Switch Guide: Moving from Gusto to Wagepoint

Gusto is an excellent US payroll platform — for US companies. Canadian businesses using Gusto are using a square peg in a round hole: Gusto doesn't natively support Canadian payroll tax tables, CRA remittances, T4 slips, ROE filings, or provincial employment standards. Most Canadian businesses on Gusto are either running US employees or making do with significant workarounds. Wagepoint is a Halifax-founded payroll company built from the ground up for Canadian payroll — CRA calculations, ROE filing, T4 generation, and provincial tax tables are all first-class features, not afterthoughts.

What You'll Gain

• True Canadian payroll: CPP, EI, federal and provincial income tax calculated automatically and accurately.
• CRA remittance filing: Wagepoint handles your CRA remittances automatically — no manual transfers.
• T4 and T4A generation: Year-end T4 slips generated and filed with CRA automatically.
• ROE filing: Record of Employment filed electronically with Service Canada when employees leave.
• Quebec payroll: Full RQ (Revenu Québec) integration for Quebec employees.
• Canadian customer support: Payroll experts based in Canada who know CRA requirements.
• FreshBooks integration: Native integration with FreshBooks for unified bookkeeping.

What You Might Miss

• Benefits administration: Gusto's US benefits enrollment has no Canadian equivalent in Wagepoint. Use a separate Canadian benefits platform.
• Employee self-service portal: Gusto's employee experience (paystub access, tax documents) is more polished than Wagepoint's.
• HR features: Gusto includes basic HR tools. Wagepoint is payroll-focused — pair with Humi or another HR tool for full HRIS.
• International payroll: If you have US employees, you'll need a separate US payroll solution alongside Wagepoint.

Migration Checklist

1. Export payroll history from Gusto — Download your complete payroll run history, employee earnings summaries, and tax payment records.
2. Gather CRA account information — You'll need your Business Number, payroll program account number (RP account), and bank account information for CRA remittances.
3. Set up Wagepoint account — Sign up and complete the Canadian business verification process.
4. Enter employee information — Add each employee with their SIN, province of employment, pay rate, and TD1 information.
5. Configure pay schedules — Set up your pay frequency (weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly) and first pay date.
6. Enter year-to-date payroll figures — If switching mid-year, enter YTD earnings and deductions for each employee so T4s are accurate at year-end.
7. Run a test payroll — Process a test run and verify all calculations before the first live payroll.
8. Cancel Gusto — After your first successful Wagepoint payroll, cancel your Gusto account.

Data Export Tips from Gusto

In Gusto, go to Reports → Payroll Summaries to download payroll run summaries. Employee data exports are under People → Export. Critically, export your YTD earnings and deductions report — this is what you'll enter as opening balances in Wagepoint if switching mid-year. If you're switching at year-start (January), this is simpler; mid-year switches require more careful data entry to ensure accurate T4s.

Timeline Estimate

Most Canadian businesses complete this switch in 2–3 weeks. Account setup and employee import can be done in a few days. The careful part is entering year-to-date payroll figures accurately and running a parallel payroll before go-live. Plan your switch for the start of a new quarter when possible — it simplifies the YTD calculations significantly.

See all Canadian alternatives to Gusto →