HiBob integration

UK Payroll is now a HiBob company! Support will help you set up the integration and sync for the following information:

• Personal information
• Salaries
• Maternity/Paternity leave dates
• Sickness & sick pay
• Variable pay information (from the Variable Pay Table in Bob)
• Work patterns
• Organizational structure
• Holiday entitlement for terminating employees
• Actual pay
• P45s

Before you begin

Before you integrate with HiBob, you'll need to set up Webhooks in Bob. 

1. Log into Bob.
2. From the top left, click Bob products > System Settings.
3. From the Integrations > Webhooks tile, click Manage.
4. Click Add a new subscriber.
5. Enter a Name (i.e. UK Payroll) and the URL of your Webhook listener endpoint (provided by your onboarding manager).
6. From the Events dropdown menu, check the boxes next to the events or event group you want to subscribe to. You can either search for event names or scroll down the list. 
7. Enable Exclude events triggered by the system to prevent any changes made automatically by Bob - i.e., not by a user - from being included in the subscriber and triggering an event.
8. In Who to listen for, select which employees' data will be sent via the Webhook.
9. Click Save. Bob will send a test event to the URL you provided with the "Ping test" string.

Then, create a Service User in Bob. To learn more, see How to add a service user.

1. Log into Bob.
2. From the top left, click Bob products > System Settings.
3. From the left menu, select Integrations. 
4. From the All categories dropdown menu, select Automation.
5. On the Service users tile, click Manage.
6. From the top, click + New service user.
7. Enter a unique name and a display name.

   Tip: Reference UK Payroll in the Service User and permission group names to make it easier to track.

8. Click Next.
9. The new API service user's ID and token will be displayed. Copy these and save them in a file or safe place in your environment.

   Note: You can't access the token again, so you must copy it now. 

10. Click Done.

Once you create a new service user, disconnect and integrate with HiBob again. Your previous mapping fields and settings will be preserved.

Then, add the service user to the correct permission group. To learn more, see How to add a service user to a permission group.

1. From the top left, click Bob products > System Settings.
2. From the left menu, select Account > Permission groups.
3. Click + Add permission group.
4. Enter a name for the permission group. Click Save.
5. Enter a description to add more organization to your custom group (optional).
6. From Group members, select Select people by condition and click Select People.
7. From Conditions click the trash icon to remove all conditions. Ensure no conditions are left to avoid adding other users to this permissions group.
8. From Add specific employees, click the selection pull-down menu and select the service users you want to add to this group.
9. Click Create. 
10. In Features, enable the following permissions:
    • People > Directory > View the company's people directory
    • Time off > Settings > See company's time off settings
11. In People's data > Access rights, select the radio button by Select people by condition. Click Edit and set to access rights to Lifecycle status Equals Any.
12. Then, enable the following permissions:
    • Docs > Shared Docs > Delete selected employees' docs in the folder
    • Docs > Shared Docs > Upload selected employees' docs in the folder
    • Docs > Shared Docs > View selected employees' docs in the folder 
    • People > Address > View selected employees' Address sections
    • People > Emergency > View selected employees' Emergency sections
    • People > Employment > View selected employees' Employment section histories
    • People > Employment > View selected employees' Employment sections
    • People > Financial > View selected employees' Financial section histories
    • People > Financial > View selected employees' Financial sections
    • People > Home > View selected employees' Home sections
    • People > Identification > View selected employees' Identification sections
    • People > Lifecycle > View selected employees' Lifecycle section histories
    • People > Lifecycle > View selected employees' Lifecycle sections
    • People > Payroll > View selected employees' Payroll section histories
    • People > Payroll > View selected employees' Payroll sections
    • People > Personal > Edit selected employees' Personal sections
    • People > Personal > View selected employees' Personal sections
    • Time off > Balance > See selected people's time off and sick leave balances
    • Time off > See who's out today > See who's out today
13. Click Save.

How to connect to HiBob

1. From the left side bar, navigate to Settings.
2. Under the Integrations heading, select Overview.
3. Click Integrate in the HiBob tile. 
4. Enter the ID and Token for your service user and click Integrate.

How to configure your HiBob integration

1. Map your UK Payroll fields (shown on the left) to your HiBob fields (shown on the right). You can map any field, including custom fields.

   Note: Select Do not map for the optional fields you do not wish to sync from HiBob, or if any UK Payroll fields are unavailable in HiBob. Additionally, multi-list fields can’t be ampped and won’t appear for selection as each UK Payroll field can only accept one value.

2. Toggle on Pause syncing to update data directly in UK Payroll. If you unpause the sync, the data in HiBob will overwrite the data in UK Payroll.

