Gusto Unveils New Tools to Help Small Businesses Start, Run, and Grow From Day One

Fall Showcase 2026 introduces LLC formation and a business bank account,¹ AI connectors, expanded compliance and payroll tools, new benefits and HR support, and the company's biggest-ever updates for accountants

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Gusto, the small business platform for payroll, benefits, and HR, today announced new products and features at its Fall Showcase, designed to help small business owners start, run, and grow.

Every day, Gusto helps more than half a million small businesses pay their teams, stay compliant, and offer benefits. The announcements take aim at what owners face: serving customers, managing finances, keeping up with compliance, competing for talent, and making sense of AI, often all at once.

"Small business owners wear every hat, and they shouldn't have to carry every burden too," said Chris Cosgrove, Chief Product Officer at Gusto. "Our goal is to make the hard things easier, starting on day one."

Start: Help before the first hire

Owners can now form an LLC, open a business bank account,¹ and see where their money stands in Gusto, before they hire anyone. Because it all lives in the same place they'll later hire, pay, and grow, there's no need to start over down the road.

"Starting a business has typically meant figuring it out alone, and every one of those steps is a place where a good idea can stall," said Cosgrove. "Our bet is simple: if it's easier to get started, more people will, and more of them will succeed."

Run: Less risk, less busywork

Growth for a small business means more complexity and behind-the-scenes work. Gusto's new features help owners stay compliant, automate payroll and contractor payments, and put AI to work on time-consuming tasks.

• Gusto Business Compliance handles obligations that trip up owners, especially when they hire in a new state, including state tax registration, annual report filing, and government mail monitoring.
• Multi-location payroll runs one payroll for hourly employees who work across state or city lines, calculating and filing taxes for each work location.
• Intelligent payroll automations gather hours, flag anomalies, anything unusual, and turn payroll into a quick review and sign-off.
• More control over pay, with same-day pay for off-cycle bonuses and corrections for eligible businesses, custom semi-monthly schedules, and printed, mailed paychecks with delivery tracking.
• Contractor tools that let owners hire and pay U.S. and international contractors on one platform. With invoice ingestion, Gusto reads an uploaded invoice and prefills the paysheet for review and approval.
• Project tracking lets owners tag hours to projects, clients, and tasks and see the true labor cost of every job.

Owners can now connect Gusto to Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI tools to ask questions about payroll and teams, prep payroll, and generate reports. Owners have full transparency and control over the output, with the ability to approve every change before it's final. Developers and power users can also connect through Gusto's MCP server or install the Gusto CLI in one command, so an agent can prepare what it can before each payroll and send a prioritized list of decisions that need the owner's approval.

"Owners shouldn't have to learn a new tool to put AI to work. Gusto works where they already do," said Cosgrove. "AI does the prep, and the owner stays in control of every decision."

Grow: Benefits, guidance, and HR support

Great benefits help business owners hire and keep great people, but most don't have an HR department to lean on. Gusto is putting that expertise inside its platform, so owners can invest in their teams for the long term.

• Gus, the AI Benefits Assistant gives personalized, real-time guidance on benefits and builds a ready-to-submit package covering medical, dental, vision, and more. A licensed advisor reviews it before anything is finalized.
• Gusto 401(k), built into Gusto helps business owners manage retirement plans directly on Gusto, without switching platforms.
• Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) give employees the flexibility to choose health coverage that works for them, while employers maintain complete control over costs by setting a monthly allowance. Employers can seamlessly manage reimbursements alongside payroll in Gusto.
• Voluntary Life & Disability benefits provide employee-paid coverage added through automatic payroll deductions, at no additional direct cost to the business.
• Guided benefits renewal provides cost-optimized options, side-by-side comparisons, and direct access to a licensed benefits advisor.
• New HR resources let owners build an employee handbook and generate documents like performance improvement plans and termination letters. Owners also get proactive alerts when employment laws change, written answers from a human HR expert, and instant answers from Gus.
• Gusto HR Partners gives you access to an experienced, fractional HR professional without the cost of a full-time hire.
• Gusto Professional Employer Organization (PEO) helps take on much of the day-to-day HR, payroll, benefits, and compliance work for small business owners.

Gusto, built for accountants that support small businesses

Today, more than two-thirds of small businesses on Gusto have the support of a Gusto accounting partner. These firms play a vital role in advising and supporting small businesses. That's why Gusto has announced its biggest-ever updates for accountants, including:

• A redesigned Gusto Pro dashboard with AI-assisted workflows.
• A Multi-Client MCP that lets firms work across selected clients in a single AI conversation.
• An expanded Partner Program with Marketing and Partner Development Funds.
• Solo Advisory Tools, helping firms advise solopreneur clients with calculators for S-corp election and reasonable compensation estimates.

To learn more, visit Gusto's Fall Showcase.

¹ Gusto is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Increase Bank, Member FDIC.

About Gusto

Gusto takes the guesswork out of running a small business. From forming a company to paying a team to staying on top of compliance, Gusto simplifies payroll, benefits, HR, and money management so business owners can get back to the work that matters most. Founded in 2011, Gusto supports more than 500,000 small businesses from offices in San Francisco, New York, and Denver. Learn more about Gusto's mission to grow the small business economy with technology and heart at gusto.com.

Media Contact:
Candice So
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SOURCE Gusto, Inc.