ADP Workforce Now: sending custom fields to Finch
Last updated: September 8, 2026
Finch can pass along custom fields you have defined in ADP Workforce Now. They arrive on Finch's employment record as a name / value pair, so the application you have connected can read them alongside standard payroll data.
This is useful when you track something in ADP that payroll data alone does not capture: an internal ID, a program eligibility flag, or which legal entity an employee belongs to.
You do not need to ask Finch to enable anything. If a custom field exists in ADP and has a value, it comes through on the next sync.
What Finch reads
Finch reads custom fields from two places on the employee record:
- Personal Custom Fields
- Employment Custom Fields
Either one works, and Finch merges both. Use whichever fits how you already organize employee data.
Step 1: create the field
Your ADP practitioner creates the custom field once, for the company. The field name you choose in ADP is the name your connected application receives, so pick something stable and descriptive.
Step 2: choose the right field type
Use a Text Field. ADP offers several types, and they do not all behave the same way once the value leaves ADP:
| ADP field type | Comes through as |
|---|---|
| Text Field | Exactly what was typed (recommended) |
| Date Field | A date |
| Number Field | A number |
| Money Field | The amount |
| Percent Field | The percentage |
| Phone Number | The number |
| Yes/No Buttons | True or false |
| Drop List | The option's underlying code, not the label you see |
| Coded Menu | The option's underlying code, not the label you see |
| Multi-Select Menu | The first selection's code only |
The last three are the common surprise. If you build a drop-down whose options read "Northwest Division" and "Southeast Division", the connected application receives the short codes behind those options rather than the words. A Text Field avoids the problem entirely.
Step 3: fill it in per employee
The field has to be populated on each employee record. An empty field still appears, but with no value.
Start with one or two employees. Ask your Finch contact to confirm the values are arriving before you work through the whole directory. It is much cheaper to fix the field type now than after several hundred entries.
Step 4: wait for the next sync
Finch syncs ADP Workforce Now connections on a daily schedule, so values typically appear the next day. No re-authentication or reconnection is needed.
What the application receives
"custom_fields": [
{ "name": "Entity", "value": "Northwest Division" },
{ "name": "Internal ID", "value": "48812" }
]Frequently asked
Nothing is showing up. Is the connection broken?
Almost certainly not. If a company has defined no custom fields, this part of the record is simply empty. That is the normal state, not an error.
Can we rename a field later?
You can, but the name is what the connected application keys on, so tell them before you do. A rename looks like the old field disappearing and a new one appearing.
Does this work if we have multiple legal entities under one ADP company?
Yes, and it is a common reason to use it: create an "Entity" text field and record each employee's entity. Note this is manual data entry you own and must keep current as people move or join. If you want entity separation handled structurally instead, ask your Finch contact about multi-entity mode.
Does Finch validate the values?
No. Whatever is in ADP is what gets passed along, so standardizing spelling matters: "Northwest" and "NW Division" will be read as two different things.