Payroll transfer automation

Payroll Transfer Automation (PTA) automates the process of structuring and entering company, employee, and historical payroll data. This not only simplifies the process but also reduces errors and saves time, so your firm and clients can start using Gusto as soon as possible.

Note: PTA will only support employers coming over from QuickBooks Online Payroll, QuickBooks Desktop Payroll, and ADP Run.

Required documents

Each provider has specific reports for employee data and another for historical payroll data that Gusto can accept and process. If you try to import a report type that Gusto does support, the import will fail, and you'll be asked to try again.

The table below shows the reports that we'll ask for to export and import to Gusto for employee information.

Provider Employee report name
QuickBooks Online Payroll "Employee Details" (PDF only)
QuickBooks Desktop Payroll "Customize Report" (CSV only)
ADP Run "Employee Summary" (PDF only)
Import company information from QuickBooks Online

Once connected to QuickBooks Online, the following information will be passed along to Gusto: Company mailing and filing address, EIN, industry type, taxpayer type, employee full name, birthday, email, start date

Import company information from QuickBooks Online

  1. Start the process to add a new client.
  2. Proceed to the “create company profile” step.
  3. If you selected Quickbooks Online for bookkeeping in step 2, you'll be in the new automated flow. Click Get started.
  4. Connect to Quickbooks Online. 
  5. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online account.
  6. Select your firm or company.
  7. Click Connect to review the data imported.
Upload an employee report from QuickBooks Online Payroll
  1. Click Reports on the main menu.
  2. Select Employee Details.
  3. Click Customize and select All Employees and All Locations.
  4. Click Run Report.
  5. Select Export and print or save as a PDF.
Upload an employee report from QuickBooks Desktop Payroll
  1. Click Reports on the main menu.
  2. Hover over "Employees & Payroll" and select Employee Contact List.
  3. Click Customize Report.
  4. Use "Search Columns" to select the following:
    • Active Status
    • First Name
    • Last Name
    • SS No.
    • Email
    • Date of Birth
    • Street1
    • Street2
    • City
    • State
    • Zip
    • Job Title
    • Supervisor
    • Department
    • Hire Date
    • Release Date
    • Date of Last Check
    • Uses direct deposit
    • Salary
    • Workers Comp Code (applicable to WA)
    • Select all earnings rates
    • Federal W4 (will tell you if the employee uses 2019- or 2020+ W4)
    • Federal Filing Status
    • Federal Allowances
    • Federal Extra Amount
    • Two jobs
    • Claim Dependent
    • Other Income
    • Deduction
      • Alternately, you can pull the "Employee Withholdings" report alongside this custom employee report.
    • State Lived
    • State Worked
    • State Filing Status
    • State Allowances
    • State Extra Amount
    • State Miscellaneous 1-3
    • Adjustment 1/Amt/Limit (if applicable) + Adjustment 2/Amt/Limit (if applicable) + etc.
      • These are how benefit deductions are stored in QBD.
  5. If you want to pull both active and terminated employees on the same report:
    • Click the Filters tab.
    • Select Active Status.
    • Click Remove Selected Filter.
  6. Select Ok.
Upload an employee report from ADP Run
  1. Click Reports and select Run single report.
  2. Search for "Employee Summary".
  3. Select the current year, the most recent quarter, and All under "Status". 
  4. Click Download to get a PDF.

This may miss some employees who were paid/terminated in previous quarters, since you need to select a specific quarter. You might need to pull multiple summaries because of this issue. 

Contractor details

  1. Contractors will pull on the "Employee Summary" report listed above.
  2. The report does not contain the following: 
    • SSNs
    • Multiple pay rates
    • Account numbers for direct deposit will be masked