n-FreshBooks Doesn't Run Payroll. Gusto Does, and the Handoff Isn't Always Clean.
FreshBooks doesn't have built-in payroll. It integrates with Gusto, which runs the actual payroll, tax filing, and direct deposits, while FreshBooks' accounting stays focused on invoicing and bookkeeping. The two sync at a summary level, payroll journal entries post into FreshBooks automatically, but the detail underneath, which project or client a contractor's hours should cost against, isn't something the integration handles on its own.
The Gusto integration covers the core handoff well: run payroll in Gusto, and the resulting journal entry, gross wages, taxes, deductions, posts into FreshBooks' books automatically, so you're not manually re-entering payroll totals every pay period.
What doesn't carry over is job-costing detail. If a service business needs to know which project or client a contractor's or employee's hours actually cost against, that mapping has to happen separately, usually by someone cross-referencing time entries against the payroll run by hand.
The other gap is timing visibility. Gusto runs on its own payroll schedule, and the journal entry lands in FreshBooks after the fact, which is fine for bookkeeping but doesn't help a business that wants to see payroll cost against a project budget before committing to it.
What we build around FreshBooks and Gusto payroll
Payroll cost mapped to the project it belongs to
Hours and wages from a Gusto payroll run get split against the specific projects or clients they should cost against automatically, instead of someone reconciling a payroll summary against a time-tracking spreadsheet after the fact.
Project budgets that account for payroll before it posts
A project's budget tracking gets updated with projected labor cost based on scheduled hours, so a team sees the real cost picture before the payroll journal entry even lands in FreshBooks.
Still reconciling payroll against project costs by hand?
Walk us through how you're currently splitting payroll cost across clients or projects, and we'll take a look at moving that earlier in the process.
Running FreshBooks and Gusto and still mapping payroll costs manually?
The payroll number lands in FreshBooks fine. Knowing which client or project it should actually cost against is the part that usually still happens in a spreadsheet after the fact. Tell us how you're doing that split today and we'll look at moving it earlier. And if payroll isn't your actual bottleneck, that's fine too, n-frames automates whatever's manual in your business.
Let's talk