Gusto

Pros

Gusto is a one-stop solution for human resource and payroll management. It has a very easy-to-use user interface, with employee management, payroll tracking, employee hiring features as well. Also, customer support is quick and effective.

Cons

The product is a bit on the costlier side, which makes it difficult for small startups to adopt to such useful software.

Pros

Gusto is very user friendly. I used Gusto when I started my consulting business and the time to set up was less than 10 minutes. Time saved when operating a business is crucial.

Cons

For my business needs, there was nothing I disliked

Pros

It had a modern user interface. It was easy to access

Cons

Absolutely no support. Failed to file and pay taxes withheld

Pros

I like the quirky personality and fun images. Finance and Payroll is a very serious area of business. It is refreshing to have a program like Gusto add a little spice to things. They have a decorated, prancing pig as a logo. :)

Cons

I came very close to damaging my vocal cords at the end of our first year. The State of Wisconsin sent me a letter directly saying that we owed $16,000 in back payroll taxes plus over a thousand dollars in interest and penalites. I called Wisconsin myself and quickly determined what the problem was. It was a simple error Gusto made when filling out our annual gross pay and withholding report. The first 3 months were compliled by me. We started with Gusto in November. The 4th quarter number Gusto sent to the State was a total of all 3 of my quarters PLUS the total for the 4th quarter. We had approx. $4,000 in taxes due to the State each quarter. All money was paid, by myself for 3 quarters and Gusto for the 4th quarter. However, the man who signed the form at Gusto entered $20,000 for the 4th quarter and $32,000 (3 qtrs X $4,000 plus $20,000) for the annual total. We had paid $16,000. This created a shortage of $16,000 according to the automated computer at the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Hence, the letter filled with interest and penalties.

The lady Wisconsin DOR was very helpful and much to my surprise, I was able to correct the annual filing myself online with her help on the phone. The $16,000 was no longer due. However, everyone in the entire State of Wisconsin system was powerless to eliminate the interest and penalties.

I had to make well over 10 phone calls and emails just to talk to someone at Gusto who could help me. I explained that the immediate problem was cleared up by me. However, Gusto was responsible, per how ALL payroll companies sell their services, for the interest and penalties since Gusto was entirely to blame.

It was SO FRUSTRATING that the first people answering the phone acted as though they had NO IDEA that Gusto even processed government payroll reports. Once, while ON HOLD, and intermittently talking to a live person for 45 minutes, I asked this entry level phone answerer which office they were in: east coast or west coast? They said that they COULDN'T ANSWER!!! We went round and round with excuse after excuse why he couldn't answer. Starting with "I don't know" and ending up with "I'm afraid that you may buy an airplane ticket to my city, hunt me down and violently attack me." I was livid. But that wasn't why I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Finally, after 10 contacts and many failed promises to have a manager contact me, a top woman manager in the appropriate department came to the phone after another half-hour plus wait. We reviewed the situation. Again, this was a VERY SIMPLE SITUATION. An honest mistake that anyone who has ever filled out a government form, or a middle school math test, could easily have done and in hindsight would be able to see their error and admit that they made a mistake.

The Gusto manager said several times, which I remember like it happened yesterday: "I will get back to you after reviewing this situation, and IF Gusto made an error, we will remedy the situation." IF IF? IF GUSTO MADE AN ERROR?!?!?!?!?! IF I lost my cool demeanor. I am mild mannered and like to laugh and joke. Be a nice guy. Hence, wondering what the weather was like and which sports teams the man on hold would like to talk about. Except that he thought that I could possibly be a violent threat even though, east coast or west coast I was a long airplane flight away!! This manager said "IF" one too many times. I SCREAMED THE OBVIOUS! "GUSTO WAS UNDER CONTRACT TO FILE THE PAPERWORK. GUSTO PERSONNEL SIGNED THE PAPERWORK. I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT OTHER THAN I CLEANED UP THE MESS GUSTO CREATED. NOW GUSTO NEEDS TO PUT ON THEIR BIG GIRL PANTS AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ERROR. THERE IS NO IF INVOLVED." {How can I make the word IF twice the size and bold so it stands out more? Standard text doesn't come close to how furious I was. First over 10 contacts I initiated. Then being told...'IF Gusto made a mistake" when the mistake was obvious.

