Mastering Payroll and HR: Gusto's Guide to Seamless Business Management with Henry Curell

Welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast. The mission of this podcast is simple: to help you navigate the financial and tax aspects of starting, running, and scaling a professional painting business. From the brushes and ladders to the spreadsheets and balance sheets, we've got you covered. But before we dive in, a quick word of caution: while we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date financial and tax information, nothing you hear on this podcast should be considered as financial advice specifically for you or your business. We're here to share general knowledge and experiences, not to replace the tailored advice you get from a professional financial advisor or tax consultant. We strongly recommend you seeking individualized advice before making any significant financial decision. This is Daniel, the founder of Bookkeeping for Painters, and today I'm here with Henry Corral, and he is on board with us today to talk about payroll and all things Gusto. Super excited to have him on board. And Henry is an advisor at Gusto. He works with accountants and small business owners to create a seamless payroll, benefits, and HR experience through Gusto People platform. How's it going, Henry?

I'm doing really well. Great to be here with you.

Awesome. I'm super excited to get into things, but before we do, could you give us a little bit more background on yourself?

Yeah, of course. Um, so I've been with Gusto for about 5 years. Um, been working with small business owners for a long time. My parents were both small business owners, so something I'm really passionate about. And, you know, I've done a lot to help small businesses, especially during like COVID, did a lot with like the PPP and CARES Act, helping a lot of small businesses. So I'm excited to be talking with folks that, you know, maybe are looking to get a business started for this first time, or maybe they're looking to improve efficiencies within their business and Excited to talk all things Gusto with you today.

Yeah, absolutely. And one of the cool things, you know, with all the clients we work with, Gusto is probably the number one— it definitely is the number one platform that our folks are using. It's— isn't— and I even use it for my own business as well. And I just love the, the simplicity of the software. It's very user-friendly. And obviously it does the, the basic things that you would expect from a payroll platform, like, you know, run— you can run the payroll, it files all the federal and state filings for you. And but it does so much more than that, and that's kind of where I think it really excels. Um, could you kind of go through some of the things that people maybe wouldn't expect, uh, that a payroll platform would actually do that Gusto does.

Yeah, totally. So it's, it's funny whenever people ask, you know, what is Gusto, when they ask like what my job is, it's, it's always very easy to say, oh, we're a payroll company, but the company is so much more than that. It's, we build ourselves as the people platform, and I think that's a really good description of what Gusto actually does. It's every product that we build, every single tool within our system, the ways that Support Small Business Owner is surrounded about like empowering the business owner to support their team to do their best work. It's a big ethos of the work that we do and it's how we design everything around what we do. So when people always ask me, like, it's very easy to say, yes, we're a payroll company. That is the core product that we offer. But we do, do so much more than that. I mean, So many folks use us to manage their team on a day-to-day basis, and that can show up in so many different ways. So a great example is like, how do I keep my team engaged throughout the work week and throughout the work year? Like, how do I make sure that people are tracking their goals and, you know, growing within the business? How do I make sure that I'm providing the right benefits and different resources for my team so that like I retain really great employees and I'm able to expand my team and that can show up in so many different places. So, and you know, we'll get into this so much more on this conversation, but you know, there's a ton of different options and excited to share more.

Yes, absolutely. I want to dig into the performance reviews and retention tools that are in there.

Yeah.

Before we get into that, I wanted to highlight the fact that, like you said, it's a people platform. So because, you know, a lot of painting businesses, they're using subcontractors, they're using employees, but really Gusto can be done for in both cases, and it is very helpful for that onboarding process. Could you tell me a little bit more about how Gusto really has helped solve that onboarding process, either with subcontractors or for employees, really?

Yeah, exactly. So I mean, when you hire an employee for the first time or when you hire a contractor for the first time, especially if you're a new business owner or if you're not very familiar with the requirements, I think it can be a little bit daunting for a lot of business owners. At least that's what we hear. Gusto makes it super easy. All of our products are online, and part of that process of inviting an employee for the first time, we outline exactly what is needed and we put it in a really clean and approachable user interface so that you're not having to fill out these really sort of tedious tax forms that, you know, might be hard to read or understand what's being asked of you. We put everything out in a really approachable way so that like someone who might be doing this for the very first time or someone who doesn't have a lot of time on their hands to dive in and make sure that they're filling out something the right way, we make it very clear and approachable on how to do this. And we do it for contractors and we do it for employees. So for instance, if you were painting business managing a team of contractors, we have a dashboard that you can set up where you can easily onboard them, store their information. They can track their time if needed. They can set up direct deposit information and track their payments. It's very easy to keep their data on file if you were to use them, you know, maybe today and then they don't work for you for like 6 to 8 months on a project and then they come back later. It's very easy to get that information back versus storing everything you know, in hard copy or using a system where you can't access that information easily. Um, and then the same goes for employees. If you want to convert a contractor to an employee, it's very easy to move that information over. It's very easy to hire an employee for the first time and then manage them. And when you hire someone as an employee, that's where there's so much more available in terms of what you can offer to build like a thriving team. So We have a lot that we can offer for contractors and then moving them into that employee sphere. There's a lot of options as well. But yeah, we provide all the paperwork. Everything's done digitally and you have a lot of options for different ways to onboard.

