Run a regular payroll

Regular payrolls are directly linked to your company's pay schedule and pay periods. Therefore, if you need to change the dates of the pay period you're running payroll for, or run another payroll at the same time as your regular payroll, run an off-cycle payroll instead. Alternatively, if you need to change your pay schedule for the regular payroll, head to this article.

If you'd like to payroll to run automatically according to your company's pay schedule, enable Autopilot.

1. Click the Payroll section and select Run payroll.
2. Select the payroll you need to run and click Run payroll.
3. If you have multiple bank accounts set up, select which bank account you would like to process payroll from.
   • If you don't see this option, head to this article to learn more.
4. Adjust salaries or hours worked—if you have more than one employee, use our search, sort, filter, and bulk edit tools to make administrating payroll(s) easier.
   • Click into the regular hours, overtime, bonus, commission, or other earnings fields to make any adjustments.
     • Pay rates are pulled from the employee's People page. 
     • If the pay rate looks different in the Run Payroll flow than in the employee's pay settings, it's likely the pay rate is not set up as hourly, but rather per week, month, or year. The system will prorate, for example, $15/week to $0.37/hr
     • Head to the People section and select Team members, then select the employee's name to change their compensation.
       • Use the "Default hours" field to specify the total hours they're expected to work every pay period. This value will automatically be added into the "Regular hours" field in payroll. 
   • Click Direct Deposit or Check to change your employee's payment method for this payroll.
     • If you only see the option to pay by check, your employee has not set up a bank account for direct deposit.
   • Click Add personal note to leave a small message on your employee's paystub.
   • Click on the "Actions” menu to add or edit one-time deductions (post-tax).
5. Click Save and Continue to move forward.
   • All changes made to payroll will be automatically saved. An indicator at the bottom of the page page will show real-time updates of last-saved work, while indicating when something has not saved (due to errors).
6. On the next page, adjust vacation and sick days.
   • Enter vacation or sick hours your employees used during the pay period, if applicable.
   • Click Save and Continue or to move forward or Go Back if you need to adjust salaries.
7. Review and Submit.
   • Check out the preview of the wage and tax debits for your payroll.
   • If you need to make any adjustments click Go Back.
   • If you're ready to run payroll, click Submit Payroll.
8. Confirmation.
   • You did it! You'll receive an email confirming your payroll has processed.
   • If you need to cancel the payroll, click Cancel Payroll.
9. View employees that are being paid via check, if applicable.
   • Confirm your delivery method for checks.
     • Handle it yourself.
     • Have Gusto create and mail the check.
   • Click Confirm.
   • Click View printable checks (if you selected to handle this yourself).
     • Write or print their checks.
   • Click Done.
10. Review your payroll summary and the monetary breakdown for your payroll. From your payroll summary, you can also do the following:
    • Download all employee paystubs.
    • Export payroll details.
    • Print checks again if needed.

When a pay rate is different in the Run Payroll flow that in their account settings, this occurs when a pay rate is not set up as hourly, but rather per week, month or year. The system will prorate, for example, $15/week to $0.37/hr. Make sure the correct format (per hour, per week, etc) is used for the pay rate in the employee's profile. 

You can easily add a one-time commission amount for an employee in regular payroll. If you have commission-only employees and your payroll is on Autopilot®, you'll need to enter a commission before the payroll runs—these employees are set to a $0 salary so they won't be paid if no commission is entered.  

Note: Gusto does not support commission draws.

1. Go the Payroll section and select Run payroll.
2. Select the payroll you'd like to process.
3. If you have multiple bank accounts set up, select which bank account you would like to process payroll from.
   • If you don't see this option, head to this article to learn more.
4. Next to your employee, click +Commission.
   • If Commission does not appear, click +Other Earnings.
   • If you'd like to give more than one employee the same commission amount, use the bulk edit tool.
5. Next to Commission, enter the dollar amount.
6. Click Save.
7. Finish running payroll.

This commission amount will be taxed as regular wages and will be shown as a separate line item for commission on the employee's paystub.

If your employee has received a bonus, run a specific bonus payroll to apply the IRS' recommended supplemental withholding rate of 22%. If you need more information about taxable wages, check out IRS Publication 15 here.

If you'd rather aggregate the bonus amount in regular wages, add this to your next regular payroll. This will combine the bonus and any other taxable wages for the purposes of calculating the Federal Income Tax. Remember that the higher the gross pay, the higher the taxes. Therefore depending on the amount of the bonus, the employee might up paying more taxes on this payroll because of the bonus. 

To combine the bonus amount to regular wages:

1. Click the Payroll section and select Run payroll.
2. Select the payroll you'd like to process.
3. If you have multiple bank accounts set up, select which bank account you would like to process payroll from.
   • If you don't see this option, head to this article to learn more.
4. Next to your employee, click +Bonus.
   • If you'd like to give more than one employee the same bonus, use the bulk edit tool.
5. Enter the dollar amount.
   • More information about net and gross pay can be found here.
6. Finish running payroll.

This bonus amount will be taxed as regular wages and will appear on a separate line item on the employee's paystub. 

Note: If your employee has an active garnishment, you may need to check with the garnishment authority to see if there are specific requirements for garnishing the bonus payment.

Let your employees know why they're receiving a bonus, adjusted wages, or other special payment by adding a personal note the next time you run payroll. Personal notes can't be added retroactively, so you'll need to do it while processing the payroll. 

