Attention: Attention, small business owners looking for Gusto pricing!

If you’re searching for a cost-effective and user-friendly payroll service to help manage your employees, Gusto may have the answer.

With powerful features like all-inclusive upfront pricing and customer support from professionals with experience in accounting, we can make sure every employee gets paid on time and correctly.

To give you even more incentive to choose Gusto as your payroll service of choice, Jamie Trull is offering a special promotion through our affiliate link.

Get 25% off for six months when signing up for the Plus plan now until 2022!

Maximize benefits such as extended hours of customer support compared to existing Basic plan users along with access to additional state filings and requirements if required across multiple states—all while receiving a $100 Visa gift card plus an exclusive hiring cheat sheet upon signing up!

Visit jamietrull.com/gusto today to sign up before this deal expires at the end of 2022 and find out how Gusto can be what you need in terms of accurate employment payment solutions!

Want to learn more?

Watch this video as Jamie discusses the pros and cons of Gusto payroll services.

This transcript has been edited for readability.

Hello, everyone!

I’m Jamie Trull, your favorite CPA and financial literacy coach.

And today we’re gonna be talking about one of my favorite subjects, which is payroll.

So we’re talking about small business payroll services here, and specifically I’ve done several different videos that focus on payroll and compared multiple different payroll solutions for you.

Today I’m just going to be focusing on one of those solutions, which is Gusto.

And so I’m going to do a full review of Gusto payroll processing so that you can get a feel for what Gusto is like.

I’m gonna tell you the pros and I’m gonna tell you the cons, and I’m gonna tell you some changes that they’ve also made this year.

I’m recording this towards the end of 2022.

So this is the current status of Gusto pricing at the end of 2022 into 2023.

So we’re really gonna be talking about the current status of this payroll processing company and whether I recommend it or not.

Now I’ll start by saying Gusto payroll software is definitely not for everyone.

Okay? There are definitely some pros and things I really, really like about Gusto that I think are fantastic.

There are some reasons that maybe Gusto might not be right for you.

So we’re gonna go through each of those things so that you can know if it’s a good solution for you.

Obviously, you’re probably already thinking about it because you’re watching this video.

So I wanna talk first about who a Gusto account is best for.

Now, in my opinion, Gusto is best for that smaller business owner, maybe one who is fairly comfortable with learning a new software.

You don’t need to know the ins and outs of how to process payroll itself.

Just be comfortable in a fairly intuitive software environment and comfortable kind of onboarding tools to run payroll and getting your hands dirty and finding things in there.

I do think that it’s a very intuitive platform to figure out.

There’s a lot of really good FAQs and different things like that.

There’s a great chat function included in the Gusto cost that you can use if you are having trouble.

But overall, I really do like the interface and I think it’s one of the simpler interfaces for payroll software that I have seen.

I really love Gusto, especially those small businesses that have under 10 employees right now.

You can go up, right?

There are businesses using Gusto payroll software that have quite a bit more than 10 employees, but I find that it’s a little bit more complicated, right?

You probably have more complex payroll software needs, and if that’s the case, then I have some additional recommendations.

Complex payroll software needs include:

• health insurance administration
• employee benefits management
• certified HR professionals and HR services
• workers compensation administration
• international contractor payments
• extended live support hours
• benefits administration

If you wanna see all my recommendations, you can go check out JamieTrull.com/payroll.

I have a whole decision tree in there that’ll walk you through maybe which selection is right for you based on your situation.

But I really love Gusto most for those who need simpler payroll solutions

For businesses that don’t have a lot of complexity to their payroll software, and are really looking for a cost effective solution.

Gusto is great if you have a smaller business and have some comfortability with using a software program.

Now, you won’t have to be in it a ton.

You can put payroll automatically on autopilot for a lot of this. That’s something that I also love about Gusto and something that I use there.

And so you don’t need to be an expert, but I do find that that’s probably the best suited person.

Gusto might not be the best solution for you if you have a much, much bigger company.

Or, if you have employees in lots and lots of different states.

