Adding owners to your Gusto 401(k) roster lets them participate in the plan and makes sure they're accounted for during required compliance testing. This article explains how to add an owner based on how they're paid, and how to update their wage type later if needed.
Important: Only eligible owners and their family members should be added to the roster as owners. The steps to add an owner depend on how they're paid and your payroll provider.
To add an owner who is paid through self-employed income, follow these steps:
Sign in to Gusto and go to Benefits. Under Savings, find 401(k) and select View, then select Manage 401(k)
Sign in directly at the Gusto Retirement sign-in page.
Once you're in your 401(k) sponsor dashboard, follow these steps:
Go to the Roster page.
Select + Add Individual in the right-hand corner.
Add the owner's information as requested in the flow and check the Is an owner box.
The owner will then be invited to participate in the plan via an email from Gusto 401(k), if they meet your plan's eligibility requirements. The email will also direct them to create their profile and update their contribution rates in the 401(k) participant dashboard.
The steps to add a W-2-paid owner depend on your payroll provider.
If an owner is paid through your W-2 payroll and you have a self-service plan, follow the same steps listed above for self-employed income owners.
If you use Gusto or Gusto Embedded payroll, follow these steps:
Go to your payroll roster and add the eligible owner's information, including email address, date of birth, hire date, and more. Reach out to your payroll provider support team for specific instructions on adding employees to their roster.
Make sure the owner's employment status is active within payroll. Allow 24 hours for the payroll system to sync with your 401(k). Once synced, the system will automatically create a user profile for the owner on your 401(k) roster.
The owner will then be invited to participate in the plan via an email from Gusto 401(k) if they meet your plan's eligibility requirements. This email will also direct them to create their profile and update their contribution rates in the 401(k) dashboard.
It's important to make sure both the owner's wage type (like W-2 vs. self-employment income) and the company's entity type (like sole proprietorship vs. LLC) are accurate in your administrator dashboard. These factors determine the owner's plan eligibility.
Once an owner has been added to your roster, you can change their wage type at any time (for companies listed as sole proprietorships) by following these steps:
Sign in to Gusto and go to Benefits. Under Savings, find 401(k) and select View, then select Manage 401(k)
Sign in directly at the Gusto Retirement sign-in page.
Once you're in your 401(k) administrator dashboard, follow these steps:
Go to the Roster page.
Select the owner from the list of employees on the roster by selecting their name.
Make sure the Is an owner box is checked, and the Wage Type is set to Self Employment.
Note: If the Wage Type field is grayed out, contact us at [email protected] for assistance.