Gusto Review: Payroll & HR for Small Contracting Companies

Gusto Review: Payroll & HR for Small Contracting Companies

Gusto is a cloud-based payroll and basic HR platform built for small and mid-sized businesses. For contractors, it aims to simplify payroll, taxes, and core HR paperwork so the office can spend less time on admin and more time supporting the field.

This review looks at where Gusto fits in a commercial contractor’s stack, who it’s best for, and when you should (and shouldn’t) consider it.

Who Gusto Is Really For

Gusto is a strong fit for contractors who:

  • Have between roughly 5 and 75 employees (field + office)
  • Want to move off manual payroll, spreadsheets, or generic bank-run systems
  • Operate in one or a few states without extreme complexity
  • Need help staying on top of payroll taxes and basic compliance

It’s especially useful for:

  • Commercial roofing, paving, concrete, and HVAC companies that already track time in an app
  • Owners who want payroll to “just run” without learning every tax rule
  • Offices where one person handles bookkeeping, payroll, and HR tasks

If you’re big enough that payroll mistakes are painful, but not so big that you have a full HR/payroll department, Gusto is in your lane.

Where Gusto Fits in Your Stack

Gusto lives in the payroll and basic HR layer of your stack.

  • Primary role: Run payroll, handle withholdings and tax filings, manage basic HR records and benefits.
  • Replaces: Manual payroll calculations, spreadsheet-driven hours, and simple bank payroll tools with limited HR support.
  • Should integrate with: Your time tracking tool (like busybusy or a similar app) and your accounting system.

It’s not a construction accounting system and it’s not a full HRIS. It’s there to make sure people get paid correctly and the basic paperwork is handled.

Key Strengths Contractors Will Actually Feel

  • Clean, guided payroll runs: The interface walks you through each payroll step so it’s hard to miss something obvious.
  • Automatic tax handling: Federal, state, and many local payroll taxes are calculated and filed for you, which reduces “did we file that?” stress.
  • Direct deposit and portals: Employees can see their own pay stubs and tax forms, so the office answers fewer basic pay questions.
  • Simple onboarding: New hires can enter their own details and forms online, instead of passing paper back and forth.
  • Basic benefits support: For shops that offer health insurance or retirement, Gusto can help manage some of that setup and deductions.

In plain terms: payroll becomes a repeatable process with fewer steps to remember and fewer surprises at tax time.

Limitations and Deal-Breakers

Gusto is not a perfect fit for every contractor. Keep these in mind:

  • Not built just for construction: It handles payroll well, but doesn’t speak the language of unions, certified payroll, or highly complex prevailing wage work out of the box.
  • Multi-state or very complex setups can get messy: It can support multiple states, but heavily complex operations may push the limits.
  • Relies on clean time data: If your time tracking is a mess, Gusto won’t fix that—it just exposes the problems faster.
  • Not a full HR department: It helps with onboarding and records, but it doesn’t replace real HR leadership or legal advice.

If your work is heavy in certified payroll, complex union rules, or government projects, you may outgrow Gusto or need additional tools and expertise around it.

Pricing Snapshot

Gusto uses a subscription model with a base monthly fee plus a per-employee charge. Pricing varies by plan level, depending on how much HR and compliance help you want on top of core payroll.

For most small and mid-sized contractors, the real question is: “Does this save enough time, mistakes, and tax stress to justify a few hundred dollars a month?” If you’re currently doing payroll manually or leaning on a basic bank system, the answer is often yes.

Implementation Notes

Rolling out Gusto is mostly about setup and connection.

  • Setup effort: Moderate. You’ll need:
    • Company info, tax IDs, and banking details
    • Employee information and pay rates
    • Clean starting balances for year-to-date payroll if you’re switching mid-year
  • Who should own it: The person who currently handles payroll or bookkeeping, ideally with owner oversight during setup.
  • Key setup steps:
    • Connect your time tracking system or define how hours will be imported
    • Double-check pay rates, deductions, and tax settings before the first run
    • Run a test or “shadow” payroll side-by-side with your old method once, if possible
  • Training: One or two payroll cycles are usually enough to get comfortable, especially if your time data comes in clean.

The first month is where you catch setup errors. After that, it should feel more rinse-and-repeat.

Pros and Cons Summary

Pros

  • Simplifies payroll for small and mid-sized contractors
  • Handles tax calculations and many filings for you
  • Improves onboarding and basic HR record-keeping
  • Integrates with many time tracking and accounting tools

Cons

  • Not tailored specifically to construction payroll edge cases
  • May struggle with very complex union, certified, or government-heavy work
  • Depends on good time tracking habits to shine

Bottom Line

Gusto is a solid choice for small and mid-sized commercial contractors who want payroll and basic HR handled cleanly without building an internal payroll department.

If your biggest pain points are manual payroll runs, tax anxiety, and chasing down forms for new hires, Gusto can remove a lot of that friction. Paired with a good time tracking tool, it gives you a clean path from field hours to paychecks and reliable records.

If your world is heavy on union work, certified payroll, or complex public projects, you may need more specialized payroll tools—or plan on extra process around Gusto to cover those needs.