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HiBob integration
Rebecca Russell avatar
Written by Rebecca Russell
Updated over 3 months ago

Our HiBob integration automatically syncs your employee information from HiBob to PayFit, significantly reducing the time spent manually entering employee changes.

Note: PayFit has recently transitioned to using a service user ID and token to authenticate the link to your HiBob data.

If you notice missing employee data, ensure your service user is set up correctly. For further information, please refer to our Help Centre article.

If you've already set up your service user, please refer to the FAQ section below.

By using our integration with HiBob, you can:

💡Save time.

💡Eliminate manual double entry of data.

💡Enhance workflows and alignment between HR and finance teams.

💡Select the data to sync with PayFit.

💡Align your tech stack.

Fields that can be synced

Once you've set up the integration to PayFit, you can sync any of the following fields from HiBob.

Note: HiBob is the source of truth. Information syncs from HiBob to PayFit, not the other way around.

✅ Personal information: name, gender, title, date of birth, address, phone number, and email address.

✅ Starter information: tax code, NI number, payroll number, and start date.

✅ Employee bank details: sort code, account number, and bank name (UK accounts only).

✅ Contract details: job title, hours worked per week, weekly working pattern.

Note: HiBob has recently introduced a nine-day working pattern for workers. However, as PayFit uses a weekly working pattern, the working pattern won't sync correctly from HiBob to PayFit. To resolve this, you must unselect Working pattern when setting up or amending the integration between Hibob and PayFit.

To manage the employee's base pay based on the correct working pattern, you have the following options:

✅ Salary changes: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly & annual salaries, backdated up to one month.

✅ Leaver information: leave date, reason.

✅ Other payments: Bonuses or commissions.

✅ Leaves: Annual and sick leaves, backdated up to one month.

❌ Annual leave entitlement, occupational parental or sickness allowances.

❌ Employment start date changes (to avoid HMRC discrepancies).

❌ Other leaves: parental, unpaid, jury service, etc.

❌ Other payments or deductions, including overtime.

❌ Pushing payslips from PayFit to HiBob.

❌ Pension scheme information.

❌ Custom fields: Only default HiBob fields are supported. It's important that these fields aren't renamed in HiBob.

Setting up the integration

There are five steps to setting up the integration between HiBob and PayFit.

  1. Set up your Service User in HiBob.

  2. Enter your Service User ID and Service User token into PayFit.

  3. Choose which employees to sync.

  4. Choose when starters are added to PayFit.

  5. Choose which fields to sync.

Section one: Set up your Service User in HiBob

For PayFit to access information from HiBob, we use a Service User ID and token. These allow PayFit to access your HiBob data. To create the Service User on HiBob, please refer to our Help Centre article.

Section two: Enter your Service User ID and token in PayFit

  1. From the left, choose Integration Hub.

  2. Next to HiBob, click Activate.

  3. Tick the box to certify that you're authorised by your company to activate the integration, then click Grant access.

  4. Click Actions, then Configure.

  5. Under the Authentication section, click Edit authentication information.

  6. Read and accept the security statement.

  7. Paste your Service User ID and token from HiBob.

  8. Enter an email address for PayFit integration updates.

  9. Click Save.

Section three: Choose which employees to sync

You now need to choose which employees from HiBob that you'd like to sync:

  1. Under the Employee filtering section, click Edit employee filtering settings.

  2. If you want to sync all employees that exist on HiBob, select Yes, click Save, then continue to Section four.
    Otherwise, select No.

  3. Choose how you'd like to filter your employees. You can filter by Department, Employment type, or Site.

    For example, sync all part-time or permanent employment types in the London, Manchester and Newcastle sites.


    At this point, the integration needs to run overnight, to create a connection between your PayFit and HiBob accounts. Once connected, PayFit can see the Departments, Employment types and Sites in your HiBob account. On the following day, return to the same page, to select the specific groups.

  4. Click Save.

Section four: Choose when starters are added to PayFit

If you choose to sync starters from HiBob to PayFit, you can choose when to add them, and add an internal cut-off date for whether a starter should appear in this month, or next month's payroll.

When to add starters

  1. Under the Starters and cut-off date section, click Edit starters sync settings.

  2. Next to Do you want to automatically create PayFit starters' profile?, select No if you'd prefer to add starters manually, then click Save and proceed to Section five: Choose which data fields to sync.
    Otherwise, choose Yes if you'd prefer starters to sync automatically from HiBob.

  3. Then choose whether you'd prefer all starters whose information is complete to be synced to PayFit, or only employees whose contract date starts this month.

Add an internal cut-off date

In PayFit, you can now select a date where employees that start after this date won't be synced in the current payroll month. Instead, they'll sync in the following month.

