Manage company bank account details

While setting up your account, we’ll need your company bank account in order to debit for wages, taxes, and your monthly Gusto fee.

• Heads up: Your company bank account cannot be the same as an employee or contractor's bank account.

If you want to add or change a bank account after you’ve entered one, click the Add, change, or remove a company bank account (after onboarding) dropdown of this article.

Credit payments, credit cards, and savings accounts are not accepted—the account must be linked to a checking bank account.  

1. Click Step 7: Bank account.
2. Click the Add Bank Account button.
   
   • If this button isn't clickable, you may need to refresh the page a few times until you can click it.
3. Select how you want Gusto to verify your bank account:
   • Verify account with Plaid—you'll be asked to link your bank account to Gusto so we can instantly verify your bank.
   • Manually verify your account—If your bank is not eligible for Instant Bank Verification, or you've decided not to use IBV, you'll need to enter your bank information in. We'll then send two test transactions which will hit your bank account in 1-2 business days. You'll need to enter the test transaction amounts in Gusto later.
     • Click the checkbox to acknowledge this change may block payroll for up to 2 business days until bank verification is complete.
4. Click Continue.
   • This bank account will automatically be set as your default bank account. You can add additional bank account later and change which is your default at any time.
     • Click the Add, change, or remove a company bank account (after onboarding) dropdown of this article to learn how.

If your bank is not eligible for Instant Bank Verification, or you've decided not to use IBV, you'll need to enter the two test transaction amounts in Gusto. To do so, follow the steps below.

1. Click the Company section and select Company details.
2. Click Verify Now to enter the two amounts.

What's next? Add your pay schedule to Gusto.

FAQs

Q: What if I don’t get the test transactions?

A: Either the account information was entered incorrectly or the transactions were entered incorrectly in Gusto. If the verification doesn't work, you'll be emailed with a request to make changes to your account details for proper bank setup.

Q: Can I add multiple company bank accounts?

A: Yes—you can add multiple bank accounts and individually select which bank account to use on payroll(s) and contractor payments.

Q: What is Instant Bank Verification (IBV)?

A: IBV is an easy way to instantly connect your bank account to Gusto. We use the same technology that banks use to keep your account information safe so everything you provide is protected.

Q: Does Gusto support alphanumeric bank accounts?

A: Yes. We allow users to use bank accounts with both letters and numbers.

When you add or change your company bank account, we will need to verify your new bank account before you can process a payroll or contractor payment using it.

• Heads up: Your company bank account cannot be the same as an employee or contractor's bank account.

If eligible, you can use instant bank verification to get set up right away. If you do not use instant bank verification, you will get two test transactions sent to your account for verification—this may take 2-3 business days.

Credit payments and credit cards are not accepted—the account must be linked to a bank checking account. 

• If you have tax-advantaged accounts with Gusto (like FSAs, HSAs and/or commuter benefits), you’ll see a non-refundable $1 test debit under MBI/Med-I-Bank. If you offer an HSA, you’ll see an additional $0.01 test debit.

What to know before you add multiple bank accounts

• Only the following types of admins can add, remove, or assign bank accounts to specific payrolls or payments:
  • “Full access” admins
  • Admins who can “Run payroll”
  • Admins who can “Pay contractors”
• Gusto uses your default bank account for your monthly invoice.
• Admins will need to remember the last 4 numbers of the bank account(s) you want to use when making payments—at this time,  you can’t add nicknames to the accounts.
• If you’re using Payroll on AutoPilot®, we’ll debit the ‘default’ account set in your profile, unless you set up a different bank account (learn more below).
• If you modify or reverse a past payroll, any funds owed back to you will be returned to the bank account associated with the payment, so long as that account is still active in Gusto.
  • If you’ve removed the account, we’ll send the money to the default account.
• Sometimes Gusto has to refund or debit funds due to wage corrections, tax reconciliations, cancellations, etc—in these scenarios, we’ll use the default bank account. 

Add an additional bank account

1. Sign into your admin account.
2. Head to the Company section and select Company details. 
3. Scroll to the “Bank Accounts” headline and click Add bank account.
4. Enter in the new Routing Number and Account Number.
5. Click the checkbox to acknowledge this change may block payroll for up to 2 business days until bank verification is complete.
6. Click Continue.
7. To securely and instantly verify your bank account, click Verify Bank Account—you'll be asked to link your bank account to Gusto.
   • You can also select to manually verify your bank account with two micro-transactions, this could take up to 2 business days.

Set a bank account as your default account

Gusto will debit the default bank account for monthly invoices and for any international contractor payments. 

