Book Gusto payroll with Payroll Setup
Tell LedgerHQ how to book each Gusto payroll, fix earlier payrolls this year, and book new payrolls for review or automatically.
What It Does
Gusto's bank withdrawals arrive as a few lump sums: net pay, taxes, and fees. Payroll Setup uses the payroll detail from Gusto to split those withdrawals the way you want them on the income statement.
Each employee's group gets their full gross pay, W-2 style. Employee taxes, 401(k) deferrals, and other withholdings stay inside gross pay. Only the employer's own costs are broken out: employer taxes, company-paid benefits, reimbursements, and Gusto fees.
Without a Gusto connection nothing changes. Bank rows book wherever you code them.
Set It Up
Open Payroll, then Setup. Setup starts once a payroll from this year has synced from Gusto. It has three steps:
- Employee groups. Put each employee in a group, such as Officers or Salaries and wages, and pick each group's expense account. For officers, you can also code their insurance bill to the group's account.
- Payroll items. Pick an account for each company item Gusto reported. Under Paid by, choose Gusto or Someone else. Items paid by someone else, such as a 401(k) sent to another provider, go to a liability account. Choose Create liability account… to add one, and under Payment in the bank enter the text that appears on the bank row when you pay it.
- Preview and apply. See how a recent payroll would book, then choose whether to fix this year's earlier payrolls and how to book new ones.
Nothing is booked until you finish step 3. The Gusto withdrawals do not need to be coded first. Later, use Edit groups or Edit payroll items; changes apply to payrolls that are not booked yet.
Earlier Payrolls This Year
If you choose to fix earlier payrolls, each one appears on the Setup tab. Open any payroll to see its withdrawals before and after, change it with Edit, or skip it with Not now. A skipped payroll shows Left as is; choose Bring back to review it again. Approve them one at a time, choose Approve selected, or choose Approve all ready. Choose Save and finish later to stop and come back.
New Payrolls
LedgerHQ checks Gusto daily. When you review each payroll, new payrolls wait under Ready for your approval; choose Approve and book. Turn on Book automatically once you trust the result; ready payrolls then book on their own.
Clear Liabilities From The Bank Feed
When you pay a held amount, such as a 401(k) payment to your provider, code that bank row to the matching liability account. For each liability with payee text, Payroll Setup adds a bank rule, so matching rows are suggested or coded to that liability. Paper checks often lack a payee, so code those by hand.