This article is for admins who want to pay their team members by check.
You can pay employees and contractors by check, even if they normally get paid by direct deposit.
For employees, you can print checks yourself or have Gusto mail them through our partnership with Checkflo.
For contractors, you'll print and distribute checks yourself — check mailing is not yet available for contractor payments.
Note: Check mailing through Checkflo is rolling out to all customers. If you don't see this option in your account yet, stay tuned — we'll let you know when it's available to you.
Quick reference
Print checks yourself: Available for all employee and contractor payrolls.
Check mailing (Gusto + Checkflo): Available for employee payrolls only. Not yet available for contractor payments.
Check mailing pricing: $1.50 print fee + $1.49 Standard delivery or $17.49 Overnight delivery, per check.
Standard delivery: 5–10 business days via USPS. No same-day cutoff.
Overnight delivery: Next business day via FedEx. Submit before 2:30 PM ET.
Enrollment: One-time setup via Pay Settings or at the end of a payroll run.
Important reminders
Tax withholding: We withhold and pay taxes for you. You hand out the checks yourself — unless you use Gusto's check mailing service for employee payrolls.
Check delivery address: The check prints the address you entered as your filing address in Gusto.
Check stock types: You can print checks on two types of paper. Both include an earnings statement with pay details:
Top (Gusto check stock)
Bottom (blank check stock)
Note: If you verified your bank using Plaid, you cannot use blank check stock. Use Top (Gusto check stock) instead, or manually verify your bank account. Plaid encrypts your account number, so it won't print on blank check stock.
Check date timing: If you print checks yourself, you can hand them out the same day you run payroll. The check date in Gusto matches that same day only if everyone on the payroll gets paid by check.
If anyone is paid by direct deposit, we set the check date to match when direct-deposit teammates receive their pay — even if you handed out physical checks earlier.
Expand the sections to learn more. To search for words on this page, press CMD + F (Mac) or CTRL + F (Windows).
You can set a team member's default payment method to check. This setting stays in place until they add a bank account to their profile.
If they already have a bank account on file, remove it first to make check the default. If you'd rather not remove the bank account, you can switch their payment method to check for just one payroll. Learn how in the Pay by check for one payroll or payment section below.
To remove active bank accounts:
Go to People.
Click the team member's name.
Under Information, click Pay.
In the Payment section, click Edit next to any bank account.
Click Remove account at the bottom of the page.
If you don't see this option, you may not have the required permissions. The team member can also manage their own bank info, including removing their bank account.
Repeat for any other active bank accounts.
When you change a payment method during payroll, it only affects that one payroll. Future payrolls use the team member's default payment method.
To change an employee's payment to check for a single employee payroll run:
Go to Pay.
Click Run payroll under the payroll you want to run (regular, off-cycle, extra pay, or others).
Next to the person's name, scroll right to find the Payment type column.
Click the dropdown to change the payment type to Check.
You can switch it back to direct deposit the same way.
To change multiple people at once, click Select all. Then, click the Actions dropdown and select Payment method. Choose a method and click Update.
After you click Submit, you'll choose how to deliver the checks — print them yourself or have Gusto mail them.
To change a contractor payment to check for a single contractor payment:
Go to Pay.
Click Pay a US contractor.
Next to the person's name, find the Payment method column.
Click the method until it changes to Check.
You can switch it back to direct deposit the same way.
Click Continue.
After you click Submit payment, you'll print and hand out the contractor checks yourself.
Note: Check mailing is not yet available for contractor payments. You'll need to print and distribute contractor checks on your own.
If you pay team members by check, you can print and hand them out yourself. You can also choose to have Gusto mail the checks for employees (if check mailing is available in your account).
You can print checks at the end of a payroll run or come back and print them later.
Use these steps to print employee checks immediately after submitting a payroll run. At the end of payroll, we prompt you to print checks for team members paid by check.
To print checks at the end of a payroll run:
After you click Submit payroll, the Print checks page opens.
If check mailing is available in your account, you'll see the option to have Gusto mail some or all employee checks. Learn more in the Have Gusto mail your checks section below.
Review who needs checks and the payment amounts.
Choose a printing format:
Top (Gusto check stock) — Choose this if you have Gusto check stock pre-printed with your company and bank info.
Bottom (blank check stock) — Choose this if you have blank check stock and want us to print your company and bank info.
Note: You can't use this if you verified your bank with Plaid. Use Top or manually verify your bank instead.
We'll ask you to enter the first check number — this is optional.
Click View printable checks to open the PDF.
For Bottom (blank check stock): Save the PDF right away — check numbers change if you regenerate it.
