Square Payroll VS Gusto Comparison 2023

Payroll software isn’t just about processing payments and taxes. Many applications, including Gusto and Square Payroll, come with some HR features and employee management tools too.

With either Square plan, businesses can handle basic HR tasks like employee onboarding. For more comprehensive HR features though, you’ll have to purchase teams management — an add-on feature that costs an extra $35 a month per business location. Through teams management, you can input job titles, PTO, benefits, deductions, and garnishments for all your employees. Businesses can also set varying degrees of access, depending on whether an employee has HR responsibilities or not.

Gusto offers some HR functions across all three of its plans, though Lite is pretty limited beyond PTO. Upgrading to the Plus plan grants access to a greater range of HR tools, including employee surveys, PTO requests, and onboarding new hires. Gusto’s most expensive plan, Premier, packs the most HR support, including compliance assistance, custom employee handbooks, and training courses. Once set up, the employee dashboard has specific sections for employees, contractors, offers, and an organization chart to assign managers to each worker.

Gusto’s UI makes benefits administration easy to do from the employer dashboard. It’ll indicate what benefits you offer, which you don’t, and the enrollment period for each, so you don’t accidentally have a lapse in coverage. All three plans handle garnishment payments, whereas holiday pay is only included in the Plus and Premier plans. Additional benefits like Gusto 401k, college savings plans, and tax-advantaged spending accounts can be tacked too for extra monthly payments.

Square Payroll also makes benefits administration easy to access on the employer dashboard. Similar to Gusto, it highlights which benefits you do and don’t offer. Where the two software apps diverge, however, is in benefits options. For example, Gusto offers thousands of health plans, whereas Square partners with SimplyInsured for health benefits. If your benefits exist outside the scope of Square and its partners, you’ll have to do more work to calculate deductions yourself.

Since small businesses generally run payroll on a biweekly or semi-monthly basis, being comfortable with using the interface and features should be key considerations when deciding between Square Payroll vs. Gusto Payroll.

The first step is setting up the software. With Gusto, you’ll have to handle this yourself, though there are step-by-step instructions and customer support available to help guide you along. While this may take more upfront work, you may be able to get your payroll up and running quicker than waiting for assistance from corporate headquarters.

Similarly, Square Payroll does not complete implementation for its customers. In a nutshell, the initial setup is as easy as inputting your business information, such as address and tax information. From there, you can begin entering employee information, including pay rates, your PTO accrual system, and other functions.

While browsing customer reviews, it’s clear that most small businesses find Gusto’s employer portal to be well-organized. The main dashboard includes a “things to do” list that provides updates if payroll is coming up or notifications that you have time-off requests from employees. Gusto’s payroll features, such as run payroll and time tracking, are listed on a left-hand sidebar that’s visible from the dashboard.

Once Square Payroll is set up and ready, employers can quickly access features from a dashboard on the left-hand side of the screen. This includes sections for tax forms, payroll history, team management, and possible integrations, such as Intuit QuickBooks.

Both Square Payroll and Gusto have employee portals that make it easy for small business workers to take care of payroll and HR needs. Gusto’s employee portal is easy to use and provides information on payroll schedules, tax withholdings, and PTO requests among other features.

With Square, employees receive an email to handle onboarding themselves. They’ll choose their preferred payment method and fill out tax information, which then integrates with the employer portal. The employee portal is also where they go to print off tax forms and pay stubs.

Syncing up payroll with other aspects of your business can further streamline operations and save time. Gusto has 26 integrations, as well as an Application Programming Interface (API) to connect other applications. From a small business standpoint, accounting, POS, and expense tracking are some helpful integrations. Since Gusto’s time-tracking capacity is limited, users will be glad to know that TSheets can be easily paired with payroll to enhance scheduling abilities.

Small businesses that already use Square POS, Square Appointments, or any of its other products will appreciate how easily they interconnect. When it comes to other integrations though, Square Payroll is a bit limited compared to Gusto. Outside its own applications, Square Payroll has six other possible integrations, most notably QuickBooks, TSheets, and ZipRecruiter.

Small businesses using Square Payroll can access customer support specialists Monday to Friday from 6 AM – 6 PM PST. In some cases, small businesses have complained about a lack of payroll knowledge among call center representatives. Other outlets for accessing customer support include email, social media, and in-software chat forums. If you’re in need of immediate assistance outside business hours or prefer taking the DIY route, Square’s help center contains plenty of how-to articles and YouTube tutorials.

Gusto’s quality customer support is one of its main selling points. Once you’re a Gusto customer, you can reach support staff by phone, email, live chat, and social media during business hours from Monday through Friday. If you’re in need of assistance outside these hours, you’re still in luck. Gusto’s Help Center, Resource Center, and Ask Gusto how-to articles are loaded with useful tips and information. Although all four Gusto plans have access to customer support, the Concierge plan delivers the extra perk of a dedicated customer service team to help with HR and compliance.

Square Payroll has some benefits over Gusto including a low-cost plan and a strong mobile app, but both companies offer strong payroll software.

Gusto’s base monthly software fees are slightly higher than Square Payroll’s, but Square Payroll has more services that come as paid add-ons.

Both Square and Gusto receive very positive reviews for their customer service availability and knowlegebase.

Gusto offers a full payroll software platform that is on par with or cheaper than many of its competitors.

Square Payroll has a low-cost entry point but its cost can add up depending on how many additional services you need.

Gusto currently does not integrate with Square.