Integrate with Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is a cloud accounting and financial management system for small- to medium-sized companies. Sage Intacct offers a range of tools for your business including accounting, planning, cash management, purchasing, vendor management, financial consolidation, revenue recognition, subscription billing, contract management, project accounting, fund accounting, inventory management, and real-time, multi-dimensional reporting.

With the Gusto and Sage Intacct integration, you can automatically export payroll and payment data to Sage Intacct.

Set up the Sage Intacct integration

Watch a video demonstration of these setup steps here.

Step 1: Connect to Gusto from Sage Intacct

Start connecting your accounts by following these steps in Sage Intacct.

First, enable web services in Sage Intacct

In order to connect your Gusto and Sage Intacct accounts, first you’ll enable web services in Sage.

Sign in to Sage Intacct.
Go to Applications.
Select the Company tab.
Choose the Setup tab.
Under “Configuration,” click Company.
Click the Security tab.
In the top right corner, click Edit.
Scroll to “Web Services authorizations” and click Add.
In the “Sender ID” field, type “Gusto.”
Click Save.

Now that web services are enabled, stay signed in to Sage Intacct and follow the next steps to create a custom role and a web services user.

Next, create a web services user in Sage Intacct

A web services user is a custom role you’ll set up. It keeps track of which journal entries in Sage Intacct were created by the integration. There’s no additional license fee to set up this role or user.

First, set up the custom role:

Click Applications.
Choose Company.
Go to the Admin tab.
Under “Users, roles & groups," click Roles.
In the top right corner, click Add.
In the “Name” field, type “Gusto Integration.”
Click Save.
"Gusto Integration" is added to the list on the "Roles" page. To the left of "Gusto Integration," click View.
Click View Subscriptions.
To the right of "Company," click Permissions.
- In the top right corner of the window that opens, click All.
- Click Save.
To the right of General Ledger, click Permissions.
- In the top right corner of the window that opens, click All.
- Click Save.
Click Save.

Next, set up the web services user:

Click Applications.
Select the Company tab.
Click the Admin tab.
Under “Users, roles & groups," click Web Services users.
In the top right corner, click Add.
Fill out these fields as follows:
- User ID: type “Gusto Integration.”
- Last name: type “Integration.”
- First name: type “Gusto.”
- Email: enter the email you access Sage with. You’ll receive an email with login credentials that you’ll need later.
- Admin privileges: select Full.
Click Save.
Go to the Roles information tab.
Under “Role Name,” click the plus sign (+) in line 1.
In the dropdown that appears in line 2, type and select Gusto Integration.
Click Save.

Step 2: Connect to Sage from Gusto

Now that your Sage Intacct account is set up to integrate with Gusto, follow these steps to connect your company’s accounts.

Sign in to your Gusto admin acccount.
Go to the App directory.
Under “Categories,” choose Accounting.
Click Sage Intacct.
Click Connect.
Enter the credentials for the Gusto API web services user you created in Step 1:
- Sage Intacct Company ID: enter the company ID you use to sign in to Sage every time.
- Sage Intacct User ID: this will default to “Gusto Integration.”
- Sage Intacct Password: check your email. Sage Intacct sent login credentials to the email you provided in step 6 above.
Click Sign In.

Your company’s Gusto and Sage Intacct accounts are now connected. Go to the Settings tab and follow the steps below to finish setting up the integration.

Step 3: Choose your integration settings

Follow these steps to define when payroll data should sync, how the data should be grouped, and choose the location and journal it should sync to.

Set your location

When transactions are sent to Sage Intacct from Gusto, they’re associated with one of your company’s Sage location entities. Follow these steps in Gusto to change the location that synced journal entries are associated with.

Note: Locations are related to the company’s location entities. These are not location dimensions.

In Gusto, go to your App directory and choose Sage Intacct.
Go to the Settings tab.
Next to “Location,” click edit.
Choose the location from the menu.
Click Submit.

Choose the Sage Intacct ledger that journal entries sync to

By default, Gusto exports your journal entries to the General Journal (symbol: GJ) in Sage Intacct. If you want synced journal entries to be associated with a different journal/ledger in Sage Intacct, follow these steps.

In Gusto, go to your App directory and choose Sage Intacct.
Go to the Settings tab.
Next to “Journal Symbol,” click edit.
Type in the Journal Symbol you want entries to sync to.
- If you need to figure out what journal symbol to enter, follow these steps in Sage Intacct: click Applications, select General Ledger, then click Journal entries. Look in the “Symbol” column for the list of journal titles and their symbols.
Click Submit Journal Symbol.

Select the desired employer tax consolidation method

Consolidate: Lump employer taxes together (Example: Payroll Taxes and one lump sum amount).
Don’t Consolidate: Split employer taxes into individual taxes on your journal (Example: Federal Unemployment, Social Security, Medicare, State Unemployment, and more are broken out along with the applicable sum for each tax).

