ADP Workforce Now to Workday Data Migration
Moving from ADP to Workday? Settle automates the mapping between ADP's payroll-centric data model and Workday's unified HCM architecture — preserving employee records, compensation history, benefits enrollment, and organizational structures.
Working with enterprise teams on active migration programs
Days
to production-ready mappings
Roughly half
the cost of consulting-led delivery
Every row
validated before go-live
Enterprise migrations routinely run months behind schedule. Yours doesn't have to.
This guide is for VPs of IT, data architects, and migration leads at companies moving data from ADP Workforce Now to Workday — whether you're scoping, planning, or mid-program.
ADP Workforce Now stores HR and payroll data in a proprietary model organized around employee records with payroll-first data structures — earnings codes, deduction codes, tax configurations, and pay groups. Workday uses a worker-centric model with business process-driven events, compensation plans, and benefit elections. Settle translates ADP's payroll-oriented architecture to Workday's unified HCM model automatically.
Based on the founding team's enterprise migration experience
Last updated July 2026
How Settle automates your ADP Workforce Now to Workday migration
Settle profiles ADP's employee and payroll data and maps it to Workday's worker model — translating ADP's payroll-centric structures (earnings codes, deduction codes, pay groups) to Workday's HR-centric structures (compensation plans, benefit elections, pay groups).
Earnings and deduction codes are mapped to Workday equivalents with calculation validation — ensuring the first Workday pay run produces accurate results.
YTD balance migration is generated with penny-level precision — earnings, taxes, and deduction accumulators are validated against ADP's payroll totals before cutover.
Benefits enrollment data is translated from ADP's plan codes to Workday's benefit plan structure with effective dates, coverage levels, and dependent enrollment preserved.
Get your ADP Workforce Now to Workday mapping analysis — see results in under an hour
Migration timeline: manual vs. Settle
Traditional approach
Timeline
6–12 months
Estimated cost
$600K–$1.5M
Team size
4–8 consultants
Typically requires
×Manual field mapping in spreadsheets
×Custom ABAP/SQL extraction scripts
×3–5 mock migration cycles
×Dedicated source system consultants
×Manual reconciliation testing
With Settle
Enterprise benchmarksTimeline
Days
Estimated cost
A fraction of consulting cost
Team size
1–2 internal resources
Included
✓Schema profiling & analysis
✓AI-generated field mappings
✓Transformation SQL
✓Validation & readiness reports
✓Production-ready load files
Common challenges migrating from ADP Workforce Now to Workday
Payroll-centric model to HR-centric model
ADP organizes around payroll concepts — earnings codes, deduction codes, pay frequencies, and tax filing status. Workday organizes around HR concepts — workers, positions, compensation plans, and benefit elections. The same underlying data (an employee's salary) is stored and referenced differently in each system. Settle bridges these structural paradigms.
Explore related migrations →Earnings and deduction code translation
ADP uses configurable earnings codes (regular pay, overtime, bonus, commission) and deduction codes (medical, dental, 401k, garnishment) that must map to Workday's compensation plans, earning codes, and deduction codes. The code-to-code mapping must preserve payroll calculation accuracy for the first Workday pay run.
Explore related migrations →Year-to-date balance migration
Mid-year migrations require transferring YTD earnings, tax withholdings, and deduction accumulators from ADP to Workday. Getting these balances wrong causes W-2 discrepancies at year-end. The YTD migration must be precise to the penny with reconciliation validation.
Explore related migrations →ADP data extraction limitations
ADP doesn't provide direct database access. Data must be extracted through ADP's reporting tools, custom reports, or ADP API (if available). Different ADP products (Workforce Now, Vantage, RUN) have different extraction capabilities. Settle works with whatever export format ADP provides — CSV, Excel, or API extracts.
Explore related migrations →Benefits enrollment and plan mapping
ADP's benefits module uses plan codes, coverage levels, and enrollment windows. Workday uses benefit plans, benefit groups, and coverage types with different structural patterns. Active enrollments must migrate with correct effective dates, and plan-to-plan mapping must be validated against Workday's benefit configuration.
Explore related migrations →ADP Workforce Now to Workday field mapping — what data moves
12 data objects typically migrated
| Source Object | → | Target Object |
|---|---|---|
| Employee Master | → | Worker |
| Job Data / Position | → | Position / Job Profile |
| Department | → | Supervisory Organization |
| Earnings Record | → | Compensation Plan |
| Deduction Record | → | Deduction Election |
| Benefits Enrollment | → | Benefit Election |
| Dependent | → | Dependent |
| Address / Contact | → | Worker Address / Contact |
| Tax Filing Status | → | Tax Election |
| PTO Balance | → | Time Off Balance |
| YTD Accumulators | → | YTD Balance Load |
| Emergency Contact | → | Emergency Contact |
Typical enterprise migrations include 500K–10M+ records across these objects. Settle handles profiling and mapping at enterprise scale.
The cost of manual ADP Workforce Now to Workday migration
ADP to Workday is one of the most common HCM platform upgrades for mid-market and upper mid-market companies. Organizations migrate when they outgrow ADP Workforce Now's HR capabilities — needing deeper talent management, workforce planning, advanced analytics, and employee experience features that Workday provides. This migration is common at the 500–5,000 employee range when companies need a unified HCM platform beyond ADP's payroll-first approach.
The technical challenge centers on translating ADP's payroll-centric data model to Workday's HR-first architecture. ADP organizes data around payroll processing — earnings codes, deduction codes, tax jurisdictions, and pay groups are the primary structures. Workday organizes around the worker record with business process events driving every change. Employee data, job history, compensation, and benefits all need structural translation. ADP's custom fields and reporting categories map differently to Workday's custom fields and calculated fields.
Companies typically manage this migration through HR consulting firms or Workday implementation partners over 6–12 months. The payroll data conversion — ensuring accurate earnings, deductions, tax configurations, and YTD balances — is the highest-risk element.
Consulting-led delivery for migrations in this class typically runs $600K–$1.5M. Settle prices it fixed and scoped — read the full cost breakdown. For HR and payroll paths specifically, see the UKG migration guide.
Frequently asked questions
Related migration paths
Exceptions surface before the first load, not after the third.
Built by the team that ran Fortune 500 migrations by hand. Currently onboarding enterprise design partners on active migration programs.
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