Gusto vs Toast Payroll

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Our analysts compared Gusto vs Toast Payroll based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Payroll Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Toast Payroll Software Tool

Product Basics

Gusto is a web-based payroll system for medium-sized organizations. It handles benefits, compliance, direct deposit, employee self-service, employee management, payment processing and taxes. Using automation, calculators and other administrative and HR modules, users can streamline the entire process of paying employees. It integrates with other technologies to offer expanded services such as accounting, bookkeeping, POS, time tracking and other business operations. In addition to filing taxes, it scans the laws of over 50 states to ensure accurate state and federal payments, helping organizations avoid penalties.
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Toast Payroll is a cloud-based solution that helps businesses streamline payroll operations and facilitate efficient workforce management. It offers dynamic functionalities like tax compliant updates, employee profiles, time tracking, wage calculations, digital onboarding, automated tip distribution and more.

The product helps users manage workload with the help of timesheets, calculation tools, computation options, regulatory compliance and other business-specific benefits. It offers prompt customer support channels, a self-service platform that helps employees enroll for programs and benefits and real-time information syncs to the company POS to reduce manual operations.
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$110 Monthly
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Product Insights

  • Flexible and Easier to Use: Guides admins through set-up and features a user-friendly interface. Let employees account for unexpected expenses, up to 40% of their paycheck, by automatically taking the amount out of their next check.
  • More Cost-Effective: Take advantage of a one-month free trial before full implementation. Subscribe on a monthly basis or based on a price quote, depending on the business’s needs.
  • Better Compliance: Check for updated tax law ensures that the proper documents are filed on time and follow the most recent legislation. Help users keep in compliance with ACA, ERISA and HIPAA standards. Record tests to comply with nondiscrimination policies from the IRS or benefits programs such as FSAs.
  • Timer Saver: Cut down on busy work and manual data entry to save valuable employee hours in payroll processing and tax filing. Manage and complete administrative work by accessing premade job templates, HR guides, live harassment prevention webinars, fitness tests, handbooks, best practices, manuals and more.
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  • Time Savings: Automate payroll calculations and tax filings, freeing up valuable hours for your HR team.
  • Accuracy: Minimize errors with precise, automated calculations, reducing the risk of costly mistakes.
  • Compliance: Stay up-to-date with ever-changing labor laws and tax regulations, ensuring your business remains compliant.
  • Employee Self-Service: Empower employees to access their pay stubs, tax forms, and personal information through a user-friendly portal.
  • Integration: Seamlessly connect with other Toast products and third-party applications, creating a unified system for your business operations.
  • Scalability: Easily manage payroll for a growing workforce, whether you have a small team or multiple locations.
  • Cost Efficiency: Reduce administrative overhead and potential penalties from payroll errors, leading to significant cost savings.
  • Data Security: Protect sensitive employee information with robust security measures and encryption protocols.
  • Real-Time Reporting: Access detailed payroll reports and analytics to make informed business decisions quickly.
  • Employee Satisfaction: Improve employee morale by ensuring timely and accurate paychecks, fostering a positive workplace environment.
  • Customizability: Tailor payroll settings to fit the unique needs of your business, from pay schedules to benefit deductions.
  • Support: Benefit from dedicated customer support to resolve any payroll issues promptly and efficiently.
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  • Payroll Processing: Automatically calculate employee checks and file taxes while using online faxing, filing and signing technologies.
    • Payroll Reports: Send money out weekly, bi-weekly, twice a month or monthly. Calculate an employee’s gross pay before taxes by simply entering the amount they should receive. Figure out overtime pay for hourly workers whether they have one or multiple pay rates. Leverage other payroll capabilities such as calculating unlimited and off-cycle payrolls, employee reimbursements, bonuses and more.
    • Automated Taxes: Calculate, file and pay all payroll taxes per local and federal legislation through direct deposit. Generate and send 940, 941, 1099, 8974 and W-2 forms for full-time employees and independent contractors. Manage deductions, garnishments and send child support in all states except for South Carolina. Make adjustments, get support and enter claims for the Federal R&D Tax Credit, FLSA minimum wage requirements and the FICA Tip Credit tax.
