Import ADP payroll to QuickBooks Online: RUN and Workforce Now

Which route fits your ADP product?

Option	Good for	Watch for
RUN’s General Ledger connection	RUN accounts that show a General Ledger menu	Fees, manual checks and some tax adjustments still need entries by hand
Journal entry import from ADP’s GL totals	Workforce Now, or any ADP product with a GL report	Building the account map and checking each file before import
Typing one journal entry per pay date	A few employees and one or two accounts	Slow, and easy to mistype a line
An app from the QuickBooks App Store	Teams willing to test it against one closed month	Whether it posts to the accounts you chose or creates its own
Bring in an outside team (Fixes & connections)	Payrolls with many pay codes, departments or companies	Needs your ADP reports and access to QuickBooks

How do you send RUN payroll to QuickBooks Online?

These steps come from ADP’s QuickBooks Online guide for RUN, last revised in June 2019.

1. Add a clearing account, only if you write live checks or cash payrolls. In QuickBooks Online, add a Bank account with detail type Cash on Hand, name it ADP Clearing, and leave the balance blank.
2. Map your accounts. In RUN, go to General Ledger > General Ledger Setup, select Next, then Review next to Map Chart of Accounts for Company.
3. Set up classes if you use them. Go to Company > Departments and enter each department’s GL Class exactly as it appears in QuickBooks. ADP says it can only class gross wages, employer taxes and retirement match.
4. Send one payroll. Go to General Ledger > GL Transaction History, select one payroll date, then ACTIONS > Send data to your accounting software. ADP says to choose only one payroll at a time.
5. Read the status. Not Posted means nothing has gone yet, In Progress means it is sending, Posted shows the date it went, and Failed means call RUN General Ledger Support.

A new earning or deduction adds a task under To Do > Update GL Company Mapping: select Review next to Map Chart of Accounts for Company, pick the account, and select Save.

If the account isn’t in the dropdown, save a placeholder, add the account in QuickBooks Online, then select General Ledger > General Ledger Setup > Import Again in RUN and remap.

How do you import Workforce Now payroll as a journal entry?

1. Get the GL totals for one pay date. Export them from Workforce Now as a spreadsheet, totaled by GL account and department.

2. Build the map once. One row per ADP earning, deduction, tax and employer contribution, with its QuickBooks account and class. Write sub-accounts as Parent:Sub, since Intuit says a sub-account name alone causes a “Line Account Invalid” error.

3. Prepare QuickBooks Online. Intuit’s import page says to:

• add any new accounts to your chart of accounts first
• turn off account numbers, and turn them back on after the import
• turn on class and location tracking if your lines use them
• turn off Warn if duplicate journal number is used if you import entries with existing numbers

4. Build the file. Use Intuit’s columns: Journal No., Journal Date, Account Name, Journal/Description, Debits and Credits, plus Class if you track departments. Give every line for one pay date the same Journal No. and date.

5. Keep it under 1,000 rows. Intuit says “You can only import spreadsheets with less than 1,000 rows.” Summarize by account and department, not by employee.

6. Check it balances. Intuit’s page on creating journal entries says: “The total of the Debits column must equal the total of the Credits column.” The journal entry import checker also tests account names against your chart of accounts.

7. Import it. Select Settings, then Import Data, then Journal Entries. Select Browse, choose your file, select Open, then Next. Map the columns, select Next, fix any errors, then Start import and Done.

Example: one pay date, summarized by account and department.

Account Name	Description	Class	Debits	Credits
Payroll Expenses:Wages		Production	84,000
Payroll Expenses:Wages		Office	26,000
Payroll Expenses:Taxes			9,415
Payroll Expenses:401(k) Match			2,200
Checking	ADP net pay			76,585
Checking	ADP tax debit			34,330
Payroll Liabilities:401(k)				7,700
Payroll Liabilities:Health Insurance				3,000
Total			121,615	121,615

Split the bank credit the way ADP’s withdrawals reach your bank, so each line has one bank transaction to match. If labor also needs to reach jobs, see why payroll costs don’t show in QuickBooks Online projects.

What doesn’t come across, and how do you fix it?

ADP’s RUN guide lists these as entries you make or adjust by hand.

• ADP invoice fees and workers’ comp: credit the bank and debit the expense account, or add them from your bank feed.
• Manual checks: RUN treats a manual check like a payroll check, but ADP’s withdrawal excludes it, which causes duplicate checks and reconciliation problems.
• State unemployment (SUI) rate changes: ADP sends an advice of debit or credit, and you enter it by hand.
• FUTA credit reduction: enter it by hand or from your bank downloads.
• Missouri state income tax rebate: it isn’t in the import file, so adjust the entry to match the bank debit.

For a by-hand entry, select + Create, then Journal entry, and check that the debit and credit totals are equal before you save.

How do you check the import worked?

1. Find the entry. In QuickBooks Online, go to Reports, search for and run the Journal report.
2. Compare company totals. RUN’s Payroll Details report shows gross wages, employee and employer taxes, deductions and net pay under company totals. Each should match the entry.
3. Compare withdrawals. RUN’s Payroll Liability report shows the total ADP debited for each payroll. Each bank line in the entry should equal one of them.
4. Match, then post. Select All apps, Accounting, then Bank transactions. Pair each ADP withdrawal with the payroll entry, using Find other match if it isn’t suggested, then select Post. Categorizing instead “creates a brand-new record in QuickBooks,” which counts payroll twice.
5. Check ADP Clearing, if you added it. ADP says it should always have a zero balance.
6. Tie out the year before W-2s. The IRS says 2026 Forms W-2 go to employees and the Social Security Administration by February 1, 2027. Before then, check that gross wages and employer taxes in QuickBooks Online match ADP’s year-to-date totals.

If a past entry went in without departments, see how to add a class to past transactions in QuickBooks Online.

For card deposits, a clearing account works the same way: see matching Toast deposits to sales in QuickBooks Online.