Guides

Platform overview

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Gusto Embedded enables partners to build and embed modern payroll and HR solutions directly into your application. This guide is for partners who want to learn about our platform, and how it provides the tools and flexibility needed to create a seamless, compliant, and secure payroll experience for their end customers.

What you can build

Payroll processing

Handle all aspects of payroll management including regular payroll runs, off-cycle payments, termination processing, and all associated federal, state, and local filings and payments.

Key capabilities:

  • Process regular and off-cycle payrolls
  • Calculate and file taxes automatically
  • Import historical payroll data
  • Handle multi-state tax requirements
  • Manage contractor payments
  • Generate payroll reports

Company management

Streamline company setup with tools for managing information, locations, departments, and tax configurations.

Key capabilities:

  • Company onboarding and setup
  • Multi-location management
  • Department organization
  • Tax configuration and compliance
  • Bank account and payment setup

People management

Support W2 employees and 1099 contractors with full-featured onboarding, compensation management, document handling, and benefit administration.

Key capabilities:

  • Employee and contractor onboarding
  • Compensation tracking and management
  • Document storage and processing
  • Time off policy management
  • Employee benefits administration

Product partnerships

Extend your platform with integrated third-party services.

Available integrations:

  • Health insurance via SimplyInsured
  • On-demand pay via Clair
  • Workers compensation via NEXT Insurance
  • 401(k) (Guideline)
    • More 401(k) integration options to come soon!
  • Accounting integrations (Xero and QuickBooks Online)

Choose your build path

Gusto Embedded provides flexible build options to enable partners to tailor the end-customer experience. Partners can launch quickly with pre-built UI Flows, build custom experiences using APIs, or combine multiple approaches to create the ideal solution.

APIs

Our APIs are the foundation of the Embedded payroll platform, powering all core functionality. Partners can interact with these APIs directly, or through convenient abstractions like Flows and the SDK. The Embedded solution grants full access to our comprehensive suite of API endpoints.

Direct API integration provides the flexibility to create customized user interfaces and experiences. This allows a partner to tailor the payroll platform to match the specific needs of the end-customer journey. These include the following:

  • Company onboarding: Streamline the setup process for new businesses
  • Employee onboarding: Efficiently onboard and manage employee data
  • Payroll processing: Execute payroll calculations and disbursements
  • Reporting: Generate custom reports for payroll and related data

Get started faster with API clients: We provide pre-built API clients in popular programming languages to accelerate your integration. These clients handle authentication, request formatting, and response parsing so you can focus on building your application logic. View available API clients.

Our platform also uses webhooks for asynchronous communications with your platform. Learn more about webhooks.

Flows

Launch your payroll product quickly and efficiently with our pre-built Flows. These user interfaces are ready-to-use, covering key use cases like company onboarding, employee and contractor onboarding, and payroll processing.

Customize styling through the Gusto Developer Portal to align with your brand. Learn more about Flows.

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Test our Flows using our Try It Now tool.

SDK

Our SDK is a highly customizable and quick-to-deploy build option, offering React component libraries with built-in business logic to help you navigate the complexity of building with payroll APIs. You can use the SDK alongside the API or with Flows. Learn more about how to decide whether you should use the SDK.

Hybrid

Combine existing workflows from your application with modularized Flows or SDKs to complete your payroll experience. Partners can leverage either our APIs to pass data or iframed components to capture the remaining information required for payroll processing.

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What does this mean?

Imagine you already collect basic company information like legal name and location, but not state tax details. Using our APIs, you can prepopulate the required fields with your existing data. Then, embed a pre-built Flow or SDK so that end customers can complete the remaining steps, such as state tax requirements.

Best practices for success

  • Plan your implementation
    • Consider your customer needs and define your feature requirements
    • Determine what information you already collect that’s relevant to payroll
    • Choose your build path
    • Map out user workflows
    • Plan for scalability
  • Prepare for launch
    • Test thoroughly in the demo environment
    • Document your integration points
    • Prepare support procedures
    • Plan for upgrades and maintenance
  • Focus on user experience
    • Design intuitive workflows
    • Provide clear error messages
    • Include helpful documentation
    • Consider accessibility needs
  • Maintain and improve
    • Monitor system performance
    • Gather user feedback
    • Plan regular updates
    • Stay current with platform changes

Ready to get started?

After familiarizing yourself with the platform capabilities, you’ll likely want to:

  1. Register for a developer account to access the demo environment
  2. Review the developer documentation for detailed technical guidance
  3. Explore the API reference and available UI components (Flows, SDK npm package)
  4. Begin testing with sample implementations
  5. Contact our Technical Solutions team for implementation assistance

Updated about 7 hours ago