    • E-Signatures: Sign and file important documents and forms such as W-2’s, 1099s, 940s, 941s and 8974s. Make it easier to get everyone’s ducks in a row, even when separated by thousands of miles.
    • Leave Tracking: Set up and monitor vacation time, time off and sick time. Choose federal holidays or create other holidays for organizations that accommodate different faiths, locations or cultures.
  • Benefits: Make the necessary deductions automatically for medical insurance, 401(K) contributions and more. Give employees dental, medical and vision insurance and help them find the appropriate plan. Provide other benefits such as 529 (college) savings, commuter perks, disability insurance, FSAs, HSAs, life insurance and workers’ compensation.
  • Wallet: Manage banking accounts, emergency funds, paychecks and savings. Create as many as five saving goals, which deduct funds automatically from the correlating spending accounts — transfer funds from savings to spending easily. Put paychecks in different accounts and let workers see checks and the specifics of deductions, hours and taxes. Give access to paystubs, the Wallet app and W-2s.
  • Worker Management: Give workers digital paystubs accessible by the payday email, account or Wallet app. Let employees send money to charities, organize workers into departments and set policies for PTO and sick leave. Customize and assign various permissions to ensure users can access the appropriate content but not sensitive data.
  • Self-Service: Let employees complete tasks like adding dependents, picking out plans and scheduling changes to plans based on personal details. Let them retain access to specific account information after termination to cut down on unnecessary content. Organize reports based on teams or departments and let workers sign essential documents like I-9s and W-4s.
  • New Employees: Report new hires to the government automatically. Send out onboarding papers before new staff members start so they can fill out bank details, contact information and W-4s. Use an onboarding to-do list for tasks like adding employees to the payroll, background checks, filling out an employee’s I-9, setting up benefits and signing forms.
  • Directory: Create an address book of employees with profile pictures and contact information. Give new workers org charts to see where they fit in the organization. Organize fun facts, t-shirt or merch orders, birthdays and communal coffee dates.
  • Calendar Sync: Track deadlines, birthdays and employee anniversaries and sync with other calendars in iCalendar, Google, and Outlook.
  • Integrations: Uses closed APIs. Integrate with platforms like Accelo, Asana, Box, Clover, Dropbox, Expensify, FreshBooks, Github, G Suite, Homebase, Microsoft 365, QuickBooks Online, Receipt Bank, Slack, SpotOn, TSheets, Veryfi, When I Work, Xero, Ximble, Zoom and more. Contact the vendor for custom connections.
  • Reporting and Analytics: Generate and download reports for benefits, payment history, bank transactions, PTO, contract work, tax payments and more
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  • POS integration: Sync employee data to the POS system and automate data entry. Check employee timesheets, track employee hours, record tips, monitor wages, onboard new employees and more without manual hassles. 
  • Law-Compliant Operations: Manage job rates, conform to new labor laws, handle payroll taxes and comply with state and federal laws. Meet minimum wage requirements using business protection tools to minimize non-compliance risks. Comply with state and national labor laws using robust tools and HR modules. 
  • Labor Management: Track work hours and add new time entries to manage employee activity. Review breaks, approve timesheets, calculate overtime and record paid leaves with the help of accurate time tracking tools. View open shifts and make accurate payments on a coherent platform. 
  • Online Functionalities: Create employee schedules, access in-depth reports for crucial business insights, manage enrolments and offer plans, simplify HR operations and more on a centralized, time-efficient payroll system. 
  • Self-Service: Allow employees to view and manage benefit plans, make changes, report payroll deductions and more with self-service options. 
  • Reporting: Review team performance, see top-performing employees, identify loopholes, optimize business operations and more using informative reports based on real-time data. Create customized reports and analyze employee performance, HR processes and business finances. 
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Product Ranking

#7

among all
Payroll Software

#135

among all
Payroll Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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Toast Payroll
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Benefits Management Dashboard And Reporting Expense Management Mobile Capabilities Payroll And Tax Management Platform Capabilities Security And Compliance Time And Attendance Management 95 40 90 54 89 87 80 63 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 2802 reviews
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93%
of users recommend this product

