Gusto is a payroll software solution for people advisory service providers.

Learn how you can sync Gusto company data and unlock proposal template content that will help you package, price and offer 3-tiered People Advisory services to your clients!

Additionally, take advantage of Smart Billing which automates your variable invoicing by syncing the current employee count from your Gusto account!

In order to connect to Gusto, navigate to the Apps page → Click on the Gusto tile.

Enter your Gusto login details in the pop-up window.

Gusto will then ask you to select which companies you want to authorize. We recommend authorizing all of your clients, so they are all available when building a proposal in Ignition.

You will be redirected back into Ignition where Gusto will now be connected!

When you connect Gusto to Ignition, your Gusto client list becomes available to use in Ignition.

You will be able to select a client from Gusto in the drop-down menu whilst creating a proposal.

After selecting a client from Gusto, you’ll see a new client record with data pre-filled from Gusto. You can then go ahead and save the client to your Ignition client list. From now on, the client record will be linked to Gusto, and any changes to the company details in Gusto will flow back to Ignition.

If you have existing Ignition clients that you would like to link to the equivalent company in Gusto, you can do this by editing the client record.

Go to the client record in Ignition → Edit client → Apps section.

Here you can choose the Gusto company you want to map the client to. Once mapped, changes made in Gusto to the company details will flow back to Ignition.

If you need to change which Gusto company a client is mapped to, you can also do this here.

Use the dropdown menu to map the client to the correct Gusto company. Remember to press Save Client when you are done!

The Gusto integration, when connected, will sync data one way from Gusto to Ignition only, on a daily basis. It is not currently possible for Ignition to send updates back to Gusto.

This means we suggest making any client changes in Gusto and avoid changing any client details in Ignition as they will be overwritten by the sync.

If you have updated any company details in Gusto and would like to sync the changes to Ignition immediately, navigate to the Apps page → Gusto tile → click Sync.

You can choose the type of sync under Client Sync Settings:

When Gusto is connected to your Ignition account, you will automatically have access to a Provided Proposal Template, authored by Gusto.

The Gusto proposal template contains three options - Essential, Advanced and Premium (Recommended) for your client’s needs.

(Click the image below to enlarge)

Please note: The Gusto proposal template is a proposal that contains options, meaning the proposal can only be sent if you are on a Professional or Scale plan.

If you are on a Starter plan, you will need to remove the options on the proposal in order to send it. (Pro-tip: Keep the most appropriate option and remove the rest!)

If you’d like more advice on how to offer profitable People Advisory services at your firm, Gusto have developed a range of content including training programs which you can access here.

Normally, if you wish to price a service based on the current number of active employees (like Payroll services), you’ll need to check the employee count manually before issuing an accurate invoice.

With Smart Billing, the current employee count is fetched automatically from Gusto whenever an invoice is issued. This lets you automate your billing and eliminates admin work.

Smart Billing is available when you have connected Gusto and the Price Type "Unit price" is selected.

If you would like to use Smart Billing, click on the magic wand icon and select your client mapping.

Once connected, the magic wand will turn green, indicating that the Quantity is set based on Gusto.

Repeat this process for all of the services that you wish to have Smart Billing set for.

If your client doesn’t yet exist as a company in Gusto, you can select "I’ll add it later” and set the Client mapping after proposal acceptance.

Please note: In order to use Smart Billing in your Billing Schedule, this must be set up in the proposal before it is accepted.

Once your proposal is accepted, Smart Billing will be set up on your client’s relevant billing items in their Billing Schedule.

If your workflow relies on sending the proposal before you add your client in Gusto, watch this video to learn how to set up Smart Billing after the proposal is accepted:

Setting the client mapping after the proposal is accepted

If you weren’t able to set the Gusto client mapping when creating the proposal, you can do this from the Client Billing Schedule.

Open any future invoice in the Billed Automatically section that contains the service or services you set up to use smart billing.

Click the red magic wand icon → add the Gusto client mapping.

Once the client mapping for Gusto is set, smart billing will be enabled.

You can identify what automatic billing group contains Smart Billing by the exclamation icon.

Clicking into the billing group allows you to view it in more detail. This is useful if there is more than one billing item in the group.

If you need to set the quantity manually for a particular line item, you can do this by clicking the Magic Wand and then pressing Disable. This will let you set the quantity manually for the line item. All other line items using smart billing will be unaffected.

Smart billing is not available when you select manual billing items and click Invoice now.

The quantity will be pre-filled with the most recent employee headcount fetched from Gusto, however it is your responsibility to confirm this when invoicing.

My Gusto client records are not updating in Ignition. Why?

You may have selected “Nothing” for the data between Gusto and Ignition. Please check this setting and manually sync your Gusto connection again.

I'm getting a "This action requires full access" permissions" in Gusto.

Check to see that the Gusto user is the primary admin in Gusto. If the account is not the primary admin, please follow these steps to change the Gusto account permissions.

Note that your Gusto account also has to have at least 1 client associated in Gusto for Ignition to be able view/add clients into Ignition.

How is the Gusto employee headcount calculated?

The employee headcount will be the current number of active employees at the time of invoice creation, plus the number of unique contractors paid during the previous calendar month (if any). This calculation is very similar to how Gusto calculates the number of employees to charge for each month. If you wish to ensure that the employee headcount always exactly matches the number of employees that Gusto charges for, it’s best to schedule your monthly invoice for the 1st of the month.

Can I add smart billing to an existing service I’m already providing?

Not yet, but we are looking at adding this functionality in the future. If you have a specific workflow that requires this process, we'd love to learn more. Please reach out to us at help@ignitionapp.com!

How do I stop smart billing completely for one or more services?

To do this we recommend you open the relevant client, go to the Services tab, open the relevant service and press End Service. You will then need to create a new proposal containing a replacement service that does not use smart billing. You can accept this proposal on behalf of the client to bypass the usual proposal acceptance process. We are looking to improve this process soon.

How does smart billing look from my client’s perspective?

Smart Billing is completely hidden from your client’s perspective. The service will be presented to them in their proposal exactly the same way.