This article is for admins who use ChildPilot for childcare or daycare and want to connect it with Gusto.
ChildPilot is management software that helps childcare centers and daycares handle billing, attendance, parent communication, and staff management.
You can connect Gusto to your ChildPilot account to sync employee hours and timesheets. This makes it easier to run payroll. We send employee information to ChildPilot, including compensation, work address, date of birth, and employment status. This keeps your records up to date in both systems.
Admins can connect their company’s Gusto and ChildPilot accounts from within ChildPilot.
To connect Gusto to ChildPilot:
Go to Billing.
Click Manage Billing.
Select Setup Payroll Connection.
If you already have a Gusto account, click Connect Existing Gusto Account.
If you’re new to Gusto, click Integrate with Gusto. You’ll need to enter your personal and company information and complete your company onboarding in Gusto. Then go back to step 1 above to connect your new account.
Enter your Gusto admin credentials and click Sign in.
If you have more than one company in Gusto, choose the one you want to connect to ChildPilot.
You can connect additional accounts one at a time. Finish connecting your first account, then repeat these steps for each ChildPilot account you want to connect to Gusto.
Click Authorize to allow ChildPilot and Gusto to share information.
You’ll be taken back to ChildPilot. Now you need to link employee profiles for syncing. In the Manage Billing tab, click Gusto Payroll.
Go to the Employee Connections tab.
Scroll down to Gusto Employees. This section shows each employee’s Gusto profile. ChildPilot automatically links employees if their work email matches in both Gusto and ChildPilot.
If ChildPilot successfully links an employee to a Gusto profile, Linked to [name] appears under their name.
Onboarding Status shows whether they completed their onboarding to Gusto.
To link an employee’s accounts:
On the right, click the blue link icon.
Select the Gusto profile that corresponds with their ChildPilot profile.
To unlink someone’s accounts:
On the right, click the red unlink icon.
This will exclude them from the sync. To re-link them, or link them to a different profile, click the blue link icon.
For employee data to sync, you need to link their Gusto and ChildPilot accounts.
Use the steps below to check employees’ connection statuses and link or unlink profiles.
To link or unlink employees between ChildPilot and Gusto:
Go to Billing.
Click Manage Billing.
Select Gusto Payroll.
Go to the Employee Connections tab.
Scroll down to Gusto Employees.
Each employee profile appears here. If Linked to [name] appears under their name, their Gusto and ChildPilot profiles are linked, and their data will sync.
To link an employee’s Gusto and ChildPilot profiles:
Find the employee you want to link. On the right, click the blue link icon.
In the dropdown menu, select the Gusto profile that matches this employee.
Once you link the employee, Linked to [name] appears under their name.
To unlink an employee’s Gusto and ChildPilot profiles:
Find the employee you want to unlink.
On the right, click the red unlink icon.
Once you unlink the employee, Linked to [name] disappears from under their name.
You can unlink an employee if you do not want their data to sync between Gusto and ChildPilot, or if you need to link them to a different employee profile.
ChildPilot automatically syncs your employee information every time you sign in. You can also sync information manually whenever you need to.
When you need to add a new employee, you can do this in either Gusto or ChildPilot. The automatic sync will create a profile for them in the other platform.
If ChildPilot has not synced an employee to Gusto, you can create their Gusto profile from ChildPilot.
To add or sync employees between ChildPilot and Gusto:
Go to Billing.
Click Manage Billing.
Select Gusto Payroll.
Go to the Employee Connections tab.
To add a new employee, click Create.
Enter their full name, email, and hire date. This will create a new employee profile in Gusto. In your Gusto admin account, go to the People section to find and onboard the new employee.
To update existing employees, click Sync Now.
Timesheet data syncs automatically, but you can run a manual sync anytime to update information faster.
To send timesheets from ChildPilot to Gusto:
Go to Billing.
Click Manage Billing.
Select Gusto Payroll.
Go to the Employee Timesheets tab.
Under Select Payroll, click the dropdown and select the pay period you want to sync timesheets for.
In the Send to Gusto column, select the checkbox next to each employee whose timesheet you want to send to Gusto.
Click Submit Timesheets.
In Gusto, you can view timesheet data in the Time tracking section.
When a timesheet is updated in ChildPilot, ChildPilot automatically syncs the change to Gusto as long as you have not run payroll yet for that pay period. Run a manual sync if you want the update to sync sooner than the automatic sync runs.
If you’ve already run payroll, you have two options to adjust a timesheet:
Cancel the payroll. Click here to learn if you can cancel the payroll. Then, run a manual timesheet sync from ChildPilot and rerun the payroll in Gusto.
Or, manually adjust the payroll using your ChildPilot timesheet data as a reference.
Company information syncs automatically, but you can run a manual sync anytime to update information faster.
To sync company information between ChildPilot and Gusto
Go to Billing.
Click Manage Billing.
Select Gusto Payroll.
Click Sync Now.
If you have problems connecting ChildPilot and Gusto or syncing data, use these solutions to fix common issues.
If your connection to Gusto expires, you might get an “Access denied” error. To help fix this:
Go to Billing.
Click Manage Billing.
Click Setup Payroll Connection to sign in to Gusto and refresh the connection.
Try to sync the information again.
This error means ChildPilot is sending data to Gusto too quickly.
To help fix this:
Wait a few minutes. ChildPilot will automatically try again.
If the error does not go away, contact ChildPilot support.
If the times in Gusto do not match what you expect, like 3:00am instead of 8:00am, the time format might be incorrect.
To help fix this:
Make sure all times are entered in the correct AM/PM format (Example: 8:00am).
Update the timesheet and click Submit again.
Sign in to Gusto to confirm the times are now correct.
If you no longer want data to sync between Gusto and ChildPilot, or if you’re troubleshooting the connection, follow these steps to disconnect:
Go to Billing.
Click Manage Billing.
Select Disconnect Gusto Payroll.
ChildPilot will ask you to confirm. Click Disconnect.
You can reconnect the integration anytime.
Q: How do I know if the ChildPilot and Gusto integration is working?
A: In ChildPilot, go to Billing and then Manage Billing. If it says Gusto Payroll, you’re connected.
Q: Can I connect more than one daycare to my Gusto account?
A: Yes. You need to set up a separate connection for each daycare. Repeat the setup steps for each ChildPilot account you want to connect to Gusto.
Q: What if I enter the wrong shift times?
A: If you get an Invalid shift times error, check the employee’s profile in ChildPilot to make sure the times are correct. Then, resubmit the timesheet.
You can contact the ChildPilot support team for help with the integration.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 940-287-3704
Chat: Sign in to ChildPilot and click the support chat icon.