If you’re a business owner and entrepreneur, you have gone to great lengths to get your business up and running. Besides startup costs and long hours acquiring necessary permits and licenses, you’ve invested brain power. The ideas, the plan, the vision - you have poured your heart and soul into this business! 

As you’ve learned, the work doesn’t just stop once things are up and running. There’s a lot to do in order to keep the ball rolling and the lights on. Managing the workload is a full time job. After a while though, it becomes more than a full time job and you’re only one person. Naturally, one thing that quickly pops up on your radar is finding help to get things done.

No matter what size business you run, you need help. “Many hands make light work,” as they say. And you need to lighten the load, because your business may be small, but the responsibilities are not. Finding and hiring employees becomes a new priority. 

While it may sound simple to employ others, there are some major considerations to be made. What processes will I follow? What systems will I use? What’s more, you begin to realize that finding and hiring employees is only the first step. Maintaining a workforce - keeping them happy and making things simple - is a whole other story. Have you started hyperventilating yet?

Fortunately, with the right HR platform, you can breathe a little easier. You need tools which ease the burdens of employee management. Gusto is the all-in-one HR platform which will help you conveniently and intuitively handle your workforce. With Gusto, you can manage onboarding, payroll, and everything in between. 

We’ll tell you why Gusto is the right tool for your team.

What is Gusto? Payroll for Small Business, and More!

If you’re looking for a payroll system, Gusto is a great solution. But Gusto also offers so much more! Gusto is an all-encompassing suite of HR tools designed to help you tend to every aspect of your team’s human resources needs. Trusted by over 200,000 businesses nationwide, Gusto offers solutions for:

• Full-service payroll

• Hiring and onboarding

• Time and attendance

• Employee benefits

• Talent management

• Insights and reporting

If you’re a small to medium-sized business, it’s unlikely you can manually tend to all of these processes on your own. Gusto will automate your HR processes so you can spend more time managing the core aspects of your business.

Gusto gives you the ability to manage all your HR responsibilities in one place. Further, their cloud-based solution allows you to access all your HR data from anywhere with an internet connection.

Getting Started With Gusto

Plans and Pricing

To begin, you’ll want to get familiar with the pricing plans and capabilities each plan will offer you. Gusto offers five differently priced plans, designed to meet your individual business needs.

Plans offered are:

• Core ($39/month + $6 per person paid): The Core plan is for smaller businesses who manage simple salary, wage, and pay schedules. With this option you will receive full service payroll, as well as employee profiles and health insurance options. 

• Complete ($39/month + $12 per person paid): The Complete plan is for businesses with more complex hiring, payroll, and team management needs. You receive everything in the Core plan, plus great features like next-day direct deposit, hiring and onboarding tools, and performance reviews.

• Concierge ($149/month + $12 per person paid): The Concierge plan is for businesses with sophisticated HR, policy, and compliance needs. This plan includes everything from the Concierge plan, plus access to the HR resource center and HR experts.

• Select (for pricing you must contact a Gusto representative): The Select plan is for businesses in growth mode who need dedicated support and premium tools. This plan includes everything previously mentioned, plus some other major features like full-service payroll migration and access to a dedicated customer success manager. 

• Contractor Only ($0/month + $6 per contractor paid): The Contractor Only plan is for contractor-only businesses who do not have any W-2 employees. This plan will get you unlimited contractor payments (non-international), 4-day direct deposit, 1099-NECs at year’s end, and new hire reporting (if your state requires).

Payroll

Utilizing the payroll function of Gusto is as simple as it gets. You start by setting up salaries and hourly wages for each employee. Setting up your payroll on autopilot will allow Gusto to run payroll on a set schedule.

All payroll taxes are calculated and filed by Gusto for both you and your employees. Record of pay can be accessed by employees in their personal profiles. Gusto will also send an email to employees on payday so they know when they’re getting paid.

Contractor Payment

Paying contractors through Gusto is just as easy. Set up profiles for each of your contractors and enter payments. Pay will be delivered via direct deposits. 

Contractor payments are tracked through Gusto as well and 1099 forms will be generated for your contractors at the end of each year. When forms are ready, your contractors will get an email letting them know.

For both employees and contractors, checks can be issued. However, Gusto will not send checks for you. You must print checks generated by Gusto and manually mail them yourself.

Administration of Benefits

With all account levels, you can make a selection of very practical and meaningful employee benefits.

Gusto gives you the ability to purchase group health, dental and vision plans which can be administered on the platform itself. Each employee can choose to opt in or out of these plans. 

Do you want to offer commuter benefits to your employees? Gusto gives you the ability to give commuter stipends or company car perks.

Retirement and savings plans are also an option with Gusto. You can administer retirement plans and 529 college savings plans.

Gusto gives the ability for custom benefits options like wellness and housing stipends. These can be added to employee checks - tracked and taxed automatically by Gusto.

Additional Benefits of Using Gusto

Adding Administrators

With Gusto, you can easily add administrators. This option allows you to give access to internal or external employees who manage your HR, accounting, or booking, giving them the information they need to do their jobs without hassle.

Integrations

Gusto allows you to integrate hundreds of other softwares, including some of the most popular accounting applications like QuickBooks, Xero, and Freshbooks.

Gusto Wallet

If they’d like, your employees can opt in to the Gusto wallet. This banking platform enables them to receive benefits such as same-day paychecks, spending and savings accounts, and paycheck advance options.

Partner With Lamplight Advisors to Manage HR and Payroll For Your Small Business

At Lamplight Advisors, we offer a wide array of payroll and HR services in an effort to help clients maintain their workforce. We recommend using Gusto to automate your payroll and HR processes and give your employees the experience and benefits they deserve. To see if we can help you with your HR and payroll needs, click here to schedule a conversation today.