Advisory. He helps provide some context to why Gusto is going all in on people and data.
Missed the last few issues of the Quarterly Scoop? Read our updates from May and February.
New Gusto pricing plans
It had been five years since the last pricing update, and the platform has changed a lot. So have our customers. On July 11 we announced that the old plans of Core, Complete, Concierge, and Select were going away, to be replaced by Simple, Plus, and Premium.
We gave accounting pros a buffer so your clients don’t have to make this change all at once, but this is now in effect for all new clients.
Streamlined out-of-state registrations
Amidst a hiring shortage hot on the heels of, let’s see, widespread resignations, an ongoing pandemic, and half of Americans working from home, people are logging in from all sorts of new places. That means your clients are hiring remote talent across state lines like never before, and we wanted to make that easier.
We updated Gusto’s integration with CorpNet so when you use this service, it automatically populates the company’s state tax details like account numbers and rates.
Use Gusto to auto-provision work apps for new hires
Gusto allows you to easily provision an employee’s other work accounts and software licenses directly within Gusto, which cuts down on admin time. It now supports 12 apps, including:
- Google Workspace
- Microsoft 365
- Slack
- Asana
- Salesforce
- Check out the full list here
Now pay international contractors in 120+ countries
Gusto has expanded its coverage from 80 countries to over 120. A reminder: Gusto can’t withhold, report, or remit taxes for these international contractors so they will have to self-report.
Contractors now show up in org charts
Previously, contractors were excluded from org charts within Gusto, which didn’t feel right. They’re part of the family! Now, they’re included.
Updated team members page
It’s now a lot easier for admins to search for specific employees and make updates to multiple team members at once. They can filter by employment type, department, or job title, and perform bulk actions like update people’s emails or managers. Plus, it all loads much quicker.
Search functionality
The search bar at the top of your Gusto account now allows you to search for and leap to lots more places. Previously, if you wanted to update an administrator’s permissions, you had to know where you were going in the menu, and click through a few different spots to get where you wanted to be. This reduces that to one click.
Customize name shown in bank deposits for payroll
Now all of your clients can put their names on their employees’ paychecks. Previously, those paychecks said “Gusto.” Now they’re customizable.
Each client can now select from three options:
- Continue to use “Gusto”
- Use their company name (whatever’s listed in Gusto)
- Add a custom one (up to 16 characters)
Gusto Performance Review Feature Updates
Employers can now conduct comprehensive worker performance reviews from within Gusto. You should encourage your clients to do this—companies that conduct routine reviews are 30 percent more likely to meet their financial targets.
Administrators can set up reviews, schedule reviews, track progress, download reports, and facilitate meaningful cross-team feedback and conversations, all within Gusto.
Employees can now request time off from Gusto’s mobile app (iOS and Android)
In addition to tracking time and managing their earnings, anyone paid as an employee through Gusto can now request time off within the app. (If you’re just learning about this mobile app, I recommend you learn more about its other feature, Cashout, which allows employees to access their money in-between paydays.)
Gusto Pro-specific updates
In case you’re a newer partner, Gusto Pro is our name for the accounting professional’s version of Gusto. It allows you to manage your clients, pull bulk reports, and find training on things like People Advisory and payroll certification. If you aren’t yet a partner, sign up for free.
We heard you—Gusto used to send you a lot of emails. Now you can customize what you receive for each client from the Settings tab. Opt into or out of emails about payroll, benefits, HR, taxes and compliance, and more. You can also set a default selection that’ll be used for all future clients. Don’t worry, we’ll still send you all the important stuff.
Recommendations center
We’ve added a recommendations bar to the right side of your Gusto Pro homepage that’ll help you quickly spot important to-dos, helpful tips, and announcements.
You can now help clients save an average of $50,000 by referring qualified companies to Gusto’s R&D Tax Credit Service. If they successfully apply the credit, your firm earns a fee.
This is kind of a big deal: According to our research, only four percent of accountants currently offer R&D tax credit services. But those that do find it’s a huge differentiator, and a revenue stream. The firm Acuity, for example, has built a $250,000 line of business around this and saved clients $88,000 on payroll in just the past few months.
Finally, we’ve improved our integrations with ledger software like Quickbooks, Xero, and Sage. You can now map costs from Gusto to your accounting system. With the change, payroll admins can choose to edit multiple accounts in one go. Xero customers will also see updated memo lines and more granular bills in their Xero account.
For more details, watch the presentation, and catch us on the next live session of The Quarterly Scoop.