   Note: If you pause syncing, it won’t affect sending payslips to HiBob on payday.

3. Toggle on Include holiday pay in pension calculations if you want termination holiday pay included in pension calculations by default. Don’t toggle this on if holiday pay varies by employee.
4. Toggle on Send additional payslips via HiBob to have payslips uploaded to HiBob in addition to payslips send to the employee email addresses defined in HiBob.
5. Toggle on Sync employee salaries from HiBob if you want employee salaries to be synced from HiBob to UK Payroll.
6. Toggle on Exclude employees to exclude employees from the HiBob to UK Payroll sync. To learn more, see Exclude employees from an HRIS sync.

   Note: You must set up the filters for excluded employees before saving any initial settings. Otherwise, UK Payroll imports all employees once connected.

How to sync one-off pay items

If needed, you can sync one-off pay items from HiBob to UK Payroll.

1. From the left side bar, navigate to Settings > Integrations > HiBob.
2. Toggle on Sync Variable Payments as one-off pay items.
3. Click Save changes.
4. From the left side bar, select Pay items. If the variable pay item names are the same in Bob and UK Payroll, the items will be automatically connected and a sync indicator will appear next to the pay item.
5. If a variable pay item type in Bob can’t be matched to one in UK Payroll, it will be highlighted on the overview page. Create a one-off pay item to match Bob’s variable pay item type if you want it to sync.

Once the One-off pay items are connected, any that are added to an employee in Bob for the current or last pay period will automatically appear in their payslip.

Note: Pay items synced from HiBob can only be edited in HiBob.

Note: HiBob doesn’t allow negative values, so it a deduction needs to be made, it should be done in UK Payroll.

FAQs

What does ⚡️ mean?
⚡️ is UK Payroll’s sync indicator. The lightning symbol highlights the fields that are lined to other systems, such as HiBob or HMRC. It’s there to remind you that if you change one of those fields in UK Payroll, it will be overwritten by information from the linked systems when next synced.

If a field doesn’t have an integration option or it’s set to Do not map, there won’t be a sync indicator next to it.

How can I change my HiBob integration settings?
To amend your UK Payroll/HiBob integration settings, navigate to Settings > Integrations > HiBob from the left side bar.

How is employee data synced?
Employee data is synced using the Employee ID, which must be the same in UK Payroll and Bob. UK Payroll is then populated with the employee data from HiBob for the defined fields in Mapping.

Note: HiBob is the source of truth for employee data. Mapped fields in UK Payroll will be overwritten with the HiBob value, even if the field in HiBob is null or empty. Multi-list fields can’t be mapped and won’t appear for selection as UK Payroll fields can only accept one value.

If an employee changes their bank details in Bob after payroll has been confirmed, will the net pay go to the new bank account?
Payment details are locked in for the transfer one day before your scheduled payday. If the employee’s new bank details sync to UK Payroll before this day, they will get their salary paid into their new bank account.

Does data still sync from Bob once payroll is confirmed?
No changes can be made if payroll is awaiting approval or confirmation. This means any changes affecting payslip calculations aren’t synced, e.g. salaries. Once payroll has been processed and paid, the sync will be re-enabled and salaries will be backdated as appropriate.

Data that does not affect payslip values will sync regardless of payroll status.

Why are employees showing as Pending?
You can check an employee’s payroll status by navigating to Employees from the left side bar. Employees will only show as Ready once all the required information has been entered into and synced from Bob. To ensure you have all of the necessary information in Bob, see Ready your employees for payroll.

How do I add a new starter?
New employees should be added to Bob using a unique and previously unused Employee ID. Once you have added them in Bob, a new employee record will be created for them in UK Payroll as long as the Employee ID is not present on any record in UK Payroll. For more information, see Add a new hire.

What if an employee’s data is not syncing?
If you’ve just updated your employee’s data in Bob, you may need to wait a short period for it to update. However, if after some time, the data is still not syncing, or if you have paused HiBob syncing, you can pull through an update by syncing individual employees.

1. Navigate to Employees from the left side bar and select the relevant employee.
2. Click Actions > Sync now.

If that still doesn’t work, the information may have been entered incorrectly in Bob. For more information on ensuring flawless syncs, see Ready your employees for payroll.

Finally, if you are still having trouble syncing employee data, pause syncing and update UK Payroll directly. However, once the sync does work, the information on UK Payroll will be overwritten with Bob data. Make sure any changes made in UK Payroll are also updated in Bob.

How can I pause syncing?
Yes. If you want to update data directly in UK Payroll, navigate to System Settings > Integrations > HiBob and toggle Pause syncing.

