Small businesses, meet your new payroll wingman. Thryv, best known for its all-in-one sales and marketing software for SMBs, just unveiled Thryv Workforce Center™, a full-service payroll solution designed to eliminate the chaos of tax compliance and pay management—without leaving the Thryv ecosystem.
Powered by Gusto, the same company trusted by thousands of SMBs for people management, the Workforce Center is Thryv’s answer to a growing need: simple, error-free payroll that doesn’t demand another platform or yet another monthly subscription.
Why This Matters: Payroll Still Eats Into SMB Time
According to the National Small Business Association’s 2025 survey, half of U.S. small businesses spend over three hours a month just dealing with payroll taxes. That’s more than a full workday every quarter—gone.
With Workforce Center, Thryv is betting that SMBs don’t want to juggle siloed tools anymore. Instead, they’re offering a single pane of glass where business owners can:
- Run full payroll for W-2s and 1099s
- Automate federal, state, and local tax filings
- Pay employees via direct deposit or check
- Generate tax forms and reports automatically
- Store all payroll and employee data in one secure location
And because it’s built into the same platform customers already use to manage scheduling, invoices, and marketing, there’s zero friction.
Features That Hit Where It Hurts
Workforce Center isn’t trying to reinvent payroll—but it is trying to make it invisible. Here’s how it stacks up:
- Centralized employee records to cut admin time and reduce manual errors
- Automated compliance to prevent late filings and tax headaches
- Flexible payment options, including Plaid-powered two-day direct deposit
- Transparent pricing: pay only for active W-2 employees monthly and contractors only when paid
- Unlimited payroll runs, so no extra fees for frequent pay cycles
- Employee portal access, letting staff download pay stubs, update direct deposit info, and view tax forms anytime
Basically, it takes the stuff that usually requires three logins and a headache—and folds it into one clean interface.
Context: A Smarter Payroll Era for SMBs?
Legacy systems like ADP and Paychex are fine for enterprises, but many SMBs don’t need their complexity or cost structure. Meanwhile, Gusto has been slowly winning over the small business crowd with a blend of automation, ease of use, and friendly UX.
By embedding Gusto’s engine into Thryv, the company’s making a smart move: offering enterprise-grade functionality in a tool already tailored for time-starved business owners in industries like home services, healthcare, legal, and retail.
Client Response: A Clear View of Cash Flow
For business owners like Clayton Stokum, CEO of Alpha Behavior Strategies, the tool’s biggest value isn’t just payroll automation—it’s financial clarity.
“It’s helped me stay on top of the money coming in and made it easier to pay my employees as we grow,” he said. “It’s been a game-changer.”
Thryv Workforce Center adds serious utility to a platform already doing heavy lifting for over 100,000 small businesses. If you’re still manually cutting checks, sweating tax deadlines, or toggling between disconnected tools, this might be the nudge to bring payroll where it belongs: out of your inbox, and into automation.
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