1. Sign into your admin account.
2. Head to the Company section and select Company details. 
3. Scroll to the “Bank Accounts” headline, find the bank account, and click Manage.
4. Click the checkbox to Set as default account for payments.
5. Click Save and close.

Assign a bank account to a Payroll on AutoPilot (for multiple bank accounts only)

If your company uses the Payroll on AutoPilot feature, we'll debit from the 'default' bank account on file. If you want AutoPilot to debit from a different bank account, you can change this in your Gusto admin profile.

1. Click the Payroll section and select Payroll settings.
2. Next to the AutoPilot section, click edit.
3. Select the desired bank account from the dropdown box.
4. Click Save.

Going forward, all Payrolls on AutoPilot will debit funds from the selected bank account.

Remove a bank account

If you choose to delete a bank account from which payments are scheduled in the future, we’ll warn you that the future payments will be canceled and you’ll need to reschedule the payments again. 

1. Sign into your admin account.
2. Head to the Company section and select Company details. 
3. Scroll to the “Bank Accounts” headline, find the bank account you'd like to remove, and click Manage.
   • If you don't have another bank account verified already, you'll need to add, verify, and set an alternate bank account to default before deleting this account.
4. Click Delete.

FAQs

Q: Can I add multiple company bank accounts?

A: Yes—you can add multiple bank accounts and individually select which bank account to use on payroll(s) and contractor payments.

Gusto will use the default bank account for monthly invoice payments.

Q: I paid people from the wrong account, what do I do?

A: If Gusto has not already debited your account, you can cancel the payroll or contractor payment and reschedule the payment from the right bank account. 

If Gusto has already debited the bank account, you’ll want to contact your bank to transfer the required funds into the bank account.

Q: Can we split the payments between multiple bank accounts?

A: No. All payments come from one bank account. if you want to split payments, we suggest running multiple payrolls and selecting different bank accounts for each.

Q: Can we have a bank account associated with each employee? 

A: No—but you can allocate employees to departments and set up pay schedules per department and then each pay schedule can have a bank account associated with it.

Q: Does Gusto support alphanumeric bank accounts?

A: Yes. We allow users to use bank accounts with both letters and numbers.

We'll initiate 3 separate debit transactions from your company's bank account after each payroll is submitted:

• One for employee pay (who are being paid by direct deposit)
• One for your employee reimbursements
• One for all payroll taxes

These transactions will happen at the same time, 3 business days before payday. Employee pay and reimbursements will be submitted for direct deposit payments, and we'll send your payroll tax amounts to the applicable state and federal agencies.

You may also see debit transactions from your company's bank account for:

• Contractor payments
• Monthly invoices
• Historical tax payments

You can run reports to view bank transactions and to see which taxes we've paid on your behalf. Check out this list of the types of reports you can run.

Bank codes related to debits and/or credits from Gusto  

Code Transaction Type EBV Electronic Bank Verification - Credit Test Transaction NET Debit Net Pay TAX Debit Tax CON Credit Contractor Pay HPT Debit Historical Payroll Taxes BBV Bank Verification Debit BVC Bank Verification Credit FRP Credit Flex Repayment (Modern Bank) FPP Credit flex pay principal (Modern Bank) FPF Credit flex pay fee (Modern Bank) TLR Credit Tax Liability Refund  CSC Credit Child Support Garnishment REM Debit Reimbursement TCD Debit Tax Correction FEE Debit Payroll Fee CND Debit Contractor Pay RFD Debit Refund PDR Debit Employee Wages DDR Debit Donation CSD Debit Child Support Garnishment  DOV Debit Overpayment FPD Flex Pay Debit (Modern Bank) PAY Credit Employee Pay INV Credit Payroll Fee - Invoice Refund SAV Credit Employee Savings CRF Credit Contractor payment refund DCR Credit Donation PAR Credit wages refund TRC Credit Tax Refund TAX DEP Tax Department Payment IEE Credit Internal Error Expense (concessions) TXP Credit Tax TPI Credit Tax Penalty WPF Wire Payment Fee ITC Credit Internal Transfer Contractor Pay ITE Credit Internal Transfer Employee Pay ITT Credit Internal Transfer Tax Payment ITF Credit Internal Transfer Fees and Penalties ITV Credit Internal Transfer Verification ITI Credit Internal Transfer Invoices ITO Credit Internal Transfer Other ITP Credit Internal Transfer Overpayment ITG Credit Internal Transfer Child Support Garnishment COV Credit Overpayment PRS Credit Partner Revenue Share