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.
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.
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.
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:
Next, set up the web services user:
Now that your Sage Intacct account is set up to integrate with Gusto, follow these steps to connect your company’s accounts.
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.
In the Detailed tab, map your chart of accounts.
Automating your mappings is optional but recommended to avoid sync errors. This lets you pre-select which Sage Intacct accounts should be used by default for new payroll categories. This means that when a new item is created in Gusto, you will not need to manually map it—Gusto will automatically apply your default mapping.
You’ll manage automated mappings in the Default tab. Click here for more details and next steps.
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.
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 the Settings section of the integration, stay on the Manage tab to set up any additional sync preferences—such as whether the sync runs automatically or manually, or whether certain taxes should be consolidated.
Head to the section below for a description of each setting and how to set them up.
Below is each setting you can customize and how to do so.
Here’s how to get to any of these settings:
Contractor payment sync
If you pay contractors through Gusto, decide how those payments should sync:
Employer tax consolidation
Choose how you want employer taxes to appear in Sage:
Journal entry consolidation
By default, Gusto consolidates entries of the same type into a single journal entry. You can also choose to group entries:
Click here to learn more about group mappings.
Entry date options
Select when the journal entry should appear in Sage:
Here’s why mapping your chart of accounts matters:
Map your chart of accounts
Time-saving tips for the Mapping tab:
This integration now includes an AI-powered feature that helps you choose the right accounts when setting up mappings for your chart of accounts. This is especially helpful if you’re not sure which account to pick for a payroll category.
Example: Say you’re setting up default accounts and don’t know what to choose. Gusto might suggest using Payroll Wages for Wages & Salaries, or Payroll Deductions Payable for Deductions.
How suggestions are generated
Gusto’s AI provides recommendations based on:
The AI model never stores or accesses your personal financial information. All suggestions are based on general patterns, not individual data.
Why default mappings matter
Over time, you may make changes to your Gusto account such as adding a custom deduction, creating a new earnings type, or setting up a new benefit. When this happens, new payroll line items are created in Gusto that need to be mapped to an account in Sage Intacct. If these items are not mapped, they can cause sync issues. Setting up default mappings can help you with this.
What default mappings do
Default mappings let you pre-select the Sage Intacct accounts that should be used for new payroll categories. This means that when you create a new line item, you will not have to manually map it to a Sage Intacct account—Gusto will automatically apply your default mapping to it.
Setting up default mappings is optional. If you prefer to manually map new Gusto categories, simply leave the default mapping blank.
Set up default mappings
Follow these steps to set up or change default mappings:
Edit default mappings
You can change default mappings at any time in the Default tab. Changes will only apply to new mappings going forward.
Edit detailed mappings
If a new category has been given a default mapping you’d like to change, you can change it in the Detailed tab. Here's how:
If past payrolls have already been synced to Sage Intacct with an incorrect mapping, you’ll need to manually re-sync those payrolls.
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.
This is optional.
Step 1: Choose your journal entry consolidation method
Step 2: Set up mapping overrides and Sage Department Dimensions (optional)
Once you select a consolidation method, a new tab appears on the left. Ex: If you choose to consolidate by employee, the tab will be called Employee. If you choose to consolidate by department, the tab will be called Department.
You can override default mappings for individual employees, departments, jobs, or projects. Overriding a default mapping means assigning different accounts to payroll items at these levels.
This is optional—if no overrides are applied, journal entries will still be categorized accordingly.
Here's how to set up an override:
Contractor payments
Consolidating journal entries by employee and department is compatible with contractors.
Consolidating by job and project is not compatible with contractors. This is because job titles and Gusto Projects are not currently supported for contractor profiles. If your company pays contractors and uses job or project consolidation, contractor payments will be synced based on the default company mappings.
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:
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:
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:
Each line item is tagged with the account that you mapped it to in Gusto.
Because Gusto does not take any money for benefits or deductions, we include a mapping for a benefit or deduction expense and a benefit or deduction liability. This will create accounts within your accounting software that accrue an amount owed for the benefit or deduction over time.
When the benefit or deduction is then paid to the requesting party, you can offset your liability account and zero out the accrued amount owed.
Benefits always have two line items on the journal entry:
Important: When money is pulled for an FSA or commuter benefit, before it is deducted through payroll make sure you don't create an expense but rather establish a receivable. It will be expensed in payroll when the amount is deducted. At that point with the deduction, then reduce the receivable.
Choose a section below for frequently asked questions about this integration.
Q: Do you support Sage Dimensions?
A: Yes, we support Sage Department Dimensions. See the “Consolidated Mapping” section above.
Other dimension types, such as Location Dimensions, are not supported at this time.
Q: The chart of accounts in Gusto does not look correct. What should I do?
A: First, click Refresh chart of accounts in Gusto. If this does not resolve the issue, you may have linked the wrong Sage Intacct account. Disconnect the integration and reconnect to the correct Sage Intacct account.
Q: How do I handle checks?
A: We recommend printing checks from your Gusto account or handwriting them. You can then reconcile the journal entry from Gusto when your employees cash the checks. We do incorporate the amount of each check in our Journal entry.
Q: Why can’t I find the Sage Intacct account I’m looking for in the drop-down?
A: The initial list in the drop-down menu shows recommended accounts based on the selected category. To choose a different account, simply type the name of the account into the search box.
