Overview
This article covers how to create and run a Leave Balance Import file through the Integration Central tool within Humanforce.
- Creating a Leave Balance Import
- Mapping the file fields for import
- Running/scheduling the import
- Further assistance
For more general information on Integration Central and the guide on enabling this tool, you can refer to the below Help articles:
Creating a Leave Balance Import
Leave Balance Imports can be performed on a one-off basis by uploading a file from your computer, or on an ongoing basis by targeting files uploaded to your Humanforce sFTP folder.
If you wish to enable the sFTP file import process, please log a ticket on Humanforce Help so that our Support Team can enable this functionality for you.
Using the File Import tool, you can import figures from a .csv file to update an employee's balance figures. You can import the employee's actual balance and let Humanforce handle how much leave to add/subtract, or you can import specific amounts as an accrual or deduction against an employee's existing balance.
The tool also provides a downloadable template when creating a new import which you can use to create a leave balance import file from scratch to meet your needs.
Within Integration Central, click the New button and select the File Import integration type.
Enter a Name for the integration, then select Employee Leave Balance as the Data type.
If you require a template file as a reference for structuring your own import file, you can click the Download template button to generate an example.
If you are performing a one-off import, you can drag-and-drop your desired file into the File section, or alternatively you can click Browse and use the file explorer to navigate and choose your desired file. Click Next once you have selected your file to proceed to the field mapping stage.
If you are setting up an ongoing import with files in your sFTP folder, click the Humanforce sFTP Import option, then select your desired file from the dropdown menu. Click Next once the file is selected to proceed to the field mapping stage.
Mapping the file fields for import
Integration Central will detect the header columns in your provided .csv file, and will then attempt to automatically map each column to the required field within Humanforce.
If any columns do not automatically map, you can manually specify the target field which they should utilise within Humanforce.
You can also provide Default Values for the fields to decide the import behaviour if a row is missing data.
NOTE: If you are performing a one-off file import, please be aware that clicking the
Next button in this step will instantly execute your file import.
Ideally, your leave balance import file should contain the below fields - if you utilised the downloadable template, these will all be included by default:
-
Employee Code OR Payroll Code
- This is how the tool will match employee profiles in Humanforce with the rows of balance information in your import file. You can either choose to match on Employee Code or Payroll Code.
- If you match on Payroll Code, you can further utilise the Pay Company filter to restrict matching to employees assigned to a specific pay company in Humanforce.
-
Shift Type
- This will define the targeted Shift Type that you wish to alter for the employee within each row of the import file.
- The Target Field for this should be ShiftType.
- You can choose to match against a Shift Type's Name, Export Code or GuidKey by selecting the desired Lookup Type.
-
Balance Hours
- This will define the number of hours that you want to import/accrue/deduct against the employee & shift type.
- The Target Field for this should be Hours.
-
Transaction Type
- This will define your balance import behaviour - you can provide 3 different values based on what you wish to achieve:
- Balance will import your provided figure in the Hours column as the employee's new total balance, and Humanforce will calculate how much leave to add or subtract to reach that new balance.
- Accrual will add your provided figure in the Hours column to the employee's existing leave balance.
- Deduction will deduct your provided figure in the Hours column from the employee's existing leave balance.
- The Target Field for this should be Type.
- We recommend providing a Default Value for this field to determine what happens if no value is provided in the Type field for an import file row.
- This will define your balance import behaviour - you can provide 3 different values based on what you wish to achieve:
Running/scheduling the import
If you are performing a one-off import, clicking the Next button after finishing the field mapping step will instantly execute the import process and show you the results of your import.
If you are setting up an ongoing import, clicking the Next button after finishing the field mapping step will take you to the scheduling step.
Within the scheduler, you can choose the below parameters to define your desired frequency:
-
Execution frequency
- Run once
- Run daily
- Run weekly
-
Start date
- Defines the date that your schedule will start executing
-
Start time
- Defines the time of day that your schedule will be executed
Once your schedule parameters have been defined, click the Schedule button to engage this automated import.
You can additionally choose to Skip defining a schedule if you wish to run this on-demand from the Integration Central main menu when required.
If the file is on a schedule, you can still run it on-demand from the main menu provided that your file is available in your Humanforce sFTP folder.
Clicking the menu icon against each import will also allow you options to edit/delete the task, as well as checking the logs from the last execution & viewing the history of multiple previous executions:
Further assistance
If you experience any issues while creating, scheduling, or executing a File Import through Integration Central, please log a ticket on Humanforce Help so that a member of our Support Team can assist you with the problem.