An admin’s permissions determines what they’re able to see and do in Gusto, as well as which types of email they’ll receive.
Click the dropdowns below to learn more about administrator-types and how to manage the admins on your account. If you're looking to add someone as a manager instead, click here.
Need to update other company info?
Check out our edit company details article for how to manage and update all sorts of company information, like addresses, your signatory, etc.
Additional detail about access for each admin type can be found below.
This is the only Full Access admin that has the ability to add, remove, or edit permissions for other admins.
Full access admins typically manage sensitive company-level settings and tasks.
Here’s what Full Access admins have access to:
Primary administrators can select or unselect one or more of the below roles and related permissions.
The single signatory for the company is the one who has permission over signing tax documents on the company’s behalf. A signatory should have been designated when you onboarded with Gusto—if necessary, learn how to change your signatory in the linked article.
You must be the primary administrator on the account to add additional admins or managers with specific permissions. If you’re not the primary administrator, you’ll need to reach out to them to assist.
Your new admin will receive an email welcoming them to their admin account—if they don't see the email, have them:
Admins will be able to view only the parts of Gusto that correspond to their permissions.
If you're currently the primary payroll administrator, you can assign another admin to be the primary admin if needed.
Reminder(s)
Change the primary admin
The primary administrator of the account—the only type of admin who can make changes to other admin permissions—can edit an administrator’s permissions or name at any time.
Your admin will receive an email detailing their updated permission settings.
To update an admin's email, you first have to remove them as a payroll admin and then add them as a new administrator with the new email address.
You can find instructions for how to remove an administrator and add a new administrator in this article by clicking the applicable dropdowns.
Only the primary payroll administrator can remove other admins. If the primary payroll administrator is no longer with the company, or the accountant you’re trying to remove is the primary admin, contact our team from the Help or Priority support section of your account for further assistance.
An email will be sent to your former admin notifying them of the role change.
By making an employee an admin, it creates a new admin profile separate from their employee profile. They'll need to use the drop-down where their name is listed in the top-right corner to change to their admin profile. Check out this article to learn how to switch between profiles using the same email login.
Q: What is the benefit of setting up Admin Permissions?
A: With Admin Permissions, you’ll be able to limit access to various parts of Gusto for additional admins and be confident sensitive information is not being compromised. As your business grows, this becomes more and more important as you bring on more people to help with HR-related tasks.
Q: Do newly added admins receive an email when they are added?
A: Yes. Admins will receive an email with their permissions. Additionally, Full Access admins will be notified when a new admin is added by a Primary Admin.
Q: Will admins be notified when permissions are changed?
A: Yes, the impacted admin including Full Access admins will receive an email notification of all changes in permissions.
Q: Can I create permissions for managers or employees?
A: At this time we are not supporting permissions that give admins access to specific employees, teams, or departments — the permissions apply to everyone in the company. This feature is used to help business owners delegate admin-related tasks and be confident information is staying in the right hands.
Q: For accountants: We have multiple accountants at our firm working for one client — what does the set up look like?
A: An Accountant can have a full or limited view of their client's account as any other Admin. For each client, if one Accountant has limited permissions, then all of the accountants at that firm will have the same permissions for that client.