HR to ERP
Workday to Dynamics 365 integration: workers and cost centres from Workday in the ERP
With an integration between Workday and Microsoft Dynamics 365, every worker from Workday appears automatically as an employee in Dynamics 365, in the right company and with cost centre and department as dimensions. A change with a future effective date only goes through on that date, and on the Workday termination date the employee is set to terminated in Dynamics, so hours and expenses stop.
What the integration does
Organisations that manage workers in Workday and keep their books in Dynamics 365 only let project staff book hours once the controller has created them in Dynamics. After a reorganisation the cost centres in Dynamics still follow the old structure, and hours of former colleagues still go to their previous manager.
- HR completes a hire, job change or termination in Workday.
- KoppelHet reads the change and uses the Workday company to decide which Dynamics company the worker belongs to.
- The employee is created or updated in Dynamics, with cost centre and department as dimensions. A code that Dynamics does not know yet goes to finance as a notice.
- For people who book hours, KoppelHet links the employee to a resource and sets the manager as time sheet approver.
- On the termination date from Workday the employee is set to terminated in Dynamics.
What to watch for with Workday and Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Workday distinguishes employees and contingent workers, each with its own kind of ID. In Dynamics 365 Finance they become workers of type employee or contractor. In Business Central contingent workers only become a resource for time sheets, not an employee.
- Workday records a change with an effective date, even months ahead. An employee in Business Central has no history and only shows the current state. KoppelHet therefore holds a transfer entered in advance and sets the new cost centre only on the effective date.
- In Workday a cost centre is an organisation attached to a position. In Dynamics it is a dimension value that can only be read through the Business Central standard API. Finance must therefore create a new Workday cost centre in Dynamics first; until then KoppelHet reports the employee as incomplete.
- Each Workday company belongs to one company in Dynamics. When someone moves to another company in Workday, KoppelHet terminates the employee in the old company and creates them in the new one, with the same employee number.
- Time sheets in Business Central belong to a resource, not an employee, and the approver is a Business Central user. KoppelHet looks up the manager from Workday as a user and sets them as approver on the employee's resource.
- Business Central does not allow the approver to change while time sheets are open or submitted. When a worker gets a new manager after a Workday reorganisation, KoppelHet retries after approval and reports it if it stays stuck.
- A worker with an additional job in Workday has one employee card in Business Central. KoppelHet takes the primary job; cost centre and department come from that position.
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 this work with Business Central and with Dynamics 365 Finance?
Yes. The process is the same. In Finance employees become a worker with an employment per company; in Business Central an employee per company.
Does the integration also create cost centres in Dynamics?
No. Finance manages cost centres in Dynamics. If Workday uses a code that Dynamics does not know, finance gets a notice and the employee goes through as soon as the code exists.
Does salary data go from Workday to Dynamics?
No. For hours, expenses and projects Dynamics only needs name, job, organisation and dates. Compensation stays in Workday.
Technical details for IT
For those who want to know how it works under the hood: APIs, fields and sources used.
- Workday is read with a RaaS report on change date (workers and contingent workers, with Company, Cost_Center, Supervisory_Organization, Manager, Hire_Date and Termination_Date), through an Integration System User with read-only access.
- Business Central through API v2.0 per company - employees (POST and PATCH; status Active, Inactive or Terminated, terminationDate), defaultDimensions with parentType Employee, and dimensionValues (GET only). The employee object has no field for department or manager. Time sheets through the resource with Use Time Sheet, Time Sheet Owner User ID and Time Sheet Approver User ID.
- Dynamics 365 Finance through the Worker and Employment per company data entities, with worker type employee or contractor, and Position worker assignments. Authentication with an app registration in Microsoft Entra ID.
Which fields are transferred
The key fields. The full mapping is agreed per customer.
| Field in Workday | Field in Microsoft Dynamics 365 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Employee_ID | number | Fixed key; Business Central stores the number in upper case |
Legal_Name / Preferred_Name | givenName, surname, displayName | |
Business_Title | jobTitle | |
Werk-e-mail | email | |
Hire_Date | employmentDate | |
Termination_Date | terminationDate en status Terminated | |
Company | Administratie (company) | Through a table per Workday company |
Cost_Center | defaultDimensions (kostenplaats) | Existing dimension values only |
Supervisory_Organization | defaultDimensions (afdeling) | |
Manager | Time Sheet Approver User ID op de resource | Looked up through the manager's email address |
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