Select your contractor payment consolidation method

If you pay contractors through Gusto, choose how you would like the entries to sync to Sage Intacct.

Batch payments into a single entry: This will consolidate all payments into a single entry for each check date. The option to sync will be available at 5pm PT the day the payments are processed (if enabled, auto sync will occur at the same time). This is recommended for companies that process more than 30 contractor payments at a time.
Sync each contractor payment as a separate entry: Each payment will sync as its own entry.

Set your journal entry consolidation

By default, Gusto consolidates entries of the same type into a single journal entry in Sage Intacct. Other options include:

By employee
By department
By project (available to companies using Gusto Project Tracking)
By job

See the section below called "Customize journal entries with grouped account mappings and department dimensions" for more information.

Map your chart of accounts from Sage Intacct

When setting up your mappings, you will be prompted to add:

Bank Account
Earnings Types (Regular, Bonus, Commission, custom earnings, etc.)
Employer Taxes
Reimbursements
Benefit Expenses
Benefit Liabilities
Deduction/Garnishment Liabilities
Owner's Draw

Click here to learn more about mapping and commonly used pairings.

To properly sync over the payroll details through our integration, each of these payroll items must be linked to an account that is pulled directly from the Chart of Accounts in Sage Intacct. Once all payroll items are matched with the corresponding accounts, the building blocks are in place for the Journal Entry that Gusto will sync over into your accounting software. The more accounts you choose when setting up your integration, the more detail there will be in the line entries on your Journal Entry. More detail in the entry results in more detailed reports in your accounting software.

If you don’t see an account you’d like to use, click the Refresh chart of accounts button in Gusto.

To get started:

In your Gusto admin account, head to the App directory.
Choose Sage Intacct.
Go to the Mapping tab.
For each payroll category you want to map, click Select. Choose the Sage Intacct account that the Gusto category corresponds with.
- By default, we will only display common account types for each category. If you do not see the desired account, start typing the account name to map to the account
- Repeat until you've selected an account for each Gusto category. Your progress is automatically saved as you go. A few tools you can use to map accounts more quickly:
  - Map multiple items to the same account at once: Check the box next to each item you want to map. Click Actions and choose Edit account type. Type the account name to select it. Click Submit.
  - Show only unmapped categories: next to "Actions," click the filter icon. Choose Display unmapped accounts only, then click Apply.
  - Clear your selections: uncheck the box next to an item or click Clear all.

Customize journal entries: Group your account mappings and map department dimensions

To provide more granularity, you have the option to map your chart of accounts by employee, jobs, departments, or Gusto Projects (if you use Gusto Project Tracking). This means you can group your journal entries at the employee, job, department, or project level. If your company uses or requires Sage Department Dimensions, you can assign a Department Dimension to each employee, department, job, or project.

Set up grouped mappings

Important: Review the section below related to the desired grouped mapping option before continuing. These sections contain setup information for each grouped mapping type.

In your Gusto admin account, head to the App directory and choose Sage Intacct.
Go to the Settings tab.
Next to "Journal entry consolidation," click edit.
Select by employee, projects, jobs, or departments.
- You can map your chart of accounts by just one category.
Click Submit.

The journal entries will be broken out by the grouped mapping selection the next time you sync payrolls to your accounting integration.

Note: Updating your company’s grouped mapping type will delete any overridden mappings associated with the previous journal entry consolidation type. Your company default mappings will be saved. For example, if you switch from consolidating by job to consolidating by department, any overridden mappings for your company’s jobs will not be retained. A reminder message will be displayed when you switch your journal consolidation method.

Override default mappings

You have the option to override the default mappings for each employee, department, job, or project. This means you can assign different accounts to payroll items at the employee, department, job, or project level. Overriding your company’s default mappings is not required. The journal entries will be broken out by employee, department, job, or project regardless of whether any accounts have overrides.

Go to the Mapping tab.
Scroll to the “Mappings by employee, project, job, or department” section. For each section you want to map, click Override.
If your company uses Sage Department Dimensions, you’ll first have the option to choose a Department Dimension.
- When exported, mapped dimensions will be included on the line items that correspond with the grouping option in which they are assigned. You can find more information about Department Dimensions below.
For each line item, choose the Sage Intacct account you want it to correspond with.
Your progress is saved as you go. When you’re done mapping, click the x icon to return to the main Mappings page.
Repeat for each section you want to map.

Map your chart of accounts by employee

You can add more granularity by mapping your accounts by employee. You can use different accounts for the different payroll items for each employee and contractor. This means you can have the earnings of each employee go to different accounts. This will expand the entry we send over into the accounting software.

