Payroll, benefits, and HR solutions company Gusto announced last Wednesday an extensive platform update for accountants: a rebuilt Gusto Pro, a new multi-client Model Context Protocol (MCP), and an expanded Gusto Partner Program, designed to bring business context directly into accountants’ artificial intelligence tools.
The platform updates, which were announced at Gusto Next, the company’s event for its accounting partners, are designed to help firms move from transactional tasks toward higher-value advisory services for their small business clients.
“Together, they let firms put AI agents to work on payroll prep wherever they already are, whether that’s in Gusto Pro or in the AI tools they use every day, while they stay in control of every approval,” Bridgette Haymaker, general manager and vice president of product management at Gusto, wrote in a blog post on Oct. 7. “Our goal is to empower our accounting partners so they can supercharge both their clients’ success and the growth of their firms.”
The redesigned Gusto Pro platform, which helps accounting firms manage clients’ payroll, benefits, and advisory services from a single dashboard, now includes AI-assisted workflows, a multi-client assistant, and a simplified dashboard built to free up accountants from manual tasks, the San Francisco-based company says.
The updated Gusto Pro is now available in early access to eligible Gusto partners, with general availability coming later this year.
New features include:
- AI-assisted workflows that automate core payroll tasks end-to-end, like extracting hours from emails, surfacing changes since last payroll, and delivering critical reports, so firms spend less time on manual prep while still retaining visibility and control. Once AI completes the prep, accountants review and give final approvals.
- Automated reporting, where Gusto learns which reports accountants pull after every payroll and automatically generates them. These reports land in one centralized place across all clients so accountants don’t need to find reports client-by-client.
- New connectors to wherever accountants complete their work, like Gmail and Outlook, for drafting hours, reimbursements, and deductions. This frees up accountants from chasing clients for vital information that then needs to be inputted manually into Gusto, the company says.
- Pro Gus, Gusto’s AI assistant, gives accountants faster answers to client questions, plus multi-client visibility across their entire book of business.
In addition to redesigning Gusto Pro, Gusto launched its multi-client MCP, which brings Gusto’s business context directly into the AI tools accountants already work in, across every client they manage.
“Until now, working with AI across a client book has meant connecting to one client at a time and disconnecting and reconnecting to switch. With the multi-client MCP, accountants connect Gusto once, choose which clients to include, and every Gusto tool works across them from a single conversation,” Haymaker wrote. “Accountants can ask questions across their book of business, prep payroll changes like hours, earnings, time off, and payment methods, and generate the reports they run every cycle. They can also set up recurring routines that run in the background.
“For example, they could set up a task for every Thursday that reviews client emails for payroll hours, prep each client’s payroll, and notify the accountant when it’s ready for review,” she continued. “Every change still comes back to the accountant to review and approve before anything is updated in Gusto, and only the clients they’ve chosen are ever connected.”
Gusto’s multi-client MCP is now available to all accountant firms, with more capabilities coming soon.
Finally, Gusto announced major upgrades to the Gusto Partner Program, a free, tiered program that rewards firms with revenue share and deeper strategic support as they grow their practice on Gusto.
New features include:
- Marketing Development Funds and the Partner Marketing Hub: Marketing support designed to help firms grow their books. This includes Marketing Development Funds designed to help firms drive new client acquisition through email campaigns, webinars, events, or paid social promotion, as well as a Partner Marketing Hub providing AI agents, campaign building, and ready-to-launch marketing resources.
- Partner Development Funds: Built to help firms grow stronger from the inside with the support of Firm Business Consultants. Funds can go toward launching and improving AI adoption and implementation, pricing and strategy for client advisory services, operational efficiency, and marketing matching firms with the right expertise for where they want to grow.
- Firm Business Consultants: An exclusive, pre-vetted network of consultants with deep accounting industry experience providing specialized support across key growth areas.
- AI agents for growth: First introduced in June 2026 and built exclusively for Gusto Pro firms, they include a website audit agent, advisory positioning agent, expansion pitch agent, and pricing and margin target agent—all designed to help firms win new clients and deepen advisory revenue
In mid-November, the Gusto Partner Program will also expand revenue share beyond payroll to include 401(k) plans at partners’ matching tier rate. New firms that join will also get a free firm 401(k) plan for owners and employees for one year, Gusto says.
“Through our updates to the Gusto Partner Program, we’re signaling our commitment to our partners’ growth. When our mutual small business customers win, our accountant partners also win, and they’re better positioned to pursue higher margins and increased revenue,” Haymaker said.
Sign in to get access to this free resource, and all of our whitepapers and reports.
Download this content today!
Register Now Already registered? Click here to Log In
