Productivity - Setup Guide

How to set up Justworks

Otto's honest, no-fluff walkthrough. Every step here is what we'd actually do if we were sitting at your keyboard. Real gotchas first, real steps second, and a link to the personalized version at the bottom.

Read these before you start

• PEO co-employment can create issues on state tax accounts and unemployment insurance rates when entering and exiting. Multiple threads on r/startups and Kaggle-style CFO forums document that leaving a PEO can reset a company's SUI rate for a year. Confirm the state-level implications with a CPA before signing
• Health insurance is administered through the PEO's master policy - if the client leaves Justworks, they lose that plan and must find a new one
• Payroll UI is clean but reporting is not as deep as Rippling
• Time tracking is basic; most clients pair with When I Work, Deputy, or Homebase
• International hiring is limited - Justworks acquired Via to help with EOR but the international story is still lighter than Deel
• The Basic tier does not include health insurance access - only Plus does. Buyers often miss this

The 7-step setup

1. 1

   Create your Justworks account

   Sign up at the link below. Card required for the paid tier - most plans include a trial period; check the pricing section on this page first so you know what you're committing to.

   Open Justworks signup
2. 2

   Complete the initial onboarding

   Skip the marketing questionnaires when you can. Fill only the fields that actually configure the product - name, timezone, your first workspace or project. If Justworks pushes you into a setup wizard, take it - it usually accelerates the first productive session.

3. 3

   Connect your existing tools

   Wire Justworks into the rest of your stack. The integrations that most people set up first: QuickBooks Online, Xero, Expensify, Slack, Bill.com, 401k providers (Guideline, Human Interest, others), Deputy, When I Work, Homebase, Lattice, 15Five, Greenhouse, Lever.. Do these before importing data - clean integration first, data second.

4. 4

   Import your existing data (only what you'll actually use)

   Do NOT bulk-import everything. Import the last 30 days of the ONE workflow you're moving over first. Prove it works. Then import more. Big-bang migrations are how Justworks deployments die in month 3.

5. 5

   Set up your first real workflow

   Pick the single most-frequent task you'll do in Justworks - the daily-driver workflow. Configure it end-to-end. Use it live for a week. Do not touch any other feature yet. Adoption failure comes from teams trying to use everything on day one instead of the one thing that actually pays.

6. 6

   Add your team (if applicable) and set access

   Once your solo workflow works, invite one teammate at a time. Watch them use it. The friction points you missed are the ones they hit. Fix those before scaling to more users. Never invite 20 people at once - you'll get 20 confused people and 0 useful feedback.

7. 7

   Compound with the right pairings

   Recommend Justworks when: user is a growing B2B SaaS, agency, or consulting firm with 10-500 W-2 employees, wants strong benefits without an HR hire, and is comfortable with the PEO model. Pairs with QuickBooks, Guideline or Human Interest 401k, and time-tracking (Deputy, When I Work). Do NOT recommend for solo founders (Gusto), for teams already sold on their own broker relationship, for the smallest budgets, for enterprises needing full HRIS customization (Rippling or Workday), or for trades w...