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Gusto pays the reimbursement. Nobody sees the spend until payday.

Gusto reimbursements and Gusto expense reimbursement: plans, mileage and Gusto expense management costs

Gusto can reimburse employees on every plan, but only Plus and Premium let them submit expenses for approval, and every dollar still waits for the next payroll. This page lays out what each Gusto plan does with reimbursements, what the upgrade costs at your headcount, where contractors and AutoPilot trip people up, and when Expensify or Ramp on top of Gusto is the better buy.

Rippling vs Gusto

Read-only. Nothing changes in Gusto, no sales call.

Try it on a real budget

When would you have known the budget was gone?

Set a department budget, pick the thresholds your team uses today, and replay a month of spending through the engine. Out-of-pocket spend reimbursed through payroll reaches your books on payday, so a reimbursement-heavy team sees every date below one pay cycle later. It runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

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Monthly budgets

Anomaly sensitivity
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Short answer

Does Gusto do expense reimbursement?

Yes, through payroll. On every Gusto plan an admin can add a one-time or recurring reimbursement to a payroll run by hand. The Expenses feature, where employees snap a receipt or log mileage and a manager approves it, is included on Plus and Premium and listed as an add-on on Simple. Approved expenses are paid on the next payroll as a separate, non-taxed line on the paystub. Contractors are outside the Expenses feature entirely.

Plan by plan

What each Gusto plan does with expense reimbursement

Read off Gusto's own pricing pages, plan comparison and admin help article. Gusto bills the per-person fee for everyone you pay, not only the people who file expenses.

Swipe the table sideways to compare all columns.

Gusto plan Published price Employee-submitted expenses and mileage What you can still do without it
Simple $49/mo plus $6 per person Listed as an add-on on Gusto's plan comparison. The add-on price is not printed on that table, so get it in writing before you count on it. An admin types a one-time reimbursement into the payroll run, or sets a fixed recurring one on an employee's Pay tab. No employee submission, no approval queue, no receipts attached in Gusto.
Plus $80/mo plus $12 per person Included. Employees add expenses in the app, with receipt fields filled from the photo when submitted on mobile. Mileage at a per-mile rate you set. Managers approve if you give them the permission. Custom categories. Everything on Simple, plus workforce cost reports and custom reporting on expenses by employee.
Premium $180/mo plus $22 per person Included, the same Expenses feature as Plus. Adds unlimited custom admin roles, same-day pay and instant pay. None of those change how an expense is approved or which payroll it lands on.
Contractors, any plan Billed at the plan's per-person rate in months you pay them Not available. Gusto says contractors do not use the Expenses feature. A one-time reimbursement on a US contractor payment, kept off the 1099. No recurring contractor reimbursements, and no expense reimbursements for non-US contractors.

The decision

Three ways to run expense reimbursement on Gusto payroll

The integrations in Gusto's own app directory sync people, not dollars. Once an outside tool handles expenses, the reimbursement leaves from that tool and never appears in a Gusto payroll.

Swipe the table sideways to compare all columns.

Path How the employee gets paid Published cost Best when
Gusto Expenses
built into payroll		 On the next payroll after approval, as its own line on the paystub. One system, one record, one bank debit. Included on Plus ($80 plus $12 per person) and Premium A small W-2 team with a handful of claims a month, no company cards, and nobody bothered by waiting until payday. Already on Plus? It costs nothing extra.
Gusto plus Expensify
in Gusto's directory		 By Expensify, which advertises next-day ACH once a report is approved. Gusto keeps the employee record; Expensify says plainly that it handles the reimbursement. Collect $5 per member a month; Control from $9 per active member, custom You need policy rules, card feeds, QuickBooks or Xero coding, or manager approval chains pulled from the Gusto org chart. That last one needs Control.
Gusto plus Ramp
in Gusto's directory		 By Ramp. Its Gusto connection imports the employee directory, runs a daily check for hires, exits and role changes, and applies a default spend program to new hires. Free at $0 per user; Plus at $15 per user a month You want to move most spending onto company cards with limits set before day one, so reimbursements become the exception rather than the process.

We break both vendors' plans down on Expensify pricing and Ramp pricing, and compare the wider field on expense reimbursement software.

The arithmetic

What moving from Simple to Plus costs to get Gusto Expenses

Plus costs $31 a month more than Simple, plus $6 more for every person on payroll. The per-person part is what grows, and it charges for everyone, including the people who never file an expense.

10 people on payroll

$91 a month more

Simple is $49 plus 10 times $6, or $109. Plus is $80 plus 10 times $12, or $200. The gap is $91 a month and $1,092 a year. At this size the upgrade is usually the cheapest clean answer.

25 people on payroll

$181 a month more

Simple is $199 and Plus is $380, so the gap is $181 a month and $2,172 a year. If only six people file, Expensify Collect for those six is $30 a month, provided you keep the other nineteen off its member list.

50 people on payroll

$331 a month more

Simple is $349 and Plus is $680, a gap of $3,972 a year. Before you pay it for expenses alone, price moving card-able spend to Ramp's Free plan and keeping Simple for payroll.

One caution on the outside tools. A directory sync that imports every employee can put every employee on a per-member meter. Ask the vendor which synced people count as billable before you switch it on. We go deeper on meters in what spend management software actually costs.

Mechanics

How do reimbursements work in Gusto?

An employee submits an expense, or an admin enters it for them. A manager or admin with approval permission approves it or rejects it with a note. The approved amount rides the next regular, off-cycle or bonus payroll as a separate reimbursement line, and it shows up in the reimbursement column of the Payroll Journal report. Nothing moves between payrolls unless you run an off-cycle payroll for it.

