Payroll and HR
Does Dayforce store data in Canada?
Dayforce HCM; Powerpay by Dayforce (Canadian SMB payroll)
Not confirmed.
Whether Dayforce stores data in Canada was not confirmed on its own pages. It is owned by a US company, so the US CLOUD Act can require it to produce data it controls, wherever that data is stored.
Unconfirmed: Not yet confirmedThe ownership chain or the data location could not be confirmed from the vendor's own pages.
Checked 2026-10-13 against the vendor's own pages.
The facts, claim by claim
- Where data is stored
- Not stated on the pages read
- Where it is processed
- Not stated
- Support and backups
- Not stated on the pages read
- Owner
- Dayforce (co-headquartered Minneapolis, MN and Toronto, ON); acquired by Thoma Bravo (US private equity) in February 2026, with a minority stake from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority · Parent country: United States
- Servers run by
- Not stated · Owner not stated
- Customer-held keys
- Not recorded
- Certifications
- Not recorded (blank means not checked, not none)
- Worth knowing
- Formerly Ceridian, with deep Canadian roots; Powerpay serves 46,000+ Canadian customers.
- Caveats
- Delisted from NYSE and TSX after the acquisition.
What the rules say about this
- US CLOUD Act: The owner is a US company: storing data in Canada does not take it out of reach of US legal process.
- Nova Scotia public bodies: Storage and access must both be in Canada: check support access and backups, not only storage.
- Québec Law 25: Canada is not Québec: storage in Toronto still needs a privacy impact assessment for Québec data.
- OCAP®: Data held by any outside vendor is not in the Nation's possession, whoever owns the vendor.
Summaries only; each rule page links the law or regulator. Not legal advice.
Canadian alternatives to Dayforce
Other payroll and hr listings that are Canadian-owned, not US-owned, or self-hostable.
| Listing | Tier | Stored in Canada? | Owner | Servers run by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avanti | Tier 2: Canadian-owned, data in Canada | Yes | Canadian | Owner not stated |
| Nethris | Tier 2: Canadian-owned, data in Canada | Yes | Canadian | Owner not stated |
| Payworks | Tier 2: Canadian-owned, data in Canada | Yes | Canadian | Owner not stated |
| Employment Hero (formerly Humi) | Tier 3: Not US-owned, data in Canada | Yes | Australia | US company |
Sources
All checked 2026-10-13. Claims about storage and ownership rest on the vendor's own pages (or its parent's); supporting links can include regulators and program lists.
- Where the data is stored: https://www.dayforce.com/ca/who-we-are/information-security
- Who owns it: https://www.thomabravo.com/press-releases/thoma-bravo-completes-acquisition-of-dayforce
- Supporting page: https://investors.dayforce.com/news-and-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2025/Dayforce-Empowers-Canadian-Small-and-Mid-Sized-Businesses-with-Powerpay-by-Dayforce/default.aspx