Overview of Reporting Previous Payrolls
Overview of Reporting Previous Payrolls
It's critical to provide previous payroll information to Gusto when setting up your account because an employer can only issue one W-2 per employee per year.
For the current quarter, gather all paystubs for every employee.
For previous quarters in this calendar year, gather quarterly payroll summaries for each employee.
There's a difference between a check date and the pay period:
Check date: The date the employee was paid. This date determines your payroll tax liability and will be the date you’ll enter when reporting previous payrolls.
Pay period: The period of time in which the employee worked.
Example: If an employee worked from Dec 15th to Dec 31st and was paid on Jan 15th, the pay period is the Dec 15th – 31st, and the check date is Jan 15th.
Reimbursements: Business-related expenses incurred by the employee that are reimbursed on a non-taxable basis. Leave the Reimbursement field blank when reporting previous payrolls if no reimbursements were paid.
How To Enter Previous Payrolls During Account Setup
How To Enter Previous Payrolls During Account Setup
Go to Settings → Admin → Payments & Finances → Payroll
Click the Drop Down Menu by Gusto Onboarding Form.
Select Historical/Previous Payroll Data, and click Open.
Add all Dismissed Employees who received a paycheck in 2025 if applicable.
Click Continue.
Click Add Previous Payroll.
Enter the relevant Check Date and Pay Period Start & End Date.
Enter the employee’s earnings, deductions, and reimbursements (if applicable).
Once you've entered the details for the first paystub, click Save and continue.
Review the tax and contribution amounts.
If it matches your records, click Looks good.
If it does not match your records:
Click Edit tax amounts to edit Federal Income Tax (FIT) or State Income Tax (SIT), if needed.
If the State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) does not match, go back to Tax setup and click Manage taxes under the applicable state to make sure you have the correct SUI rate(s) on file for the applicable period.
If the wrong state taxes are being calculated, check that employees have accurate address history and address effective dates listed in Gusto.
Choose which taxes you have not yet paid/need Gusto to debit and pay on your behalf.
For previous quarters where we did not file and pay on your behalf, we can only debit for FUTA since this is an annually paid tax.
Confirm your Total Payroll amount, Check date, and Taxes Gusto will pay on the "Review and Submit" page.
If all looks good, select Save and continue.
If anything needs to be edited, click Back.
Repeat these steps for any remaining check dates.
On the check date summary page, make sure the total net pay matches what your year-to-date report from your previous payroll provider shows.
If it does not match, view the total net pay next to each check date to see where the discrepancy is—click edit next to any incorrect payroll(s) and review the wages and taxes.
The amount listed on the Taxes Gusto will pay section is what will be debited once you run your first payroll through Gusto.
When completed, click I’m done.
⚠️ What you'll need:
Quarter-to-date (QTD) paystub information from each prior quarter for active and dismissed employees paid this year
Individual paystubs from the current quarter for active and dismissed employees.
Documentation Needed To Report Previous Payrolls
Documentation Needed To Report Previous Payrolls
Before you enter your previous payrolls when setting up your account, gather the following items:
Quarter-to-date (QTD) paystub information from each prior quarter for active and dismissed employees paid this year.
Individual paystubs from the current quarter for active and dismissed employees.