Record past payrolls

There may be times when you need to run payroll with a past check date to correctly report wages. If you forgot to report wages for an employee who was already paid in Gusto, follow these steps.

If you're still setting up your account, find out how to add past payrolls while onboarding. To learn how to report past (historical) payments for a contractor, go to this article.

Record a past payroll for an employee

Even if you run a non-Gusto payroll, Gusto will not file your tax returns until you process a regular, off-cycle, or bonus payroll in your account. 

Important reminder: When you report a payroll with a check date in the past that's outside your assigned tax deposit frequency, you may get late-payment penalties and interest (along with notices) from federal or state agencies. 

  1. Sign in to Gusto.
  2. Run an off-cycle payroll with the payment amount. 
    • If you've already processed one or more payrolls outside of Gusto, click here for next steps on how to get that information added to Gusto.
      • This includes payrolls where taxes have already been paid—use the link above to report the payroll and select that you do not want Gusto to pay the associated taxes.
  3. Click the Check Date, and choose the past date you need.
    • If the check date was before the first day of the current quarter, contact us from the Help section of your account.
  4. Update the “Payment Method” to check.
  5. Submit the off-cycle payroll.