For example, if you have an internal cut-off date of 15th, if an employee has a contract start date of 16th, they shouldn't be included in this month's payroll, so you add a cut-off date of 15th.

To do this:

  1. Under the Cut-off date section, select Yes.

  2. From the drop-down, select the cut-off date.
    This is the last date that an employee can start with your company to be included on this month's payroll.

  3. Click Save.

Section five: Choose which data fields to sync

Now to choose which fields from HiBob should sync into PayFit. To do this:

  1. Under the Employee information section, click Edit information sync settings.

  2. Tick the fields you'd like to sync from HiBob, then click Save.

The integration is now live, and your data will sync from HiBob each night.

FAQs

How often will my HR data sync to PayFit?

The sync happens nightly (outside of business hours), so HiBob data is updated in PayFit by the following day.

How can I track the changes made via the integration?

Changes that impact your current month's payroll are shown in the Monthly changes section of PayFit. To check those changes, from the left, choose Run my payroll, then Monthly changes, then select the relevant section, for example, Starter.

Tip: If there's a problem with the permissions set in your HR software, a warning appears at the top.

Otherwise, to download a full log of the changes, you can use the activity log:

  1. Click Integrations Hub on the left, then the Activated integrations tab.

  2. Click HiBob.

  3. Click Actions, then Configure.

  4. Click Activity Log.

You can also download the log to review it offline.

What happens if there's an issue?

We have a dedicated team that looks after our integrations. They test and monitor the integration regularly, so if we spot anything that looks amiss, our team will notify you and advise you on the next steps.

If you notice a difference in the information synced after the switchover from your API token to Service User ID and Token, there are three possible reasons for this:

Problem

Reason

Solution

No data is syncing

The permission group isn't set up correctly.

Please refer to the Step two: Set up your permissions group in HiBob section in this Help Centre article.

Some data isn't syncing

Some of the permissions haven't been assigned correctly to your permissions group.

Please refer to the Step three section of this Help Centre article.

Some leaves aren't syncing, or they're removed from PayFit

You use private policies in HiBob and haven't assigned the correct time-off permissions to your permissions group.

Please refer to the Step three section of this Help Centre article, particularly the Time off menu options.

Note: Your integration will run again overnight, so you'll need to wait until the following day to see if the issue is resolved.

If your data still doesn't seem to be syncing correctly, please reach out to a member of our team via the Contact Us form.

What causes an authentication error, and how can I fix it?

The most common authentication errors are:

  • The Service User ID or token has a typo, so it needs to be re-entered correctly on PayFit.

  • The Service User ID and token is correct; however, the permissions are not set up correctly. This means that PayFit can't pull the employee data from HiBob unless the permissions are extended on HiBob.

If the authentication error isn't rectified by following the above instructions, please reach out to our team via the Contact Us form.

What happens if I update my employee information on PayFit but not on HiBob?

Any changes in PayFit will be overwritten by HiBob data during the next sync.

How are employees matched between PayFit and HiBob?

To ensure PayFit updates the correct employees with HiBob information, we use nine data points to match the employee and compare them between both softwares.

To check which employees are matched:

  1. From the left, choose Run my payroll, then Monthly changes.

  2. Under the My Hibob integration section, click Employee match.

If we're not able to match the employee, the employee's status is Not complete.

A required action also appears to warn you that without the missing information, your payroll won't run. For more information about this, please refer to our Help Centre article.

What additional employee information do I need to add for starters?

There are some fields necessary to pay an employee that don't exist in HiBob. You'll need these manually to PayFit. They include; starter checklist, tax code, or HMRC ID information.

What happens when I re-employ an employee in HiBob?

If an employee returns to work for you after leaving, within HiBob, you can simply add a new contract to the existing employee's record. However, from a payroll point of view, HMRC requires a second employment, with a new RTI ID, which therefore requires a second employee record in PayFit.

As the original HiBob record is linked with the employee's first employment on PayFit, PayFit is no longer able to sync information from HiBob to a new record on PayFit. To use the integration for the second employment, in HiBob, you'll need to set up a second employee record for the new employment. Otherwise, this employee will always be excluded from the sync, and you'll need to manually update the record in PayFit and HiBob.

How do I connect it to PayFit to HiBob's Payroll Hub?

PayFit currently integrates directly with HiBob and not Bob’s Payroll Hub, Payroll Connect.

Will more features be added to the HiBob x PayFit integration?

We're always working to improve our integrations, so if you have any suggestions, please submit them via the Contact Us Form.

Does the HiBob integration work for PayFit in other countries?

The integration is currently only available in the UK.

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