Getting Started

Overview

Generally integration between systems can be quite a complex task due to the different data structures and related lookups employed by the various systems. HR Manage boasts a powerful importer that can import data from almost any source (and if it can’t, we can create it). The starting point for all importing is an Import Template. The Import Template defines the specifications for the data that will be imported, where it will come from, in what format, what rules must be enforced, etc.
The behind-the-scenes import process consist of the following steps:

• Data collection - HR Manage goes to retrieve the data at the source system. This can be SQL Server, csv, FTP, Web API, etc.
• Uploading to Staging Area - HR Manage converts all the data collected from the previous step into a generic structure that is then imported into a Staging Table. As an alternative, it is possible for an external system to directly insert data into our staging table from where it can just be processed by HR Manage
• Processing - The data in the staging area is processed, descriptions are matched to lookup values in our system, data is checked for errors, etc.
• Importing - The processed data in the staging table is then directly imported into the HR Manage tables. The user can see the results of the import by viewing a user-friendly view of the staging table using the Results Explorer.

Supported Data Sources

HR Manage can import from various data sources. It can communicate directly with 3rd party systems that allow for direct integration through Web API, otherwise it can retrieve data directly from their data structures if allowed or from data exported from the 3rd party system. Here are the data sources we support:

• Web API - i.e. Sage People 300, PaySpace, SimplePay, custom developed systems, etc.
• SQL Server
• CSV / Delimited Text file
• Excel Workbook
• XML Document
• Json
• SQL Script containing INSERT statements
• HR Manage Workflow - Imports an employee from data collected in a workflow

The Importer also supports complex tasks like:

1. Download Zip file from FTPS site
2. Extract encrypted Zip file to a temporary location
3. Import data from the extracted Csv / Xlsx / json file into the staging area
4. Clean-up temporary files.

This is useful for instances where clients have a on-premise hosted payroll but wish to host HR Manage in the cloud. In that instance, we’ll provide an utility that will fetch the data from the payroll, encrypt it and upload it at specific intervals.

Who is this for

While Importing is relatively easy, the configuration of it should be done either by us or someone in IT that understand how to connect to the various data sources. Once the Import Template is configured, the import will run manually or automatically at specific intervals (based on client’s preference) and an HR Administrator can just monitor the Import Results Explorer to see if there were issues with any employees.