- Gusto unveiled three updates for its 23,000+ accounting firm customers: a rebuilt Gusto Pro, a multi-client Model Context Protocol (MCP), and an expanded Gusto Partner Program.
- The new tools use AI to help accountants scale their practices, automating payroll preparation and reporting while allowing accountants to retain control over approvals and focus on higher-value advisory work.
- The company’s multi-client MCP brings its payroll data into accountants’ preferred LLMs, signaling a shift in which financial software can remain the underlying system of record even when an AI assistant becomes the primary interface.
Payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions company Gusto is shipping three new updates to help its more than 23,000 accounting firm customers serve their small business clients. The California-based company is adding a rebuilt Gusto Pro, a new multi-client Model Context Protocol (MCP), and an expanded Partner Program.
The new capabilities let firms put AI agents to work on payroll prep while staying in control of approvals. Gusto aims to empower its accountant clients to better serve their own customers while scaling their practices.
Gusto Pro, the company’s accountant payroll software, has been updated to include new AI-assisted workflows, an AI assistant with visibility into multiple clients, automated reporting, and a simplified dashboard built to free up accountants from manual tasks. While the updated platform is now available to eligible clients, the company is planning to make the updates generally available later this year.
“Gusto Pro provides advisory forward-thinking insights and tools,” said Wyatt Kneaper, founder and CEO of The Lighthouse Group, an accounting firm based in Eureka, California. “When a client is engaged, we can surface insights based on Gusto Pro to say, hey, let’s have a conversation. What are your goals? What direction do you want to head in the next two to five years? There’s a huge door that potentially opens.”
Additionally, the company now offers accountants a multi-client MCP that brings Gusto’s business context directly into the accountant’s preferred LLM. Because the MCP is multi-client, accountants can use their LLM to ask questions across their book of business without having to log in multiple times or set up multiple different windows for conversations.
Finally, Gusto has upgraded its Partner Program to help accountants grow their firms and receive more revenue share when they serve more clients on Gusto.
The Gusto Partner Program incentivizes firms to grow their practices by offering rewards. When accountants serve more clients on Gusto, they receive more revenue share as well as increased strategic support to invest back into their firms. Gusto offers marketing support, development funds, access to a consultant network, and the use of AI agents to help firms win new clients and deepen advisory revenue.
These updates show that fintechs are responding to their clients’ interests in leveraging AI to better serve their end customers. In Gusto’s case, the fintech is using AI agents to take over more of the preparation itself, leaving accountants to review and approve the work and spend more time on higher-value advisory services. Additionally, the multi-client MCP allows accountants to access Gusto data and prepare payroll from the LLMs where they already work.
In the broader fintech context, the MCP connection may be the most interesting piece of today’s announcement, as it shows that Gusto is acknowledging that the primary interface for financial software isn’t necessarily its own platform but rather the customer’s LLM. Gusto will remain the system where payroll data lives and transactions ultimately take place, while accountants choose to interact with that data through their AI assistant.