How much of a payroll run can actually happen without anyone touching it?

Summary

For salaried employees paid by direct deposit, all of it. Gusto's Payroll on AutoPilot submits payroll one day before the deadline, and QuickBooks describes its auto payroll the same way, as a feature for salaried employees on direct deposit. Hourly workers without default hours, commission-only staff and anyone paid by check are where automation stops and a person has to step in.

What AutoPilot does and when

AutoPilot is available on Gusto's Simple, Plus and Premium plans. It runs payroll automatically one day before your payroll deadline, emails you when it has run, and leaves 24 hours to make changes or cancel. It covers employee pay only; contractor payments have their own automation.

The deadline depends on your direct deposit speed. New Gusto customers usually start on 4-day pay, with a 4 p.m. Pacific cutoff four business days before payday. After a 15-day waiting period and one successful debit, 2-day pay moves that cutoff to two business days out. On 4-day pay, then, AutoPilot has locked in the pay run roughly a week before the money arrives.

The employees it cannot handle

Everyone on the pay schedule has to be paid by direct deposit. Hourly workers need default hours set in advance, or AutoPilot will not run. Commission-only employees have a salary of $0 until someone enters their commission, and Gusto warns that if it is not entered before the run, they will not get paid. Expenses need approval a day before the deadline. Gusto also advises against pairing AutoPilot with its own time tracking, because tracked hours override the default hours.

Several ordinary actions switch AutoPilot off without warning, for everyone on that pay schedule:

• an employee switching from direct deposit to a paper check
• adding a worker with no direct deposit, or an hourly worker with no default hours
• a change that requires the signatory to sign new forms
• changing the company bank account used for payroll
• turning on payroll approvals
• Gusto needing state tax registration information

The primary admin gets an email when this happens. If nobody reads it, no payroll runs that period.

Automation or approval

In Gusto you have to choose. AutoPilot cannot be used while payroll approvals are on, and switching approvals on turns AutoPilot off. QuickBooks lists both auto payroll and "Review and approve payroll before paychecks are sent" on its pricing page but does not say there whether the two work together. If you cancel an AutoPilot run after it has gone through, it has to be resubmitted by hand. Without an approval step, the only review a fully automatic payroll gets is whoever opens it during that 24-hour window.

Sources

• https://support.gusto.com/article/999755421000000/Set-up-and-manage-Payroll-on-AutoPilot-for-admins
• https://support.gusto.com/article/999752211000000/Direct-deposit-payment-speeds
• https://support.gusto.com/article/999754831000000/Run-a-regular-payroll
• https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payroll/pricing/

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