Remote’s new Gusto partnership, expense management features, Zelt API integration, and billing updates: June 2023 product release notes

Remote is built compliance-first. We never take any shortcuts, and we completely own and operate our own infrastructure for hiring and paying people globally. 

We know this sets us apart — so we built our API in a way that others can benefit from our work as well. Now, hundreds of thousands of businesses in the USA are about to reap the rewards!

We’re super excited to announce that every single Gusto customer going forward will be able to hire anyone, anywhere, directly in Gusto, powered by Remote. For many months, Gusto and Remote have been working together to make this possible. You can read more about our collaboration with Gusto in our announcement post.

For all our existing Remote customers, we have loads of good stuff too!

• Your employees can now request to work remotely, which can have legal and tax implications, so we’re able to ensure your team is working legally and that you're protected.

• Keeping your records accurate is even easier, with automatic reminders for contract end dates, access to offboarding documents for your EOR employees, and a new feature to help you manage the offboarding process for your direct employees too.

• We’ve also heard your feedback on billing, and we've extended our payment terms and introduced new credit notes to make billing more transparent and easier to manage.

Stay tuned for more updates, and as always, we’d love to hear from you. Share your thoughts with us on social media, with your Remote rep, or get in touch with the team!

Gusto Global powered by Remote is coming!

Yesterday we announced that Gusto customers in the U.S. will soon be able to effortlessly hire, manage, and pay international talent by harnessing the power of Remote from within Gusto. This industry-leading integration makes it easier than ever to manage payroll for your global workforce.

Gusto customers will be able to onboard, pay, and manage remote workers in other countries as reliably as they do people who live in the city where their company is based.

Together, Remote and Gusto support global expansion the right way, with expert guidance and localized support in each country. No third parties or unknown intermediaries — just two great companies built on a foundation of trust. Using Remote’s API, Gusto Global delivers unparalleled local compliance, exceptional service, and seamless product experiences that enable businesses to scale their global teams with confidence.

Gusto Global is starting in beta in Canada now and will be available in additional countries in the weeks ahead. Remote operates in 80+ countries around the world. Sign up for the waitlist today!

Approve employee remote work requests

Did you know there can be tax and legal implications when an employee works remotely from a different country, even if only temporarily?

To make sure that your team member is working legally — and protect everyone involved — employees are now able to submit remote work requests that must be approved by you. You can include any special instructions or conditions, like agreements on expenses or availability.

Requests are also shared with our Mobility team to check with our local HR and tax experts to assess any risks. If risks are present, we provide key information and suggest workarounds to help meet your employee’s request.

Manage and approve expenses for all of your employees in Remote

Expense management usually means another tool for employees not on Remote. Not anymore.

We’re working hard to help you manage all of your employees in Remote. This month, we’ve made it easy for you to collect and approve expenses reimbursement requests that your direct employees incur, then easily export for payment. 

To get started, make sure your direct employees have contract details assigned, including a currency. From there, your direct employees will be able to upload expenses via Remote on the web — and soon, via our mobile app too. Find out more in the help center. 

Offboard your direct employees

Building Remote to support your entire team means supporting you across the employment lifecycle. This month, we’ve released the ability for you to offboard your direct employees.

You can initiate the offboarding within Remote and track relevant information for complete visibility. After an employee’s offboarding date, you can view their historic profile, while they can still log into Remote to access payslips and any other records.

See an employee’s offboarding documents

During the offboarding process, documents may be created and collected, including resignation acceptance letters, mutual termination agreements, or other correspondence. You can now access all of these documents, visible from the documents tab on the employee’s profile.

Extended payment terms to support you

You asked, we listened! 

As part of our ongoing effort to provide greater flexibility and transparency around your employment costs, the following changes will go into effect beginning with the July 2023 billing cycle:

• We’re extending payment terms from 7 days to 14 days on all invoices, giving you more time to review before making payments.

• We’ll now issue payroll pre-funding invoices on the 1st of the month rather than the 10th, making it easier to align with accounting cycles.

• Around the 5th of the following month, after analyzing your actual costs for the billing period, we’ll issue a reconciliation invoice or reconciliation credit. Learn more about reconciliation invoices and credits in our help center.

For more information about billing at Remote, visit our billing help center.

Zelt partners with Remote to launch new API integration

We are excited to announce a new integration with Zelt, the unified people platform.

