Guideline accepts ACH transfers for both invoice payments and contribution collections. Alternatively, you can choose to use a credit card for invoice billing. We do not accept cash or check payments at this time. Therefore, we require companies to keep an active credit card or verified bank account on file for payments.
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You can add one credit card and up to four verified bank accounts for your company, each of which can be designated for a specific use. For example, one bank account could be used for 401(k) contributions and a different one could be used for monthly invoice payments to Guideline.
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You can learn how to add, edit or remove a bank account or credit card here.
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Billing will start the month following your plan’s start date and will be retroactive. For example, your February invoice will reflect the charges for the month of January, your March invoice will reflect the charges for your plan for the month of February, and so on.

On the first of every month, we will email you your invoice. Guideline will then pull the invoiced amount from your designated credit card or bank account around the 5th of that month.

If you choose to pay from a bank account, your payment will be processed via an ACH transaction within several days. Overall, the ACH billing process should take around 8-10 business days. If you choose to pay with a credit card, your payment will be processed on the due date automatically with your credit card provider.

Because Guideline uses different vendors to process payments, the codes displayed for our invoices and contribution collections may not specifically reference Guideline 401(k).

Instead, you may see a variation of WFMSTRIPE1 for invoice payments and SSBTrustOps for contribution withdrawals on your credit card or banking statements. Rest assured, these transactions are related to billing for your Guideline 401(k) plan.
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Each month, you will receive an invoice outlining the fees associated with your 401(k) plan. The following are costs you can expect, where applicable:

Guideline offers three pricing plans, with different costs and features. Here are the base fees for each of our pricing plan options:

You can learn more about our various 401(k) pricing plans and features here.
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In addition to the monthly base fee, Guideline also charges plan sponsors a recurring monthly fee¹ for each active participant:

Total fees are calculated based on the number of active participants during the month in which the participant fee is being charged.
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For purposes of calculating monthly participant fees, the following employees will not be considered “active participants” subject to billing:

If you choose to cover annual account fees for your participants, these costs will be outlined on your invoices. Annual account fees are calculated and deducted on a monthly basis based on your total active participants’ balance on the last day of the calendar month.

To determine the account fee for a given month, divide the annual account fee (as a decimal) by 12 (the number of months in a year) to determine the account fee per month. Then, multiply the total month-end balance for all participants by the monthly account fee.

For example, if the annual account fee is 0.15% (0.0015), and your participants have a total balance of $100,000 on the last day of the month, then the account fee for the month would be $12.50.²

At Guideline, we’ve done away with separate transaction fees. This means you won't pay 5500 filing preparation³ or plan termination fees,⁴ and your employees can avoid distribution, loan, and rollover fees.​

You can learn about our 401(k) fees for participants here.​

For more information on all fees, please refer to Guideline’s Form ADV 2A Brochure and Fee Disclosure, also available in Client Privacy Policy & Terms of Service within the Resource Library. Note that Guideline may charge for extraordinary service fees in certain circumstances.

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​¹ Pricing tiers and participant fees reflect packages announced October 2, 2023. Existing Guideline plans may have access to legacy pricing.

² This information is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent the actual costs you may incur as a Guideline client. Information shown here assumes a static balance of $100,000 per month, an annual account fee of 0.15% on assets under management (calculated and deducted on a monthly basis at 1/12 of the annual stated rate (0.15%)) based on the month-end account balance. This example does not account for common factors that affect the value of your participants’ account balances over time, such as gains, losses, distributions, additional contributions, etc.

​³ Third-party auditor fees will apply to large plans where a 5500 audit is required. These fees are not charged by Guideline.

⁴ Guideline does not charge additional fees to close the plan, but the plan sponsor is responsible for paying the monthly fees until the plan has been terminated in accordance with applicable law, or until the plan has been transferred in full to another service provider.