SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

2080728 - Employee Central: What is HRIS Sync?

Symptom

What is HRIS Sync?

  • This KB article explains what the HRIS Sync is & how it works.
  • How does HRIS Sync work in different scenarios?
  • We have Employee Central and we use something called an HRIS Sync to ensure that data is synchronized between EC & SAP SuccessFactors HXM Platform.

Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental.

Environment

  • SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite
  • SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central

Resolution

Index

 

What is HRIS Sync?

Human Resource Information System (HRIS) Synchronization (or HRIS Sync for short) is the exchange of data between Employee Central (EC) and the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Platform, to allow consumption of EC data by other SuccessFactors modules. HRIS Sync is a background Scheduled Job that periodically looks for data that has been changed in EC and updates the legacy user tables with data from EC. The job itself is typically configured to run on a schedule. For updating data using UI, the synchronization process is triggered automatically by the time you save the changes to the current record (for your reference on the effective dating logic, please review "Effective Dating and HRIS Sync" section below).

Please note that the below diagram is in no way the "end to end" process flow of all data in the system. The below image is intended to assist in visualizing how data is synchronized from Employee Central to the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite and the data being consumed by other HXM Suite modules (outside of Employee Central).

SyncFlowExample.jpg

 

Data is synchronized from the current Employee Central data records to Employee Profile. The system will action this sync depending on when the data is set to become effective or based on the HRIS Sync job type that is being run.

Sync Type Comments
Daily HRIS Sync

This job is scheduled to run once daily to pick up any future effective dated changes that become effectively active on the day the job runs on. For example, the job will run daily, if the days date is 04/04/2017, then the job will sync changes for users who had future dated changes to their current Employee Central record, that become effective on 04/04/2017.
Full HRIS Sync

This is a “one off” run of the HRIS Sync job, that will ensure all "currently effective as of Today()" Employee Central data is sync’ed to the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Platform according to sync rules. This job is scheduled by SAP Cloud Product Support only if there are multiple cases of data not being in sync between Employee Central and SAP SuccessFactors HXM Platform. Please review the Knowledge Base Article “Employee Central - What is a Full HRIS Sync” for more information. For more information please refer to KBA 2080065 - What is a Full HRIS Sync? - Employee Central.

Post B2021 release User ID-Based HRIS Sync : KBA 3044382 - User Based HRIS Sync
Real-time sync integration by UI operation (on-the-fly)

If data changes are made to an employee’s current records, that become effective on the same day; For example -  if the days date is 05/05/2017 and the Effective Date of the change in EC is on 05/05/2017, or, if the change is past dated (for example if the days date is 05/05/2017 and the changes is Effective Dated on 01/05/2015 but the record is to be the "current record" for the employee (meaning the 01/05/2015 record is still the Effective Dated record that is current for todays date), the data will sync “on-the-fly” (real time) once the change is Saved (or Approved if a Workflow is involved).

Please note that Real-time sync will work on both active and inactive employees when making changes in UI; as real-time sync is seen as a manual corrective measure when updating inactive employees.

This method will only sync the data from the Element you are updating, and not all other Elements. I.e. If you update Job Info data only, it will not sync Biographical Data etc. The only time all elements can save at the same time via Real-time sync is when you hire and employee to either a Past Date or "Today".

 

What is Effective Dating?

Effective Dating means that information records capture time as part of the data that is stored in SuccessFactors Employee Central, and the timeline of these data changes can be edited.

In the application, the HRIS fields “start-date” and “end-date” are used to capture the Effective Dating of most EC related data. The “start-date” is usually uppermost on the UI. This is where the user has to enter the date from which the changes are effective. Whether an HRIS element is Effective Dated or not is defined by the system.

The HRIS field “end-date” does not appear on the UI but is used for reporting purposes. For example, if you change an Effective Dated field such as "Pay Grade" and set the date when the change should be effective to 01/01/2015, the system records 12/31/2014 as the end date in the background. If you run a report on the pay grade in the time from 01/01/2014 until 12/31/2014, the pay grade value that was valid in that time frame will be shown.

The system does not change the stored data. Instead, it creates a new row of data to track the new values from the new Effective Date of the change, and continues to store the values that were effective before the change.

