Gusto vs. Access PeopleHR

Gusto is a great fit for small teams and startups that want a simple, reliable way to run payroll, manage tax filings, and give CPAs access without constant micromanagement. It’s especially useful for founders who need something that “just works.” The human support has been excellent—especially when forwarding confusing IRS mail.
That said, it’s a bit less intuitive when it comes to benefits and compliance for fully remote companies. For example, labor law poster distribution isn’t streamlined for digital teams, and setting up benefits felt more complex than it needed to be. Still, I’d recommend Gusto to any startup looking to get payroll right from day one.

Incentivized

It's simple to use even for non-technical employees, making it very simple to install even for a workforce that hasn't grown up in the digital age, and for that People HR is the best option to fit in. I haven't got in any situation yet where I see People HR as less appropriate except Applications Tracking Systems as I have never worked on that module much.

Incentivized

• Gusto really kills it on the simplicity. The app and website are very clear and straightforward.
• Gusto also does a great job at being easy to navigate, visually pleasing, and logically posed.
• Gusto communicates very clearly and provides just the right amount of communication.
• Gusto makes the onboarding process very easy. I recently started at a new company and the process of filling out the necessary documents, filling out forms, and getting my benefit information input was soooooo easy!

Incentivized

• Complex reporting is made easy through the reporting capabilities of the system. We have been using reports for the past year and absolutely trust the accuracy of the data produced. The reports are generated easily through the system and can be exported into an editable Excel spreadsheet which is great.
• The self-service of data is great for freeing up HR time. Employees can update their personal information themselves quickly and easily.
• The App is a great feature of People HR. A large proportion of our employees work in our warehouse and as such don't have their own computer at work. The app allows those employees easy access to the system on the go.

Incentivized

• Adding in previous time manually could be more accessible.
• Notifications for when employees manually change hours.
• We should allow 1099 users to use the mobile app instead of restricting them to the website, especially since they can just log into the full website on their mobile device.

Incentivized

• The UI could do with being more Up to date, i find it easy to use but is quite cartoon like.
• More Details for skills is required, I have some certifications but the system does not recognise the Brand
• Emails that are sent out could use an overhaul as they don't stand out as much as i think they should

Incentivized

Unless they break it, I'm never leaving. It's just too easy. Gusto is also really affordable, and for what I pay, it's worth having the historical record within the system. I like that I can go back and pull up W2's for year's past. This sort of easy access reporting, has been helpful especially when getting reports for PPP loans.

The overall platform and its speed of response are amazing. I would recommend this to any other business owner for ease of use and reliability. Email reminders are great if I’m super busy and have forgotten a few tasks. The price point compared to local payroll service is hands down a huge win.

Incentivized

Gusto's customer service has really deteriorated lately and they seem to have really changed their focus. It used to be when you called you were routed to an individual who knew about payroll, benefits, reporting, etc. but now you get someone who seems to have not received the correct training. My last call about a dismissal payroll took me over an hour of my time and the person still could not help me and finally transferred me to someone else.

Incentivized

Reach out to support immediately if you are having trouble setting up Gusto. Rather than being confused and trying to figure it out yourself, it's much better to talk to someone who knows what they are doing. Save yourself time and frustration and reach out to support

Incentivized

It's been a while since I used QuickBooks for payroll, but it doesn't even come close to it. Gusto is infinitely easier, allowing for employee time tracking, handling calculations and payments of payroll and payroll taxes, managing regulatory compliance in the background, and more. I had a lot of moments using QuickBooks Payroll where I thought, "Am I even doing this right?" — it felt like you had to have additional knowledge of HR regulations in your state to do everything correctly. Gusto has it ALL handled so you can focus your time on higher-impact tasks in your business.

Incentivized

Prior to initially taking out our PeopleHR contract i reviewed many HR systems and PeopleHR seemed the best option as it seemed to have the most functionality for the best price. However that was many years ago now and since being a customer of PeopleHR and now going with Timetastic, i wouldn't recommend PeopleHR. The costs have increased substantially but there hasn't been any significant improvements in the software that we've seen/utilised. There's also a lot of system issues that seem to occur frequently. Not to mention the service has taken a total nosedive since PeopleHR were taken over by Access. Whilst Timetastic is a much more basic system and really just a holiday planner, the cost is cheaper than anything I've seen on the market. For the more HRIS functionality, we've opted to utilise our O365 and create a Sharepoint HR Management Site which is much more cost effecitve us and we can avoid having to deal with Access which is a huge plus

• For me, it is hard to quantify payroll software as having an ROI. It does save quite a bit of time per pay period, so perhaps we could assign a theoretical number to an employee taking that time. I'd say, at the least, it saves 30-60 minutes a pay period compared to a more difficult-to-use payroll software.

Incentivized

• PeopleHR has reduced the amount of holiday queries coming through to the HR Team. This has saved us around 2 hours per week.
• PeopleHR has increased visibility to line managers of their team and indirect reports for holiday / time management.
• The ATS has enabled us to automate responses/templates to all candidates applying for roles, send updates, reject, invite to interview etc. in a much quicker time frame. This has reduced hours of work writing emails per week.
• PeopleHR has given more responsibility and ownership to our managers to do their roles.

Incentivized