How to Export Time Tracking Hours to ADP, Gusto, and QuickBooks

Every Friday afternoon, a small-business owner somewhere is copying numbers from a spreadsheet into ADP. Nobody enjoys this. Modern time-tracking apps export hours in formats payroll providers actually accept — but only if you set up the export right and lock the period before you do it. Here’s how to export hours cleanly to ADP, Gusto, and QuickBooks, what the common failure modes are, and how to make your Friday take five minutes instead of fifty.

Before you export — the four-minute checklist

• Approve all timesheets. Unapproved timesheets are usually excluded from the export. ClockOut shows an approval count at the top of the payroll screen.
• Clear the exception inbox. Late arrivals, missed breaks, no-shows, OT — every flag has to be either resolved or accepted. Unresolved exceptions silently drop from the export.
• Verify employee mappings.Each ClockOut employee should be mapped to a payroll-system employee ID or email. Mismatches show up as “unmapped” rows.
• Lock the pay period. Locking freezes hours. Anyone making edits after the lock has to request unlock, which leaves an audit trail.

Exporting to ADP

ADP Workforce Now and ADP Run both accept hour imports from CSV files in a few specific formats. ClockOut produces an ADP-compatible CSV with one row per (employee, earnings code) pair.

1. 01

   In ClockOut

   Go to Payroll → Export. Pick your pay period. Choose ADP CSV. Confirm employee mappings.
2. 02

   Download the CSV

   Save it locally. Don’t open it in Excel — Excel sometimes mangles employee IDs by interpreting them as numbers and dropping leading zeros. Use Numbers, Google Sheets, or just upload directly.
3. 03

   Upload to ADP

   In ADP Workforce Now: Process → Payroll → Time and Attendance → Import. Pick the CSV. ADP shows a preview before commit.
4. 04

   Review the preview

   Check totals against the ClockOut payroll summary. If totals match within a dollar, commit. If not, the most common cause is an unresolved exception — go fix it and re-export.

Exporting to Gusto

Gusto accepts a CSV with employee email or ID, regular hours, overtime hours, and time off. ClockOut’s Gusto export matches this format directly.

1. 01

   Lock the period in ClockOut

   Payroll → Lock period.
2. 02

   Export Gusto CSV

   Payroll → Export → Gusto.
3. 03

   Import into Gusto

   In Gusto: Run Payroll → Import Hours → Upload File. Match the columns Gusto suggests; defaults usually work.
4. 04

   Run payroll

   Gusto previews gross pay. Verify totals against ClockOut, submit.

Exporting to QuickBooks Online Payroll

QuickBooks Online Payroll imports hours via a CSV that maps each employee’s hours to a payroll item (Regular, Overtime, PTO). The biggest gotcha is name matching — QuickBooks matches by exact employee name, including middle initial.

1. 01

   Sync employee names first

   Open QuickBooks → Employees, copy the exact display name (e.g., Maria L. Rodriguez), and update the matching name in ClockOut. Mismatches cause silent drops.
2. 02

   Lock and export

   Payroll → Lock period → Export QuickBooks CSV.
3. 03

   Import in QuickBooks

   QuickBooks → Payroll → Run Payroll → Import Hours from File.
4. 04

   Confirm payroll items

   QuickBooks shows the payroll items mapped to each row. Confirm Regular vs Overtime vs PTO mapping is correct, then submit.

Other payroll providers (generic CSV)

For Paychex, OnPay, Square Payroll, Wave, Patriot, and any provider that accepts manual hours, ClockOut produces a generic CSV with the standard columns: Employee, Email, Regular Hours, OT Hours, PTO Hours, Date Range. Almost every payroll system accepts this — usually under “Import Hours” or “Bulk Time Entry.”

The 4 common failure modes (and how to prevent them)

• Names don’t match. Spell employees identically across both systems. Maria != Maria L. == Maria Lopez Rodriguez.
• Unresolved exceptions silently drop. Always start at the inbox; clear it; then export.
• Excel destroys leading zeros.Don’t open ID-bearing CSVs in Excel before upload. Use Numbers or just upload directly.
• Time zones drift.If your team works across time zones, set each location’s zone explicitly and double-check that overnight shifts (10pm–6am) export under the right calendar day.

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