If you still cannot find the account, it may need to be created in Sage Intacct first. Once you’ve created the account, click Refresh Chart of Accounts and try searching for it again in the search box.
Q: Do I need to select a default for each section?
A: No, you are not required to select a default for every section. If you prefer to manually map specific sections, you can simply leave those sections blank.
Q: What happens if I do not set up default mappings?
A: Default mappings are designed to automate mapping of new payroll categories that are added to your integration. If you choose not to enable default mappings, you will need to manually select the appropriate account for each new payroll category.
Please note that the sync will be paused until all categories are mapped to an account in Sage Intacct, which may disrupt your integration process.
Q: When are new mapping categories created?
A: New categories may be created in your integration under the following circumstances:
Each of these actions can introduce new payroll categories that will require appropriate mapping to ensure your integration functions smoothly.
Q: If I set up or change default mappings, will that impact what I’ve already mapped on the Detailed tab?
A: No, this will only impact new categories that may be added to your integration going forward. If you would like to adjust your detailed mappings, you can do so manually in the Detailed tab.
Q: Can I change my default mapping selection later?
A: Yes, you can change your default mapping selections at any time. Any changes will only affect future mappings—your existing mappings will remain unchanged.
Q: If I update my mappings, can I re-sync a payroll to update the entry?
A: Yes. In Sage, make sure to delete the original entries synced from Gusto before or after you resync the payroll.
To re-sync a payroll:
Q: How do I break out individual employee payroll items?
A: You can change the journal consolidation method to “by employee.”
To do this:
Q: Why can’t I find the Sage Intacct account I’m looking for in the drop-down?
A: The initial list in the drop-down menu shows recommended accounts based on the selected category. To choose a different account, simply type the name of the account into the search box.
If you still cannot find the account, it may need to be created in Sage first. Once you’ve created the account, click Refresh Chart of Accounts in Gusto and try searching for it again in the search box.
Q: What if I will not be using one of the payroll items listed?
A: The item will still need to be mapped to an account. If the payroll item is not applicable, nothing will sync 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.
Q: Can I include employee benefit deductions on the Journal Entry?
A: 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 (see "Offset benefit liabilities" above).
Q: Can unique reimbursements be broken out through separate mappings?
A: No, all reimbursements will be pushed over as a lump sum (e.g. Cell Phone Reimbursement + Gym Reimbursement + Office Supplies Reimbursement, etc.).
Q: Can I use more than one tracking category or journal consolidation method? For example, can I consolidate my bills or journal entries by employee and by job?
A: No, not at this time. You must choose to consolidate by one method (by employee, department, job, or project). Next, you may select one class for each employee, department, job, or project.
Q: Can I change the way I consolidate my mappings?
A: Yes, you can change your consolidation preferences at any time. Simply go to the Manage tab located under Settings. However, keep in mind that any changes will result in the deletion of previous consolidated account mapping overrides.
Q: Do I need to set up overrides for consolidated mappings?
A: Setting up overrides for consolidated mappings is optional. It's not required, but it does provide you with the opportunity to customize the mapping layout for each unique grouping you've established.
Q: Do I need to establish a Sage department dimension for each consolidated grouping?
A: No, it's not mandatory. This is completely optional based on your specific needs.
Q: Can I assign multiple Sage department dimensions to a single consolidated grouping?
A: Currently, only one Sage department dimension can be assigned per consolidated grouping.
Q: Why didn’t my sync work?
A: A sync may stop working if your Sage integration has been disconnected or if account mappings are missing.
Reconnecting Sage: If your integration has disconnected, follow the steps in the "Set up the Sage Intacct integration" section to reconnect.
Checking for missing mappings: To make sure all payroll categories are mapped, go to the Detailed tab and review each section. If an account is unmapped, a red pill indicates a missing mapping in that section. To resolve this, refer to the "Map your chart of accounts" section of this article.
Q: Why did Gusto disconnect from Sage Intacct?
A: Occasionally, an authorization issue might disconnect the integration. To resolve this, simply reconnect the integration:
After re-establishing the connection, all your previous mappings should be preserved.
Q: If I update my mappings, can I re-sync a payroll to update the journal entry?
A: Yes. Each sync creates a new expense in Sage Intacct. Make sure to delete the original entries synced from Gusto before or after you resync the payroll.
To re-sync a payroll:
Q: How do employee taxes and employee benefit contributions sync to Sage Intacct?
A: They’re always included in Gross Wages & Salaries.
Q: Do you break out individual taxes?
A: 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 Manage tab under Settings.
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.
Q: How do contractor payments sync over?
A: You have two options for syncing contractor payments. Click here to learn more.
Q: Is there a way to retroactively sync all payrolls once I enable auto-sync?
A: Auto-sync will only work for the payrolls moving forward from the time it is set up. Any payrolls run before auto-sync was enabled will need to be manually synced.
Q: What does the timestamp indicate?
A: The exact time Gusto successfully synced a payroll into the accounting software.
Q: Can I re-sync an entry that has already been reconciled?
A: Yes. Each sync creates a new expense in Sage Intacct. Delete the expense in Sage Intacct. Then, re-sync the payroll.
Q: Can I sync international contractor payments to Sage Intacct?
A: Not at this time.
Q: Can I sync international employee payrolls to Sage Intacct?
A: Not at this time.
Q: Can I sync Gusto or NEXT insurance invoices to Sage Intacct?
A: Not at this time.
Contact us from the Help section of your Gusto account.