Pros

Very user friendly/easy to learn and utilize even for a non HR/payroll professional.

Cons

Nothing - we have been very happy with using Gusto after having used two different payroll services in the past.

Pros

Gusto is the best interface that I have used. Simple, easy to navigate, I like the payday email reminders and they have fun graphics which is just a bonus.

Cons

They have an app, I never used it, in fact I cannot recall them advertising that it exists. That might be my own negligence.

Pros

Gusto is fantastic! This completely simplifies the entire payroll process. Very easy to set up and easy to enter on a weekly basis. I highly recommend using Gusto!
Added bonus being able to get benefits and work comp. through them also!

Cons

Honestly, I don't really have any cons for this software. We love it! It has saved us a ridiculous amount of money and time compared to other payroll providers.

Pros

Track your hours worked. See all your benefits in one single place.

Cons

This is actually a great application and i have not encountered any problems yet.

Pros

The constant improvement, easy to use and manage.

Cons

How easy I can access to my profile and also connect with other coworkers?

Pros

Gusto allows for individual employee engagement which provides efficiency for the HR team while allowing an autonomous management of personal details such as PTO request, pay stubs, downloading W2, review process, hiring database and onboarding.

Cons

Limited access to individual managers unless an admin.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Gusto

Pros

Gusto has a pretty simple and easy UX and is quite easy to navigate around

Cons

gusto support wasn't great and it was hard to get help with a rep and the price skyrocketed out of nowhere

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Gusto

Pros

Wonderful customer service, really responsive and easy to work with.

Cons

We have struggled adjusting to the change in when direct deposit gets settled. Most payroll companies, the banks will release funds to employee's accounts once it clears the employer's account. But with Gusto the funds don't clear the account until it the day employees are to be paid. So, employees who used to receive their checks early due to who they bank with no longer get that, they now have to wait until pay date later in the afternoon before their check is deposited.

Pros

In general, the payroll features are easy to set-up and use.

Cons

I don't like that their payroll journal entries can only map to main accounts and not sub-accounts. I don't like that they don't seem to understand that Group Term Life Insurance premiums paid by the employer are taxable benefits to the employee, but no cash is exchanged between employer and employee. They set up the journal entries to reflect a cash payment to the employee and I haven't found a way to disable that. Finally, I have had repeated support issues, most notably, all of my employees that were employed during 2022 were notified of a "Draft" W-2c for the 2022 tax year uploaded to their employee accounts on 12/4/2023. Those "Draft" W-2cs for the prior year were erroneous. After spending hours upon hours reviewing each employee's payroll totals for the 2022 tax year and ensuring there was no such error that needed correcting, I reached out to Gusto through the only feature possible when you need to provide attachments which is an online form. I submitted one for every, single employee. I received a single reply email saying "not to worry" they would address it. I never received a follow-up until I insisted that they call me back. On follow-up, I was told that it was a "company-wide internal error." Furthermore, they couldn't remove the erroneous "Draft" 2022 W-2cs from my employees' accounts and they couldn't provide any official documentation to provide to my employees that the error was theirs and theirs alone. I demanded some sort of compensation at the very least to which they offered a 25% discount for 2 months which amounts to roughly $130 which barely covers 2 hours of my time spent dealing with the mess that they created. Furthermore, when my January bill came, they had not provided the discount. I'm assured that it will appear on my "next" bill but I'm not holding my breath. They should have reached out to their clients pre-emptively about this problem. They should have been responsive to my 16 support tickets about this problem. They should have offered multiple months of free service to compensate for this problem. They offered nothing voluntarily. Nothing. This is absolutely unacceptable handling of a "company-wide error." Oh, and I ran into a different tax compliance issue with city-wide occupational tax with which they should be intimately familiar since their headquarters are located in an adjacent city with an identical occupational tax and yet their own employees didn't seem to understand the nuance of this tax to which their own employees are subject. What kind of payroll company doesn't understand the payroll taxes in their own jurisdiction?

Pros

What I like most about Gusto is its comprehensive approach, as it can combine ease of use with automated payroll and tax management.

The platform automatically calculates and processes wages, files and pays payroll taxes, and manages benefits such as insurance and retirement plans. All of this happens in an intuitive and user-friendly interface, meaning that users can manage these processes without needing to be experts in payroll or accounting.