You can unpause the sync at any point, but if you don’t update the data in HiBob, UK Payroll data will be overwritten with the values from Bob.

Note: If you pause syncing, it will not impact sending payslips to Bob on payday.

How do I re-integrate with Bob?

1. In UK Payroll, navigate to Settings > Integrations > Overview from the left side bar.
2. Click Integrate in the HiBob box.
3. Enter the ID and Token for your chosen Service User and select Integrate.

Why can’t I find permissions in Bob?
HiBob allows you to rename sections, so the permissions listed in Bob might not match UK Payroll permission names. Check your Bob set-up to ensure the correct categories are syncing between Bob and UK Payroll. In Bob:

1. Navigate to System Settings.
2. Select Account > Permission Groups from the left side bar.
3. Select the relevant Permission Group and view the features and data that are currently available to the service user group.
4. Rename fields or permissions, if necessary. See How to add a new field or column for detailed instructions.

How does field mapping work?
Field mapping allows data to sync from Bob to UK Payroll. You can map any field from Bob to UK Payroll, including custom fields.

Note: You can select Do not map for the optional fields that you don’t want synced from Bob. This can also be used if any of the UK Payroll fields are unavailable in Bob.

An example of field mapping, with UK Payroll fields on the left and Bob fields on the right:

Can I enable webhooks?
Yes. Webhooks between UK Payroll and Bob, which allows for immediate syncs between the two platforms. If webhooks are not enabled, then data will sync from Bob every 12 hours. See Getting started with APIs and Webhooks for more information.

Why can’t I select my preferred holiday policy?
You can only select holiday policies that are calculated in days. Holiday policies calculated in hours will not be available to select.

How does the holiday entitlement sync for terminated employees work?
Bob calculates the accrued holiday balance for terminated employees, including rounded days and carryover days. Once you have enabled the feature in System Settings > Integrations > HiBob, you can choose the relevant holiday policy that should be used for the calculation. You can also decide whether holiday pay is pensionable by default (this can be changed for individual employees).

Note: To enable holiday entitlement sync, ensure that the service user has access to See company’s time-off in HiBob.

How does the parental leave sync work?
Once enabled, parental leave automatically syncs between Bob and UK Payroll.

Note: Only new parental leaves will be synced. Any previous leaves will need to be manually updated.

In Bob, assign parental leave to an employee. For detailed instructions, see Assign a time off policy. Once synced, the leave details can only be edited in Bob and will appear greyed out in UK Payroll in the Maternity/Paternity leave section of an employee’s profile. Finally, a notification on the Overview page will prompt you to confirm the leave date.

Can I exclude an employee from a sync?
Yes. See Exclude employees from a HRIS sync.

Tip: Set up the filters for employees you would like to exclude before saving any initial settings. Otherwise, UK Payroll will import all employees once connected.

Are payroll documents sent to Bob?
You can choose to send employees payroll documents to Bob, in addition to sending the documents to their email. Sent payroll documents are stored in the employee’s My Docs folder. You can toggle which documents (Payslip, P11D, P60, P45, Pension letters) you would like to send to employees.

I’ve added a variable pay item to a terminated employee. Why isn’t it syncing?
Once an employee has been terminated and they have received their final payslip, UK Payslip doesn’t generate payslips for the employee. Instead, see Process a Payment After Leaving.

I have historical data in HiBob that I want to keep from syncing to UK Payroll.
When you enable one-off pay item syncing, you’ll be given the option to configure the date from which you want pay items to start syncing to prevent adding pay items processed manually in the previous month.

A pay item that needs to be added to payroll isn’t in HiBob yet. What should I do?
Input the data in HiBob and let it sync automatically.

If you decide to manually add the pay item directly into UK Payroll and then update it later in HiBob, delay adding it to HiBob or delete the pay item in the following pay period. This is because the pay item will automatically sync through as a backdated payment in the next payment period.

If you’ve already confirmed payroll and want to sync this change only, update Bob. Pause the sync, un-confirm payroll, and then select Sync Now in the relevant employee’s profile. Once the desired changes are synced, confirm payroll again and unpause Bob’s sync.

What happens in UK Payroll when a pay item is deleted in Bob?
The pay item will also be deleted in UK Payroll if the payroll isn’t confirmed. Once payroll is confirmed, no changes will be made to payroll.

I deleted a pay item in UK Payroll, and it isn’t syncing back from HiBob.
If you delete a pay item in UK Payroll, the pay item will only re-sync if it’s updated in Bob.

Can I link standard one-off pay items from Bob, such as Shared parental pay?
No. Standard one-off pay items can’t be linked to Bob variable pay items, as you wouldn’t be able to unlink them if you needed to delete or edit the pay item.