Punchwell does the hard part first — it locks the clock to your office network, so the hours you’re about to pay are real, not buddy-punched. The connectors here handle the last mile: getting those hours out of WordPress and into the payroll provider you already run.
The flow is simple. The Payroll Sync engine totals each employee’s regular hours, weekly and daily overtime, double-time, and holiday pay for the period (dollar figures stay admin and manager only). A connector then shapes that data into the file your provider expects. No retyping, no spreadsheet gymnastics, no “wait, which column is overtime?”
And one boundary, stated plainly, because the boundary is the point: these connectors export payroll data. They do not move money. No payment processing, no direct deposit, no tax custody. You take the file Punchwell hands you and run it through your existing payroll provider — the one you already trust to pay people. That’s deliberate. Keeping money movement out keeps payment-processor and tax-custody risk off your plate.
Everything on this page is bundled in Punchwell Pro. No separate purchases, no à-la-carte modules, no per-user add-ons. One flat annual price, per site, unlimited employees. See pricing →
Works out of the box: Generic CSV export
Before any connector, the engine ships a built-in Generic CSV export. Every employee, their pay type and rate, regular and overtime hours, double-time, holiday pay, worker classification (1099 / FT / PT), and payment method — a clean spreadsheet you can hand to any payroll provider, bookkeeper, or accountant.
You get real control over the file, not a take-it-or-leave-it dump:
- Choose the delimiter — comma, semicolon, or tab.
- Toggle a BOM for Excel-friendly UTF-8.
- Pick the date format to match your provider’s importer.
- A built-in CSV-injection guard neutralizes any cell that could become a formula attack when the file is opened — so an employee name can’t smuggle a spreadsheet exploit onto your accountant’s machine.
If your provider isn’t SurePayroll or Gusto, the Generic CSV is your path. It’s the engine’s foundation, and it means basic payroll export works the moment Pro is active — no connector required.
SurePayroll connector
The SurePayroll connector shapes Punchwell’s payout data into a SurePayroll-ready file. SurePayroll’s import is keyed by employee ID and hours, so the connector emits each worker’s Employee ID alongside their Regular Hours and Overtime Hours for the period — no mapping line by line.
It works both directions:
- Export — generate a SurePayroll-shaped file straight from the Payroll Sync screen.
- Import — upload a SurePayroll employee CSV and Punchwell matches your Punchwell users by email, storing each person’s SurePayroll Employee ID for future exports. Missing employees can optionally be created. Before anything is written, you get a dry-run preview — see exactly what will change, then apply.
One honest note: SurePayroll account import templates can vary, so confirm the connector’s columns against your own SurePayroll template the first time. Once it lines up, every pay run after that is repeatable.
Gusto connector — built around Smart Import
The Gusto connector is built around Gusto’s Smart Import. Instead of forcing your file to match a rigid template, Smart Import lets Gusto auto-match the columns — so the connector emits a clean hours file (employee name and email plus regular and overtime hours) and Gusto handles the mapping on its side.
That makes it one of the lower-friction setups: export from Punchwell, upload to Gusto, let Smart Import line up the columns. The connector also supports roster import through the same shared parser the SurePayroll connector uses — match your people by email, preview, apply.
The deeper Gusto Embedded API (OAuth2, partner-approved) is the future direction for a fully automated push. Today, the connector covers the Smart Import CSV path that gets your hours into Gusto without retyping.
More connectors are on the roadmap
The connector pattern is built to grow. Each provider is a self-contained add-on that registers itself with the Payroll Sync engine — so adding a new one doesn’t touch the engine, the math, or the IP lock that makes the hours trustworthy in the first place.
Prioritized by where SMB owners actually run payroll: ADP and QuickBooks Payroll, with Paychex Flex, Square Payroll, and others behind them. When a new connector ships, it joins Pro the same way these did — no extra charge, no new module to buy.
Until then, the Generic CSV export gets your data to any provider that accepts a spreadsheet. You’re never blocked waiting on a connector.
