Create a pay schedule

To create a pay schedule for a company, use the POST companies/{company_id}/pay_schedules.

If the company:

• Doesn't have any pay schedules yet—for example, a company that is onboarding—this creates a default pay schedule for the company and assigns it to all employees.
• Does have one or more existing active pay schedules, this endpoint creates a pay schedule that is not assigned to any employee.

When creating a pay schedule, you can set "auto_pilot": true to enable Autopilot® and run payroll automatically one day before your payroll deadlines. You can also set Autopilot® up later when updating a pay schedule.

Sample request

curl --request POST \
     --url https://api.gusto-demo.com/v1/companies/{company_uuid}/pay_schedules \
     --header 'accept: application/json' \
     --header 'authorization: Bearer <<COMPANY_API_TOKEN>>' \
     --header 'content-type: application/json' \
     --data '
{
     "frequency": "Twice per month",
     "anchor_pay_date": "2021-10-15",
     "anchor_end_of_pay_period": "2021-10-15",
     "day_1": 15,
     "auto_pilot": false,
     "version": "68934a3e9455fa72420237eb05902327"
}
'

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const url = 'https://api.gusto-demo.com/v1/companies/{company_uuid}/pay_schedules';
const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    accept: 'application/json',
    'content-type': 'application/json',
    authorization: 'Bearer <<COMPANY_API_TOKEN>>'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    frequency: 'Monthly',
    anchor_pay_date: '2021-10-15',
    anchor_end_of_pay_period: '2021-10-15',
    day_1: 15,
    auto_pilot: false,
    version: '68934a3e9455fa72420237eb05902327'
  })
};

fetch(url, options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(json => console.log(json))
  .catch(err => console.error('error:' + err));

Anchor pay dates

A pay schedule's anchor pay date is the first date that employees on that pay schedule are paid with Gusto.

Payroll of any kind (regular, off-cycle, etc) cannot be run in a quarter prior to the quarter that the anchor pay date falls in.

Missing an anchor pay date

If payroll (regular or off-cycle) is not run by the set anchor pay date,

• The company remains onboarded.
• A missed_anchor_pay_day notification will be sent. Read more on our Partner notification types guide.

Gusto will automatically update the pay schedule using the original pay schedule's frequency, so the anchor pay date will be moved forward to the next valid first pay date and first pay-period end.

Moving an anchor pay date

If the anchor pay date is updated to an earlier month prior to running the first payroll, Federal Form 8655 is required to be resigned.

This is because the anchor pay date is reported on Form 8655, which authorizes Gusto to pay and file taxes on behalf of a company.