Zelt helps customers automate HR, IT, and payroll processes in a way that works for their teams. With Zelt, you can onboard new employees, run payroll, manage holidays, and automate IT tasks in one system. This includes shipping laptops to new joiners and setting up emails and accounts across your cloud applications. Zelt is a fully customizable app that can scale with your team.

With Zelt, you can consolidate your global team data into a single hub, streamlining the process and reducing errors and manual data entry. Onboarding international employees can be automated with just a few clicks. The integration is easy to use, and your Remote data can be seamlessly incorporated into your existing automated Zelt onboarding workflows.

Regardless of where a new hire is located, Zelt can handle the collection and onboarding of their information, with all records automatically synced with Remote. The integration is free for Zelt and Remote customers.

Bulk onboard EOR employees

Whether you’re transitioning from another EOR product to Remote or onboarding multiple team members at once, doing so is now easier than ever before.

You can now invite multiple employees from the same country to onboard with Remote using a simple CSV upload. When inviting a new employee, employers can choose to add multiple employees at the same time. To do this, simply download the provided CSV template, fill it out with employee information, and upload the CSV. We’ll check that all the provided information is valid and help you identify any errors before inviting the employees.

Credit note enhancements

We’ve made it easier for you to view, understand, and receive credit for invoice discrepancies or overpayments.

We’ll now issue reconciliation credits to help account for the difference between your pre-funding invoice and the actual costs incurred.

You’ll see these credit notes broken down in the Services Invoices tab, including partial credit notes, helping to reduce friction and create a clear, positive billing experience.

Download a summary of all contractor invoices

You can now download a CSV summary of all past contractor invoices (via the “Settled invoices” tab) to help your finance team reconcile payments or track work. You can filter by status or issue date, pull contractor hourly rates, custom fields, and more!

Set a contractor’s hourly rate when inviting contractors in bulk

You can now set your contractors’ hourly rates when adding them in bulk via a CSV upload.

Our Bulk CSV Template has been updated with the additional column for rates to save you time and effort when adding multiple contractors to Remote and when creating invoices in bulk. Find out more here.

In future improvements, we’ll help you automatically create invoices with a combination of tracked time, hourly rates, and single click approvals. 

Keep on top of contractor and fixed-term EOR end dates with automated reminders

It’s easy to forget when a contractor or employee hired via Remote’s EOR entities agreement is coming to an end, leaving you at risk of overrunning and not being prepared. Here are two quick updates to help you keep on top of contract end dates:

• For contractors: You can now set end dates for contractors during onboarding or under the “Job” tab in the contractor profile. We will remind you 15 and/or 30 days prior to expiration so you can follow up to either extend or end the contract agreement.

• For EOR employees: We’ll send notifications 60 and 45 days before a fixed-term contract expires, providing more time for you to consider extending, renewing, or terminating the contract. Find out more here.

Onboarding health checks for Japan

As the legal employer of your teammates hired through Remote’s EOR entities, we’re required to ensure employees are fit to perform their duties by requiring every new employee undergoes a health check.

Working with local partners in each country, we’re automating these health check requirements to provide a speedy and efficient process for your team.

As part of this, we’re now automating onboarding health checks for employees located in Japan. During their onboarding process, they’ll receive an email with details on how to schedule an appointment and add the required documentation to Remote.

Export granular time tracking data

Hot on the heels of our new time tracking feature, you can now export all timesheet data. Just select your timeframe, then export as a CSV with start time, end time, type of hours worked, and any notes. You can then import this into spreadsheets or other systems, and even use it for project tracking.

What’s coming up next?

Contractor agreement signatories

We are making it easy for a Remote user onboarding a contractor to choose a legal representative on the account to sign the contractor agreement to help ensure compliance. 

Time tracking for contractors

Contractors will be able to track, save, and export time for use in their invoices. In a future update, we will also allow an invoice to be automatically generated from this time log.

Benefit directory guide access

Want to know what benefits Remote offers across all our top markets? Our comprehensive, easy-to-navigate Benefits Directory will soon be available in-product for easier access.

30 day trial for contractor management

We've been working hard to improve our contractor management product - and now, you can experience it for free for your first 30 days.

Onboard a contractor, sign locally-compliant contracts, and manage invoicing and payments - all inside Remote. Your free trial starts when you add your first contractor.

Have feedback or questions? Let us know on social media or reach out directly to our team!