How to use Gusto, from setup to payday
Wondering how to run payroll in Gusto? In just a few minutes you can set up your account, add your team, and run your first payroll—while we calculate and file your taxes, handle benefits and deductions, and get your team paid accurately and on time, every time.
Payroll taxes, taken care of
Every time you run payroll, we calculate, file, and pay your federal, state, and local taxes
Built-in benefits and time tools
Ditch the spreadsheets and switching between platforms. Benefits, hours, and PTO seamlessly sync to payroll.
Complex payrolls made easy
From multiple pay rates and schedules to multi-state compliance, we handle the tough stuff so you can get back to business.
Payroll
Run payroll in minutes.
Run payroll as many times as you need each month (we don’t charge extra). Pay your team in just a few clicks, or set up AutoPilot™ to make things even simpler. With Instant pay, you can hold onto your cash until the very last minute—your people still get paid on time.
Sync your team’s earnings automatically.
We summarize everything so you can review.
Submit! Your team’s pay is on the way.
Learn more about Payroll
Time + Attendance
Automatically sync your team’s hours with payroll.
Set up your company, add your team, review hours, and click submit—Gusto pays employees and contractors, files taxes, and helps keep you compliant automatically.
Time-off requests and approvals
Project tracking
Custom PTO policies and reporting
Mobile time tracking
Learn more about Time & attendance
Hiring + Onboarding
Hire and onboard your employees more efficiently.
With Gusto, you don’t need to track hours in a spreadsheet or import deductions from another platform. Every time you run payroll, hours and PTO automatically sync, and benefits and deductions are calculated and paid. Your employees get peace of mind knowing paychecks are accurate and on time, and you get to enjoy all that time you just saved.
Job postings and offer letters
New hire onboarding checklists
Share documents and request electronic signatures instantly
Software provisioning and app integrations
Learn more about Hiring & Onboarding
7 days
Average amount of time to switch your business over to Gusto
8 minutes
Average amount of time it takes Gusto customers to run a regular payroll
152 hours
Amount of time the average customer saves on tax and compliance work when they switch to Gusto
Employee Benefits
Offer affordable health and financial benefits.
Our benefits are designed to be accessible for all. With more than 9,000 plans, 30+ carriers, and licensed advisors, we can help you craft the right plan for your team and budget.
Medical, dental, life, and vision
401(k), 529, and workers’ comp
Trusted benefits advisors
HSA and FSA
Learn more about Employee benefits
Talent Management
Build a culture of feedback to nurture your team’s growth.
Build a culture of feedback to nurture your team’s growth. Empower growth with built-in performance reviews, access to learning and development resources, and seamless integrations with leading performance tools—all in one place.
Performance reviews
Learning and development resources
Seamless integrations with other performance software
Learn more about Talent management
Insights + Reporting
Make smart business decisions based on smart data.
Unlock automated tax credit identification, real-time employee survey trends, proactive compliance alerts, and workforce costing tools—so you can lead with data, not guesswork.
Automated tax credit identification
Employee surveys and trend analysis
State and federal compliance alerts
Workforce costing tools
Learn more about Insights & reporting
Frequently asked questions
Wondering how to use Gusto for your business? You’re in luck—Gusto is one of the easiest payroll platforms on the market. Once you add your business info and employees, you’re just a few clicks away from paying your team. We automatically calculate, file, and pay all your federal, state, and local taxes. We also handle minimum wage and overtime along with meals and breaks.
If you’re searching for “how to run payroll in Gusto,” the flow looks like this.
Sign in and go to Payroll → Run payroll, then choose the pay period and confirm the run‑by date and payday.
Review or update each person’s hours, salary, overtime, bonuses, commissions, and reimbursements, and pick direct deposit or check. Gusto shows a clear summary of total wages, taxes, and the debit from your bank account.
When everything looks right, click Submit payroll and Gusto takes care of payments and filings. You can also turn on Payroll on AutoPilot® so these steps run automatically, with time to review.
It takes our customers just 8 minutes on average to run a regular payroll.* Payment speeds range from 2- and 4-day direct deposit to next-day, same-day, and Instant pay. Regular 2- and 4-day direct deposits are available with all of Gusto’s plans, and next-day is available with Plus and Premium plans. Same-day pay and Instant pay are available for a per-payroll-run fee.
With Gusto, HR and benefits are fully integrated into our payroll platform. You can easily hire and onboard employees, access powerful performance management tools, assign professional development, and even let us take care of compliance. Got a question? Our certified HR pros are just a phone call away.
With Gusto, benefits administration is included at no extra cost. Benefits are available in all 50 states, and you can choose from thousands of plans with dozens of carriers. We also offer no-cost, low-cost and supplemental options so you can build a package that works for your business. Want to transfer coverage with your existing broker? No problem, benefits broker integration comes included at no extra cost with the Premium plan and is available at $6 per employee per month on the Plus plan.