Field mapping: Humanforce WFM ↔ Payroll integration

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When Humanforce Workforce Management (WFM) is integrated with Humanforce Payroll (HFP), key employee and auxiliary data can sync automatically across systems, reduces manual entry, improves accuracy, and supports compliance.

This article provides a detailed reference for all supported fields in the integration, including how they map between WFM and Payroll, the direction of data flow, and any configuration notes to help you verify and maintain your setup.

Use this guide to:

• Understand what data flows between WFM and Payroll
• Confirm which fields are supported and how they map
• Check data ownership and direction for each field
• Identify any fields that must be manually maintained

Using the full Humanforce HCM Suite?
If your organisation uses Humanforce HR, WFM, and Payroll, refer to the Humanforce HCM Suite integration overview for the recommended setup and field mapping across the full suite. The suite-level integration includes specific configuration requirements and forward-only data flows to support data consistency across all systems.

Integration flows

The integration between Humanforce WFM and Payroll uses scheduled or on-demand synchronisation to keep data aligned between systems. This section outlines how data is transferred, when syncs occur, and what mechanisms control each flow.

The sync direction and frequency depend on how your integration is configured in Integration Central and whether WFM or Payroll is the source of truth for employee data

WFM → Payroll

Employee, timesheet, and cost-centre data are sent from WFM to Payroll via the Humanforce Payroll API when triggered by any of the following events:

• Employee creation or update: When an employee record is created in WFM or approved through Change Approvals, it’s automatically sent to Payroll (if live updates are enabled).
• Timesheet export: When authorised timesheets are processed in WFM and exported from the Payroll screen, data is pushed to Payroll via the /api/timesheet endpoint.
  • Award interpretation: WFM interprets timesheets before export, converting worked hours and leave into pay elements.
  • Cost centre mapping: Cost centre codes are compiled during export based on configured sources (Location, Role, or custom mappings).

Payroll → WFM

When Payroll is the employee data source of truth, updates flow back into WFM through scheduled or manual syncs. The following triggers apply:

• Employee import: Pulls new and updated employees, including terminations, from Payroll into WFM.
• Auxiliary data sync: Imports pay types, pay rates, and public holidays to keep WFM’s award setup aligned.
• Payslip import: Retrieves finalised payslips from Payroll and attaches them to corresponding employee profiles in WFM.
• Leave balance import: Syncs updated leave balances from Payroll after each payrun finalisation.

Icon reference table

Auxiliary data

Manually maintain auxiliary data for accuracy
Certain fields must be manually maintained in both Humanforce WFM and Payroll as they do not automatically sync. These include:

• Award profile
• Employment type
  • Simplify employment types in WFM to improve reporting and reduce administrative overhead.
    Example: Fulltime, FulltimeLL (with Leave Loading), PartTime, PartTimeLL, and CAS (Casual).
• Gender
• Title
• Visa type

Regular updates to these fields help maintain consistency and prevent errors in reporting, compliance, and payroll processing.

Employee details

Matching and data validation

To ensure accurate synchronisation, employee matching follows this order of priority:

1. Payroll Code (WFM) = Employee Number (Payroll)
2. If not matched, system checks Date of Birth, First Name, Last Name, and Payroll Company
3. If no match is found, WFM creates a new employee record

⚠️ If both systems are active sources of truth, duplicates can occur. Always define a single data master (recommended: WFM) before enabling bi-directional syncs.

Employment

The following tables outline how employment-related fields map between systems, including configuration dependencies.

Location, department, role

Managing LDRs and secondary roles

If an employee works across multiple LDRs, you’ll need to manage these additional structures in WFM.

⚠️ The integration does not support multi-contract setups (where a single employee holds multiple contracted jobs). If this applies to your business, speak to your Humanforce implementation team about alternative solutions.

Bank, Tax and Superannuation Information

Personal Information

Emergency Contact Information

Address

Payroll Export

The Payroll Export defines how timesheet and pay element data from Humanforce WFM maps to fields in Humanforce Payroll through the Timesheet Upload API. Once configured, this ensures award-interpreted timesheet data flows accurately from WFM into Payroll.

For more information on the payroll export see: Upload timesheets from Humanforce WFM to Humanforce Payroll.

Integration method

Data is transferred from WFM to Payroll via the Humanforce Payroll Timesheet Upload API.
Endpoint: /api/timesheet
Method: POST

This API accepts JSON or CSV-formatted payloads containing employee timesheet data, pay elements, and cost centre information.

Supported fields

Cost Centre Mapping

Cost Centre Mapping (CCM) defines how WFM exports worked hours and allowances to the correct cost centres in Humanforce Payroll. You can combine multiple cost centre sources (such as Location, Department, and Role) to build a single cost centre string that Payroll recognises.

Cost centre sources

You can select one or more sources in Integration Central. Each selected field contributes to the final cost centre string.

Available sources include:

Tips:

• You can select multiple sources to build a hierarchy (for example: Location / Department / Role).
• The order of sources defines how the cost centre string is created. Drag and drop to change the order.
• You can enter a Default Value for any source to use if no valid value exists.
• If no valid or default value can be found, no cost centre string is generated.

Separators

Separators define how each selected value is joined in the final cost centre string.
Choose the separator that matches your Payroll format:

If no separator is selected, Slash (/) is used by default.

Employee Leave Balances

Employee leave balances sync from Humanforce Payroll → WFM after each payroll finalisation.
This ensures employee entitlements remain accurate across both systems and that balances reflect the most current payroll data.

Conversion logic

Australia (Long Service Leave only)

• Applies when the integration country is set to Australia.
• Converts Long Service Leave between weeks and hours.
• Uses the employee’s LslAverageHoursPerWeek value from Payroll for the calculation.
• If this value is missing, the conversion is skipped and a warning appears in the integration log.

New Zealand (All leave types)

• Applies when the integration country is set to New Zealand.
• Converts leave balances between weeks and days.
• Uses the employee’s NzAverageDaysPerWeek value from Payroll.
• If this value is missing, the conversion is skipped and a warning appears in the integration log.

Configuration dependencies

• The Employee Leave Balances option must be enabled in the Payroll integration task for data to sync.
• The Shift Type Export Code in WFM must align with the Payroll Leave Type description.
• For AU customers, Import Long Service Leave as hours enables conversion from weeks to hours.
• For NZ customers, Convert leave from days to weeks applies during export to Payroll.
• Long Service Leave exports respect the Upload Long Service Leave as weeks setting if enabled.
• Balances are revalidated on each integration run; discrepancies trigger log warnings.

Payslips

Payslip data syncs from Humanforce Payroll → WFM after each payroll finalisation. This allows employees to access their payslips directly in WFM once payroll has been processed and approved.

Configuration dependencies

• The Employee Pay Slips option must be enabled in Integration Central for payslips to sync.
• The Payroll Code in WFM must match the Employee Number in Payroll.
• Payslip import occurs only after payroll has been finalised in Payroll.
• The Pay Period Dates between WFM and Payroll must align for import to succeed.
• If the selected date is later than the open pay period in Payroll, that import is skipped (no log entry created).
• Payslips already imported for a specific period are automatically excluded from future runs.

Additional information

• Related guides
  • Learn what the integration does – See the Overview: Humanforce WFM ↔ Payroll integration.
  • Set up the integration – See the Setup guide for step-by-step instructions on enabling and configuring the integration.
  • Troubleshoot issues – Visit the Known issues guide to review current limitations and workarounds.