It is very useful for small and medium-sized businesses that do not have so many departments.

Cons

What I don't like about Gusto is that it can get a bit pricey as your business grows or if you need additional features. While it's affordable for small businesses, the pricing model includes a base fee plus a cost per employee, which can quickly add up if you have a growing workforce or decide to use more advanced features like benefits administration and additional HR tools.

Pros

What I like most about Gusto is the ability to go in and change a payroll if needed after you submitted it - It is also very easy to use and the support they give if needed it quick.

Cons

They weren't able to add multiple local jurisdictions for one check to break the Gross pay between the days worked. Also the reports are straight forward always compared to other payroll platforms. You had to build reports and the Quarterly reports get released later than normal payroll platforms.

Pros

How easy and straightforward the system is not complicated and identifying errors so that payroll can be completed

Cons

Very simplistic unfortunately it doesn’t have all the data categories. You’re larger more expensive systems will have however, if you have the time that they worked, and you use a application that integrates it the most bang for your buck.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Gusto

Pros

It was pretty easy to make payroll adjustments for both W2 employees and contractors. The health benefits offering is very helpful for small companies.

Cons

When onboarding a new employee, they don't handle any of the paperwork- meaning a lot of manual time has to be spent working on that.

Pros

Managing goals, training and objectives has become quite effortless. It is easy to find hire and reward the right talent with Gusto. It is also a wonderful online HR tool which helps us in empowering our employees.

Cons

Customization is not satisfying for me. It was not easy at all to setup this tool. Until now, some icons remains unchanged due to failures.

Pros

Not much. The direct deposit did always go in next day, so that was nice.

Cons

Support was terrible. Chat never worked and if you miss their support call, you put in new request.They are also only able to calculate fed withholding for simple pay plans (straight hourly or salary with no commission). They calculate witholding as if each paycheck is the exact same each month.If you make $10K on your first paycheck of the month and $900 on your 2nd of the month, they will withhold $0 in federal withholding for the second paycheck, leaving you with almost $11,000 in untaxed income. They can't fix this. They also said they HAVE TO print an hourly rate on my salaried employees' paystubs, even though it shows 0 hours and they are paid a salary.

Pros

User interface for employees is ok. It looks nice.

Cons

For those searching if Gusto is a good choice...its not...I thought it was...had a few hiccups, nothing major...and then they overdrew my account, cool fixed it quickly, then I switched our benefits to them. They messed up the withdrawl dates, blamed me and then [sensitive content hidden]
clearly stated they made the change), and then took no responsibility for it. Worst than that, then they penalized me bc the change they made overdrew my bank account bc it pulled two months of benefit premiums and then wouldn't change my processing time back. After SEVEN different people "helping" and "responding" to my issue, I switched. While I like their feature set, its not worth the massive headache that comes when any little thing goes wrong- steer clear!!!

Pros

Gusto is perfect for small to medium size firms that want an easy interface for both admins and users.

Cons

Sometimes Gusto can be too simple and doesn't offer everything competitors did at the time of using it.

Pros

Easy to use for administrators and employees.

Cons

Not user friendly for companies over 50 employees.

Pros

I enjoyed the simple user face of Gusto. It was easy to navigate and find everything that I needed.

Cons

When I had questions, it often took a while for customer service to get back to me. When they did, they were very helpful, but it often took some time.

Pros

There are some nice features and a sleek user interface.

Cons

It's unreliable with payroll deposits and the customer service is terrible.

Pros

The options for different gift cards is what I like best.

Cons

There was nothing I disliked about using gusto.

Pros

As a startup business executive, Gusto has been excellent in simplifying the payroll and HR processes. It has made payroll effortless, handling taxes, benefits, and employee payments in a way that's easy to manage.

I also want to share another highlight of Gusto, and that is its onboarding experience. New hires can enter their information and sign documents digitally, which saves time and keeps everything organized from day one.

Cons

Perhaps one of the bigger challenges with Gusto is its limited customization options. While it does cover the basics well, if your organization has unique payroll or benefit requirements, it can be difficult to tailor the platform to meet those needs.

Pros

platform online is modern and easy to use.

