How to Export Your Crew's Hours to Payroll
Every pay period ends the same way: the week is over and now you have to get the hours into payroll. Here's the the steps that let you stop typing hours in by hand. Finish the week, open Reports, pick the export for your system, download the file, and import it. Overtime and breaks are already calculated, so the totals are already correct.
JULY 7, 2026 · BY THE CLOX TEAM
Every pay period ends the same way. The week is over, the hours are somewhere, and now you have to get them into whatever runs your payroll. If you have been collecting times from texts and paper and typing them in by hand, this is the guide that ends that. Clox tracks your team's hours all week and hands you a file your payroll system can read, so you export instead of typing them in again. This is the short version of how that works, no matter which system you use.
There's one set of steps, and it's short. Finish the week, open Reports, pick the export that matches your payroll system, download the file, and import it. QuickBooks Online users can skip the file entirely with a live sync. That's all of it. The rest of this post just names which file each system takes and points you to the full guide for yours.
01
The steps, once, start to finish
Here are the steps you run each pay period. Only two of them happen at your desk.
- Your crew clocks in and out on their phones all week. One tap. It works offline, so a dead zone on the job doesn't lose a punch. Each punch is saved on the device with its real timestamp and syncs when signal returns.
- You review and approve the hours on the web. Time accumulates by person and by project, so you can see who worked where before you sign off.
- You open Reports and pick the export for your payroll system from the menu.
- You download the file and import it into your payroll system, or, on QuickBooks Online, use the live sync and send it with no file at all.
That's it. The crew never touches a spreadsheet, and you never type an hour twice. The export menu only shows the systems you told Clox you use, so you're not hunting through a long list to find yours.
Overtime and breaks are already in the numbers
Before Clox writes the file, it runs your hours through the same overtime engine and break math the detailed timesheet uses. Regular and overtime are split, unpaid breaks and auto-lunch are subtracted, and rounding is applied. So the totals in the file match what you approved on the Reports page to the minute. You're not exporting raw clock time and hoping the paycheck is right.
02
Which file does my payroll system take
Each system wants its hours in a specific shape, and Clox writes exactly that. Pick your system to see the file it takes.
Payroll system to Clox export file
IIF is Desktop, CSV or sync is Online
The two QuickBooks paths are easy to mix up. QuickBooks Online takes a CSV import or an optional live sync over a secure authorized connection. QuickBooks Desktop has no live connection, so it takes a downloadable .IIF file you import through File, Utilities, Import. Pick the one that matches the QuickBooks you actually run.
There's also a universal Payroll summary CSV that always appears in the export menu. It carries each employee with their payroll ID, the pay period dates, and regular, overtime, double-time, and total hours. If your system isn't in the list above, this is the clean file you map into it, and it's a good backup for systems that have no file import at all.
03
Set your systems once
You tell Clox which payroll systems you use one time. After that, only those options show up in the export menu.
- On the web, go to Settings, then Integrations, then Payroll.
- Turn on the systems you use, and fill in the small setup each one asks for, such as your company code or worker IDs.
- If you use QuickBooks Online and want the live sync, authorize the secure connection to your account when prompted.
- Save. From now on those exports appear in the menu on the Reports page every pay period.
Run one real week before you decide
You can track a full pay period in Clox, approve it, and export it before you commit to anything. The trial is 14 days free with no credit card to start, and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee if you sign up and change your mind. That's enough to see your own hours land in your own payroll system.
04
Common questions
How does the overtime get split for each system
Clox calculates overtime once, on the web, using standard daily-8h and weekly-40h defaults you can configure per employee, with an optional California rule set that adds daily double-time. For most systems, such as Gusto, ADP, and Paychex, Clox writes the regular and overtime split directly into the file. QuickBooks is the exception. Its file carries total hours and QuickBooks applies its own overtime rules on import, so the split matches what you already set up there. The QuickBooks guide walks through that.
What if a job runs across two pay periods
Every punch is stamped with the date it was worked, so you export the date range that matches your pay period and the hours fall into whichever period they belong to. Nothing is lost at the boundary and nothing is double-counted. If you ever need to defend a specific record, Clox keeps a tamper-evident, hash-chained ledger of punches with a public verifier. See proof of presence and the verifier.
Do my workers need to install anything
The iPhone app is on the App Store. If you would rather skip installs, a worker can clock in from a phone browser at app.getclox.com. Either way the punch works offline and syncs later. You can see current pricing before you commit.
Where is the step-by-step with screenshots
The docs carry the full walkthrough for approving hours and sending them out, plus a broader guide to everything on the Reports page. Start with export payroll and reports and exports.
05
Deep dives for each payroll system
This is the overview. Each system has its own guide with the exact columns, the match key, and the one-time setup. Read the one for yours.
The fastest way to see this work is to run a week of your own hours through it. Start a free trial at signup. It's 14 days free, no credit card to begin, and a 30-day money-back guarantee if you sign up and change your mind. Track a week, approve it, and send it to your payroll system before you decide anything.