And one of the cool things I like about how Gusto does the onboarding for subcontractors is that you can add in documents. So it will by default capture the information needed for the W-9, which is— will allow you to allow Gusto to file the 1099 for you at the end of the year. But you can also add in like a subcontractor agreement that they have to sign off on or something like that. And not only is this setting you up great for, um, Gusto to actually file the 1099s for you at the end of the year, which can be a pain in a lot of cases, but also for any kind of workers' comp audits that come around. You know, you'll have— you can actually capture the, the documents that you need up front from your your subcontractors. So you're not only set for the 1099s, but also maybe workers' comp audit as well. So that's like really awesome, the ability to add those documents into that, that onboarding process.

Yeah, absolutely. Custom documents is definitely one of our more popular tools for folks that are, you know, constantly hiring and building up a new team or having folks that are coming in and out of the organization. It works in a lot of ways like a document mapping tool, similar to like a DocuSign, where if you have a handbook or an employment agreement or policy document that outlines what's needed from the employer contractor for their terms of employment, you can map that into Gusto as a template that anytime you hire someone new, you can easily deploy that document. And what's really great about it is instead of having to customize it for each employee or contractor, all of their personal information is mapped onto that document, and then they sign it electronically and it's stored in their file. So it's easy as a couple clicks when you're adding someone in for the first time and you have access, your contractor has access through their account. Just keeps things really clean and organized.

Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome. And it also, it's not only just good for the business owner, it's also a good experience for the employee or subcontractor because they can go into their own Gusto portal and pull like their pay stub. Like, you know, instead of you having to figure it out for the employee, you know, to find where their W-2 is or find their latest pay stub, that the employee can easily log into Gusto, grab that stuff and go.

Yeah, I mean, we want to meet the employer, the contractor where they're at, right? So a lot of folks in 2024, they want to be able to access this type of data right on their smartphone. And we have an app that gives employees and contractors full access to be able to update their tax selections, their bank account information, view documents that they've signed as part of their hiring process, receive any additional documents from the employer, and then if there's need for things like time-off requests, time tracking, they're able to manage all of that through their account. But we also understand that some employees and contractors might not be comfortable with the digital side of things, and we have solutions there too. We have the ability for an employer to completely manage that side of things. And, you know, when someone shows up on the job site for their first day of work, they can very easily sit down with the employer, fill out the necessary information within a couple minutes. As long as there's a computer there with internet connection, the employer can actually facilitate that process versus like forcing the employee to do it on their own. So like I said, we're flexible. We realize that all employees have different comfort levels with doing things on their own, especially when it comes to doing things online. So we provide a lot of flexibility there.

Yeah, that's a great point because there's definitely, uh, I know a lot of employees or subcontractors are not as tech savvy and you send an onboarding to them and they're kind of, they get lost and you can always just like cancel the self-onboarding and then just enter the information in manually, which makes it, you know, really easy and nothing, nothing's lost there. So yeah, it's, it's a really, uh, seamless process for that. Now, one of the really cool things that I'm excited to talk about is, is like the talent management piece, which again, folks probably don't expect this to be built into something like Gusto, but there's things like performance reviews and retention tools to check in with your team on a periodic basis in anonymous surveys. That can give you really good data on what the climate is in your, in your organization. Could you tell us more about some of those talent management tools?

