Original webinar date: October 22, 2021
This article is part of a series where we share the top insights from Gusto Next—the premiere conference for accounting professionals. Read the entire series and watch Gusto Next 2021.
Do you want to know how vertical Software as a Service (SaaS) can revolutionize your business? Do you want to know how disruptive technology in accounting will impact you?
Gusto is your partner in innovation, helping you to make strategic choices that future-proof your firm. We grow in alliance with others, not separate from them, which is why we brought you Gusto Next 2021. Our head of Business Development, Somrat Niyogi took the stage and delivered an insightful presentation on Gusto’s integrated payroll app.
Somrat Niyogi is a business development pro with experience at Clari, Sugar CRM, and Salesforce. He’s an expert in forging strategic alliances to grow businesses from hundreds to thousands of employees, has worked on behalf of key players in the tech space and has started a few companies of his own.
How businesses are embracing data integration software
Your clients are embracing technology that makes running their business easier, more streamlined, and more cost-efficient. The world has changed, and so has doing business. Your clients need solutions to help them navigate a world where in-person contact is limited, pen and paper scheduling just won’t cut it, and scale is too vast to conquer alone. They need support, and they’re turning more and more to software solutions that integrate multiple processes into one, easy-to-navigate platform.
“If your clients run a salon, they can’t just have clients walk in off the street anymore. They’ve had to invest in an online scheduling system to match barbers, stylists, therapists, so they can meet their clients where they’re at. … So they probably switched to a software solution that schedules appointments and lets clients pay and tip digitally. And if your clients are home contractors, they’re probably struggling to keep up with surging demand. With more people at home, they’re swamped with projects. They’re also dealing with higher material costs and maybe supply chain disruptions for key parts. Many have decided to try new software tools to manage their relationships with homeowners and minimize their exposure.”
– Somrat Niyogi
As an accounting professional, you’ve likely already seen this trend. You’re used to helping manage the increasing complexity of financial and business operations on behalf of your clients. That’s why it’s time to step up even further into this advisory position. Just take technology itself. Your clients have to navigate a sea of options, all of which are competing and can be both similar and nuanced. What’s the right solution for their business? A software company trying to market to them can’t say. That’s why you need to step in and take the lead.
According to Ink Magazine, small businesses use an average of 37 different software tools every single day. Zapier has found that companies who integrate their software tools with others have a better chance of scaling their business than businesses that opt out of integrating. Vertical SaaS tools—which are centered on integration—are the most important tech to be aware of. One-stop shop solutions make life easier for your clients, eliminating the need to install, learn, operate and integrate dozens of separate tools.
It’s for this reason that Venture Capitalists have taken notice of vertical SaaS companies:
“There are now hundreds of vertical SaaS companies that have attracted more than $2 billion in investments in 2021 alone. … It’s likely you use some of these technologies with your clients every day. For restaurants, companies like Toast and Upserve help restaurant owners run every aspect of their business, from reservations, to inventory, to staff management. For fitness studios and salons, companies like Mindbody and Vagaro help yoga teachers and salon owners manage class schedules, client subscriptions, marketing, and much more, all in one place.”
– Somrat Niyogi
Ubiquitous names like Toast, MindBody, and Upserve show you just have prevalent SaaS tech is, and for good reason. By providing effective point of sale services for small businesses, this tech provides a valuable service. There’s simply no place anymore for businesses to rely on cluttered and confusing systems to run their business. Integration is the way to go.
Introducing Gusto Embedded Payroll
Gusto is offering its own integration solution to streamline your client’s processes. We’re pleased to offer Gusto Embedded Payroll, available to firms all over the US, who can now offer payroll within your own digital client experiences. By offering this tool, you’ll be leveraging our proven payroll infrastructure—which we’ve honed over a decade—to provide your clients peace of mind. Clients will thank you for saving them the hassle of integration, and you’ll be building your authority as a trusted advisor.
Furthermore, Gusto is committed to evolving our technology to keep up with the evolving marketplace. We plan to offer more and more opportunities for you to embed payroll into your firm’s custom software so you can scale your advisory services.
“With Gusto Embedded Payroll, if you have a large self-built digital platform for clients, or might in the future, you can now own the technology too. With Gusto Embedded Payroll, we give software developers the ability to offer the same payroll benefits and HR functionality that Gusto offers in their own applications. Because developers can leverage specific functionality from Gusto VR API, they can tailor the features to specific customer needs creating a true one-plus-one-equals-three solution.”
