How to Switch from ADP: Contract, Data and Timing

What does your ADP agreement say about notice and renewal, and what do you need to export before you cancel?

Disclosure: Workzoom wrote this guide and sells an HR and payroll product that appears in it. Every ADP Canada fact below comes from ADP Canada's own site, with a link and the date we checked it (2026-10-07). Where ADP Canada does not publish something, we say so. We did not test ADP's products. Read our comparison methodology.

Most of the work in leaving a payroll provider is not the new software. It is the agreement you signed with the old one, the data you need to carry out, and the timing. This guide does those first, in that order. Get them right and the software choice becomes a decision you can make calmly.

How to Cancel ADP Payroll

We did not find ADP Canada's client agreement published on its own site (checked 2026-10-07), so cancelling starts with your own documents. In short:

1. Read your service agreement for the notice period, renewal term and any termination fees. We did not find them published on the vendor's own site (checked 2026-10-07).
2. Export your data and choose your replacement before you give notice.
3. Send written notice as the agreement requires, run a parallel payroll, then cut over.

Each step is explained in Leaving ADP, Step by Step below.

What to Know Before You Switch from ADP

These are the facts ADP Canada publishes on its own site that bear on a switch.

• Products. ADP Canada's site presents ADP Workforce Now as an all-in-one HR and payroll product, described as a bilingual solution covering HR, benefits, payroll and time, and lists ADP Workforce Now On the Go as a separate product available in English and French. Workforce Now and On the Go (verified 2026-10-07). Confirm which product and service level your agreement covers.
• Pricing. ADP Canada's Workforce Now payroll page offers a "Get Pricing" button and a "Get a quote" line, with a sales number of 866-622-8153, and lists no rates. Source (verified 2026-10-07).
• Contract terms. We did not find ADP Canada's client services agreement, with its notice, renewal or termination terms, published on adp.ca as of 2026-10-07. The terms are not published by the vendor, so your own signed documents are the only source.

Understanding Your ADP Contract Terms

Before you do anything else, pull out your ADP Master Services Agreement or order documents. Read the termination and renewal sections. Everything else flows from them.

Contract Length and Renewal

Find three things: the length of your current term, whether it renews automatically, and the number of days of written notice required before the renewal date. Because ADP Canada does not publish these terms, they differ by agreement, and the only reliable answer is in your documents or in ADP's written reply. Put your renewal date in your calendar 120 days out, so you have time to evaluate alternatives before a notice date arrives.

Early Termination

If you want out before your term ends, ask ADP in writing for two things: the amount payable for the remaining term, and the clause it comes from. Run the numbers against what a new provider would charge. Sometimes paying an exit amount is worth it, and sometimes riding out the term costs less. The decision belongs to your agreement and your cost comparison, not to a rule of thumb.

Negotiating Your Exit

• Contact ADP inside your notice window. Ask what the notice window is, and confirm the date it closes.
• Get everything in writing. Confirm termination terms, fees and any wind-down access by email or an amended agreement before you sign with a new provider. Verbal statements from a representative are not a record.
• Ask who can decide. If the person you are speaking with cannot confirm a term, ask who can.

Your ADP Data Export Checklist

Your records need to leave in a usable format. Do not cancel your ADP account until every item on this list is downloaded, verified and saved somewhere you control.

Critical Records to Download

• Employee master records: full name, address, date of birth, SIN, hire date, job title, department, reporting structure and employment status
• Year-to-date payroll totals: gross pay, net pay, all deduction categories, employer contributions, taxes withheld, and CPP and EI contributions
• Pay rates and salary history: current rate, effective dates for changes, pay frequency and overtime rules
• Benefits enrolment: plan selections, coverage levels, dependent information, premium splits and effective dates
• Tax forms and supporting records: T4s, T4As, RL-1s for Quebec and the supporting payroll records for the required retention period
• Direct deposit details: institution, transit and account numbers for every employee
• Time-off balances: vacation accrued and taken, sick time, personal days and carryover
• ROE history: Records of Employment previously filed through ADP
• Garnishments and special deductions: court-ordered deductions, union dues, RRSP contributions and custom deductions

The CRA states that required records are generally kept for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to (verified 2026-10-07), so do not limit your archive to the most recent years. Quebec employers can also read Revenu Québec's employer guidance on source deductions and employer contributions.

