You’ve made the pitch to HR, payroll and finance leaders who are ready to take the plunge to integrate payroll with your organization’s HCM system. It’s an important and strategic business decision for your organization as they have already invested heavily in HCM software and processes. You’ve helped them understand that payroll integration will add value to their HCM investments with a payroll solution that not only delivers accurate and timely payroll every time, but also saves your organization time and money by streamlining and simplifying the payroll process each step of the way.
You’re ready to go, but before starting an integration, it’s important to make sure you have your employee data in order. Having a solid foundation of accurate and complete employee data in your HCM system is the single biggest enabler in preparing for seamless integration with your payroll provider.
The first step is to confirm key data configuration and data requirements have been assessed and to conduct an in-depth data quality assessment that ensures any data gaps are highlighted.
The data that will migrate between your HCM and payroll systems falls into 3 categories.
- Core records – In best practice integrations, core records are managed through a single integration method regardless of the country being specifically implemented. This approach practiced by Immedis is known as Single Integration Multiple Country (SIMC). Historically, many global payroll providers would try to implement a unique integration for each country which rapidly becomes unsupportable across an increasing country footprint from both an operational and a legislative viewpoint.
- Non-core record – There are two types of non-core records:
- Country-specific information refers to flexible data requirements that are not universal. They are not necessarily unique to an individual country (but they can be) but certainly do not globally apply to all countries or people. Country identification numbers with specific formats and validations, for example, social security numbers, pension numbers, provident numbers, and tax IDs.
- Bank Details that are dependent on the country, the currency, and the payment method. The Immedis Platform includes as standard a Global Banking Framework (GBF), which holds the requirements and validation rules for each country, currency, and payment rail being currently operated.
- Payroll inputs – The payroll inputs record comprises recurring payments and deductions, non-recurring / variable / once-off / timesheet payments and deductions and leaves of absence.
Once you’ve established a clear understanding of the key data configuration and data requirements as well as the three main categories of data types, you’re ready to move forward with the integration.
So, what’s next? The following Q&A highlights what to expect.
How much heavy lifting is required during the integration process?
It’s a partnership between your organization and your payroll provider - the integration mechanism relies on the quality of the source data in the HCM. It’s a best practice and strongly recommended to carry out a complete data audit and perform data cleansing and data enrichment to close any gaps before the integration setup. It’s also important to make sure you have the right technical expertise available for the project from the very start to be able to carry out the necessary setup and configuration tasks that will be required to enable the joint integration.
Do organizations typically hire third parties to assist during the integration process?
Many payroll, HR and finance teams lack the bandwidth to take this on alongside their business as usual activities. HCM expertise in-house is highly recommended or via a recognized systems integration (SI) partner to support the integration onboarding. Depending on your HCM system, a systems integrator who has a specific systems integrator certification with the HCM provider may be required.
Does Immedis integrate with all HCMs/ERPs?
Immedis has API adapters built for the leading HCM Platforms in the market. Financial Management System (FMS) integration is standard for Immedis and is implemented by default for all our customers. This is typically done via a fully balanced General Ledger (GL) file, which is automatically generated upon the finalization of each payroll cycle. Immedis can apply our FMS integration to any FMS/ERP solution.
What is the architecture of the integration?
The Immedis target architecture for all integrations is to utilize XML or JSON data transfers over RESTful web services. These API responses conform to best practice design and security principles using the latest technology industry standards within the Immedis Integration and Payroll API layers. The process is built using highly resilient data structures, is fully secure, and eliminates data at rest within the infrastructure.
Certified Integrations
These are a few key questions and pointers about what to expect when integrating global payroll with HCM systems. It’s also important to ensure the integration is not “set it and forget it.” HCM and payroll technology is constantly evolving and changing. Your integration needs to do the same, therefore it’s important to get a clear understanding of the HCM systems your payroll provider partners and integrates with and how they maintain the integration over time. One way to do that is to work with payroll providers who have certified integration partnerships and agreements with the leading HCM systems.
For example, the Immedis team works with the HCM vendors to rigorously test and validate the integration technology components as follows:
- Agree on a set of supported business and use cases
- Document an agreed test plan with numerous specific test cases for each business process
- Conduct end to end testing with a test HCM system and a test version of the Immedis platform replicating real-world scenarios
- Perform a simulated payroll validation from these use cases and test plans
- Provide detailed evidence of the testing activities, logs, outcomes, and a complete documented pack for verification by the HCM vendor
- Sign off the certification based on the exit criteria.
This process is repeated periodically – when new HCM features become available, when Immedis releases new capabilities, or when Immedis want to certify new countries with the HCM vendors if appropriate.
Follow these key steps and you’ll be on your way to a successful integration that will benefit your organization across multiple business functions, including payroll, HR, and finance.
