Two different people search for “ADP clock in and out.” One is an employee whose company uses ADP and who wants to know where the clock-in button is. The other runs a 10 to 50 person team, already pays ADP for payroll, and is deciding whether to buy ADP’s time and attendance module or use a separate time clock that exports into it. Both answers are on this page, the employee one first because it is shorter.
If you are an employee trying to clock in and out in ADP
Clocking in through ADP only works if your employer bought and turned on ADP’s time and attendance module. It is not part of payroll by default. If it is on, you punch from the ADP mobile app or the ADP portal your employer sent you a link to, using the same login as your pay stubs.
If there is no clock-in option in your ADP app, nothing is broken and no download will fix it: your employer has not enabled that module, and your hours are recorded somewhere else, on paper, in a spreadsheet, or in a separate time clock app. Ask your manager which system your hours go into, and put your punches there. If it turns out to be ClockOut, the ClockOut app page has the iPhone and Android downloads, and it also runs in any phone browser.
If you are the owner deciding how to track hours
ADP sells payroll and sells time and attendance as an add-on to it, and quotes both per company rather than publishing a price list. So the real comparison is not features on a page, it is the number ADP quotes you for the time module against the number below.
| What you pay ClockOut | |
|---|---|
| 5 people | $39 a month on Pro, ADP export included |
| 10 people | $69 a month ($39 plus 5 × $6) |
| 15 people | $99 a month ($39 plus 10 × $6) |
| 25 people | $159 a month ($39 plus 20 × $6) |
| Setup or contract | None. Monthly, cancel any time, 14-day free trial |
Pro is the plan that carries pay runs and the payroll export formats. Everything under it is the same product: GPS punches, geofences, kiosk clock-in with QR badges, schedules, time off, overtime alerts and approvals. When you ask ADP for a quote, ask specifically what the time module adds per month, whether it is per employee, and whether it changes your payroll contract term.
Exporting hours from ClockOut into ADP
- 01
Clear the exceptions and approve timesheets
The exception inbox lists missed clock-outs, late arrivals, short breaks and overtime for the period. Resolve or accept each one, then approve the timesheets. Five minutes here saves the “why is Marcus short four hours” conversation after payroll.
- 02
Create the pay run and lock it
Payroll offers your configured period (weekly, every two weeks, every four weeks or monthly), and you can set any custom date range instead. Locking freezes the hours. Edits after that need an unlock, which is recorded in the audit log with who did it.
- 03
Download the ADP file
On the locked run, choose ADP. The file downloads as
payroll_adp_2026-09-01_2026-09-14.csv, named for the period so last quarter’s files stay readable. - 04
Check the Employee ID column
ClockOut writes each person’s email address there, because that is the identifier it can be certain of. If ADP matches on its own file numbers, paste those in once and keep the file as your template. Open it in Google Sheets or Numbers rather than Excel, which likes to strip the leading zeros off ID numbers.
- 05
Import in ADP and check the preview
In ADP Workforce Now the path documented in our payroll export guide is Process, then Payroll, then Time and Attendance, then Import. In RUN, the import sits on the hours entry step of the payroll you are running. Either way ADP previews the rows before it commits: check the totals against the ClockOut pay run summary, and if they differ, the usual cause is an exception you left unresolved.
What is in the ADP file
One row per employee for the whole pay period, with a header row on top. Hours are decimal, so 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75. Text fields are quoted so a name with a comma or a nickname in quotes cannot shift the columns.
| What goes in it | |
|---|---|
| Employee ID | The employee's ClockOut email address. Replace with your ADP file number if ADP matches on that. |
| Employee Name | Full name as entered in ClockOut. |
| Regular Hours | Decimal hours below the overtime threshold, after unpaid breaks and any rounding rule you set. |
| Overtime Hours | Decimal overtime hours from your weekly threshold and any daily rule you turned on. |
| Rate | The employee's hourly rate in ClockOut, two decimals. |
| Department | The employee's department, or blank if unset. |
What the ADP file does not carry
- Double time. The ADP format has a regular and an overtime column only. If you run daily double time rules, take those hours from the ClockOut pay run CSV, which has a Double Time Hours column, and enter them in ADP.
- Paid time off and holidays. The file is worked hours. Approved leave sits in the ClockOut PTO tracker balances and is entered on the ADP side.
- Tips, premiums and adjustments. Break premiums and manual pay adjustments are in the ClockOut pay run CSV, not in the ADP file, because getting an ADP earnings code name wrong breaks the whole import.
Built for teams of 10 to 50
That size is the whole design brief. Big enough that paper timecards and group texts have stopped working, small enough that nobody has an HR department, an implementation consultant, or patience for a system that needs training. ClockOut assumes one owner or office manager runs payroll, that half the team never opens a laptop, and that setup has to fit in an afternoon.
What that looks like in practice: employees punch from their own phones or a tablet by the door, GPS and geofence rules stop off-site punches, overtime alerts fire before the hours are expensive rather than after, and the person running payroll opens one screen on Friday. More on the mechanics in time and attendance system.
ADP time tracking FAQ
How do I clock in and out in ADP?
Through the ADP mobile app or the ADP portal your employer gave you, but only if your employer bought and switched on ADP’s time and attendance module. It is an add-on, not a standard part of ADP payroll. If you see pay stubs but no clock-in button, that module is off and your hours are recorded in another system. Ask your manager which one.
Does ClockOut sync with ADP automatically?
No. ClockOut does not connect to ADP by API. It produces a CSV in ADP’s import format that you upload in ADP in about a minute, once per pay period, after you lock the hours. Nothing runs in the background and nothing can half-sync in the middle of a period.
Does ADP charge extra for time and attendance?
ADP prices time and attendance as an add-on to payroll and quotes it per company rather than publishing a price, so ask your ADP representative what the module adds per month, whether it is charged per employee, and whether it extends your contract. Compare that against ClockOut Pro, which is $39 a month for up to 5 people and $6 per extra person after that, so $99 a month at 15 people with the ADP export format included.
Does this work with RUN Powered by ADP and Workforce Now?
The export format is built for RUN Powered by ADP. Both RUN and Workforce Now accept hour imports from CSV, and the column set here is a small, plain one, so Workforce Now users generally map it at import without editing the file. If your ADP setup wants different column names, email hello@useclockout.com with the sample file ADP gives you.
Why does the Employee ID column have an email address in it?
Because the email is the identifier ClockOut is certain about. ClockOut never sees your ADP file numbers, and inventing one would be worse than leaving something you can replace. If ADP matches on file numbers, paste them into that column once and reuse the file as a template each period.
Related pages
- All payroll exports: every format, what it carries and which plan it needs.
- Gusto export and QuickBooks export: the other two formatted files.
- Time and attendance system: punches, approvals, overtime and reporting.
- Exporting payroll to ADP, Gusto and QuickBooks: the pre-export checklist and the four common failure modes.
- How to run weekly payroll in 30 minutes: the Friday routine end to end.
- ADP vs Gusto vs QuickBooks payroll: picking the payroll provider itself.
- Pricing: current plans and checkout.