Gusto has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 93% when considering 2802 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

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4.2 (23)
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Awards

Gusto stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Easy to Use: Just under 70% of all reviewers found this product easy to use with 10% specifically praising the design.
Great Conflict Resolution: The customer service was noted for being helpful, knowledgeable and excellent at resolving errors.
Helpful Features: Around 40% of reviewers said they appreciated the functionality, particularly praising the tax system, deductions, payroll processing and multiple payment options.
Appropriate Pricing: Over 30% of users felt that the price was well worth the system.
Good for Small Business: This was called a good choice for small businesses in over 10% of reviews.
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Seamless Integration: Toast Payroll is tightly integrated with the Toast POS system, as well as scheduling software and tip management tools. This is particularly beneficial for restaurants already using the Toast ecosystem, as it streamlines operations and reduces the need for separate systems.
Automated Payroll: The software offers automation features that save time and reduce errors. For example, employee punches from the POS system can be synced directly to payroll, automating the process of calculating hours worked.
User-Friendly Design: Toast Payroll is designed with a user-friendly interface that is generally easy to navigate. The platform also offers ample training resources, making it easier for new users to get up to speed.
Restaurant-Specific Tools: Toast Payroll includes features specifically designed for the restaurant industry, such as tip management and scheduling tools. These features cater to the unique needs of restaurants, simplifying processes like tip allocation and shift management.
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Issues with Certain Functionality: While around 40% felt the solution worked well, another 40% reported issues, especially with the time tracking and integration features.
Slow/Pushy Customer Support: Around 10% of users reported negative experiences with customer service. Of them around 50% felt the staff was pushy and trying to upsell them and 50% felt they had to wait too long for answers or couldn't get in touch with them online.
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High Cost: Toast Payroll's subscription fees are higher than many other payroll software options, and the lack of a free trial makes it difficult to assess its value before committing.
Customer Service Issues: Users frequently report long wait times and unhelpful interactions with Toast Payroll's customer support team, making it difficult to resolve issues promptly.
Compliance Concerns: Some users have reported that Toast Payroll's software does not comply with specific state payroll regulations, potentially leading to legal and financial headaches.
Technical Glitches: Users have encountered technical problems with Toast Payroll, including issues with tip management, payroll syncing, and inaccurate reports, which can disrupt operations and create extra work.
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Gusto is a well-reviewed payroll solution which many users enjoy for its good design and easy-to-use features. It’s UI and payroll processing abilities in particular make it a popular choice for automating payroll. Many also feel it handles benefits and PTO well. Some say it's an affordable choice given what it does while others note that it’s on the pricey side. The time tracking features aren’t universally loved. Users are split on the integration abilities with around 10% satisfied and around 10% dissatisfied. All in all, it appears to be a good solution for small and medium-sized businesses looking to streamline their payroll. Keep an eye on the price and, as always, demo extensively before buying.

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Is Toast Payroll the best thing since sliced bread, or does it leave a bad taste in your mouth? User reviews over the last year present a mixed bag. While Toast Payroll shines in its seamless integration with Toast POS, simplifying tasks like syncing employee punches and managing time off, it's not without its pitfalls. Users praise its user-friendly interface and efficiency, particularly those already familiar with Toast POS. This integration is a key differentiator, as one user notes, "I love that in this one app I can do everything that I need to do for human resources." However, several users report compliance issues, especially with California law, and hiccups with W2 processing. Customer service, unfortunately, emerges as a sore point. Unlike the integrated experience with Toast POS, support for Toast Payroll is handled separately, often leading to confusion and delays. One user laments, "Our service hasn't been great from their side....we wait longer than expected on items to happen or to even hear back from team members on certain things." Additionally, discrepancies between Toast POS and Toast Payroll, while seemingly counterintuitive given their close relationship, require meticulous attention to detail. Overall, Toast Payroll is a good fit for businesses already entrenched in the Toast ecosystem, especially those prioritizing ease of use and streamlined operations. However, businesses with intricate payroll needs or those operating in regions with stringent compliance regulations might find Toast Payroll's shortcomings difficult to swallow. For those businesses, exploring alternative solutions might be the best recipe for success.

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