Three details catch people. First, AutoPilot: if payroll runs itself, Gusto says to approve every pending expense the day before AutoPilot runs, or run that payroll manually. Miss it and the employee waits a full cycle. Second, departures: once an employee's dismissal date passes they can no longer submit, so late claims go through an off-cycle payroll. Third, taxes: Gusto treats expense reimbursements as non-taxed, which is correct under an accountable plan, but reimbursements for things like a gym membership or a personal phone plan are taxable fringe benefits and belong in that setup instead.

Mileage works the same way. An admin creates a per-mile rate under Expenses settings, usually the IRS standard mileage rate, and employees log miles under Car and Mileage. Gusto does the multiplication. Some states require you to reimburse necessary business expenses whether or not you want to, and California is the one most employers hear about; we keep the state list on employee reimbursement laws by state.

Swipe the table sideways to compare all columns.

Pay schedule Longest wait after approval What finance sees mid-cycle
Weekly About 7 days Pending expenses in the approval queue only
Biweekly About 14 days Pending expenses in the approval queue only
Semi-monthly About 16 days Pending expenses in the approval queue only
Monthly About a month Nothing in the bank until payroll funds

How to decide

Four questions, in this order

1

Are you already on Plus?

Then turn Expenses on under Pay, Customization, and stop. It is included, and for a small W-2 team it is enough.

2

Do contractors spend your money?

Gusto's Expenses feature does not cover them, and non-US contractors cannot be reimbursed at all. That pushes you to an outside tool.

3

Could the spend go on a card?

Software, travel and supplies usually can. Company cards with limits cut the reimbursement volume, which is cheaper than any expense plan.

4

Who needs to know before payday?

Gusto reports spend once it is paid. If a budget owner needs a warning mid-month, that is a different job from reimbursement.

Where we fit, and where we do not

What Spendnotify is not

Spendnotify does not run payroll and does not pay reimbursements. We have no relationship with Gusto, Expensify or Ramp, and we do not connect to Gusto. If your problem is collecting receipts and paying people back, use one of the three paths above.

What we do is question four. Out-of-pocket spend is the hardest spending to see early: it sits on a personal card until someone files it, then in an approval queue, then in a payroll that funds days later. The practical fix most Gusto companies reach is to move predictable spending onto company cards and keep reimbursement for the exceptions. Spendnotify then watches those cards and bank accounts read-only against the budgets you set, projects where each department's month is heading, and messages the budget owner while there is still time to act. Our budget alerts page shows the difference between a projection and a percentage threshold, and corporate card monitoring covers the card side.

Questions buyers ask

Gusto expense reimbursement, answered

Which Gusto plan includes expense management?

Plus and Premium. Gusto's expense management page says expense tracking is included with Plus and Premium, and its plan comparison lists expenses and reimbursements as an add-on on Simple. Simple customers can still add reimbursements to a payroll by hand, but employees cannot submit expenses for approval without the feature.

Does Gusto do mileage reimbursement?

Yes, inside Expenses on Plus and Premium. An admin sets one or more per-mile rates, usually the IRS standard mileage rate, and employees log miles under Car and Mileage with an optional odometer photo. Gusto multiplies miles by the rate, and the approved amount is paid on the next payroll.

Can contractors submit expenses in Gusto?

No. Gusto says contractors do not use the Expenses feature. An admin can add a one-time reimbursement to a US contractor payment, which stays off the 1099 when the contractor gave proof of the expense, but recurring contractor reimbursements are not supported and non-US contractors cannot be reimbursed through Gusto.

How long do Gusto reimbursements take?

Until the next payroll after approval: at most about 7 days on a weekly schedule, 14 on biweekly, 16 on semi-monthly and a month on monthly. On AutoPilot, approve the day before it runs or the claim waits a cycle. Expensify, by comparison, advertises next-day ACH after approval.

Does Gusto integrate with Expensify and Ramp?

Yes, both are in Gusto's expense management app directory. They sync people: names, emails, departments and managers, so new hires get accounts and approvals follow the org chart. The reimbursement is paid by Expensify or Ramp, not added to a Gusto payroll. Expensify needs its Collect or Control plan to connect.

Are Gusto reimbursements taxable?

Usually not. Gusto treats expense reimbursements as non-taxed and keeps them out of wages, which holds under an accountable plan: a business purpose, receipts within a reasonable time and any excess returned. A gym membership or personal phone plan is a taxable fringe benefit and should be set up as one.

Is Gusto Expenses enough, or do I need expense software?

For a W-2 team filing a few claims a month, Gusto Expenses on Plus is enough. You outgrow it when contractors spend money, when you want company cards with limits, when approvals need policy rules rather than one approver, or when the books need expenses coded to QuickBooks or Xero before payday rather than after.

Can Gusto show spending against a department budget?

Gusto's reporting shows what was reimbursed, by employee and category, after it is paid. It does not describe tracking a department against a monthly budget or warning anyone before the month closes. For that you need a monitor on the cards and accounts where the money actually leaves, which is the job Spendnotify does.

Keep reading

Related pages

Keep Gusto for payroll. Add the part that speaks up before payday.

Gusto pays people back accurately, one pay cycle after the money was spent. Spendnotify watches the budgets you set across your company cards and accounts, projects where each month is heading, and messages the budget owner while it can still change. Read-only, and nothing about your payroll moves.

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