Cons

We’ve been using Gusto for years, and while there have been ups and downs, the biggest disappointment has been their FSA platform. It’s truly subpar compared to other services we’ve used. It seems like the default approach is to deny claims, even when we provide all the correct documentation and information.

The process is unnecessarily frustrating, with no clear explanations for denials, leaving us in a constant loop of resubmitting claims and waiting for approval that never seems to come. Gusto’s FSA platform feels more like an obstacle than a helpful service, and it has caused headaches for our team.

While the payroll and other HR features are decent, the FSA platform is a dealbreaker. If you’re considering Gusto and FSA management is important to you, I’d strongly recommend looking elsewhere.

Pros

Gusto is incredibly easy to utilize as both a user and payroll processor. I can quickly navigate my benefits, paycheck history, edit direct deposit and review my performances and help track my teams expenses for the month and quarter. It's incredibly efficient compared to some of the legacy companies, than can be complex. While we don't have an overly complex payroll, we've found no real issues.

Cons

Deposit time. Some of our users report not receiving direct deposits until later in that afternoon, vs the day before, or the morning of payday.

Pros

Gusto is impressively versatile — it can be used as a hub for both documents and hours tracking!

Cons

The only things I don't like:
1. How quickly access would time out, and how long the app often takes to load a new screen (~15+ seconds at times).
2. Some quirks affecting ease of entry for tracking hours (e.g. not being able to adjust the clock-out time to a future time, the requirement to enter a note before you can save a shift). Some companies it might make sense to have those requirements in place, but that could be better customizable.

Pros

Super simple to use and a reasonable price. Customer service helped me with onboarding and walked me through the features over the phone.

Cons

I haven't noticed much in the way of negatives and I've been using it for about two years.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Gusto

Pros

The user interface is really nice looking and it is easy to get started and use - when it is working.

Cons

There are a LOT of glitches, and customer service cannot help you at all. Some of their backend processes make no sense, and they get really snarky when you ask questions.

Pros

I loved Gusto's simplified and easy to use GUI. It also had very nice minimalist art that was very cute and appealing. I enjoyed using it to track my paystubs and submit request to take paid time off.

Cons

I didn't have much I didn't like about Gusto, except when my company moved to a competitor and I could no longer use it.

Pros

The general ease and flow of the platform, allows the user to complete payroll in under 2 minutes. The new spreadsheet feature enables accurate time tracking. Great integration with Quickbooks!

Cons

From an aesthetics perspective, the font is stale and the colors are boring. There should be more flashy indicators for the next step/

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Gusto

Pros

Gusto's ease of use is what we like most. It's so easy for our employees to onboard and use.

Cons

Their state tax compliance service need a bit of improvement, especially on the city and county level for taxes

Pros

As a place to track my pay, I appreciate the user-friendly interface making it simple to explore tools within the platform, and find all information that I need at any point.

Cons

I have found it difficult to change my contact information permanently. For example, I got married one year, and now have a different email than the one that Gusto uses for login, and I cannot figure out how to change the actual login email which is frustrating because I no longer use it.

Pros

I liked Gusto's easy-to-use UI and extensive payroll management capabilities. Managing HR activities was made simple by its smooth connection with compliance and benefits administration technologies. Both small and growing enterprises found the software's scalability to be advantageous, and the customer assistance was competent and responsive.

Cons

The payroll and HR software Gusto has limitations. Its user interface, which some find complicated and challenging to use, is one frequent problem. Furthermore, there may be irregularities in the customer service, which causes delays in the resolution of problems. For new users, the learning curve can be quite severe.

Pros

Gusto is extremely user friendly,even if you dont have extensive accounting/payroll experience.Payroll processing would sometimes take hours to process but Gusto has allowed us to simplify payroll.I have also found time and vacation tracker very useful.

Cons

Nothing really it is easy to move around the website, Pricing is great and customer support is almost always fantastic and quick.

Pros

Onboarding process is easy and easy interface for employees.

Cons

Customer service is absolutely horrible. There's no problem-solving solutions in place. There are many times that I call and hang up to call back once I hear Someone that I know will not be any help to me. I keep calling until I hit the lottery and actually get someone who is invested in helping me resolve issues. There's no care for the actual business owner. This company only cares about their monthly fee and could care less about your issues with their company. They take forever to resolve issues, like a whole week. SO, make sure you don't have any payroll issues during the pay week because your staff will not get paid through this platform.