Yeah, the performance suite and feedback suite within Gusto is very robust and it gives employers and employees a space to be able to track and do their best work, set goals for themselves, but almost just as importantly, like provide feedback and gain feedback to make the organization and the business healthier, more productive, and ultimately, you know, more successful. Successful over time. So that can show up in a couple different ways. The first is performance reviews, which is basically an employer being able to set up a performance review cycle, any length of time that they wish to commit to, and there can be multiple review cycles that overlay each other. So you could have a yearly review cycle, you could have a quarterly review cycle, you could have a monthly or even weekly, and those can be in conjunction to one another. It allows the manager, so the person reviewing reviewing the individual to provide a formal feedback, which you can standardize. You can create templates for responses and prompts of what type of questions are going to be asked on the person's performance. And then, of course, the person being reviewed, the employee, is able to provide responses as well and review themselves. And then after that review is done, you can set deadlines for both the manager and the managee Once the review is complete by both parties, you can deploy it. And then as the employer, you can go through and review that performance review. That's sort of the end part of it. And there's a lot of steps and tools that we have that feed into that performance review. One of the ones that I really like is called goal tracking. Goal tracking gives employers the ability to set specific progress targets for an employee. And an employee can track throughout their work periods, like how they're measuring up to those specific performance targets, providing real-time updates. And it's all within a chronological timeline. And it's really cool because as you can see these updates, an employer can adjust that specific parameter and maybe lower it. And those are the types of tools that can inform a performance review. So some really exciting stuff there. Yeah. And I'm curious, like, have you seen any, like, good examples of, like, any of your clients using their performance reviews or, you know, being able to utilize those tools?

Yeah, we use it internally for our team and the performance review and also the goal setting. And it's, it's just a, especially if you don't, like, for us, we didn't, when we started with Gusto for the performance review. We didn't have that process. And so having Gusto already kind of have a way, you know, a framework and a process to kind of fall in on, we just adjusted the templates for the employee feedback and the manager feedback and then set the deadlines like you said and just kind of went through it. And so it just kind of gives you, you know, a way to do it and makes it easy to fall in on. And we've seen You know, just having that structure and that regular feedback from the, the, the employees and the managers is really great. And then on, on additionally having that ability to set goals and kind of have those automated reminders to, to the employees to that they have a goal that they need to work towards and then they can update it and to, to show where, where they are with that goal. So I, I know for our own business has been really helpful on managing performance. Another thing really that I like, so you know, the regular surveys to the employees to get feedback on how their experience is with the company, that's just to get a gauge on what the morale is, for example.

Yeah, no, and I think that is a great way for, you know, a painting business that is starting up for the first time and trying to understand like how to best support the teams so that everyone is working efficiently, I think giving folks a tool where they can provide feedback in an anonymous way is a really useful tool. The 360 feedback feature allows a couple different things. So there's two components. There's the one-to-one feedback, so being able to give feedback to individuals that are on your team that can be incorporated into a performance review. I'm getting peer feedback I know that's something we do here internally here at Gusto that's really effective. But it's a great way to be able to share feedback on the performance of your peers. The other side of the feedback is the surveys. Surveys are like a monthly anonymous survey that are deployed to all employees where they're able to basically provide feedback on management, workplace culture, benefits, you know, job attributes, many different things. And you can customize some of the questions and responses that are able to be given. It's a really great thing for someone who's starting a business for the first time or maybe looking to improve the way their team operates to be able to get really authentic feedback that they can then go and take action on. Sometimes it's a little tougher in the moment to be able to ask an employee to like tell you what could be improved. These surveys give another space for individuals to be able to provide that feedback, maybe in a you know, space where they have more time to think and, you know, they feel that they can share it anonymously, which is really effective. I liked what you said earlier too about structure. I think specifically with the goal tracking, I think that's feedback that we hear. And I have a friend who's a small business owner here in Colorado where we're based out of that is using those tools. And he mentioned the exact same thing to me that his employees actually it's been a really, really positive addition is getting that goal tracking because they're able to actually like come in every day and see what they're working on and track towards something. And there's almost like a sense of accomplishment when they're able to like hit those goal targets and see that all within their Gusto app. So, um, definitely, uh, hear you there on the structure and we hear that all the time.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. And, and the, Going back to the anonymous surveys, like you said, it provides that opportunity for employees who might not feel comfortable telling you to your face what's wrong with the business. They could do it anonymously. And I've gotten some in my own business, really good feedback that I hadn't heard, you know, before getting, you know, through those anonymous surveys. And I think people just, some personality types just feel more comfortable just being able to to, to say it anonymously. Um, and sometimes it's a gut check, you know, like you're not expecting it and you're like, oh wow.

Yeah.

But it's really good information to, you know, so you can dig into those issues and try to solve them. Um, now going to like switching gears a little bit, another thing that Gusto does really well is integrations with different tech stacks that folks have, whether it's, you know, most of the folks that are listening are probably using QuickBooks Online, or they're also using time trackers like ClockShark or BusyBusy. So the great thing is with Gusto, it pretty much integrates with a lot of stuff. So could you kind of go into that a little bit?

