Add a historical contractor payment

If you've already paid a domestic contractor outside of Gusto, you can still add the payment to Gusto for reporting purposes—this helps ensure the total amount on the contractor's Form 1099 is accurate. For each month a historical payment is entered in, you'll be charged your standard monthly contractor fee.  

To adjust or cancel a previously processed contractor payment, click here. To process a new payment, check out this article on how to pay your contractor(s).

Adding historical payments for a previous year

The deadline to enter historical contractor payments for the previous year is in early January—we'll send notifications to admins as the end of the calendar year approaches letting you know what the final deadline is to run any and all previous payrolls (this includes historical contractor payments). 

• If you're entering multiple historical payments at the end of the year, you can enter all payments in the same month–this way you'll only pay one month's fee per contractor for all of their historical payments.
• If you're adding a payment for a previous year and a Form 1099 has already been filed, you'll need to generate a corrected Form 1099-NEC.
• If Gusto did not handle your tax filings for the previous year, you'll need to generate and file a new Form 1099 outside of Gusto.

Add a historical contractor payment

First, add the domestic contractor in Gusto, then follow the steps below—if the contractor has been dismissed you'll need to rehire them first. The payment(s) will be added for reporting purposes only.

1. Click the Payroll sectionand select Pay contractors.
2. Click the pay date and select the actual date you paid your contractor–a message prompting you to further indicate this is a "historical payment" will appear. 
   • If you're adding a payment for a previous year and a Form 1099 has already been filed, you'll need to generate a corrected Form 1099-NEC. 
3. Next to the contractor's name, under the "Total amount" column, click Enter Payment. 
4. Under the "Payment method" column, click the contractor's payment method (typically Check or Direct Deposit) until it updates to Historical Payment.
5. Enter the number of worked hours, wages, or other additional earnings that were paid.
6. Click Memo to leave a small message and let your contractor(s) know what the specific payment is for.
7. Click Continue.
8. Review the summary and click Submit payments if everything looks right.

View or adjust a historical contractor payment

1. Click the Payroll section and select Payroll history.
2. Click the Contractor payment history tab.

If you need to cancel or adjust a payment, click View details.