With the reputation of a high-class payroll automation system, Gusto may here and there be perceived as ‘overly complicated’ for single employees and sole proprietors. Once you scratch the surface of how billion-dollar worth startup Gusto handles its deeds, however, you reveal a whole different perception – A friendly and inviting dashboard that looks cut for small businesses and single administrators.
Gusto’s applicability in small and developing corporate settings is in fact its competitive edge in this industry. According to founder and CEO Josh Reeves, Gusto was designed to make startups proactive, following the personal example of what used to be a brave idea, and it is now the world’s leading payroll automation system. This is why Gusto won’t overwhelm you with fancy bells and whistles, but rather allow you to manage your payroll in a clutter-free and easy-to-navigate environment.
What is it that makes Gusto special? This promising system brings under the same roof payroll management features, benefits administration capabilities, and HR management tools, and guarantees at the same time full compatibility with HIPPA, ACA, and ERISA standards. It is currently operable in several US states, where it drafts detailed and universally applicable local, state, and federal tax statements. To make matters better, Gusto is hosted in cloud and requires minimal maintenance efforts, and makes information available from all devices and operating systems. For more information, read a detailed Gusto review prepared by our team.
Gusto in single-employee settings: How will this system help you enhance productivity?
Gusto’s all-encompassing customer and payroll service is a perfect fit in single employee scenarios, as it unifies payroll and HR management and breaks down critical operations in well-organized productivity modules. At the same time, Gusto is offered on a flat base fee of $39/month, and gives admins the possibility to involve additional users for as little as $6 per person.
Is Gusto the top pick for your business? Let’s check:
A no-brainer interface that pleases inexperienced proprietors
That’s right, you’ve set up a promising business for yourself or a team of few, and pinpointed Gusto to be your payroll management system. What happens next? In most common accounting software scenarios, hitting off discourages users with complex navigation patterns and operations they’ve never heard of, but Gusto puts an end to this problem. The process of onboarding for you an d your employees is as simple as creating a company profile, adding contact data and drafting employee profiles, and selecting all local, state, and federal taxes that apply to you from a dropdown menu. After this, the system will ask you to set up and verify your bank account, choose the preferred type of transactions, and you are ready to go. From here on, all your work will take place in the payment schedule, which resembles a traditional, yet automated payroll sheet, and it is one you get to customize in line with your business specifications.
All payroll services a sole proprietor would need (without paying additional fees)
With Gusto, a sole proprietor can handle all payroll tax obligations and activities, both for W-2 employees and 1099 contractors. The number of payrolls per month is not limited and won’t require additional fees, which makes perfect sense for businesses working with several contractors on different pay schedules. What is more, the user has no obligation to sync all contractors within the same payroll cycle, and still manages to pay everyone on time, and with all benefits taken care of. The very same service allows payment through direct deposits and checks, which makes the process even simpler.
Handling the burden of tax responsibility
If you’re running a business alone, there is no one who knows better how daunting tax statements can be. Instead of hiring third-parties to handle sensitive data, you will be able to assume full tax responsibility on your own. This system will automatically calculate, pay, and file your taxes, including local, state, and federal ones. As the end of the year approaches, it will distribute W-2 and 1099 forms to all concerned parties, and prepare a year-end statement downloadable from the system, and usable for different purposes. Keep in mind that the system is very flexible, and gives you the right to modify fillable fields and adjust forms to specific workflows, but that such process requires a 15-days Paychex Flex validation by the system.
No more ‘time off’ miscalculations
Thanks to its ability to nitpick payment details and prepare compact reports, Gusto also handles time off payments, and runs a type of ‘payroll autopilot’. The employee in question submits a request, and once that request gets approved, hours off are calculated and automatically synced with the payroll. Each paystub is open for additional notes and comments concerning the time off, and employees are invited to administer their profile by setting reminders and distributing their income.
Managing your own compensation plan
For certain sole proprietors and small biz owners, the core value of this system is benefits administration, as they get to tailor their compensation plans, save, or offer attractive retirement and saving programs. Within a small team, this also represents unlimited access to benefit information and tips with minimal upper management involvement.
Gusto covers health benefits with access to experienced advisers, but also 401(k) retirement plans for popular professions and 529 college saving for easy access to contributors. All transactions and contributions are automatically synced with the system, and there is no need to update anything manually. These benefits, however, are only offered in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas and Washington, with more states coming soon.
Synchronizing the system with third-party software
Gusto stands for one of the best connected payroll automation systems, as it allows painless migration of payment data to/from popular accounting and HR systems. This means that the sole proprietor won’t be expected to make significant and expensive modifications to his current software infrastructure, and will be able to connect Gusto to leading systems with no coding knowledge at all. At the moment, Gusto functions in synergy with Bamboo HR, QuickBooks (Desktop and Online), Xero, FreshBooks, Nimble, Receipt Bank, Deputy, When I Work, and many other systems.
Top-class service and access to expert advice
Gusto is also well-known for expert onboarding support and guidance through the payroll process, which proved to be indispensable for beginners and inexperienced business owners. You can contact their knowledgeable team at any time, and share your business specifications to ensure work is completed in line with legal standards and provisions. Experts are available by phone, email, and live chat, and will be happy to answer questions with no additional fees but the base price.
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