Or perhaps you have just complicated payroll in general, you have a lot of different things going on, Gusto might not be the best solution for you in complete honesty, right?

There are some other solutions like ADP that have more fulsome solutions.

I do know that Gusto does have its premium plan service. I’ve never used it, so I can’t really attest to it.

So that could be an option, but I love ADP for some of those bigger companies.

But if you fall in that sweet spot for what Gusto offers …

Then this is a great way to have a cost effective solution that’s easy for small businesses to use.

So now, before we get too far into this video, I do wanna tell you that I am an affiliate for Gusto.

I have some special Gusto pricing promos that you can get for using my code, but I will say the reason that I recommend Gusto at all is not because I am an affiliate for it.

I am an affiliate for it because I use it and love it and recommend it.

Okay? So I do suggest you do your own research.

Don’t just take my word for it. It’s really important to research different tools.

That’s what you’re doing here on YouTube, right?

You can get a $100 Visa gift card by using my code JamieTrull.com/gusto!

And I also have some special offers for small businesses as well where you can get my hiring cheat sheet.

This is great, especially if you’re hiring for the first time.

So if you use one of my codes for great Gusto pricing, then you can go over and claim that cheat sheet at JamieTrull.com/payroll.

Okay?

So I’ll keep all of this, I’ll put this all in the show notes so that you know where to go.

But I did wanna let you know I do have that promo code so that you can save money on Gusto pricing.

Now, let’s talk about another pro of gusto that I really, really like.

My next favorite part about Gusto payroll is upfront Gusto pricing.

I cannot stand nickel and diming, okay?

Like I fly Southwest because I don’t wanna pay for my seat and my bags.

I already did that. So for me, I get so tired.

We’re living in this world of nickel and dime everything, right?

They get you in with these low prices and then they hit you with all these hidden fees and you’re not prepared for them.

And as a finance person, I really like to budget for the fees that I’m going to have. I don’t want anything to surprise me.

If you’re like me, you want a comprehensive payroll software.

I don’t wanna get to the end of the year and have a whole bunch of hidden fees for running W-2s.

Of course, I need a W-2, right?

I have to pay employees sometimes, I have to issue them per person. You may have to pay contractors.

It would be ridiculous for a payroll company not to include basic payroll features in the package that you’re already paying for.

So I love that everything is included within Gusto pricing plans.

There’s nothing that is going to come up and surprise you, okay?

It’s very, very straightforward and the custom pricing is what it is.

Now, going back to a con though of Gusto, right, they aren’t accountants necessarily.

So when you call in to support, right?

And you’re having an issue that is a technical issue from an accounting perspective, not with the software, but an accounting issue, right?

Maybe it’s something having to do with your workers’ compensation or something like that.

Gusto can help walk you through what you need to do, but they’re not gonna be able to opine on accounting issues.

So that’s where it can be really important, especially if you have any complexity at all with your payroll, to also have an accountant who can really liaise with payroll and make sure it gets set up correctly.

I do find that that is one of the things that people complain about the most, is that you know, something goes wrong or something’s not filed, and it’s usually not because of Gusto itself, right?

Or whatever payroll provider you’re using, but it’s because of how it was set up to begin with.

And so Gusto, you don’t have a person necessarily back there that’s running your payroll.

It’s all automated.

It’s a software, meaning however you set it up, that’s what’s going to happen.

So I think we expect to be able to call and get a hold of an accountant that may not be the right payroll service for you.

If you want that, you might need a more full service payroll.

That type of full service payroll that either comes from your accountant or potentially pair an accountant with something like Gusto so that you can get that expertise as well.

Because when you call in support, that’s not the kind of thing that they’re really going to be able to assist you with.

Now, while we’re on the topic, customer support, I think this is really important to talk about because Gusto has actually come out and said, we recognize that we have had some declines in our customer support.

When I first started with Gusto a couple of years ago, I raved about their customer support.

It was fantastic.

I always got the help that I needed. I could always get ahold of someone.