How connectors actually work
No black boxes. Here’s the whole flow, start to finish.
- Your team punches in — from the office, or not at all. The office-IP clock-in lock refuses an off-site or buddy punch server-side, so the hours that reach payroll are the hours people actually worked. See how the IP lock works →
- The engine totals the period. Per employee: regular hours, weekly and daily overtime, double-time, holiday pay, worker classification, and payment method. Dollar figures stay admin/manager-only.
- A connector shapes the data for your provider. SurePayroll’s ID-and-hours format, Gusto’s Smart Import file, or a Generic CSV with your chosen delimiter and date format.
- You download the file and hand it off — to your payroll provider, the one that actually pays people.
The line that never moves: connectors export data, not money. Punchwell does the calculation and the file; your provider does the disbursement, direct deposit, and tax filing. That separation keeps payment-processor and tax-custody risk off your plate — and keeps your team’s pay data on your server until you decide to hand a file off. No cloud sits between Punchwell and your roster. Own your data →
FAQ
Do the connectors cost extra? No. SurePayroll, Gusto, and the Generic CSV export are all bundled in Punchwell Pro — one flat annual price ($99/year per site), per site, never per seat, unlimited employees. They are not à-la-carte modules and not per-user add-ons.
Does Punchwell actually pay my employees? No, and that’s deliberate. Punchwell does the calculation and the export — pay type, rate, frequency, weekly and daily overtime, double-time, and holiday pay — then hands you a payroll-ready file. It does not move money, run direct deposit, or file taxes. You take the file to your payroll provider. Keeping money movement out means no payment-processor or tax-custody risk for you. More on payroll export →
What if I don’t use SurePayroll or Gusto? Use the built-in Generic CSV export. It produces a clean spreadsheet — regular and overtime hours, double-time, holiday pay, worker classification, payment method — that any payroll provider, bookkeeper, or accountant can take. Set the delimiter, BOM, and date format to match your provider’s importer.
Can a connector import my existing employees, not just export hours? Yes. The SurePayroll and Gusto connectors can import a provider’s employee CSV, match your Punchwell users by email to set their payroll IDs, and optionally create any people who are missing — always with a dry-run preview before anything is written, so you see the exact changes first.
Are these connectors phoning home or sending my data to a third party? No. Punchwell has no data call-home — the original’s outbound network code was removed and verified, the free version makes no outbound calls at all, and the only outbound call Pro makes is validating your license key against our own billing server, never your data. A connector only produces a file (or, for the future Gusto API path, a connection you explicitly authorize). Your payroll data stays in your own WordPress database until you choose to export and hand off a file.
When will the ADP and QuickBooks connectors arrive? They’re on the roadmap and will be bundled into Pro the same way SurePayroll and Gusto are — at no extra cost. Until they ship, the Generic CSV export covers any provider that accepts a spreadsheet, so you’re never blocked.
Verified hours in. Clean payroll file out.
The connectors are the easy part. The hard part — making sure the hours you’re about to pay are real — is what Punchwell was built to do: a hard-enforced office-IP clock-in lock that blocks off-site and buddy punching server-side, plus GPS geofence, kiosk, and mobile punch when you want it softer or stricter.
All of it, including every connector on this page, is in Punchwell Pro. Per site, unlimited employees, your data on your server.
Get Punchwell Pro — $99/yr → Per site, not per seat. Renewal price locked if you never lapse.
Start free on WordPress.org → Free community base — employees, departments, leave, basic attendance, and a basic single-office IP lock. No card required.
See also: Payroll Export · Office-IP clock-in lock · Compare the plans · How it compares to WP ERP and Buddy Punch
Punchwell, by Sturdyhaus, is an independent, third-party maintained GPL fork of the “WP Human Resource Management” plugin. Sturdyhaus is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by wpspear, weDevs, or the original author. Product names are referenced descriptively only. SurePayroll, Gusto, ADP, and QuickBooks are trademarks of their respective owners, referenced here solely to identify supported integrations.