To run payroll in Gusto, open Pay, choose the pay period, verify each person’s pay and hours, review the summary and withdrawal, then select Submit payroll by the deadline shown in your account. For a first run, finish account setup first; for every run, use the account’s calendar as the authority for its deadline and payday.
Before you run your first payroll
Gusto’s US employer onboarding steps vary by business type and who you pay. Standard employer setup includes entering company and federal tax details, linking and verifying a checking account, choosing a direct-deposit speed and pay schedule, adding team members, and completing payroll setup tasks. Employers sign Form 8655 to authorize Gusto to file and pay payroll taxes on their behalf. Outstanding document requests can prevent onboarding completion and payroll processing. See Gusto’s onboarding guide for employers.
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Gusto offers weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, and monthly schedules. Its guide advises hourly employers to leave at least four business days between the pay-period end and payday so there is time to review hours and submit payroll. State requirements and employer circumstances may affect the right schedule, so check the applicable state rules before setting one.
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How to run a regular payroll
- Open the correct pay period. Sign in with an admin account that has payroll-processing permission, open Pay, find the pay period, and select Run payroll. Check the deadline and payday displayed on the payroll tile. Gusto’s documented workflow is in Run a regular payroll (for admins).
- Check everyone’s pay details. Synced hours and salary wages may populate automatically, but review them. Correct hours and other details as needed, and add applicable one-time earnings such as bonuses, commissions, corrections, or custom earnings. Enter time as decimals where applicable: 1 hour and 15 minutes is 1.25 hours.
- Make sure hourly time is complete. Account for the full pay period’s hours before processing. If the pay period ends after the payroll deadline, hours may be missing from the run; the schedule should allow the period to end before that deadline.
- Review the summary and flagged changes. Select Review summary. Examine flagged pay changes or trends, editing or dismissing them as appropriate. Review what will be taxed and debited, employee work and take-home pay, company costs, and the total withdrawal.
- Confirm the funds will be available. The company account needs enough to cover net payroll and taxes by the applicable deadline. Gusto’s help text warns that insufficient funds can trigger a $100 processing fee and a block on processing until an automatic re-debit clears; next-day and two-day speeds may also be temporarily suspended.
- Submit by the displayed deadline. Select Submit payroll after review. Keep the calendar and deadline displayed in your account as the guide for that run.
Understand the deadline, payday, and debit date
Gusto’s processing overview says to submit by 4 p.m. Pacific Time on the run-by date to target the intended check date. If payroll is submitted after that cutoff, Gusto says it will process the next business day, so do not assume the original payday will hold. Check the account for the available recovery option. Gusto defines the check date as the day employees are paid and the debit date as the day it withdraws money for net payroll and taxes. The debit date depends on the check date and direct-deposit processing speed. Its overview describes standard speeds with debits one, two, or four business days before the check date; the actual dates shown in the account take precedence. Read Gusto’s processing payroll overview.
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Submitting a regular payroll early does not move payday earlier or change the scheduled debit timeline. To pay outside the usual run or change pay-period dates, use an off-cycle payroll. Payrolls and direct deposits do not process on federal bank holidays; if a holiday affects a relevant processing day, submit on the prior business day. Faster same-day or instant pay may be available for some eligible late regular payrolls, but eligibility must be verified in the account.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What to check before you submit
- The pay period, deadline, and payday displayed in the account are the intended ones.
- All hourly time is complete, and salary, overtime, one-time earnings, reimbursements, and other applicable pay details are correct.
- Flagged changes have been reviewed, and the summary and withdrawal amount make sense.
- Enough funds will be in the company account by the applicable debit deadline.
Gusto’s product page reports that customers take an average of eight minutes to run a regular payroll; the page does not state a publication year. This is a vendor-published average, not a completion-time guarantee. The steps and interface details can change, and Gusto’s materials cover US employer workflows rather than every government-payroll service.
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