Sage X3 and ADP integration

What moves between them

The main flow runs from ADP into Sage X3. After each payroll run, ml-connector reads ADP's general ledger documents and posts the labor cost journals into Sage X3's general ledger, mapped to matching GL accounts and cost centers. Worker records flow the same direction so Sage X3 headcount reflects ADP hires, terminations, and rehires. Cost centers and departments are aligned in both directions so payroll allocations land on valid Sage X3 dimensions. GL postings are read-only in ADP, so ml-connector never writes financial entries back to payroll.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector stores both credential sets encrypted and presents the ADP client certificate at the TLS layer on every request, refreshing the ADP OAuth 2.0 bearer token when a call returns 401. On the Sage X3 side, it accepts the full customer-specific server URL, port, and X3 folder name, and validates entity paths against that instance. Because Sage X3 cloud and on-premise are pull-only with no webhook support, ml-connector polls on a schedule tied to your payroll calendar, reading from ADP using updatedDate and modifiedDateTime fields to detect changes since the last poll. Cost centers and departments are mapped first, so every payroll journal line references a GL account and cost center that already exists in Sage X3. ADP rate limits return HTTP 429 per gateway node, so ml-connector backs off and retries. It tracks the ADP certificate expiry so renewal does not cause an outage. Access tokens from Sage X3 expire in 5 minutes; ml-connector refreshes them before expiry. Every record carries a full audit trail and can be replayed if a downstream call fails.

A real-world example

A mid-sized discrete manufacturer runs Sage X3 on-premise for production, procurement, and finance, and uses ADP Workforce Now for payroll across three plants. Before the integration, the finance team exported payroll registers from ADP after each pay run and manually entered labor totals into Sage X3, then spent days during month-end close reconciling differences between HR headcount and the labor GL accounts. With Sage X3 and ADP connected, each payroll run's GL document flows into Sage X3 automatically, allocated to the cost center for each plant. Worker changes keep the two systems in agreement. Month-end close starts with labor accounts already reconciled, and the manual re-keying step is eliminated.

What you can do

• •Post ADP payroll GL documents into Sage X3's general ledger after each pay run, allocated to the correct cost centers.
• •Keep Sage X3 headcount aligned with ADP hires, terminations, and rehires.
• •Map ADP cost centers and departments to Sage X3 GL dimensions so payroll lands on valid accounts.
• •Authenticate ADP with OAuth 2.0 and the required mutual TLS client certificate, and Sage X3 with its customer-specific OAuth 2.0 credentials.
• •Poll on a schedule tied to your payroll calendar, with retries on rate limits and a full audit trail on every record.

Questions

Which direction does data move between Sage X3 and ADP?

The main flow is ADP into Sage X3. Payroll GL documents and worker records move from ADP into Sage X3, while cost centers and departments are aligned in both directions. ADP general ledger documents are read-only, so ml-connector does not write financial entries back into payroll.

Does ADP's mutual TLS certificate requirement need special setup?

Yes. ADP requires a client certificate at the TLS layer on every request in addition to OAuth 2.0 credentials. ml-connector stores the certificate encrypted, presents it on each request, and tracks its expiry so a renewal is handled before it causes an outage.

How does ml-connector handle Sage X3's lack of webhooks and customer-specific URLs?

ml-connector accepts the full Sage X3 server URL, port, and X3 folder name for each customer, since Sage X3 publishes no shared base address. Because Sage X3 is pull-only with no webhook support, ml-connector polls on a schedule tied to your payroll calendar, using updatedDate and modifiedDateTime fields to detect changes since the last poll.