Pros

I like the part of accessing everything as everything is readily available from the drop down menu,our teams onboarding is simple and allows us to input our own information to cut down on time spent doing that,I have to appreciate how accessing the necessary features has been incredibly straight forward whether on the phone or desktop.

Cons

Nothing.Gusto works well and it has not given us any trouble when using it.

Pros

Onboarding new employees takes no time at all.With a few clicks Gusto sends the online form to your candidates and alerts you once it is ready for approval.Its like having a full HR team at your fingertips but literally for a fraction of cost.

Cons

As the time grows it can be slightly expensive.

Pros

Gusto is so easy! My business uses Gusto and managing payroll and benefits is so simple

Cons

I tried the Gusto Checking account and I feel like it is very lackluster and pales in comparison to a regular checking account. This isn't their main offering so it doesnt bother me

Pros

The ease of time clock, company calendar and tax info all in one place

Cons

Wish it would give reminders of important dates on the calendar

Pros

Gusto offers a user friendly platform that allows you to achieve all of HR/Payroll tasks in a timley manner.

Cons

It feels like thier is a constant push to use their features that we are not taking advantage of. Advertising that I could do without.

Pros

The system is easy to use, but it is super problematic.

Cons

Firstly, the customer service aspect has been less than satisfactory. On multiple occasions, responses to inquiries and issues were delayed or lacked the depth and clarity needed to resolve concerns efficiently. It's crucial for a service provider in such a critical domain as payroll and HR to offer prompt and effective support to its customers. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case, leaving our team in challenging positions during time-sensitive periods.

Another significant issue encountered was the unexpected cancellation of payroll processes without prior notice. Not only has this caused confusion but also operational delays, affecting the morale of our workforce due to the unpredictability of their compensation. We've been met with no information, no solution.

There have been instances where former employees were not promptly removed from our benefits plan for months even after being notified, leading to unnecessary complications and financial discrepancies. This oversight underscores a need for a more rigorous system or checks to ensure that employee status changes are accurately and timely reflected across all service aspects provided by Gusto.

Pros

Using Gusto for payroll, benefits and insurance administration is so simple. It's easy right from the beginning. Their customer support is always super helpful and works hard to make sure they resolve any issues you may have.

Cons

The only downside to Gusto is that they are limited to small companies. It's not necessary a bad thing. I just like it so much that I want to use it with all my clients regardless of their company size!

Pros

What I liked most about the product probably had to be the all inclusive packages for businesses. They handled pay memos, 1099 fillings and even communicated with the IRS on my behalf as my financial institution. Very good product. I also loved that gusto covered onboarding and HR paper work.

Cons

The pricing model is a bit expensive and can be intimidating to new businesses. They also don’t really have a good sales team that communicates features productively to ensure transparency.

Pros

I like the features addition options for things that I don't necessarily need for my business i don't have to up scribe for those features. Response time on payroll has been amazing.

Cons

When additional payments needed to be added to payroll history it was difficult to navigate.

Pros

It seemed easy to set up. I like that it has integration with other apps, such as timekeeping and scheduling.

Cons

Even though it asked the right questions about when our work week starts (on a Saturday), and when our payroll day is, it wrongly generated our payroll periods to start from Monday through Sunday. This is despite the fact that I was on the phone with them for hours explaining that our work week starts on Saturdays, and th payroll period has to match that. First, they claimed they fixed the issue. Then, when I found out they had not fixed the issue, they tried to tell me that the workweek does not have to match the payroll period. (!!!!) That is absolute BS. Then, they told me they would bring it to a higher-level support. They never called me after that. In the meantime, they have wrongly reported two payrolls to the tax agencies. and made us look like we did not pay our employees for two days.

Pros

Gusto has offered us an amazing payroll system which is easy to use. It has simplified the process of paying our employees.

Cons

I have nothing to dislike with this platform.

Pros

I like the price. I like how I can pay my full-time and contractors all in one place. I like how they offer so many small business options for people who doesn't know what your supposed to have and not have. They will assist setting up all the tax information with you.

Cons

I don't like how you cannot do same day payment with certain tiers.