HR to ERP
Workday to NetSuite integration: workers per company as employees on the subsidiary in NetSuite
With an integration between Workday and Oracle NetSuite, every worker from Workday becomes an employee in NetSuite, on the subsidiary that belongs to their company, with the cost centre as department and the manager as supervisor. Changes HR enters in Workday ahead of time only reach NetSuite on the effective date, and on a termination the employee becomes inactive instead of deleted.
What the integration does
Organisations that use Workday HCM for all workers and Oracle NetSuite for the books have finance create employees in NetSuite by hand from an export. Transfers between countries are therefore wrong for weeks, and expense reports go to managers who already have another role.
- HR completes the business process in Workday, such as a hire or a transfer to another company.
- KoppelHet reads the worker with company, cost centre, location and manager, and waits until the effective date if it lies in the future.
- Using a table from company to subsidiary and from cost centre to department, KoppelHet decides where the employee belongs in NetSuite.
- The employee is created or updated, with the manager as supervisor.
- On a termination the employee gets the release date and reason, loses access and becomes inactive.
What to watch for with Workday and Oracle NetSuite
- Workday records every change with an effective date, often weeks or months ahead. Without the Effective Dating feature in NetSuite an employee only shows the current state. KoppelHet keeps the transfer entered ahead of time and applies it on the effective date itself.
- A transfer to a company in another country is one business process in Workday. In NetSuite an employee's subsidiary can be changed on a child subsidiary, but not on the parent subsidiary. KoppelHet therefore changes it where possible, and otherwise creates a new employee and sets the old one to inactive.
- In Workday a cost centre is an organisation on the position; in NetSuite the department is a classification linked to subsidiaries. If a Dutch worker uses a cost centre finance has not linked to the Dutch subsidiary, KoppelHet puts it on a list instead of picking the wrong department.
- In Workday the manager position of a supervisory organisation can be vacant for a while. KoppelHet then takes the manager of the parent organisation as supervisor, so expenses in NetSuite do not get stuck with an empty approver.
- Workday distinguishes employees and contingent workers. A contractor only becomes an employee in NetSuite if they submit or approve expenses themselves, with their own number range, so they are not mixed up with permanent staff.
- If a former worker returns in Workday through a rehire, NetSuite already has an inactive employee. Only the Administrator role may reactivate it in NetSuite, and the integration does not get that role. The rehire therefore goes to the NetSuite administrator, instead of a duplicate employee being created.
- Workday has a primary reason on a termination. If finance has Termination Reason Tracking switched on in NetSuite, category and reason are mandatory. KoppelHet translates the Workday reasons with a table, so the employee is not left half terminated.
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
Do the supervisory organisations go to NetSuite too?
No. They follow the management line, while departments in NetSuite follow the books. Only the manager goes along, as supervisor.
What if finance retires a department in NetSuite?
An inactive department can no longer be selected in NetSuite. If workers are still on that cost centre, finance sees them on a list and picks a new department in the table.
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 with an Integration System User, and for details the Human Resources web service (Get_Workers) with Effective_Date. Fields include Company, Cost_Center, Business_Site, Hire_Date, Termination_Last_Day_of_Work and Rehire.
- NetSuite is written through SuiteTalk REST web services (employee record) with OAuth 2.0 and a dedicated integration role without Administrator rights. Subsidiaries and departments are only read; departures with Termination/Release Date, Inactive and clearing Give Access.
Which fields are transferred
The key fields. The full mapping is agreed per customer.
| Field in Workday | Field in Oracle NetSuite | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Employee_ID | External ID | Fixed key; contingent workers with their own number range |
Legal_Name / Preferred_Name | First Name, Last Name | |
Werk-e-mail | Email | |
Business_Title | Job Title | |
Company | Subsidiary | One Workday company belongs to one subsidiary |
Cost_Center | Department | Through a table finance maintains |
Business_Site (Location) | Location | |
Manager van de supervisory organization | Supervisor | |
Hire_Date | Hire Date | |
Termination_Date en Termination_Last_Day_of_Work | Termination/Release Date en Inactive | |
Primary termination reason | Termination category en reason | If finance uses Termination Reason Tracking |
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