How to Export Data from Paylocity (2026): Step-by-Step

Why Paylocity exports are different

Most HRIS export guides are about people data. Paylocity's export is about payroll, and payroll data has two properties that change the process: it is the file an audit reads, and the new payroll provider will not onboard you without it.

The sequence below is ordered around those two facts. Every step happens while the account is active, and the payroll history is verified before anything is closed.

Step 1: Name the two people before you start

• The exporter — your Paylocity administrator, with the report permissions to pull payroll, time, and HR data.
• The reviewer — your payroll provider's implementation contact or the new system's migration lead, who will verify completeness.

A one-person export of payroll data is how "did we get the 2024 W-2 summaries?" questions get asked six months later.

Step 2: Write the report list

Request these, in order, as named reports:

1. Payroll register and earnings detail — for every period the new provider needs, typically at least the trailing two years. This is the audit file.
2. Tax summaries — federal, state, and local, by period, matching the register.
3. Employee master data — identity, employment, compensation, tax elections, direct deposit.
4. Time and attendance history — the reconciliation file between what was worked and what was paid.
5. Benefits and deductions — if benefits administration moves with payroll.
6. HR documents — the files on employee records, verified as retrievable.

Get the list confirmed by the new provider before requesting, so the extracts match what their onboarding expects.

Step 3: Request the extracts in writing

For most accounts, payroll history comes as report extracts rather than a one-click download. Submit the requests in writing to your Paylocity support or implementation contact, with the report list attached, and keep the ticket numbers. Ask for the format the new provider expects (CSV is the common denominator).

Step 4: Verify before cutover

The reviewer checks each extract against the register:

• Do the periods match the request, with no gaps?
• Do totals reconcile: earnings, deductions, taxes, net pay?
• Does the employee count in the master data match the headcount on the register?
• Does time history reconcile to the periods that were paid?

Reconciliation errors are cheap to fix now and expensive after the old system is closed.

Step 5: Run the parallel payroll

Keep Paylocity processing normally while the new system does test runs, then one real parallel payroll cycle. The parallel cycle is where mapping mistakes surface, and it is the step groups most often skip under schedule pressure.

Step 6: Close, in writing

After the parallel cycle is clean and the new system has produced a full payroll:

• Confirm in writing with Paylocity what data is retained and for how long
• Archive the extracts in a neutral, access-controlled location
• Close the account only when the archive is confirmed

What the export does not give you

The payroll, time, and HR data come out complete, which is the point of the sequence above. What does not come out is the layer around it:

• No incident or write-up capture workflow — the documents exist because a manager created them; the system did not create them
• No event timestamps — an HR document carries its upload or processing date, not the date the incident happened
• No discipline sequence — the chain of steps is whatever the documents show, untracked

That is the same gap on every HRIS platform, and a migration is the cleanest moment to close it, because the new stack is being decided right now. A documentation layer that captures in the moment, structures the record, and keeps the timeline per employee sits next to whatever payroll and HR platform you move to. Docu-Coach™ is built for that layer, and it is the part of the migration that takes days, not weeks, because there is nothing to import — you start capturing, and the file builds itself.

Checklist

• Exporter (admin) and reviewer named
• Report list written and confirmed by the new provider
• Payroll register and earnings detail extracted, trailing periods
• Tax summaries matched to the register
• Employee master data exported
• Time and attendance history exported
• Benefits/deduction data exported if moving providers
• HR documents verified as retrieved
• Reconciliation completed by the reviewer
• One parallel payroll cycle completed
• Retention confirmed in writing from Paylocity
• Extracts archived in a neutral location
• Documentation layer decided on

Bottom line

Exporting from Paylocity is a reporting project, not a button press, and the payroll history is the file that matters most. Get the sequence right — request in writing, reconcile, run parallel, close in writing — and the data you keep is the data an audit can read. The layer the export cannot reconstruct is the documentation capture, and that decision belongs in the same migration conversation, not a later one.