As an example, say you have two employees. Before you enable employee mappings, all regular wages earned are sent to one "Salaries and Wages" expense account. After enabling employee mappings, you will see two line items for employee’s regular wages. You will have the option to use separate expense accounts for each employee. When running reports in your accounting software, you will have this additional breakdown.

If you use Department Dimensions, you can also map your employees to Department Dimension. See the Department Dimensions section below for more information.

These transactions will be exported by employee to your accounting software account. If any employees are left unmapped, they will sync based on the settings you choose under “Default Company Mappings.”

To map by employee, make sure you have the following already set up:

You've connected Sage Intacct to Gusto with the steps above.
Employee-specific accounts and Department Dimensions have been created in Sage (optional)
Your original chart of accounts is mapped.

Map your chart of accounts by departments

You can add more granularity by mapping your accounts by department. You can use different accounts for the different payroll items within a department. This means you can have the earnings of one department go to one account and the earnings of a second department go to a different account. This will expand the entry we send over into the accounting software.

As an example, say you have two departments: Design and Marketing. Before you enable department mappings, all regular wages earned are sent to one "Salaries and Wages" expense account. After enabling department mappings, you will see two line items for each department’s earnings. You can use separate expense accounts for each department. When running reports in your accounting software, you will have this additional breakdown.

If you use Department Dimensions, you can also map your departments to Department Dimension. See the Department Dimensions section below for more information.

These transactions will be exported by department to your accounting software account. If any departments are left unmapped, they will sync based on the settings you choose under “Default Company Mappings.”

To map by department, make sure you have the following already set up:

You've connected Sage Intacct to Gusto with the steps above.
Department-specific accounts and Department Dimensions have been created in Sage (optional)
Your employees/contractors are assigned to a department in Gusto.
Your original chart of accounts is mapped.

Map your chart of accounts by job

Job mapping is another way to add additional granularity. This option allows you to map accounts by each unique job title in Gusto. For employees with multiple jobs, each job can be mapped independently, and payroll costs associated with each job will be split out on the synced journal entry. This will expand the entry we send over into the accounting software.

As an example, say you employ cashiers and cooks at your business. Before you enable job mappings, all regular wages earned are sent to one "Salaries and Wages" expense account. After enabling job mappings, you will see two line items for each job’s earnings. You can use separate expense accounts for each job. When running reports in your accounting software, you will have this additional breakdown.

If you use Department Dimensions, you can also map your jobs to Department Dimension. Please see the Department Dimensions section below for more information.

Assign employees to jobs

Before you map your chart of accounts by jobs, make sure each employee is assigned to at least one job. Here's how:

Salaried employees: edit their job title.

Hourly employees:

Click the People section and select Team members.
Click your employee’s name.
Go to the Pay tab.
In the "Compensation" section, click Add Earning Type or Pay Rate.
Select the earning type or additional pay rate.
Select a job title from the drop-down list.
- If the desired job title does not exist, type in a new job title to create a new one.
Add amount, earning period, and default hours per pay period.
Click Save.

Hourly employees can have as many pay rates or jobs as you'd like. If an employee has multiple jobs, their paystub lists each job and its associated earnings.

For employees who have not been assigned a job title, their expenses are mapped based on the settings you choose under “Default Company Mappings.”

These transactions will be exported by job to your accounting software account. If any jobs are left unmapped, they will sync based on the default company mappings.

To map by job, make sure you've already:

You've connected Sage Intacct to Gusto with the steps above.
Job-specific accounts and Department Dimensions have been created in Sage (optional)
Assigned each employee to one or more jobs in Gusto (see the steps above).
Mapped your chart of accounts in Gusto.

Map your chart of accounts by Gusto projects

Mapping by projects (as opposed to jobs or departments) is good for businesses with multiple people in the same role and when some employees work hours in one role and other hours in another role. Please note that consolidating by project is available to customers utilizing Gusto Project Tracking.

As an example, say you have employees tracking time to two Gusto Projects. Before you enable project mappings, all regular wages earned are sent to one "Salaries and Wages" expense account. After enabling project mappings, you will see two line items for each project’s earnings. You can use separate expense accounts for each project. When running reports in your accounting software, you will have this additional breakdown.

If you use Department Dimensions, you can also map your projects to Department Dimension. Please see the Department Dimensions section below for more information.

These transactions will be exported by project to your accounting software account. If any projects are left unmapped, they will sync based on the settings you choose under “Default Company Mappings.”

To map by project, make sure you've already:

You've connected Sage Intacct to Gusto with the steps above.
Project-specific accounts and Department Dimensions have been created in Sage (optional)
Mapped your chart of accounts.
You’ve set up Gusto Project Tracking.

Sage Intacct Department Dimensions

If you use Department Dimensions, you can map employees, job codes, departments, or Gusto Projects to Department Dimensions. Department Dimensions must be used in conjunction with a Grouped Account Mapping option.