Unselect Fit to Page or Scale to Page in your printer settings to avoid printing issues.
Load your check stock into your printer.
Print the PDF onto your check stock.
Sign the checks and hand them out with their paystubs.
Need help choosing or buying check stock? See the Check stock Gusto supports and where to buy it section below.
Use these steps to print or reprint checks for a previously completed employee payroll. If you forgot to print checks or need to reprint them, you can find any past payroll and print from there.
To print checks from a past employee payroll:
Click Pay.
On the right side, click View pay history.
Click the payday you need.
On the summary page, scroll down to the What the team takes home table.
At the bottom of the Net pay column, click Print checks.
Choose a printing format:
Top (Gusto check stock) — Choose this if you have Gusto check stock pre-printed with your company and bank info.
Bottom (blank check stock) — Choose this if you have blank check stock and want us to print your company and bank info.
Note: You can't use this if you verified your bank with Plaid. Use Top or manually verify your bank instead.
We'll ask you to enter the first check number — this is optional.
Click View printable checks to open the PDF.
For Bottom (blank check stock): Save the PDF right away — check numbers change if you regenerate it.
Unselect Fit to Page or Scale to Page in your printer settings to avoid printing issues.
Load your check stock into your printer.
Print the PDF onto your check stock.
Sign the checks and hand them out with their paystubs.
Need help choosing or buying check stock? See the Check stock Gusto supports and where to buy it section below.
Use these steps to print or reprint checks for a previously completed US contractor payment. If you forgot to print contractor checks or need to reprint them, you can find any past contractor payment and print from there.
To print checks from a past US contractor payment:
Go to Pay.
Click View pay history.
Click US contractors.
Click the payday.
Scroll to the bottom of the summary page and click Print Checks.
Choose a printing format:
Top (Gusto check stock) — Choose this if you have Gusto check stock pre-printed with your company and bank info.
Bottom (blank check stock) — Choose this if you have blank check stock and want us to print your company and bank info.
Note: You can't use this if you verified your bank with Plaid. Use Top or manually verify your bank instead.
We'll ask you to enter the first check number — this is optional.
Click View printable checks to open the PDF.
For Bottom (blank check stock): Save the PDF right away — check numbers change if you regenerate it.
Unselect Fit to Page or Scale to Page in your printer settings to avoid printing issues.
Load your check stock into your printer.
Print the PDF onto your check stock.
Sign the checks and hand them out to your contractors.
Need help choosing or buying check stock? See the Check stock Gusto supports and where to buy it section below.
We've partnered with Checkflo to print and mail physical paychecks directly to your employees. You choose the delivery speed — Standard or Overnight — and we handle the rest.
Note: Check mailing through Checkflo is rolling out to all customers. If you don't see this option in your account yet, stay tuned — we'll let you know when it's available to you.
Key details
Available for employee payrolls (regular and off-cycle). Not yet available for contractor payments.
Two delivery speeds: Standard (5–10 business days) and Overnight (next business day).
Pricing is shown in-app before you submit payroll.
You must accept updated Terms of Service before your first check mailing order.
Funds — Mailed checks draw from your company's default bank account in Gusto. Your bank withdraws funds when the check is cashed.
Electronic signature — We use an e-signature based on the signatory's name. You cannot upload a custom signature image.
Check with your bank — Some banks don't accept printed checks or may flag them as potential fraud. Let your bank know you're using a check mailing service before you send your first check.
Cancellation — You cannot cancel a check mailing order on its own. To stop a check from being mailed, you must cancel the entire payroll. See the Cancel a check mailing order section below for details.
Each mailed check has two charges: a print fee and a delivery fee. Both appear as separate line items on your monthly Gusto invoice.
Charge
Cost
Check print fee
$1.50 per check
Standard delivery fee
$1.49 per check
Overnight delivery fee
$17.49 per check
Example: You mail 5 checks using Standard delivery. Total cost = 5 × ($1.50 + $1.49) = $14.95.
Before you submit payroll, we show you an itemized estimate — including per-check costs, your selected delivery speed, and the estimated total. Charges are billed on your regular monthly Gusto invoice.
You can enroll in check mailing from your Pay settings page or directly during a payroll run. You only need to enroll once.
To enroll in check mailing:
Go to Pay and click Pay settings — or choose check mailing when prompted at the end of a payroll run.
Review the consent screen, which includes:
Gusto Terms of Service for check mailing
Checkflo Terms of Service
Checkflo Privacy Policy
Click Continue to accept all three documents and complete enrollment.
