Department and cost centre from your HR system get into the ERP correctly through a fixed mapping table, which converts every department and cost centre from HR into the code the ERP knows. On top of that you need agreements for what the table does not solve: an employee split over several cost centres, and a code that does not yet exist in the ERP.
This article is for finance and HR together. HR manages the departments, finance the cost centres, and the hours and expense claims of employees have to land in the right place.
Why it goes wrong between HR and ERP
HR and the ERP look at the same organisation differently. In HR, a department is often a tree with teams beneath it, and an employee can be split over several cost centres. In the ERP, a department is a dimension value in a flat list, with one default value per employee. Sometimes exactly one cost centre belongs to a department.
Without a mapping, one of two things happens. Hours and expense claims land on the wrong cost centre, and you only see that at the month-end close. Or an employee gets stuck, because their department does not exist in the ERP.
The mapping table as a fixed basis
The mapping table is a list with the departments and cost centres from HR on one side, and the codes in the ERP on the other. Finance can view that table. That way you can always trace why an employee is on a particular cost centre.
Two choices keep the table manageable:
- Only the department, no teams. Teams change more often than the accounts want to follow. By default, only the department goes to the ERP. A team as a second dimension can be added later as an extension.
- First to a name, then to a code. Some HR systems do not supply a name. HiBob gives department and job as the number of a list value. That number first has to become a name and only then the code in the ERP.
An employee over several cost centres
In HR, someone can be on one cost centre for 60 percent and on another for 40 percent. How that gets into the ERP depends on what the ERP knows.
- The ERP knows one default value. Then the cost centre with the largest share becomes the default. With an exact fifty-fifty split, finance should decide. An integration that chooses by itself then moves costs without anyone noticing.
- The ERP knows a cost allocation. Unit4 has its own cost allocation for employees. The percentages from Personio can go into it directly, so payroll costs and hours follow the same allocation.
- SAP S/4HANA. S/4HANA rejects the entire replication of a person if more than one default cost centre comes in for the same period. There, the choice has to be made in advance.
A cost centre that does not yet exist in the ERP
HR creates a new department, and finance does not know about it yet. What happens then differs per ERP.
Exact Online lets an integration create cost centres. There, the missing code can be created. In Exact Online, each department also has one cost centre attached. If an employee's department and cost centre in HR do not match that combination, that has to be reported before hours land in the wrong place.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and 4PS do not let an integration create cost centres through their regular API. The employee comes in without the new cost centre, and the missing code goes on a list for finance. A new cost centre starts with finance there.
Oracle NetSuite has an extra condition. A department can only be used with the subsidiaries it is linked to. If the cost centre is not under the right subsidiary, the employee comes in without a department and goes on a list for finance.
Personio and Business Central together both make cost centres read-only. There, a nightly list for finance helps, with codes that exist in one system but not in the other.
What does not go to the ERP
An integration from HR to the ERP only needs work data: department, cost centre and manager. Salary and BSN (Dutch citizen service number) stay in HR and payroll. That limits what is known about employees in the ERP to what finance actually uses.
If the cost centre goes the other way instead, from the ERP to the payroll administration, that is a different stream. It is described under cost centres from the ERP.
How KoppelHet builds this
KoppelHet draws up the mapping table with HR and finance, maintains it in the platform and reports new departments and cost centres before they become a problem. A split over cost centres goes along as far as the ERP allows, and with an equal split, finance decides. If the cost centre also has to go from the ERP to payroll, we build both streams on the same table.
We build that per organisation, with building blocks that keep coming back. Examples are Personio to Unit4, Personio to Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP SuccessFactors to Exact Online and Personio to Oracle NetSuite.
The whole topic is on departments and cost centres, and the overview on HR to ERP. Who approves these employees' hours in the ERP is under managers and approvers. More about the systems: Personio, Unit4 and Exact Online.