Note: The Department Dimension is the only Sage Intacct Dimension the integration supports at this time. If you require the department dimension in the settings of any of your accounts in Sage Intacct, you must enable a grouped consolidation method and select a department dimension for each department, employee, job, or project. This will ensure journals successfully sync from Gusto.

The integration supports Location Entities. Please see "Step 3: Choose your integration settings" for more information. Note that Location Entities differ from Location Dimensions.

Set Up Department Dimensions

Go to the Mapping tab.
Scroll to the “Mappings by employee, project, job, or department” section. For each section you want to map, click Override.
At the top, click the dropdown under "Department Dimension mapping."
Select the desired class or begin typing to search across your classes.
- If you do not see the Department Dimension, click the link to refresh your chart of accounts.
Repeat for each employee, department, job, or project you would like to map.
The next time you sync your payroll, the entry will tie to the appropriate Department Dimension

Grouped mapping options for contractor payments

Consolidating journal entries by employee and department are compatible with contractors.

Consolidating by job and project are not compatible with contractors. Job titles and Gusto Projects are not currently supported with contractor profiles. If your company pays contractors and uses job or project consolidation, contractor payments will be synced based on the default company mappings.

Send payroll or contractor payments from Gusto to Sage Intacct

Set up automatic payroll data syncing

By default, Gusto will automatically export your transactions whenever you run payroll or pay your contractors. If you've disabled Autosync, follow these steps to enable it:

Sign in to your Gusto admin account.
Go to the App directory.
Choose Sage Intacct.
Go to the Settings tab.
Next to “Auto Sync,” click edit.
Select Auto sync.
Click Submit.

The next time you run a payroll or contractor payment, the transaction will automatically sync to Sage Intacct.

Manually sync payroll data

Once you’ve mapped your accounts, you can send payrolls and contractor payments to Sage Intacct anytime from the Payroll history tab in Gusto by following these steps:

Sign in to your Gusto admin account.
Go to the Pay section and select Pay history.
Find the payroll or contractor payment you’d like to sync and click View details.
Under the name of the payroll or payment, click Sync now.

Once the sync is complete, the sync’s timestamp is listed under the payroll or payment’s name.

Here’s how to find the entry in Sage Intacct:

Go to the Applications tab.
Select General Ledger.
Choose Journal Entries.
Click General Journal (or the ledger that you specified).

Each line item is tagged with the account that you mapped it to in Gusto.

FAQs

If I update my mappings, can I re-sync a payroll to update the journal entry?

Yes. A new entry will be created each time you sync. You must then remove the previously synced entry from within Sage.

Do you book the wage expense as gross wages or net wages?

Gross wages — the wage expense will include employee pay, employee taxes, and employee deductions. Employer taxes and employer contributions will have their own expense line item.

How do I break out individual employee wages?

You can change the journal consolidation method to “by employee.”

Do you break out individual taxes?

Gusto handles all of your tax payments automatically. Because of this, you do not need to track tax liabilities. When we sync entries, we record employer taxes as expenses.

You can select for employer taxes to be broken by each individual tax or lump them together. You’ll find this option on the Settings tab.

At this time, we only support one account mapping, which will be used across all employer taxes.

Employee taxes are not broken out individually for mapping or in journal entries, as these values are included in Gross Wages.

What if I will not be using one of the payroll items listed?

The item will still need to be mapped to an account. If the payroll item isn't applicable, nothing will come over related to the account that is selected within your entry. Only payroll items that apply to a processed payroll will populate within the synced entry.

How do employee taxes and employee benefit contributions sync to Sage?

They’re always included in Gross Wages & Salaries.

Can I include employee benefit deductions on the Journal Entry?

Employee deductions are included in the gross wages amounts that are reported on the Journal Entry - these are not tracked separately because they're not an additional expense to the company on top of what's already reported for wages.

Employee deduction amounts are included in the Benefit Liability along with the Employer Contributions.

How do contractor payments sync over?

You have two options for syncing contractor payments. See "Step 3: Choose your integration settings" above for more information.

Can unique reimbursements be broken out through separate mappings?

No, all reimbursements will be pushed over as a lump sum (e.g. Cell Phone Reimbursement + Gym Reimbursement + Office Supplies Reimbursement, etc.).

The chart of accounts in Gusto does not look correct. What should I do?

Click the Refresh chart of accounts button in Gusto.

Can I use more than one tracking category or journal consolidation method? For example, can I consolidate my journal entries by employee and by job?

No, not at this time. You must choose to consolidate by one method (by employee, department, job, or project). Next, you may select one Department Dimension for each employee, department, job, or project.

How do I handle checks?

We recommend printing checks from your Gusto account or handwriting them. You can then reconcile the journal entry from Gusto when the checks are cashed by your employees. We do incorporate the amount of each check in our Journal entry.

Need more help?