Data Sources for eDiscovery Professionals
ADP
Company Snapshot
Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP) is the largest pure‑play payroll and human‑capital‑management (HCM) provider in the world. For fiscal 2024 (ended June 30, 2024), ADP reported $19.2 billion in revenue, up 7 % year‑over‑year, and guided to mid‑single‑digit growth for FY 2025.
Origin
ADP traces its roots to 1949, when 22‑year‑old accountant Henry Taub founded Automatic Payrolls, Inc. in Paterson, NJ, offering manual payroll processing to local businesses. By the early 1960s the company rebranded to Automatic Data Processing and moved payroll calculations onto IBM mainframes, pioneering outsourced, computer‑based payroll. ADP went public in 1961 and has since expanded into time‑and‑attendance, HR, benefits, and global payroll across 140+ countries.
The ADP Platform
ADP’s ecosystem comprises multiple SaaS solutions that share a common worker/payroll data core:
- ADP Workforce Now® – Mid‑market HR, payroll, and talent suite.
- ADP Vantage HCM® – Enterprise HCM with global payroll connectors.
- RUN Powered by ADP® – Small‑business payroll.
- Wisely® Pay & Wisely® Cash Card – Earned‑wage access and pay‑card rails.
- ADP DataCloud – Workforce analytics engine providing 50+ built‑in metrics and peer benchmarking.
Extracting ADP Data for Investigation
| Method | What you get | Typical Volume | Pro Tips |
| Payroll Register & GL Interface (CSV/PDF) | Gross‑to‑net details, taxes, deductions, GL mappings | High (per payroll cycle) | Always pull Employee ID, Pay Period End, Check Number; hash PDFs to preserve integrity. |
| Custom Reports (Workforce Now/Vantage) | Any reportable table exported to CSV/Excel | Low → Medium | Include Termination Reason & Effective Dates for wage‑and‑hour matters. |
| ADP DataCloud Data Connector | Scheduled S3 or Snowflake feed of normalized workforce tables | High | Enables join with CRM/ERP data; snapshots retained up to 7 years. |
| ADP REST APIs (/hr/v2, /payroll/v1) | Real‑time worker, payroll, and timecard JSON | Low → Medium | Use state=changedSince filter; token scope enforces least privilege. |
| SmartCompliance® Reports | Tax, garnishment, ACA compliance files | Low | Helpful for government inquiries; export as pipe‑delimited to avoid comma issues. |
Preservation Tip: ADP retains check‑level history indefinitely, but Time & Attendance punches may roll off after 24 months unless a premium archive is enabled—issue a litigation hold through Client Service Portal.
Common eDiscovery & Investigation Use Cases
- Wage‑and‑hour class actions (FLSA, state OT rules) – Compare scheduled vs. actual punches to identify off‑the‑clock work.
- Independent‑contractor misclassification – Cross‑reference payroll vs. vendor payments to surface “ghost” W‑2s.
- Pay‑equity & discrimination claims – Analyze compensation history, pay adjustments, and merit‑increase cycles.
- Payroll tax or garnishment disputes – Validate withholding calculations and remittance timelines.
- I‑9 & right‑to‑work audits – Extract onboarding docs, verification dates, and e‑Sign envelopes linked to employee profiles.
Related Technologies in the ADP Portfolio
- WorkMarket – Freelance & gig‑worker management
- Celergo – Global payroll aggregation & compliance
- Lifion / ADP Next Gen HCM – Cloud‑native microservices platform
- GlobalView Payroll – SAP‑hosted multinational payroll engine
- Wisely Pay – Pay‑card & earned‑wage access