Gusto Time Tracking (2026): Built-In Hours That Sync to Payroll

Gusto includes time tracking on its Plus and Premium plans, and the hours feed directly into payroll — no exporting a timesheet, no rekeying numbers, no third-party app to reconcile. Employees clock in and out, you review and approve, and the approved hours become the basis for that pay run. After running my hourly team this way for a couple of years, the single biggest win is that the timesheet and the paycheck are the same dataset, so they can’t disagree.

Here’s what’s included, how the sync works, what it costs in real numbers, and how it compares to standalone time-tracking tools.

What’s included and on which plans

Time tracking is a paid-plan feature, bundled into Plus and Premium. You don’t add a separate per-seat time-tracking subscription — it comes with the plan.

If you have hourly staff, that bundling is a real part of the value calculation when choosing between Simple and Plus — you’re not just paying for HR extras, you’re folding in a time-and-attendance tool. The full plan breakdown is in my Gusto pricing guide.

What time tracking on Plus actually costs

The Simple-to-Plus jump looks like a big base-price increase ($49 to $80) plus a higher per-employee rate ($6 to $12), so it helps to see the all-in numbers. Say you run a six-person hourly team:

• Simple: $49 + (6 × $6) = $85/month — but no time tracking, so you’d bolt on a separate clock app.
• Plus: $80 + (6 × $12) = $152/month — time tracking included.

The gap is about $67/month. A standalone time-clock app for six users commonly runs $20–$40/month on its own, and Plus also adds next-day direct deposit, multi-state payroll, and full HR tools on top of the time tracking. So the practical question isn’t “is Plus worth $67 more for a clock” — it’s “is Plus worth roughly $30–$45 net more than Simple-plus-a-clock-app for everything else it adds.” For a team that’s genuinely hourly, that math usually lands on Plus.

For a 12-person team the numbers are $121/month on Simple versus $224/month on Plus — a wider gap, so larger hourly teams should weigh whether they need the project tracking and geolocation features, not just basic clock-in.

How hours sync to payroll

This is the feature that justifies using built-in tracking over a separate app. The flow is:

1. Employees clock in and out (web or the Gusto Wallet app)
2. Hours, including overtime, accumulate on their timesheet
3. You review and approve timesheets before a pay run
4. Approved hours flow straight into payroll as the basis for gross pay

Because there’s no export-and-import step, there’s no chance of a copy-paste error or a stale CSV. Overtime is calculated against the hours on file, and PTO taken shows up alongside worked hours so the paycheck reflects reality. When everything lives in one system, the timesheet is the payroll input.

A worked example: an employee at $20/hour logs 45 hours in a week. Gusto applies 40 hours at the regular rate ($800) and 5 hours at the 1.5x overtime rate ($150) for $950 gross, then runs the tax withholding on top — all from the approved timesheet, with no separate overtime calculation on your end. Multiply that across a team and the time saved (and the error rate avoided) is the whole point of keeping hours and pay in one place.

Geolocation and clock-in controls

For teams that aren’t all sitting in one office, Gusto’s time tracking supports geolocation, capturing where an employee was when they clocked in or out. That helps verify on-site work for field, retail, or multi-location teams and cuts down on buddy-punching.

You can review clock-in locations as part of approving timesheets, which gives you a defensible record without standing over anyone’s shoulder. For a small business with a couple of job sites or a remote-leaning team, it’s enough oversight without being heavy-handed.

Project and job tracking

Beyond plain hours, Gusto lets you track time by project, so you can see how many hours went into a given client, job, or cost center. That matters if you bill clients by the hour, run job costing, or just want to know where labor dollars are going.

Project hours roll up into reports you can use for invoicing or profitability analysis, and because they’re tied to the same timesheets that drive payroll, the numbers are consistent. You’re not maintaining one set of hours for billing and another for pay.

Who it’s for — and who can skip it

Built-in time tracking earns its keep for specific kinds of teams:

• Hourly retail or restaurant staff who clock variable shifts and rack up overtime — the sync prevents the classic week-of-payroll scramble to reconcile a clock app against the pay run.
• Field and trades businesses running multiple job sites, where geolocation confirms who was where and project tracking ties labor to jobs you bill.
• Agencies and professional services that bill clients by the hour and want one set of hours feeding both invoices and payroll.

You can probably skip it if your team is all salaried. Salaried employees don’t clock in, so the feature does little for you, and the Simple plan (no time tracking) may be the better value. The same goes if you’re contractor-only — the Contractor Only plan at $35/month doesn’t include or need timesheet-based tracking the way a W-2 hourly team does.

Built-in vs. standalone time-tracking tools

Standalone tools (the dedicated time-clock apps) are powerful and sometimes have deeper scheduling features. But for most small businesses the integration tax of running a separate tool outweighs the extra features:

• Standalone: more niche features, but you pay a separate subscription and have to sync hours into payroll — a recurring integration to maintain and a recurring place for errors.
• Gusto built-in: included with Plus/Premium, hours flow natively into payroll, PTO and overtime already in the same system, one login for employees.

If your team already lives in Gusto for pay, PTO, and benefits, adding a third-party time tracker mostly buys you another thing to reconcile. The built-in option removes that. If you genuinely need heavy shift scheduling — drag-and-drop rosters, shift swaps, availability — a dedicated scheduler paired with Gusto can still be the right call; I cover that pairing in Gusto vs. When I Work. For the broader picture of what Plus and Premium unlock, see my Gusto benefits overview, and if you’re weighing platforms, Gusto vs. ADP covers how the feature bundles compare.

How to get Gusto’s best deal

Gusto doesn’t use a typed coupon code. The current offer is a referral link that pays a Visa gift card after your first paid payroll — $100 for businesses with fewer than 10 employees, $200 for 10 or more — plus 3 months free on your subscription. Click the referral link before you sign up, create your account, and run one paid payroll to qualify; the gift card arrives within 30 days of your first paid invoice.

More guides are on the blog, or start from the homepage.

Frequently asked questions

Is time tracking included in Gusto?

Time tracking is included on the Plus ($80/mo + $12/employee) and Premium ($180/mo + $22/employee) plans. It’s not part of the Simple plan. There’s no separate per-seat time-tracking fee on the plans that include it.

Does Gusto time tracking sync with payroll?

Yes. Employees clock in and out, you approve their timesheets, and the approved hours flow directly into payroll as the basis for gross pay. There’s no export or manual data entry, so the timesheet and the paycheck use the same numbers.

Does Gusto time tracking have geolocation?

Yes. Gusto captures location data when employees clock in and out, which helps verify on-site work for field, retail, and multi-location teams. You can review clock-in locations when approving timesheets.

Can I track time by project in Gusto?

Yes. Gusto supports project and job tracking, so you can see how many hours went into a specific client, job, or cost center. Those hours roll into reports useful for invoicing and job costing.

Does Gusto calculate overtime automatically?

Yes. Gusto applies overtime against the approved hours on the timesheet — for example, hours past 40 in a week at the 1.5x rate — and folds it into gross pay before tax withholding, so you don’t run a separate overtime calculation.

Is the Simple plan enough if I have hourly employees?

It can be, but Simple doesn’t include time tracking. If your hourly team clocks variable shifts, the Plus plan bundles time tracking with payroll so hours sync natively. If you’d otherwise pay for a separate clock app, Plus is often the better all-in value.