Please refer to KBA 2511923 - Employee Central: What is Effective Dating? - for further information

 

Effective Dating and HRIS Sync

Effective Dating plays a major role in HRIS Sync logic. The HRIS Sync job will look for changes in the related EC Element, and then when the Effective Date is reached (when that record becomes the "current" record) the HRIS Sync will synchronize the data from that EC Element to the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Platform. So, depending on the Effective Date of the change, and where you make the change from (Import, UI, API) will determine how and when the data is synchronized to the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Platform.

However if the user is future hire or has furture hire record, effective data changes will be picked up in delta Hris sync job.

For example, the below table indicates the Job Information data structure for an employee. There are 3 Effective Dated records for the employees Job Information, so how does the system know which record is current?

Example of logic: If todays date is "25/07/2017", which record is current and synchronized to the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Platform?

Effective Date Change When is this record synchronized to the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Platform
01/01/2018 Employee's Manager is Changed As the Effective Date of this record is "01/01/2018" and todays date is "25/07/2017", this record is not current, and the data held in this record is not synchronized until the Daily HRIS Sync job runs on "01/01/2018".
01/01/2010 Employee's Manager is Changed As todays date is "25/07/2017", this record is the current record that is synchronized. Therefore the current manager of the employee will be the one defined in this Job Information record
01/01/2000 Employee (user) is Hired This is a historic record, and the contents are not synchronized to the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Platform

 

How is the HRIS Sync triggered?

Depending on what method Employee Central data is being updated and what Effective Date the data has been given, will depend on how/when the system will synchronize data. The below table explains the expected behaviour for each way EC data is updated.

 

Trigger Area

 

 Comments Related/Helpful Articles
HRIS Sync Scheduled Job

The Scheduled Job "HRIS Sync" (Daily or Full) runs on a schedule. It will synchronize Future Dated changes that become Effective on "todays" date.

  • Daily HRIS Sync - will synchronize the delta changes becoming effective on that date
  • Full HRIS Sync - will synchronize ALL data that is effective "as of today"

KBA 2512570 - HRIS Sync: How to create an HRIS Sync job

KBA 2080065 - What is a Full HRIS Sync? - Employee Central
Real-time sync integration by UI operation When EC data is updated in the UI, if the record being updated is the "current" Effective record, then the sync will occur immediately and will not trigger/use the HRIS Sync Schedule Job. This method will only sync the data from the Element you are updating, and not all other Elements. KBA 2080114 - HRIS Sync: How to force a sync of a single Employee’s EC data - Employee Central
EC Data Import When EC data is imported (where sync mappings are hard-coded/defined), this will also trigger the HRIS Sync job (Scheduled Job) to run. The system will use the HRIS Sync job template of the "top of the list" HRIS Sync job in Provisioning > Manage Scheduled Jobs. KBA 2080813 - HRIS Sync: Import & API upsert considerations - Employee Central

OData API or SOAP API (same as EC data import)

 When data is changes via OData or SOAP API - the result is the same as if the data was imported (see the row in the table "EC Data Import) KBA 2080813 - HRIS Sync: Import & API upsert considerations - Employee Central

 

How do I create a HRIS Sync Scheduled Job?

The HRIS Sync Job itself is managed in Provisioning > Manage Scheduled Jobs. There are 2 ways to configure the job - either "Daily Sync" or "Full Sync" modes (as explained above). Please refer to KBA 2512570 - HRIS Sync: How to create a HRIS Sync job - for more information

 

What data is being synchronized?

Employee Central uses a combination of both "Hard-Coded" (defined in the system/cannot be disabled) and "Custom" Sync Mappings, to map data from Employee Central to the SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite (to Basic User Data). To understand how your instance is configured, we recommend to follow this process -:

  1. Hard-Coded Sync Mappings: First review KBA 2172427 - HRIS Sync - Data Synchronization From EC to EP - Hard Coded Sync Mappings" - as this covers everything that will be synchronized by default
  2. Custom Sync Mappings: Next you need to review the Custom Sync Mappings you have configured to understand what additional data (per element) is configured to synchronize, as well as what hard-coded mappings have been overridden. To do this, either download the Succession Data Model XML file from Provisioning or if you  do not have Provisioning access, please refer to KBA 2510447 - HRIS Sync: How to easily view all HRIS Sync mappings without access to Provisioning or XML
  3. What value will be synchronized?: Depending on the Source and Destination field configuration will determine what format the value is synchronized in. Please refer to KBA 2510653 - HRIS Sync: What Value is sent depending on Source / Destination Field Configuration
  4. What order is data synchronized in?: Data is synchronized in predefined (not configurable) order. Depending on the order, if you have mapped multiple elements to 1 field, then the last element that gets synchronized wins! Refer to KBA 2510653 - HRIS Sync: What Value is sent depending on Source / Destination Field Configuration - for more information
  5. What locale is data synchronized in?: The data is synchronized in the default language of the instance only, see KBA 2543741 - HRIS Sync is not syncing data to EP in the locale/language the change was made in 

