HR to ERP
HiBob to Dynamics 365 integration: employees from Bob in Business Central, with department and approver
With an integration between HiBob and Microsoft Dynamics 365, every new employee in Bob automatically becomes an employee in Dynamics 365 Business Central, with job title, department as a dimension and the manager as approver for hours and expenses. Bob stays the source for HR data, so Business Central no longer creates its own employees and a departure in Bob also reaches Dynamics.
What the integration does
Organisations with HiBob for HR and Business Central for accounting often have expenses submitted through Business Central. Because the expense module can create employees itself for whoever submits an expense, colleagues then appear twice, with a different name than in Bob and without a department.
- HR records a new employee or a work change in Bob, with an effective date.
- Bob reports the change; KoppelHet fetches the work data and translates department and job title into readable values.
- On the effective date KoppelHet creates or updates the employee in Business Central, with the department as a dimension and the right posting group for expenses.
- The manager from Bob becomes time sheet approver.
- On departure the employee gets the end date and the status terminated.
What to watch for with HiBob and Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Department and job title come from Bob as the number of a list value, not as text. KoppelHet first translates that number through the lists in Bob into a name and then into the dimension code in Dynamics. KoppelHet caches the lists, because Bob limits the number of requests per minute.
- Departments in Bob can have sub-departments. Dimension values in Business Central form a flat list. Per customer we agree whether a team gets its own code or falls under the code of the parent department.
- Business Central's expense module can create employees itself for users who submit an expense. Microsoft warns this may affect HR data. With Bob as the source we turn that setting off, so every employee comes from Bob and no duplicate cards appear.
- Bob gives the manager as the employee ID or email of another employee. In Business Central the time sheet approver is a user. KoppelHet matches the two on email address; if the manager has no Business Central user, KoppelHet reports it to the administrator.
- In Bob HR can enter a transfer in advance; such a row only becomes active on the effective date. Business Central has no effective dates for an employee. KoppelHet therefore changes the department only on the day the row becomes active in Bob.
- To see rows entered in advance, the service user in Bob needs permission to read the full work history, not just the current row. Without it the integration only sees a transfer once it has taken effect.
- Expenses post through the employee's posting group. Bob does not know that group. KoppelHet derives it from the site in Bob, so an employee in one country posts to different accounts than a colleague in another if finance has set it up that way.
How we build and run it
- The integration runs on the KoppelHet platform, hosted in a data centre in the EU.
- Every sync and every error is visible in the functional log; on an error your administrator is notified.
- A change that cannot go through is not half-applied but queued for another attempt.
- KoppelHet is ISO 27001 certified. Data travels encrypted and stays on the platform no longer than needed.
- After go-live we manage the integration and adjust it when your process changes.
- The integration fits next to your existing integration layer. Only the fields in the design are transferred; the platform keeps no register of its own.
Implementation and price
This is not an app you switch on. We build the integration for your organisation on our platform, with building blocks we reuse on every project. So it is custom work that does not start from scratch.
A consultant prepares the intake and analyses both systems. We then record the mapping and exceptions field by field, test in the test or acceptance environment and go live at a moment you choose. Costs are a one-off amount for the setup and a monthly amount for platform, monitoring and support.
Frequently asked questions
Does salary data from Bob go to Business Central?
No. Business Central does not need salary for hours and expenses. The service user in Bob therefore gets no salary permissions either.
What happens to expenses of someone who leaves?
The employee remains with the status terminated, so finance can still pay out open expenses.
Technical details for IT
For those who want to know how it works under the hood: APIs, fields and sources used.
- HiBob through employee data webhooks (employeeId and changed fields only) and the work history per employee (effectiveDate, isCurrent, title, department, site, reportsTo). title and department contain list IDs; translation through the lists metadata API, with a per-minute limit. Reading the full history requires a separate permission.
- Business Central through API v2.0 per company - employees (POST, PATCH; status Active, Inactive or Terminated) and defaultDimensions with parentType Employee; dimensionValues GET only. The Create Employees for Expense Users setting on Expense Management Setup is off; Employee Posting Group on the employee.
Which fields are transferred
The key fields. The full mapping is agreed per customer.
| Field in HiBob | Field in Microsoft Dynamics 365 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
root.id of personeelsnummer | number | Chosen per customer; at most twenty characters |
root.firstName, root.surname | givenName, surname | |
work.title | jobTitle | List ID translated through the job title list |
root.email | email | |
work.department | defaultDimensions (afdeling) | List ID translated to the Dynamics code |
work.reportsTo | Time Sheet Approver User ID | Through the manager's email address |
work.startDate | employmentDate | |
Lifecycle (termination) | terminationDate en status Terminated | |
work.site | Employee Posting Group | Agreed per site, only if expenses post differently per country |
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