Throughout 2025, the Gusto Embedded team released updates aimed at expanding the types of businesses our partners can support and reducing the development time required to launch and maintain their payroll solutions.
From enabling payroll for contractor-only businesses to new integrations for accounting and compliance, here are some of the features we shipped this year.
Serving the Newest Businesses
We released two major updates this year designed to help partners support specific business structures—specifically early-stage startups and S Corporations.
Contractor-Only Pay
Released February 2025
Previously, companies paying their employees through a Gusto Embedded partner were required to set up state tax information and employee pay schedules during onboarding, even if they only hired contractors. With this release, we removed these requirements for contractor-only entities.
- What it does: Allows platforms to onboard businesses that do not yet have W-2 employees.
- Why it matters: Many new companies start by employing contractors only at first, before hiring W-2 employees.
- Read the full post
Reasonable Salary Calculator API
Released October 2025
S Corporation owners are required by the IRS to pay themselves a “reasonable salary” before taking distributions. Determining this figure is often a manual process for accountants and business owners.
- What it does: The new API uses Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data to generate salary estimates based on role, location, and experience level.
- Why it matters: It provides a data-backed starting point for salary distributions, helping partners support S Corp compliance directly within their application.
- Read the full post
Integrating with the Rest of the Payroll-Adjacent Stack
Connecting payroll data to the rest of a business’s financial stack was a priority this year. We released updates to streamline how data flows into accounting ledgers and retirement plans.
Accounting Integration Flows & General Ledger API
Released July 2025
We introduced two methods for syncing payroll data with accounting software:
- Pre-built UI Flows: A low-code option that handles authentication and field mapping for Xero and QuickBooks Online. This allows end-users to map their chart of accounts without manual data entry.
- General Ledger API: For partners building custom integrations or internal reporting, this API allows you to programmatically retrieve formatted ledger data (broken down by job, department, etc.) to construct your own reports.
401(k) Retirement Plans
Released August 2025
We opened up support for integrated 401(k) plans, starting with Guideline by Gusto and Vestwell.
- What it does: Allows your payroll customers to sync payroll deductions and employee data directly with 401(k) providers.
- Why it matters: Allows payroll customers on your platform to offer retirement benefits to their employees, while minimizing manual work and opening up a new ancillary revenue stream.
- Read the full post
Improved Developer Experience and Tooling
We shipped new tools to speed up our partners’ payroll launches and reduce ongoing maintenance.
Auto-Generated API Client Libraries
Released May 2025
To reduce the boilerplate code required to interact with our API, we released official client libraries for TypeScript, Python, and Java.
- How it works: These libraries are auto-generated from our OpenAPI specification.
- Why it matters: These libraries provide type safety and are updated nightly, ensuring developers have immediate access to new endpoints as they are released.
- Read the full post
Employee Management Flow
Released November 2025
Managing the employee lifecycle—onboarding, compensation changes, and dismissals—requires significant frontend logic. The Employee Management Flow consolidates these tasks.
- How it works: A pre-built UI for viewing employee rosters, tracking onboarding status, and accessing documents.
- Why it matters: Partners can use this Flow to handle ongoing employee administration, rather than building custom interfaces for these standard tasks.
- Read the full post
Additional Updates
Refer to our changelog for a complete list of changes. Other notable additions in 2025 included:
- Recurring Reimbursements (October): New endpoints to manage recurring non-taxable payments (e.g., monthly phone stipends).
- Updated Autopayroll enablement: Updated Pay Schedules endpoints, manage_pay_schedules Flow, and Flow settings for better visibility.
- New API Versions: We released v2025-06-15 and v2025-11-15 to support these new capabilities.
What’s Ahead
As we look toward 2026, our roadmap is focused on two primary themes: accelerating partner development and helping our existing partners grow their payroll businesses. We are continuing to invest in infrastructure and tooling designed to reduce the complexity of building and releasing a payroll product that feels and acts like a native part of our partners’ applications. Simultaneously, we are exploring new ways to help you offer a more consolidated platform, ensuring SMB owners can manage more of their team and financial operations in a single place. We will share more specific updates on our blog in the coming months.
If you’re an existing partner interested in learning more about what we launched this year – and what we’re building – reach out to your partner team. If you’re considering offering payroll on your platform in the coming year, contact our sales team.
