If your payroll is blocked in Gusto, it could be for a few reasons:
Visit your admin Home page in Gusto to see why payroll is blocked, and then click the most applicable dropdown below for additional troubleshooting steps. Visit your state's help center article for more information on how to obtain state account information.
If you need any additional help, contact us through the Help or Priority support section of your account.
Payroll may be blocked in a recently added state because Gusto needs some information in order to withhold and pay taxes accurately and on-time. Your tax account information can be found in your online state account.
Here are some of the details we might ask for before you can run payroll, and what to do if you don’t have them yet.
If you don’t have your company-specific tax deposit schedule yet (assigned by an agency), select the fastest available option in Gusto in the meantime—once you’ve received your assigned deposit schedule, update the information in Gusto immediately.
You can enter and edit state tax account information by clicking the Taxes & compliance section and selecting Tax setup, then scrolling to the applicable state requiring information.
If your company is not yet liable for state unemployment taxes, or you haven’t received your rate(s) yet, enter a temporary rate in Gusto for now, and update it once you have your state-assigned rate(s).
Head to this article, click the New employer SUI rates dropdown, scroll to your applicable state and enter a rate from the "New Employer Tax Rates" column.
Never enter placeholders for missing (and required) account numbers—this may result in incorrect tax payments and filings that could cause late tax payment penalties and interest—these penalties are the responsibility of the employer to pay.
Try contacting the applicable agency directly to see if you can receive your account number as soon as possible.
If you need to pay an employee before you have the required tax information, you can do so outside of Gusto, and then enter the missing payroll information when you have the required tax account information.
If we were unable to successfully pay taxes accurately and on time on your behalf, we want to avoid the issue continuing so you don’t accrue penalties and interest for incorrect or late tax payments and filings.
Unfortunately, tax agencies don't always provide a specific reason for the failed attempt(s) to file and pay. Review the common reasons below, reach out to the agency directly, and have them help troubleshoot the issue.
Review each potential problem listed below, and ask the agency which issue might be causing the failed filing.
What to say to the agency
“Hi this is (your name) from (your company name) and our FEIN is XX-XXXXXXX. My payroll provider Gusto, formerly ZenPayroll, received an error message when attempting to file on my behalf—I would like to resolve this as soon as possible. I've got a few things I'd like to check to make sure the next time they file it’s successful:"
A good indicator a refiling was successful is no notifications or payroll blockers after ~14 days since the issue was “resolved” in Gusto.
If our Assurance team has requested additional documentation in order for a payroll to be processed, upload them from your Gusto Home page.
If you encounter issues when attempting to upload documents, review the troubleshooting tips below before contacting our team.
For additional support, contact us from the Help or Priority support section of your account.