Create and share custom documents with teammates (for admins)

Documents supported by the Gusto Custom Documents feature

All documents should be saved and uploaded in PDF format.

• Employee handbooks 
  • If you’re a Gusto customer with a Priority support plan, you can request an employee handbook from your HR Resource Center portal in Gusto. To contact the HR Pros, you must be the designated HR Resource Center admin in Gusto. 
• IP agreements
• Waivers
• Documents that need an employee and/or employer signature
• Form acknowledgement
  • An option to acknowledge forms without having to map fields exists in the upload custom documents process.

Other documents supported by Gusto

• Offer letters
• Some government forms (ex. Form W-4 and I-9)
  • Support for these documents occurs during employee onboarding

Unsupported documents

• Employment agreements
  • Job applications
• Tax forms, including state withholding forms

Do not include items

• Do not use Custom Docs for forms with personally identifiable info (PII) like I-9s or W-4s. You can still upload completed and signed copies of these forms to a team member’s profile—just do not use the Custom Docs workflow to do it.
• Radio buttons (also known as option buttons)
• Prefilled text or highlighted fields
  • You will not be able to remove or cover these up after the form is uploaded.
• Security Settings
  • For example: Password-protected files
• Hyperlinks to outside resources (ex. employee training videos, etc.)
  • Custom docs are read-only once finalized.

Hiring a team member often comes with a lot of paperwork. Gusto helps you digitally manage all the documents your team needs. 

This feature is available if you're on Gusto's Plus or Premium plan. If you do not see the option to add a custom document, upgrade your plan at any time. 

Add a custom document and let us know who gets it

1. Click the Documents section.
2. Click +Add Document.
3. Select the file you would like to upload—make sure it's supported by reviewing the criteria in the dropdown above. 
   • Upload one document at a time.
   • File must be .pdf and less than 10MB.
4. Name the document—recipients will see this name
5. If recipients need to fill out or sign the document, check the box under "Recipient actions".
   • If they do not, you'll skip the mapping steps (drag and drop) that follow.
6. Click Continue.
   
   • Your document will appear here once it’s processed. Most documents are processed in less than a minute.
7. Map the document by dragging and dropping the fields you want into the document (from the right-side of the page). All fields other than the checkbox and text (optional) will be required.
   • See the table below, describing the fields.
8. Click Save & Continue once you've completed the mapping.
9. Preview your mapped document. This is how the final document will appear.
   • Text in [brackets] are what the recipient fills out.
   • Text with an asterisk (*) is autofilled.
10. If you need to go back to make edits, click Back, otherwise, click Continue to move on.
11. Select what kind of document this is, you cannot change this selection later. Only team members with an email linked to their Gusto account will be able to get this document. It can be one of the below:
    
    • Team document: A shared document for multiple recipients.
    • Individual document: A customized document for a single recipient.
12. Let us know who should receive the document. For individual recipients, enter a name. For a team document, choose one or both:
    
    • Future hires—choose from the below. 
      • All future hires
        • You can always customize an individual’s onboarding documents while adding them in Gusto.
      • Specific types of hires—send the document to specific: 
        
        • Departments
        • Job titles
        • Primary work locations
      • What to expect:
        • New hires who match these settings will have the document pre-selected during onboarding, you can also choose not to send the document to somebody.
        • You can select multiple variables, this is how the logic applies them:
          • AND → Applies when using different attributes (e.g., department + location).
          • OR → Applies when using the same attribute (e.g., multiple departments).
        • If you used the setting below, the document will auto-select (during onboarding) for employees who are: In NY, and in Eng or Product departments. 
          • Department = Eng, Product
          • Location = NY
    • Current team members—choose from:
      • All current team members
        • The document will be sent immediately to all current team members.
      • Specific individuals or departments.
        • The document will be sent immediately to the people or departments selected.
13. Click Send document.
    • Once sent, you can view the document in the Documents section of your admin profile, or in the team member's profile.

Next time you add someone to Gusto, you can also choose this document for them to fill out or sign.

Important: Once a form has been signed by a team member, we cannot edit it or remove it from their profile. You can archive the form to avoid additional signings, but any signed agreement will remain visible in Gusto accounts.

Fields you can add to custom docs

Team members get an email telling them know they have a document in Gusto to acknowledge or sign. This email is only sent once.

If you want to remind them, you’ll need to follow up directly.

From the Shared document page, you can:

• Preview the document
• Download the document
• Rename the document
• Update recipients
• View which recipients have signed or acknowledged the form

Manage your custom documents

1. Go to Documents.
2. Under the "Team" headline, click Shared.
3. Click the Active tab.
4. Click the title of the document.
5. Use the options available to preview, download, rename, update recipients, or view the signature status.

If you no longer want to share a document with recipients, follow the steps below to archive it. At this time, custom documents cannot be fully deleted.

Once you archive a document, you will no longer be able to send it to recipients. Archiving a document is not reversible.

1. Sign in to your Gusto admin account.
2. Click the Documents section.
3. Under the “Team” section, click Shared.
4. Find the document in question, but do not click the title—instead, under the “Actions” column on the right side of the page, click the three-dot menu.
5. Click Archive document.

If a recipient has already signed an archived document, their signed copy will remain in their Documents section of their profile. If they haven’t signed it, the document will be removed.

If you downgrade your plan, and you have custom documents, the following will happen:

• You and your team will keep access to signed and awaiting signature documents.
• Team members can still complete documents.
• No new custom documents can be created.
• When you click Add Document, the option for New Document will not be there, and you'll be routed to the Offer Letter flow. 
• We will not destroy any existing data.