C
Setup Guide

Certificate Signing Process

3 steps About 3 minutes

You’ll create a Certificate Signing Request, submit it to ADP, and save the signed certificate for your connection.

1

Create Your Certificate Signing Request

Windows users

Download and install OpenSSL Light for Windows, then open Command Prompt.

Navigate to your OpenSSL installation:

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenSSL-Win32\bin

For 64-bit installations:

cd C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\bin

Generate your private key and Certificate Signing Request:

openssl genrsa -out companyname_auth.key 2048
openssl req -new -key companyname_auth.key -out companyname_auth.csr

Mac users

Open Terminal and use the same OpenSSL commands above.

When prompted, enter:

Organization NameUse the exact organization name registered with ADP.
Common NameEnter your company name followed by MutualSSL, with no special characters. Example: ABCCompanyMutualSSL
Country Name, State or Province Name, Locality Name, and Challenge PasswordLeave these fields blank.

Your CSR should not request S/MIME capabilities.

2

Submit Your Request to ADP

Open the ADP Certificate Signing Tool. No login is required.

Select Authentication and Transaction Signing as the certificate type, then provide:

  • Your technical contact’s name and email
  • Your company name
  • Your ADP Client ID
  • A group email address for certificate expiration notifications
  • The complete contents of your CSR, including BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST and END CERTIFICATE REQUEST
NEED YOUR ADP CLIENT ID?
For ADP Workforce Now, it is the characters to the right of the @ symbol in your ADP Workforce Now login name. If you are unsure, contact your ADP representative.
3

Save Your Signed Certificate

Once ADP provides the signed certificate, save it as:

companyname_auth.pem

Save it in the same location where you created your CSR.

Using Windows/IIS?

Convert the certificate to PKCS12 format using OpenSSL and create your export password when prompted. The resulting file will be:

companyname_auth.pfx

This is the certificate file used for Mutual SSL authentication in your Windows/IIS configuration.

Important

Keep your certificate files secure, including your:

  • .key
  • .pfx
  • .jks

Anyone with access to these files could access the web service.