They always got back to me when I had issues.

I felt like it was phenomenal. One of the things I loved about it most was a dedicated customer success manager.

And then circa 2020 when the pandemic hit, different things started to happen, it seems like that just changed, right?

Gusto’s customer service began to suffer in 2020.

It seems like something happened where I think they were short on staff.

Maybe they weren’t able to provide the level of service that they really needed to.

There were lots of additional things coming out with Covid relief that really put a strain on their resources.

So not to make excuses, but they definitely, definitely suffered with their own expectations for customer service.

So that has been something Gusto has been working on, and I have seen it lately start to come back closer to what it used to be.

And so I have been happier.

Now, I was a little bit concerned, and I voiced that to them.

I really have seen that improvement.

And I think now after they had a huge influx of people also coming to Gusto all at one time,which was another thing that put a strain on resources.

Now Gusto has refined systems and really come up with even better packages with dedicated support.

This will help Gusto support people at a better level.

So they have recently made changes to Gusto’s pricing plans and the packages that they offer.

Some of the reason that they made those changes was, in my opinion, I’m guessing, to address this issue about customer support and make sure that people are really getting the customer support that they need.

Now, speaking of that, I do wanna jump in right now because if you are thinking about payroll, I’m recording this in November of 2022.

So if you sign up for Gusto between now and the end of the year, that doesn’t mean you need to run payroll by then.

Just sign up between now and the end of the year.

You won’t be billed at all until you start to run payroll, okay?

And you run that first payroll by January 31st.

So if you wanna get a new payroll provider up and running for the new year, which I do recommend, it’s a really good time to start a payroll system or to move from one that you’re not really happy with.

If you want to get up and running on Gusto payroll, they have a special deal for my favorite tier of theirs.

So of Gusto’s pricing tiers, I love their plus plan, and I do recommend that the simple is fine.

Maybe if it’s just you and one other employee or something like that, and you really don’t need much.

But I really like the plus plan. And the plus plan is on sale.

And I’m gonna tell y’all Gusto, I’ve never seen them have a sale.

This is the first time I have ever, ever seen Gusto have a sale.

So check out JamieTrull.com/Gusto for exclusive pricing.

Again, if you’re watching this after, it probably isn’t on sale right now, that doesn’t mean it’s still not a good deal right now.

It’s on sale for six whole months. You can save 25%. Okay? So I think that’s a great deal.

You can see it here.

If you’re watching this during the end of 2022, then this is the best time to sign up.

And like I said, you’re not gonna be billed until you run your first payroll, but you do wanna make sure you run it before the end of January.

Okay? Now you can move payroll at any point in time.

I love the idea of a clean start for payroll at the beginning of the year.

It’s a really good time for me to kind of get new things up and running, and you can close out the year and run your W two s with your old payroll system and then get up and running on something like Gusto.

Now, the reason that I say I like the plus, I’ll just show you the differences here on why I like the Plus over Gusto’s simple plan.

Overall, the basic plan has a lot of great things that you need, right?

It’s got your W-2s and 1099s that you’re gonna run.

You’re gonna be able to do your hiring and onboarding through it and time off reports and all of that kind of stuff.

Gusto’s Simple plan will have basic support (but not dedicated support).

It doesn’t say here, but ultimately, basic support runs from about 9:00 AM Pacific time to 4:00 PM Pacific Time.

That’s what basic support is.

So that’s fine probably if you’re in the Pacific timeframe, but if you’re in Eastern, that’s 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

So it’s kind of interesting. That’s all the support you would get with a live person.

You could always get to the FAQs, but that’s the only live person support that you would get.

So if you need something out of that timeframe, you wouldn’t be able to get it.

You get a couple extra hours earlier, right?

If you do the plus plan, this is where you get full support.

Full support basically means that you have extended hours that you are able to to get a live person on the line, which I think can be really helpful.

It actually runs about two hours earlier in the morning.

So if you’re in the Eastern time zone especially, that means instead of waiting until noon, you can start calling at 10:00 AM So then you get 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM okay?