Yeah, of course. I mean, and this really applies to any small business, but I'm sure a painting business as well is like there's so many different pieces of software and data and numbers and just information that needs to be shared for a business to run efficiently. And one of the biggest challenges that small business owners find is developing a tech stack that works for the business, is affordable, that actually works properly and sends the right information. And then being able to like pick and choose the right things that you understand how to use. QuickBooks Online, definitely one of the more popular, if not the most popular accounting software for small business owners. We have one of the most robust integrations with QuickBooks Online on the market, and we provide a lot of mapping customizability within the Gusto ecosystem and the QuickBooks accounting ecosystem that allows the two systems to talk to one another. Now, as a small business owner, why is this important to you? It reduces errors, it reduces time, and it makes sure that everything is talking with one another in a way where when you run payroll, that information is synced over automatically to your accounting software so that everything is in cohesion. Makes your life, I'm sure, Daniel, a lot easier having that integration. But I think as a business owner too, it's crucial to have those two systems talking to one another because they are so interrelated. Your payroll costs, where those costs are going, mapping those to your classes and charts of accounts within QuickBooks is crucial. So that's probably one of the most robust starting points of integrations. But as you said, there's a ton of other ones as well. We have a ton of integrations specifically around time tracking, I think is where your team and your clients would see a lot of the benefit. Some of the ones that you mentioned, ClockShark and BusyBusy are great integration partners of ours, and it basically allows your clients to track their jobs, their projects within their business, and that time and attendance that is accurately collected in that time tracking tool is synced over to Gusto automatically. So then when you go up to run payroll, instead of having to manually sit down, type out all that information, it's prone to errors. It's all synced automatically. That way you're just going in and just doing a quick spot check and then clicking approve. Makes the payroll experience a lot faster. It makes the payroll experience a lot more accurate. And it ultimately is saving people a lot of time and I'm sure, as you know, and everyone knows, business owners, that's what they need. They need more time back in their day. So having that solution to automate the time to payroll to accounting is huge.

Absolutely. All right. Awesome. Are there any other— and I know we could probably talk about Gusto for the next few hours of all the things that can do, but is there anything else that we, we haven't hit on that you feel like we really should hit on today?

Yeah, I mean, I think there's two areas that a lot of folks, a lot of small business owners tend to neglect because it doesn't seem urgent and it doesn't always seem necessary, but it's so critical. The first is the HR component within Gusto that we offer and what that can do for small businesses. And then the other side is benefits. And benefits is another huge area that, you know, can be its own entire topic, but I think starting with HR, I think it's crucial if you are a small business owner employing contractors or part-time or full-time employees, hourly or salaried, it's crucial to go through an HR assessment in the state that you're working in. Make sure that you have your ducks in a row when it comes to labor law compliance, employee compliance, and make sure that all of that is documented and signed by employees and acknowledged so that it's stored in part of the hiring process. It's something that's always neglected because it's not technically a requirement. However, there's a lot of policies and there's a lot of procedures that need to be acknowledged by employees. And if they're not, it can open up the business to things like wrongful termination suits, legal issues with labor and compliance if they're not following the law and labor law within their given state. Gusto provides these types of tools. We partner with a company called Mineral. They're one of the leading small business HR outsourced HR providers. They fully integrate into our system. They can take a small business through a full HR assessment. They have handbook templates on hand that you can customize and add policies to. And then those employee handbooks can be downloaded and put up as a custom document. Like we were mentioning earlier for new employees so that employees are acknowledging those types of things. A great example would be sick leave or injury, workplace injury, harassment and discrimination policies, jury duty rights, because those vary by state, parental and sick leave. So many different policies across different states. A handbook provides a document that shows employees what their rights are and then employers what their rights are, what they can and can't do. And it provides that clarity. Super important. And I think it also legitimizes the business. You know, if you're not providing that type of documentation, a lot of potential employees might see that as a red flag that this business isn't really serious about following labor laws in my state. That might be a concern for me if I'm choosing to work for them. Yeah. And, you know, that can change over time too. So Mineral will also provide proactive compliance updates so that as laws do change within a state, they're going to tell you, hey, this is updating at the end of the year. This is the change you need to make to your handbook. Here's exactly what you need to do. So I'd say that's the first big major thing. I'm curious if you've had any clients like run into issues there or any folks like utilize those services at all.

We definitely have had a couple use the HR capability and have their, their, I'm blanking the name, the name of the policy document, the handbook. Yes, the employee handbook built into their Gusto for clients or for their employees to sign off on that. But it's definitely underused. Which, you know, is— you can kind of get bit, like you said. So paying attention to this is, is, is— could actually save you, uh, a lot of headaches and legal problems. So, um, I think it's— and it's a— it's amazing. I don't know of any other payroll provider that actually has HR integrated into it like, like Gusto does. So I think it's a really, um, amazing opportunity to take care of that piece of your business if you haven't already using that capability.

