How to Send an Invoice in Gusto (and When to Use a Dedicated Tool)
Gusto’s strength has always been payroll, HR, and paying your team. Over time, they have added money tools like bill pay and invoicing, so you can handle more of your business finances in one place. At the same time, most service businesses also need a separate, client friendly invoicing system that reflects their own branding, packages, and workflows.
So instead of asking “Can I send an invoice in Gusto or in an invoicing tool like Invozee?” it is often more helpful to ask, “What should I handle in Gusto, and what is better handled in a dedicated invoicing system?”
Key takeaways
- Gusto’s invoicing and bill pay tools are designed to sit alongside payroll and vendor payments, not replace a full invoicing platform for every type of business.
- For simple, occasional invoices tied closely to payroll or vendor relationships, sending an invoice in Gusto may be enough.
- If you live on client projects and service packages, a dedicated invoicing tool like Invozee usually feels clearer and more flexible.
- This article is a workflow guide only. Always rely on Gusto’s official documentation and your accountant for decisions about features and compliance.
How Gusto thinks about payments and invoicing
Gusto started as a payroll and HR platform. Its main focus is paying your employees and contractors correctly and on time, handling tax filings, and making team-related money movements painless.
Over time, Gusto added tools under its money and cash management features, including bill pay and invoicing in partnership with payment platforms. The idea is to give small businesses a way to pay vendors and get paid by customers without leaving the Gusto environment.
That is useful if you already live in Gusto every week. But there is still an important distinction: Gusto is not an accounting suite or a fully fledged client invoicing system in the way that a dedicated tool such as Invozee or traditional accounting software is. It is one part of your tool stack.
Before you send an invoice in Gusto
Before you send your first Gusto invoice, take a moment to think about what problem you are really trying to solve.
- If you mainly want to pay employees and contractors, Gusto is the right place to start.
- If you want to pay vendors and occasionally collect money from customers in the same dashboard, Gusto’s money tools and partners may be helpful.
- If your revenue is built on projects, retainers, and repeat client work, you will probably be happier separating client invoicing into a dedicated tool.
For example, if you invoice as a freelance developer or designer, the principles we talk about in our invoice for freelancers guide are easier to apply inside a specialised invoicing system than inside a payroll dashboard.
How to send an invoice in Gusto (high level)
Because Gusto’s product interface changes over time and features are rolled out gradually, the exact buttons and labels you see may be slightly different from what is described here. Think of this as a general outline rather than a pixel-perfect tutorial.
Typical high level flow
- Open your Gusto account: Sign in as an admin and navigate to the money, payments, or invoicing area of your dashboard.
- Add or select a customer: Choose an existing customer or create a new one with their business name and contact email.
- Create a new invoice: Start a new invoice and set the invoice title or description so clients can recognise the work.
- Add line items: Enter what you are billing for—such as services, hours, or a project fee—and the relevant amounts and tax if applicable.
- Choose terms and due date: Set your payment terms (for example, due on receipt or net 14) and a clear due date.
- Preview the invoice: Check all details, including the recipient, amount, and any tax lines, then confirm.
- Send the invoice: Send the invoice by email or through whatever delivery options Gusto offers in your region and plan.
- Track status: Use Gusto’s dashboard to see whether the invoice is outstanding, paid, or in progress.
If you have previously been maintaining your own invoice format in spreadsheets, this workflow may already feel more organised. At the same time, you might miss the kind of tailored templates you have seen in more invoice focused articles such as our free invoice templates for 2025.
Limitations to keep in mind
Gusto is strongest when it stays close to payroll and team payments. When you stretch it into being your main client invoicing hub, a few cracks can appear.
1. It is not built around your client experience
Payroll tools are designed first for employers and admins, not for clients. That can mean fewer options for customising the look and feel of invoices, setting up multi-language versions, or tailoring the layout around your specific services and packages.
2. Invoicing features may be limited or evolving
A dedicated invoicing platform invests most of its energy into templates, reminders, and client facing workflows. Gusto, by contrast, is balancing payroll, benefits, HR, and money tools. Its invoicing feature set may be perfectly fine for simple cases but not as deep as a tool that only does invoicing.
3. Separation of duties can get blurry
Some businesses prefer to separate internal tools (for team and vendor payments) from external tools (for client billing). That way, you can grant more limited access to staff who help with invoicing without also giving them access to sensitive HR or payroll information.
When you are learning how invoices relate to other documents, our invoice vs receipt guide is a helpful companion. It explains how different documents play different roles in your payment flow, something that is easier to manage when your tools are clearly separated too.
When to keep invoicing in Invozee instead
If you are reading this on Invozee’s blog, there is a good chance you care a lot about the invoicing side of your business. You might already feel that payroll and client billing are cousins, not twins—they belong in the same family but not in the same room all the time.
Invozee plays to the strengths of client work
Invozee is built around client facing invoices, not payroll. That means you can:
- Create templates that mirror your packages, retainers, or project phases.
- Reuse client and item details without touching unrelated HR or payroll settings.
- See a clean list of invoices, focused only on client payments.
- Adjust the layout and wording to match how you sell your services.
The ideas we share in our guides—like how to create an invoice for freelancers and our free invoice template collection—are all easier to apply when your invoicing tool is laser focused on clients rather than employees.
Use Gusto and Invozee together
You do not have to choose between Gusto and Invozee. Many businesses use:
- Gusto for payroll, HR, benefits, and paying employees and contractors.
- Invozee for sending invoices to clients, tracking who has paid, and keeping customer records tidy.
This split lets each tool do what it does best, and your team does not have to dig through payroll screens to answer a simple question like “Has this client paid their last invoice yet?”
Let Gusto handle payroll and Invozee handle your invoices
Keep your team payments inside Gusto and your client billing inside Invozee. Build clear templates, send professional invoices in a few clicks, and track payments without touching your payroll dashboard.