Onboarding analytics export fails with CSV formatting error when custom fields included

HCM ADP Workforce Now
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1

Running into a blocking issue with our onboarding analytics exports in ADP 2023.1. When I try to export the analytics report to CSV format, the export fails with a formatting error specifically when custom fields are included in the dataset.

The error appears when we include our custom ‘Equipment Assignment Date’ and ‘Manager Approval Status’ fields. These are date and dropdown field types respectively. Without these fields, the CSV export works fine. I suspect the issue relates to how custom field data types are being serialized for the CSV format.

Our HRIS integration relies on these exports for downstream processing. The CSV export settings seem standard - UTF-8 encoding, comma delimiter, standard date format. Has anyone dealt with custom field formatting issues in onboarding analytics exports?

2

I’ve resolved this exact issue multiple times for clients. The problem stems from how ADP 2023.1 handles custom field data types in the analytics export pipeline, specifically the interaction between your custom fields and the CSV export settings.

For your custom date field ‘Equipment Assignment Date’, the null value handling is definitely part of the problem. Here’s the fix:


// Update custom field configuration:
Field: Equipment Assignment Date
Default Value: [Empty]
Export Format: ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD)
Null Handling: Export as empty string

For the ‘Manager Approval Status’ dropdown, even though your values don’t contain special characters, ADP exports the internal field ID along with the value in some configurations. Navigate to Custom Fields > Manager Approval Status > Export Settings and ensure ‘Export Display Value Only’ is enabled rather than ‘Export Value and ID’.

Now for the CSV export settings that will handle both fields correctly. Go to Analytics > Export Configuration and modify these specific settings:


encoding=UTF-8
delimiter=comma
quoteChar=double-quote
nullValueHandling=EMPTY_STRING
dateFormat=yyyy-MM-dd
customFieldSerialization=DISPLAY_VALUE

The critical setting is customFieldSerialization=DISPLAY_VALUE which ensures custom fields are exported in their human-readable format rather than internal codes. This prevents formatting conflicts.

For your HRIS integration, you also need to update the field mapping to handle the custom fields explicitly. In your integration configuration, add explicit type casting:

Equipment Assignment Date: Map as STRING type initially, then convert to DATE in your downstream processing. This prevents null date parsing errors during the CSV import phase.

Manager Approval Status: Map as ENUM type with explicit value validation against your four allowed values.

After making these changes, test the export with a small dataset first (10-20 records) that includes records with null Equipment Assignment Dates. This will confirm the null handling is working correctly before you run your full HRIS integration export.

One final note: if you’re on ADP 2023.1 specifically, there’s a known issue with custom date fields in analytics exports that was patched in 2023.1.2. Verify you’re on the latest patch level, as earlier builds had a bug where null custom dates would cause the entire export to fail rather than just leaving those fields empty.

3

Custom field data types can definitely cause CSV export problems. The issue is usually that ADP stores custom fields in a different format than standard fields. For date fields especially, check if your ‘Equipment Assignment Date’ field allows null values - empty dates often cause formatting errors during export.

4

Good point on the dropdown values. I checked and the Manager Approval Status options are: Pending, Approved, Rejected, Needs Review. No special characters there. The Equipment Assignment Date field does allow nulls though - could that be the issue?

5

For HRIS integration purposes, I’d recommend using the API export instead of CSV if possible. The REST API gives you much better control over custom field serialization and you can handle data types programmatically. That said, if you must use CSV, you’ll need to address both the null handling and the field mapping issues.