1. Click the Payroll section and select Run payroll.
2. Select the payroll you'd like to process.
3. If you have multiple bank accounts set up, select which bank account you would like to process payroll from.
   • If you don't see this option, head to this article to learn more.
4. Under your employee, click Add Personal Note.
   • If you'd like to leave the same note for more than one employee, use the bulk edit tool.
5. Enter a description.
6. Click Save
7. Finish running the payroll.

Once the payroll is processed, the personal note will appear at the top of your employee's pay stub.

You can enter cash and paycheck tips for employees in your regular payroll. 

1. Click the Payroll section and select Run payroll. 
2. Select the payroll you'd like to process.
3. If you have multiple bank accounts set up, select which bank account you would like to process payroll from.
   • If you don't see this option, head to this article to learn more.
4. Next to your employee's name, click +Other Earnings.
   • If more than one employee received the same amount of tips, use the bulk edit tool. 
5. Add Paycheck Tips if the employee hasn't been paid the amount yet. These tips will be paid to the employee in this payroll.
6. Add Cash Tips if the employee has already been paid the amount. These tips will only be taxed.
7. Click Save.
8. Finish running payroll.

Both paycheck and cash tips will be taxed as regular wages. The tips will appear as separate line items on the employee's paystub. 

If your employee is set up with multiple pay rates, follow the steps below for how to enter each rate when running payroll. Multiple pay rates for salaried employees is not supported at this time. 

If you're on the Plus or Premium product plan, you can use Gusto Time Tracking to seamlessly sync employee's hours.

Step 1. Enter regular hours

1. Click the Payroll section and select Run payroll.
2. Select the payroll you'd like to process.
3. If you have multiple bank accounts set up, select which bank account you would like to process payroll from.
   • If you don't see this option, head to this article to learn more.
4. Next to your hourly employee, you will see the total default hours for all job types.
5. Click Enter Hours or the default TH (total hour) amount if you want to update the hours for a job type.
6. Next to Regular Hours, enter the updated amount.

Step 2. Enter overtime hours

1. Under the job type, click +Overtime.
2. Next to Overtime (1.5x) or Double Overtime (2x), enter the overtime amount.
3. Click Save.
4. Click Save & Continue.
5. The pay rate used for overtime depends on if you have a weekly pay schedule or if you have a non-weekly pay schedule.

Note: If you're using your own overtime calculation, you can calculate the overtime wage amount you want entered, and instead add this total as another Additional Earning. We suggest adding a Personal Note to let the employee know what this extra amount is for.

Step 3. Enter paid time off hours

1. Once you're on the Vacation & Sick Days screen, enter any paid time off hours for your employee.
2. Click Submit payroll.
3. Paid time off hours will use the first pay rate. If you'd like to use a different rate, you'll need to edit the first pay rate to the desired amount and adjust the additional pay rate(s) before running payroll again.

If you have an unpaid time off policy set up, enter these hours on the second step of payroll.

If you don't have an unpaid time off policy set up, and need to accommodate unpaid time off taken in a pay period, deduct these hours in your payroll. For salaried employees, you'll want to deduct 8 hours for every work day taken for unpaid time off. 

1. Click the Payroll section and select Run payroll.
2. Select the payroll you'd like to process.
3. If you have multiple bank accounts set up, select which bank account you would like to process payroll from.
   • If you don't see this option, head to this article to learn more.
4. Update the hours for your employees.
   • For hourly workers: Only include the actual amount of hours worked. If there are default amount of hours populated here, deduct the amount of hours taken for unpaid time off.
   • For salaried workers: Click the link showing the default regular hours. Deduct the amount of hours taken for unpaid time off.
5. Click Personal Note to add a note on the paystub regarding the adjustment in hours.
6. Finish running payroll.

If your employee has taken unpaid time off for an entire pay period, you can skip them on that payroll so that no paid working hours are entered for that time period. 

Administrator with the required permissions can skip an employee on payroll. If you need to remove them permanently, dismiss them. Skipped employees will remain on your invoice, while dismissed employees will not.  

Skipping an employee from payroll means the employee will not receive a paystub. Paying an employee $0 on a payroll will produce a $0 paystub. 

Skipping a payroll works for regular payrolls and dismissal payrolls. Skipped payrolls can't be undone—if you need to pay an employee for a skipped payroll, process an off-cycle payroll. 

Skip a payroll for one employee

Skipping an employee from payroll will only affect this one instance. If you need to skip them again, follow the same process in your future payrolls.

1. Click the Payroll section and select Run payroll.
2. Select the payroll you'd like to process.
3. Next to your employee's name, click the three dots under the Actions menu on the far right.
4. Click Skip payroll.
5. Finish running payroll.

The employee you skipped will not be paid for this payroll.

Skip a payroll for more than one employee

Skipping an employee from payroll will only affect this one instance. If you need to skip them again, follow the same process in your future payrolls.

1. Click the Payroll section and select Run payroll.
2. Select the payroll you'd like to process.
3. Click the checkbox(es) next to the names of the employees you'd like to skip.
   •  To skip all employees on the payroll, click the checkbox next to column titled "Employees" to select all employees.
4. Click Bulk edit.
5. Select Skip Payroll from the drop-down.
6. Select Yes - skip payroll.
7. Click Update.
8. Finish running payroll. 

All employees you selected will not be paid for this payroll.

Skip an entire payroll

1. Click the Payroll section and select Run payroll.
2. Select the payroll you'd like to process.
   
   • In the right corner of the tile or payroll line item, click the three dots and select Skip this payroll.
   • If the payroll you’d like to skip is blocked by a transition payroll after a pay schedule change, you'll need to run or skip the transition payroll first.