Pre-tax benefit account funding requirements

If you offer a pre-tax benefit account (Health FSA, Dependent Care FSA, HSA, Commuter) managed by Gusto (including the broker integration), you will see debits to your company’s primary bank account which are used to fund these accounts. Gusto does not have access to your company's bank statement—reach out to your bank for this.

Note: If you only use Gusto to report on a pre-tax benefit account that you manage outside of Gusto, this article does not apply.

Important: To allow debits for your pre-tax benefit accounts with Elevate, you must contact your company's primary bank and whitelist the ACH code 1854135510. If you change your company's primary bank account in the future, don't forget this requirement. Failure to whitelist the code could result in your team’s accounts being temporarily locked or HSA deposits reversed.

How Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are funded

An HSA is an employee's personal bank account. This means their account is funded when payroll deductions are taken and deposited into their HSA.

Here are the details about when to expect debits and what they look like: 

  • Debit timing: 5 days after your payroll's check date.
  • Invoice notification: The primary payroll admin of your company will receive an email 1 day before the debit with information regarding the invoice.
    • To add any other admins to these emails, contact us from the Help section of Gusto and provide their email. They must be a benefits admin in Gusto. If they leave your company or should no longer receive the emails, contact us again to remove them from the mailing list.
  • Amount: The total of all employee HSA deductions and employer HSA contributions for a given payroll. 
  • Bank statement line item: Appears as "Gusto HSAcontrbt" on your bank statements.
How Health FSAs, Dependent Care FSAs, and commuter benefits are funded

Health FSAs (FSA), Dependent Care FSA (DCFSA), and commuter benefits are referred to as “notional accounts.” This means the accounts' balances are linked to your company bank account. Instead of funds being debited for each payroll deduction, funds are debited when employees use them.

Here are the details about how often to expect debits and what they look like: 

  • Debit timing: Can be daily. The total of all employee expenses will be debited from your bank account daily. If no one uses their funds, then you will not see a debit. However, if 3 employees swipe their cards for $50 each, you would see a $150 debit. These debits will appear as “Gusto ReplenPaym” on your bank statement.
  • Invoice notification: The primary payroll admin of your company will receive an email one day before the debit with information regarding the invoice.
    • To add any other admins to these emails, contact us from the Help section of Gusto and provide their email. They must be a benefits admin in Gusto. If they leave your company or should no longer receive the emails, contact us again to remove them from the mailing list.
  • Bank statement line item: Appears as "Gusto ReplenPaym" on your bank statements.
Reconcile pre-tax benefit account debits

To reconcile pre-tax benefit account debits, you can download a report from the Reports section of your Gusto admin account.

The report you should choose depends on the debit you want to reconcile: 

  • For reporting on HSA contribution debits: Use the “HSA Contributions” report.
  • For reporting on FSA, DCFSA, and/or commuter expense debits: Use the “Pre-tax benefit account replenishment invoices” report.

You will be able to filter by the date of the debit. 

The report lists the contributions and/or expenses by invoice. Each invoice relates to a specific lump sum debit.

Click here for steps to run a report.

What happens if a debit fails

The process for resolving a failed funding debit depends on the type of debit that was rejected.

Gusto HSA contribution

If an HSA contribution debit fails, your company’s payroll admin is notified and your team’s deposits will be immediately reversed. Once the issue has been resolved, forward this email to Gusto support and Gusto will redeposit the funds. 

Note: Because the second deposits are made individually, you will receive separate invoices and debits on your bank account for each deposit. 

Gusto replenishment

If a Gusto replenishment debit fails, your company’s payroll admin will be notified via email and your team’s accounts will be temporarily locked until the failure is resolved. The debit will be automatically reattempted 3 times, giving you the opportunity to solve the issue as soon as possible. If the third and final attempt fails, Gusto will step in to attempt a resolution with you. Your team’s accounts will not be unlocked until the debit is successful.