In my opinion, Awful customer service — couldn’t transfer my money for over 1 month
They are my previous company’s 401K benefits provider
Overview
What is Guideline?
Guideline headquartered in San Mateo offers a cloud-based 401k management software for businesses priced on a per employee basis.
Recent Reviews
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
N/A
Unavailable
What is Guideline?
Guideline headquartered in San Mateo offers a cloud-based 401k management software for businesses priced on a per employee basis.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.guideline.com/pricing
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Alternatives Pricing
What is Human Interest?
Human Interest headquartered in San Francisco offers their cloud-based 401k administation platform for employers featuring flexible plan design and a dedicated account manager.
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Guideline?
Guideline offers aims to offer a simple, affordable way to save for retirement, by providing plans presented as low cost and highly automated. This helps companies to offer a valuable benefit, and it helps companies' people to invest in their financial future with confidence.
Guideline Features
401(k) Features
- Supported: Administration and Recordkeeping
- Supported: Payroll Integration
- Supported: Compliance Maintenance
- Supported: Plan Flexibility
- Supported: Filings and Disclosures
- Supported: Ease of Enrollment
Guideline Competitors
Guideline Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Guideline headquartered in San Mateo offers a cloud-based 401k management software for businesses priced on a per employee basis.
Reviewers rate Ease of Enrollment highest, with a score of 7.
The most common users of Guideline are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(24)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Guideline serves as a valuable retirement program solution for businesses looking to offer comprehensive benefits to their full-time employees. Users appreciate the range of low-cost index ETF funds available through Guideline for their 401K options, providing a diverse range of investment opportunities. The super easy-to-use interface has been specifically mentioned by users, making it simple and efficient for employees to enroll and manage their retirement savings. The real-time calculation of contribution limits is also highly valued, providing peace of mind when making changes to contributions. Guideline's seamless integration with Gusto payroll further enhances its convenience, streamlining the administrative process for employers. The continuous safe harbor analysis offered by Guideline is also appreciated by administrators, helping them meet compliance requirements effortlessly. With Guideline as the company-wide 401K platform, businesses can eliminate the manual aspects of maintaining and processing employee retirement contributions, freeing up time for the executive team. Additionally, Guideline's quarterly reports allow users to track the progress of their portfolio and fine-tune their long-term financial strategy. The responsive support team provides timely assistance through email and phone, ensuring a seamless experience for customers. Overall, Guideline's user-friendly features, cost-effectiveness, and comprehensive services make it an efficient tool for businesses of all sizes.
Low-cost investment options: Several users have mentioned that Guideline offers low-cost investment options, which has been a positive aspect for them. They appreciate the affordability of the platform and feel that it allows them to invest their money without incurring high fees or expenses.
Excellent customer support: Reviewers have consistently praised Guideline's customer support, noting their commitment to helping users. The prompt and helpful assistance provided by the support team has contributed to a positive experience for many customers.
Easy-to-use interface: Many users have found Guideline's software to be easy to use and navigate. They appreciate its intuitive design, visually appealing interface, and user-friendly features. The seamless integration with payroll vendors also adds convenience for users.
Terrible Customer Service and Lack of Investment Options: Users have expressed dissatisfaction with Guideline's customer service, noting a lack of investment options. Some users have stated that the customer service provided by Guideline has been subpar, while others have mentioned that there are limited investment options available.
Lack of Integration and Synchronization Frequency: Some users have found the integration and synchronization feature of Guideline to be lacking in terms of frequency. They feel that the synchronization only occurring once per day is not sufficient and suggest that it should be more frequent for real-time updates.
Limited Customization and Absence of Mobile App: The simplicity of Guideline has been criticized by some users who feel it lacks customization options, which may be problematic for businesses with more sophisticated plans. Additionally, the absence of a mobile app for tracking progress on devices like phones and iPads has been seen as a drawback by users who believe having this feature would enhance ease of use.
Based on user reviews, here are the most common recommendations for Guideline:
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Guideline is highly recommended for small nonprofits as a good solution for retirement benefits. Users have found it to be an efficient and cost-effective option.
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Businesses that use Gusto are advised to consider Guideline for their 401(k) plan administration. Users have found it to be a compatible and seamless integration with Gusto.
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Many users recommend Guideline for businesses seeking easy 401(k) plan administration. They appreciate its user-friendly interface and hassle-free management of retirement benefits.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-5 of 5)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
November 10, 2021
Guideline is a great choice for startups!