– Somrat Niyogi
Somrat presented just how this service can assist you and your clients, through the example of Honey Business, a fictional solution featuring Gusto Embedded Payroll. In this example, a boutique owner with 20 employees is used to having to manually perform all business practices, such as tracking employee hours, scheduling shifts, calculating taxes, and cutting employee checks.
When Honey partnered with Gusto, clients could locate payroll on the dashboard navigation, where they could manage payroll in just three clicks. This is possible because Honey business automatically tracks hours from a time clock into payroll. All that’s needed is a quick manual quality control check after it auto populates. Once that’s complete, users can simply click save and continue, then watch as payroll automatically updates. To make it even easier, federal and state taxes are calculated automatically and, because the app is powered by Gusto, reliably.
“Developers can leverage Gusto’s tax and filing payment infrastructure without investing tens of millions of dollars to build themselves. They have the flexibility to customize the look and feel of their own payroll product, and they can lean on Gusto’s team to support their teams and to manage the trickiest payroll and tax situations. And finally, they can be assured they have partnered with a company that values long-term thinking and has the financial strength to execute on an ambitious vision for features beyond just payroll.”
– Somrat Niyogi
All of this means that your clients will be saving precious time and energy, which they can refocus toward growing sales. So what does that mean for you?
What Gusto Embedded Payroll means for you
There’s no doubt that at least some clients will opt to run Gusto’s Embedded Solution themselves and take a DIY approach. Yet others will need your expertise to help them manage their overall financial picture.
“I believe that most business owners’ will … seek you out for the advice that you can offer on how to run their business. What’s more, I believe this trend … means different things for different firms. For an established practice that is focused on offloading time consuming, repetitive tasks for clients, this trend means that now, today is the time to become an expert in people advisory. … If you’re a firm that’s looking to build on your base … and you’re focused on networking to connect with new clients, this trend means that you need to prove to your clients that you can advise them holistically, that you could help them get time back on their day-to-day.”
– Somraj Niyogi
If you want to really capitalize on this trend, you can consider making digital products yourself.
“You can build your own digital product—tailored to just what your clients need—that’s faster and cheaper than ever. In fact, your digital products can become a massive differentiator and you can use technology to automate what you can to improve your margins and give your teams more time to focus on their clients. This may sound far fetched, but it’s already happening.”
– Somraj Niyogi
Tech-minded accounting leaders are already breaking this new ground. Somraj dove into a conversation with one such leader—Nick Pasquarosa, Founder and CEO of Bookkeeper 360 and launch partner for Gusto Embedded Payroll.
“Bookkeeper 360 is a finance solution for small businesses that [handles] the bookkeeping, back office, [and] payroll functions. We also do CFO advisory and tax prep. We recently released a mobile technology software that integrates Gusto to help bring all the data together. So business owners get insights about their business, and they can use those insights to help grow their business.”
– Nick Pasquarosa
Nick discussed how business owners and accountants aren’t typically on the same page. Getting access to information is challenging for accountants, as is having a means to interpret and relay it reliably in real time. Without up to date information about business owners plans for hiring, scaling their business, or any other processes, accountants are left in the dark. This can set them back for days or weeks. He shared how partnering with Gusto changed that:
“Having access to the information and, as it pertains to Gusto, having access to the payroll information and employees they’re hiring and whatnot is really critical because it enables us as advisors to really know the ins and outs of the business. And without this information, we wouldn’t be able to build lasting and trusting relationships with our clients, and our clients are sometimes amazed by how up-to-date and how much information we have on their business, and Gusto’s a key player and critical part of us being able to advise clients in real time.”
– Nick Pasquarosa
The ways in which your firm can use vertical SaaS to partner with tech or create their own is yet to be seen. What will your firm do?
Learn more about how tech is revolutionizing practice management
At the end of the day, SaaS is changing the way businesses operate. Forward-thinking firms can cash in on this trend by partnering with software solutions like Gusto Embedded Payroll. They may even consider creating a custom product themselves, leveraging a partnership with the most trusted system in the accounting automation world. Remember, as the industry is changing, your role as an advisor is more critical than ever.
Check out the full lineup of presenters from Gusto Next 2021 to learn more about the biggest changes sweeping the industry.
Becoming a Gusto Partner can make your life easier. Get payroll and HR support for your team and our new advisory revenue stream for your practice through our people advisory platform. As a Gusto partner, you’ll also get tools to help you expand your accounting practice and offer your clients new insights, plus a free payroll subscription for your own accounting firm. Sign up today!