After you enroll, you can choose check mailing — and your preferred delivery speed — each time you run payroll.
We offer two delivery speeds for mailed checks. The speed you choose affects both cost and how quickly your team receives their checks.
Shipped via USPS first-class mail.
Checks are submitted to our mailing provider after the payroll submission deadline — there's no same-day cutoff for Standard orders.
USPS doesn't guarantee delivery scans, but we surface tracking updates when they're available.
Shipped via FedEx.
Cutoff time: 2:30 PM ET.
Submit before 2:30 PM ET → printed and shipped same day, arrives next business day.
Submit after 2:30 PM ET → processed next business day, arrives the business day after that. The overnight fee still applies.
We show an in-app alert when you're submitting payroll after 12 PM PT on the submission deadline date, so you know the cutoff is approaching.
Orders submitted on weekends or holidays are queued and processed the next business day.
Standard: The delivery window starts from the next business day (5–10 business days total).
Overnight: Arrives the business day after the next business day. For example: submit Saturday → processed Monday → arrives Tuesday.
FedEx Saturday delivery is available for some ZIP codes but is not guaranteed for all recipients.
Check mailing orders are tied directly to your payroll. There is no separate way to cancel just the check mailing. To stop a check from being printed and mailed, you must cancel the entire payroll.
Standard checks are not sent to our mailing provider until after the payroll submission deadline. You can cancel the payroll any time before that deadline to stop the mailing.
Overnight orders are sent to our mailing provider 15 minutes after you submit payroll. To stop the mailing, you must cancel the entire payroll within that 15-minute window. After that, the order has been sent and cannot be stopped — even if the payroll submission deadline hasn't passed yet.
Once checks are submitted, we cannot cancel, recall, or intercept them. If you need to correct a check that has already been sent, follow these steps:
Reverse the payroll in Gusto.
Place a stop payment on the check(s) through your bank.
Rerun payroll to pay your employee(s) correctly.
Important: You cannot print replacement checks for a payroll that has already been submitted. The only way to correct it is to reverse and rerun the payroll.
If a check doesn't arrive within the expected delivery window, check your Gusto account for the current status and timeline. Carrier delays or holidays may extend delivery times.
If the check is confirmed lost, follow these steps:
Reverse the payroll in Gusto.
Place a stop payment on the check through your bank.
Rerun payroll to send a new check.
This usually happens when the carrier can't deliver to the address on file. Note: we verify each employee's address before confirming your payroll. If a check is returned anyway, follow these steps:
Update the employee's address in Gusto.
Reverse the payroll.
Place a stop payment through your bank.
Rerun payroll with the corrected address.
Note: The original mailing fees are not refunded for returned checks, since printing and shipping already occurred.
If a check bounces due to a bank account issue, follow these steps:
Reverse the payroll in Gusto.
Rerun payroll to pay your employee correctly.
Note: The original mailing fees are not refunded for bounced checks, since printing and shipping already occurred.
We support two types of check stock. Both include the team member's pay details (earnings statement):
Bottom (blank check stock)
Top (Gusto check stock)
Expand the sections to learn more about each type.
This works best for accountants or people who manage multiple companies and want to use one type of check paper for all of them:
We fill in your company and bank info.
We create the check numbers — learn how check numbers work below.
The check prints at the bottom of the PDF.
Only use this type if you did NOT connect your bank with Plaid. Plaid encrypts account numbers, so they won't print on this check type.
If you used Plaid, use the other check stock or manually verify your bank account instead.
We recommend this specific blank check stock for compatibility with our PDF format.
To buy blank check stock:
Scroll to the third option, Check on Bottom.
Click Add to Cart and proceed to checkout.
We generate a new PDF with new check numbers each time you click Print checks in Gusto:
The first time you download a check PDF, it starts with check number 0001.
Each time you re-download, the number goes up by one.
Example: If your first PDF has 4 checks (0001–0004), the next PDF starts at 0005.
We use this system to prevent duplicate check numbers.
This works best if you have check stock that already includes your company and bank info:
Your custom check stock includes the check numbers.
The check prints at the top of the PDF.
You can customize this check stock.
We recommend Gusto check stock and compatible envelopes for the best fit with our PDF format.
To buy Gusto check stock:
In Step 1, pick your color and pattern.
In Step 2, under Check style, click by Software.
Find and select Gusto Software.
Finish your order and click Add Order to Shopping Cart.
Use code Gusto1523 at checkout to get 15% off.
To buy compatible envelopes:
Choose #9 standard double-window envelopes.
Click Add to Cart.
Use code Gusto1523 at checkout to get 15% off.