How to Export

ADP Canada does not publish an export procedure on its public product pages, so ask ADP in writing which reports and file formats are available for each item above, and whether a full data extract is offered and whether it carries a fee. Prefer CSV where possible, because CSV files can usually be imported by a new provider, while PDFs are images of data. Run each report twice and compare. Ask how long your access continues after termination, and get that in writing too.

Leaving ADP, Step by Step

Here is the process in order. Do not skip steps.

Start with the contract. Find your renewal date, notice window and termination terms. They set your timeline for everything else.

Run the real cost comparison. Get written quotes from two or three alternative providers. Include implementation fees, per-employee costs and any module add-ons, and compare total year-one cost, not only monthly rates.

Choose your replacement before you give notice. Confirm the new provider's implementation timeline, and know when they can have you live before you submit cancellation to ADP.

Export all data from ADP. Use the checklist above, verify the exports are complete and accurate, and do not rely on a single export.

Submit written cancellation. Send it by a method that confirms delivery. Include your company name, client ID, requested termination date and a reference to the clause you are relying on. Keep a copy.

Begin implementation with your new provider. Share the exported data, then configure pay rules, deduction codes, benefit plans and tax settings.

Test with a shadow payroll run. Before you cut over, process one full pay cycle on the new system while ADP is still live. Compare every line: gross, net, deductions, taxes and employer contributions. Fix any difference before ADP is out of the picture.

Cut over. Once parallel results match, stop processing through ADP and go live on the new system. Tell employees about the change, especially if their pay stubs will look different or come from a new portal.

Keep access for a wind-down period. You will need records for tax filing questions and any discrepancies that surface after the switch. Ask ADP in writing how long access continues after termination.

Timing Your Switch

January 1 is the cleanest time to switch. A new calendar year means fresh year-to-date balances, no mid-year tax calculations to reconcile and no partial-year T4 complications. If you can end your ADP agreement on December 31, that is the simplest path.

Mid-year switches work too, with more attention to detail. Your new provider needs to load all year-to-date balances: gross pay, CPP/QPP contributions, EI premiums, federal and provincial taxes withheld and any other deductions. Every figure has to be exact, because one incorrect balance means wrong tax calculations for the rest of the year and a T4 that does not reconcile with CRA remittance records.

Plan the switch around four stages: vendor selection, implementation and configuration, parallel testing and cutover, with a complete data export from ADP feeding all of them. How long it takes depends on size, scope, data readiness, and how quickly your team can meet and decide. A clean employee data export, a clear org structure and early workflow decisions keep it moving. Do not compress your evaluation phase to save time.

What Mid-Market Companies Need

Whatever you choose, ask each vendor to answer the same questions in writing.

Published pricing. A per-employee rate you can calculate, with every fee in one quote, including year-end processing, custom reports and basic integrations.

No long-term contract. Ask every vendor for its notice period, renewal term and the amounts due if you leave early.

One data model. Workzoom uses effective dating and a person-position model: every HR change records when it happened and why, and payroll pulls from that same record. Ask any vendor how a change in HR reaches payroll and what happens to a correction after approval.

Implementation scope. Ask what is included, what is quoted separately and who owns each step. Workzoom's published implementation process includes a named specialist, data migration, a sandbox and parallel payroll testing, and your team owns business rules and validation.

Support commitments. Ask for response times in writing and the name of the person who handles a pay-run issue.

ADP Canada and Workzoom: Published Facts Side by Side

The ADP column uses only what ADP Canada states on its own site. The Workzoom column is Workzoom's own published information. For Workzoom's sourced comparison pages, see the Workzoom vs ADP comparison.

When ADP May Still Fit

Staying may be the better call if you need payroll in many of the countries ADP's site lists as locations, since Workzoom's payroll is live in Canada, the United States, and the Bahamas only. It may also be the better call if you have built integrations you would need to rebuild, if your term is close to its end and an exit amount would exceed the cost of riding it out, or if your frustration was momentary rather than persistent. Switching is real work, and disruption is a cost. Workzoom may also not fit if your payroll is small enough that its monthly minimum outweighs its per-employee rate.

For a broader look at the payroll switching process, see our complete guide to switching payroll providers. And if you are already comparing Workzoom against specific competitors, our Workzoom vs ADP comparison page covers the product differences in more detail.