Gusto’s expanding platform integrates time tracking, benefits, and Xero Payroll for seamless back-office management

Gusto evolves beyond payroll into a comprehensive back-office system, incorporating time tracking, benefits administration, and a new integration with Xero Payroll, transforming labour management for small and growing businesses.

Gusto is often sold as a straightforward payroll platform, but that description undersells what it can do. For smaller businesses especially, it now sits across time tracking, project costing, benefits administration, retirement, and even some tax and HR workflows. The result is less a single payroll tool than a broad back-office system built to keep labour data moving through the business with fewer hand-offs. 

One of the most practical examples is Time Kiosk, which turns an internet-connected tablet, laptop, or similar device into a shared clock-in station. According to Gusto’s support and legal materials, employees can use it to clock in, clock out, and record breaks, while approved hours feed directly into payroll. The setup is aimed at shops, kitchens, warehouses, and job sites, where workers do not sit at a desk all day. 

The time tools go beyond basic attendance. Gusto says its time-tracking features can calculate overtime, apply custom time-off rules, and support both paid and unpaid breaks, while employees can still review and manage their own tracked time. That matters for employers trying to keep labour law compliance and payroll accuracy aligned, especially when staff move between sites or work irregular patterns. 

Project tracking is another feature that is easy to overlook but potentially more valuable. Gusto says administrators can assign hours to specific jobs, departments, or projects, then see labour costs that include wages, taxes, and benefits. The data can sync with QuickBooks Online and Xero, giving businesses a clearer view of which clients, services, or jobs are actually profitable rather than relying on a single company-wide labour figure. 

The platform also extends into multi-state and contractor payments. Gusto has built workflows for businesses whose employees move to a new state, where tax registration and filing obligations can change, and it supports contractor payments in more than 120 countries. For companies hiring remotely, that can reduce the administrative burden that often appears only after a worker has already relocated or started. 

Benefits administration is part of the same system. Gusto acts as a licensed insurance broker and says employers can shop for medical, dental, and vision cover inside the platform, while also managing open enrolment, renewals, life events, and payroll deductions in one place. It also offers HSAs, FSAs, commuter benefits, disability cover and retirement plans, with no minimum headcount for a 401(k) plan. 

For employers watching total compensation costs, the workers’ compensation and tax credit tools are especially notable. Gusto promotes pay-as-you-go workers’ comp, which draws from actual payroll rather than annual estimates, and it says it can scan payroll data for research and development tax credits as well as 401(k) start-up credits. In practice, that can reduce both year-end surprises and missed claims, provided the payroll setup is structured correctly from the start. 

The newest wrinkle is Xero Payroll, powered by Gusto, which launched in August 2026 and runs inside the Xero interface under a single login. According to the companies, payroll posts directly to the general ledger, while tax calculations, filings, direct deposit, W-2s, contractor payments, time off balances, and benefit deductions are handled in one place. For very small businesses already living in Xero, that tighter workflow may be the clearest reason to consider it; for larger businesses, the broader Gusto platform still offers more depth. 