HRIS System Interfaces Explained
May 16, 2013 Leave a comment
During your assessments of or research about HRMS payroll software programs or HRIS payroll systems, you are going to hear interfaces being spoken of quite a bit. The aim of this article is to provide an accurate explanation of how interfaces are generally used.
If you are considering buying an HR software application, HR information system or HRMS payroll system with the goal of connecting it to an existing payroll program, the following will provide great assistance to you. Most HRMS payroll system programs provide some form of transfer capability for payroll data or HRIS data between systems.
First, it’s crucial to make the distinction between an interface and HRMS payroll integration. With an integrated system, you are going to have two items that share one payroll and HR software solution database or an automated real-time data transfer and update between systems. With Payroll and HR software programs, this isn’t common unless you are operating both systems for one company. If these aren’t your circumstances, you will be working with interfaces.
When working with interfaces, you’re going to need to either manually, or by utilizing some type of automation, move HRIS data from HR to Payroll or vice versa. In many instances, this is a relatively manual system to establish but isn’t difficult to maintain. If you want to move data from Payroll to HR, you’ll need to make a new file in the payroll system and transfer it into the HRM Software solution using some type of application. The main issue with this process is that, if you’re not using automation, you’ll need to regularly execute the data transfer, because, in this illustration, the data in Human Resources is only as current as the last data transfer from your payroll software. There isn’t any justification for not making use of interfaces as they are the standard for sharing data between two distinct products.
How Payroll Interfaces Operate within HRM Systems
If you are making use of a commonly known payroll application, most, if not every, HRIS Data system will offer some form of interfacing functionality between your payroll product and HRIS system. If this isn’t the case, your HRIS payroll system will provide a program for importing and exporting.
System interfaces are synonymous with “data mapping.” When you identify the particular system that is going to drive the data, a report comprising the information needed to be moved into your import process will be run from that system. After running the report, it is usually changed into a text or Excel file for import. At this point, you’ll need to ensure that each system is communicating in the same language, otherwise known as data mapping. If, in a particular system, the field for first name is known as “fnam” and in the system being mapped to it is “first name,” you simply order the “fnam” info in your product to fill the “first name” field. This occurs repeatedly for every field common in both systems. The positive aspect of this is that after your establish data mapping, the process will not have to be repeated; the next time you are required to perform a data transfer, it will only take a few minutes.
Authored By: Rebecca Whiteside. Rebecca contributes regularly on The HR Blog.