Our entire organization uses Guideline for our 401k program and benefits management.
- User interface is excellent
- Clear and effective communications
- Cost is reasonable
- I'd like to see more investment options
- Additional integrations to banks and wealth management platforms
- 401k management
- Compliance management
- Ease of use
- Guideline has helped us recruit hard to find talent in a very competitive labor market
November 10, 2021
Jordan's Guideline Review
We use Guideline for our company-wide 401k platform. I go on to my account every paycheck and I love the simple to read interface to see how my retirement savings are doing. It is also seamless to adjust risk and strategy at the click of a button. The quarterly reports are a great way to track progress of my portfolio and fine tune my long-term financial strategy.
- User interface is seamless and easy to read
- Quarterly reports are detailed but not difficult to understand in terms of performance
- Projection data is a valuable resource to analyze my financial planning
- I'd like an app so I can track progress from my phone and iPad with ease
- Two-factor authentication might be nice with all the private financial data the platform holds
- A contact number or option to speak with financial advisors might be useful down the road for my retirement planning
- User accessibility
- Automated deposits and performance tracking
- Detailed quarterly reports
- Simplified our retirement contribution system
- Taken the responsibility off our CEO with a trusted platform
- Allowed easy-to-use system for employees to control financial planning
The only other employer retirement planning system I've use is Voya. I felt much more in the dark about how my financial planning was working, and honestly didn't even know how much money I had deposited until I left for my new job. I also had no clue on what my risk level was and how that was impacting my retirement investment strategy. Guideline is by far superior.
November 10, 2021
Very complete and low costs 401K option for fast growing SMBs
Fantastic 401K option for SMB Guideline has been a great choice for our small but fast growing software company. Our employees are savvy and appreciate the range of low costs index/ETF funds as well as the super easy to use interface. Features like real-time calculation of contribution limits when assessing contribution changes and super simple allocation changes have been specifically mentioned by the team. As the administrator, I really appreciate the continuous safe harbor analysis, seamless integration with Gusto (payroll), low and predictable costs and support that answers emails and phone calls in a timely and complete manner.
- Low costs investment options
- Excellent customer support
- Easy to use integrations and user experience
- None to suggest
- Low costs investment options
- Very intuitive user portal with robust functionality and documentation on issues
- Allows us to attract top talent that want complete options for retirement saving
- Incredibly low administrative overhead
No
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
We wanted a complete solution to help attract sophisticated and experienced employees but needed a solution with low administrative overhead.
We did not at first, but they upgraded for additional features. The support was excellent at both levels of subscription.
No
Guideline walked us through all the ramifications of being top heavy in our plan and how to resolve the situation with the lowest costs to us.
Yes
March 17, 2021
Guideline - Time saver with a friendly interface
We use it to maintain and process all employee retirement contributions. it does a great job of taking the manual part out of this process!
- Integration with systems
- Great interface
- Portfolio options
- Integration [sync] could be more often - only once per day
- Bloated customer service line
- Simplicity lacks customization
- Frees up finance time due to integrations
- Welcomed and liked by employees
- Friendly customer service
Guideline has a great interface, but with a system like ADP you can have full integration that is more agile since it is all housed within one system!
January 18, 2020
Great 401(k) solution for startups and small businesses
We utilize Guideline as our 401(k) provider. We added this benefit in 2019 and made the decision primarily because Guideline gave us an easy and efficient vehicle to offer the benefit due to online admin, not having to deal with a broker and integration with Gusto, our payroll system. As a small business, It has been a very efficient and easy tool for our team to enroll and manage their 401(k)s.
- Integration with the payroll system.
- Handles all of the regulatory requirements for 401(k) like top heavy testing.
- For a small business with very minimal 401(k) needs, Guideline is sufficient for us. If you have a more sophisticated plan, you may run into some limitations.
- Expanding benefits to include 401(k) has been a helpful tool to compete in recruiting talent.
- There's very little administrative burden on our accounting staff
We didn't find any viable competitive option for Gusto that had the trifecta of low fees, Gusto integration and that handled all the plan management. There were plenty of other companies like Sharebuilder, Fidelity or Vanguard (to name a few) that do have low cost 401(k) options, but the integration and completely taking the administrative burden off of us clinched the deal.