 

What are the Downstream Impacts to the rest of the suite?

Most SAP SuccessFactors modules do not have a direct integration with Employee Central. As Employee Central (when enabled) becomes the "source of truth" in the system, any changes made in Employee Central will be synchronized to EP for consumption by other modules. Please note that it is not possible to sync data from EP to EC.

  • For a list of known impacts, please see KBA 2507190 - HRIS Sync: Downstream Impacts

Configuration Best Practices . 

Please view:

  • 2172427 - HRIS Sync - Data Synchronization from EC to EP - Hard Coded Sync Mappings
  • 2336779 - Invalid HRIS Sync Mapping Configuration " HRIS Sync Job Failure"
  • Guide: Hard-Coded for Syncing

 Fields Hard-Coded for Syncing

  • Use the table here to determine which fields are hard-coded to be synced by the system.
  • HRIS fields with visibility="none"aren’t synced. The rule applies to both hard-coded (exceptions are noted where relevant) and configurable sync mapping.

Caution

  • Do NOT configure username as a standard-element-ref.
  • Do NOT map the national ID or minority fields to custom fields.
  • Do NOT map the standard elements userId, managerId, jobCode, and hireDate. Doing so causes issues in the system.
  • View 2336779 - Invalid HRIS Sync Mapping Configuration " HRIS Sync Job Failure"

Best Practices to schedule Sync jobs. refer to Guide: Managing Scheduled Jobs 

View: 3210602 - Hourly Daily Hris Sync causing Importing employee data such us causing Job Information failure

  • Full Sync
    • Full Sync job is meant for initial customer go-live or for any massive data change or for any major data discrepancies. It is not advisable to schedule a Full Sync job daily or weekly or monthly or quarterly, etc. If there are data discrepancies, please raise tickets for support and support can advise if Full Sync needs to be run. In any and all cases, Full Sync should never be scheduled.
    • What's New Viewer: User Based HRIS Sync can be run once daily - User ID-Based HRIS Sync / 3044382 - User Based HRIS Sync
  • Delta Recurring Job
    • As we know, the system will kick delta Sync job for every change made via UI, API, Import. Hence we recommend not to schedule delta Sync job on an hourly basis. 
    • Some customers still prefer to schedule an hourly delta sync job depending on their business cases. Product Support/EC Engineering Team See Here

Post B2305 Release Guide: Managing Scheduled Jobs

Customer can run HRIS Sync - Full Sync, Daily Sync & Person-Based Sync Via  Scheduled Job Manager in Admin Center.

View Post B2305 Release KBA:2231503 - Synchronize Business Configuration Job Configuration via Scheduled Job Manager

 

Employee Central

Sync HRIS Data

To sync data from Employee Central to the user data tables

The maximum times that the job can run per day in the Admin Center.

  • 3 times for a One-Time job
  • 3 times for a Recurring job

For more information, see HRIS Sync Jobs.

GAP:

KBA 2964383 - MDF Field label name Change Doesn't Sync to Employee Profile Header after HRIS Sync (real time or Incremental Sync job)

More Information

Further detailed information about the HRIS Sync can be found in Guide: Employee Central Master Guide  & Chapter: Human Resource Information System (HRIS) Synchronization implementation handbook.

Audit report:

Helpful Links:

See Also

Keywords

sf, success factors, EC, Daily Sync, explained, full sync, User Based HRIS Sync, full hris sync, daily, Real-time sync integration by UI operation,  Scheduled Job Manager , KBA , LOD-SF-EC-HRS , HRIS Sync , LOD-SF-INT-EC , Employee Central SFAPI & OData Entities , How To

Product

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central all versions ; SAP SuccessFactors HCM all versions