It really depends on your time zone, but ultimately that’s one of the best things about it.

The other reason you might need to go with the plus plan, okay, is one change that they made is now with plus, if you have employees in multiple states, you have to get plus, okay?

So the basic plan, the simple plan is only only for those who only have employees in one state.

So if you’re anything like me, I currently have a few employees, but they’re all in different states. And so I have to be on the plus plan.

Now that that has moved over and the reason that that’s more expensive, you might wonder, why does it matter if I have employees in different states?

What’s the difference?

Well, there’s a lot more that needs to be done in terms of filing additional state reports.

Each state has additional requirements as far as workers compensation and things like that. They’re additional forms that need to be filed.

So it does make sense to me that they would have a higher price if you have multiple different workers compensation states, because that is more work for Gusto. Okay?

So I do recommend, and I do think that the plus package is really a great value, unless you just need the most simple of the pricing plans possible.

In which case you can start with a simple plan. But again, with the deal right now, if you’re listening to me now, the plus plan may be the way to go.

So that’s all I have for today.

Again, I’m gonna outline the steps for you. If you know you wanna sign up for Gusto plans:

Go right to JamieTrull.com/gusto.

You can sign up and get that hundred dollars Visa gift card just for signing up.

You’re gonna get that for free by using my link.

Again, you’re also, if you sign up for the Plus, you’re still gonna get that discount for six months if you sign up between now and the end of the year.

Okay? And you don’t have to run payroll until next year. You won’t be charged before that.

So that’s the first thing.

If you’re still trying to decide what payroll is right for you, then continue to do your research.

You can also go check out the other platforms that we recommend and who they’re best for at JamieTrull.com/payroll.

And also on that same page, you’ll see where you can request the hiring cheat sheet.

And we do give that to those of you who use one of our referral links for one of our payroll providers.

You can just let us know which one, we’ll verify that, and then we’re gonna send you that hiring cheat sheet for free.

So you get not only a hundred dollars Visa gift card, yay. You also are gonna get that hiring cheat sheet directly from us.

So we hope that you make the best decision you can on payroll.

Again, we’re continuing to come out with more and more content on this. If there’s something you want to know more about, let us know what way you would like to hear about.

hopefully we’ll see you next time.

Frequently Asked Questions about Gusto pricing plans

How much monthly is Gusto?

Their Basic plan starts at $40/month plus $6/month per person, with automatic payroll tax filing, health benefits administration, and employee self-service features.

The Plus plan starts at $80/month plus $12/month per person and includes all the features of the Core plan plus payroll, benefits, and HR tools. Their Concierge plan, which includes dedicated HR support, starts at $149/month plus $12/month per person.

How much does Gusto charge for w2s or 1099?

For contractor-only employees, Gusto pricing plans include a 1099 only plan for just $6/month per contractor.

Otherwise you can choose the basic or Plus plan for $40/month plus $6/month per person. Or $80/month plus $12/month per person, respectively.

TLDR: Gusto cost and Payroll software

This is a review of Gusto payroll service for small business owners. We’ll discuss pros, cons, and recent changes as of 2023:

• Gusto is best for smaller business owners comfortable using software and with less complex payroll needs.
• A few pros of Gusto include its user-friendly interface, cost-effective solution, and all-inclusive upfront pricing.
• Jamie Trull is an affiliate for Gusto, emphasizing viewers should do their own research before choosing a payroll solution.
• A con of Gusto is its customer support not being actual accountants. Users may need additional support from an accountant for complex payroll situations.
• Gusto’s customer support suffered during the pandemic but has been improving since then.
• Gusto has announced new pricing tiers and packages to address customer support issues.
• Basic support hours are more limited compared to the extended hours provided with the Plus plan.
• The Plus plan is required for employees in multiple states due to additional state-specific filings and requirements.
• To sign up for Gusto, users can visit Jamie Trull’s link (jamietrull.com/gusto). Get a $100 Visa gift card and hiring cheat sheet.

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