Yeah, definitely. And I mean, it's a great— if you're someone out there that's trying to start a new painting business and there's so much that you're already, you know, trying to learn about, it's really nice to have a system like Mineral, which is basically an HR resource center along with live support. There's a lot of trainings, videos, templates, documents, so stuff like job description templates, hiring and firing termination policies. So like, if you're trying to hire someone, what questions can you ask? What questions can you not ask? If you're terminating someone, how do you do that in a way that's compliant, that protects your business? It covers all of that. So it's a great one-stop shop. So yeah, definitely something that I encourage folks to take a look at when they're joining Gusto. And then the other big one is benefits. I mean, I think one of the biggest challenges in all industries today, but I'm sure, you know, painting businesses is no different, it's retaining folks. You find someone who's a hard worker and good at their job and you want to keep them on payroll because they do a good job and help the business. Folks are looking for more than just a paycheck. They're looking for benefits. They're looking for things that improve their livelihood. Gusto can help with things like small business health insurance, health savings account, flexible savings account, 401(k), commuter benefits, a lot of health and financial benefits, dental, vision, all of that. Now, that's not the best fit for every business. There's a lot of businesses that aren't quite ready to offer something like that. But for those that are, we provide those options, and it's a great way retain, um, really valuable employees.

Yeah, and, and there's different tiers of benefits. Like, there's no-cost benefits, there's low-cost benefits, and then there's, you know, the high-cost benefits. So a lot of folks think that they automatically won't be able to afford benefits because I think everyone thinks providing health insurance or providing a 401(k), which are the high-cost benefits, but there's a lot of things below that bar that you might be able to afford relatively easily. I think, you know, just especially if you think of the word benefits, you know, there might be some low or no-cost benefits that I think Gusto has some capability for even like a no-cost benefit, like just being able to, you know, track your, the employee tracking their, you know, their, their pay stub and having that experience is kind of a benefit just by having the Gusto platform, the experience of, of working with somebody that has those capabilities built in. And then there's like some low-cost benefit things that you can do, like the QSEHRA program with health reimbursement costs and things like that that aren't super expensive, but you could still incorporate it to say that, hey, we do have a health health cost, uh, you know, health reimbursement cost benefit, which can be integrated into, into Gusto. And I know Gusto has a lot of, um, you can either, you know, uh, track it within Gusto, or sometimes Gusto actually has the benefits built right in and it's managed in Gusto, which is kind of cool.

Yeah. And I always tell folks, like, you know, when people start hearing about, about benefits, especially if you're new and small business owner, the first thing that comes to mind is cost. Like, benefits, I think there's this stigma, and a lot of it is, you know, rightfully justified, of benefits being really expensive. I always tell folks, like, don't count themselves out. Like, there's so many low-cost options. You mentioned one of them. QSAIR is a great option for a new employer that's looking to get into the benefits sphere without necessarily breaking the bank. What's really cool about Gusto is that we have advisors here that are going to consult you through that process and show you different options. They're going to show to show you high-cost options with a lot of different, you know, coverages. They're going to show you low-cost options that give you more affordability and flexibility. There's not a one-size-fits-all approach, and we have really great folks here that can very easily speak with the business, give them options, no pressure, no upfront cost, and be able to say, hey, if you want to offer this today, if you want to offer this next year, these are your options. And I think it's a really great service that we provide. So Definitely something— don't want folks to shy away from that, although oftentimes people feel that it will be expensive. There's a lot of low-cost options out there. Awesome.

Cool. Henry, I really appreciate your time. Been super generous. What can folks do to learn more about Gusto? Or if they're looking for a payroll provider or help with HR, what can they do?

Yeah, absolutely. So I'd obviously encourage you to go to our website to learn more about the people platform, gusto.com. Com. There's a lot of resources on there. There's a demo account where you can actually play around with the software as it's designed for small business. There's a lot of articles, blog posts about small business and how to run a small business. There's a ton of resources on our website. Of course, Daniel, you and I work together all the time. You know, if someone is interested in that, feel free to make that introduction to my team and I can get them set up on the right track. We can do a live demo over Zoom. We can get them connected with any other service services that we talked about today, especially if they want to learn more about things like HR and benefits. We have folks here that we can loop in, help folks get the right tools that they need.

Awesome. Thanks, Henry. All right, you heard it. Head over to gusto.com and get yourself hooked up with the People platform and, and get a hold of your business from that perspective. Thanks a lot, Henry, for your, your time today. And with that, we will see you next week.