In this article
If you use PeopleHR, you can integrate with Pento using PeopleHR’s API which helps to reduce time spent entering employee details for payroll.
Setting up Integration in PeopleHR
Please note – Your onboarding manager will organise a call to connect your PeopleHR account to Pento, the below is for your reference.
Generating the API key
To set up the integration in PeopleHR, an admin user has to generate an API key in the PeopleHR account.
To generate the API key, you will need to follow the steps below:
- Log into PeopleHR
- Navigate to the Settings page from the left sidebar
- Select API Credentials
- Select Generate a new API Key (the plus button)
- Fill in the Name of the API Key and click on each row in the Application table. This will open a new window with a list of permissions. Please select all of them.
- Select Save
You should now have a new API Key.
Connecting to PeopleHR in Pento
To connect to PeopleHR, you will need to follow the steps below:
- Navigate to Settings from the left sidebar
- Under the Integrations heading, select Overview
- You will see an icon for PeopleHR, click Integrate
- Once you have selected Integrate, the following pop-up will appear:
- Insert the API Key previously generated in PeopleHR. You can select the Copy button from PeopleHR to paste into Pento
- Once entered, select Integrate
You now should be fully connected.
Settings
Once connected, you should be directed to the Integration settings screen, this is where you will need to set up your settings and map the fields you require between PeopleHR and Pento.
Pause syncing
Please toggle on Pause syncing if you need to update data directly in Pento and do not want it to be overwritten by the data in PeopleHR. You can unpause the sync at any point, however, if you do not update the data in PeopleHR, the values in Pento will be overwritten with the values from PeopleHR.
Please note - If you choose to pause syncing, it will not affect sending payslips to PeopleHR on payday
Termination and Holiday pay pension settings
Please toggle on include holiday pay in pension calculations if you wish for termination pay & termination holiday pay to be included in pension calculations by default. Do not toggle this option if it varies from employee to employee.
Sending payslips via PeopleHR
Please toggle on send additional payslip via PeopleHR if you wish for your employee's payslips to be uploaded to PeopleHR, as well as via email to the employee email addresses defined in PeopleHR and Pento.
Syncing employee salaries from PeopleHR
Please toggle on Sync employee salaries from PeopleHR if you wish for your employee's salaries to be synced from PeopleHR to Pento.
Excluding employees from being synced
There are a number of reasons you may wish to exclude certain employees from syncing, for example, if you add an exclude filter defined as Country is not UK, any employees whose country is defined as outside the UK in PeopleHR will not be synced. Below are a few further examples:
- Contractors
- Overseas employees
- Employees didn't end up joining
Please toggle on Exclude employees if any of the above, or additional reasons apply.
You can set up an exclusion filter on any field you have in PeopleHR, and can add as many filters as you need using the + Add filter button.
Please note – It is important to set up the filters for employees you would like to exclude before saving any initial settings, otherwise, Pento will import all employees once you have connected
Mapping Fields
You will also see mapping fields similar to the below screenshot. The fields on the left represent the fields on Pento, whilst the fields on the right represent the fields on PeopleHR. You can map any field from PeopleHR to Pento. Once mapped, the data will sync from PeopleHR to Pento.
Please note – You can select Do not map for the (optional) fields you do not wish to sync from PeopleHR. This should also be used if any of the fields present on Pento are not available in PeopleHR.
How to amend your Settings
You may need to amend your settings in Pento to either enable or disable synced fields; amend the payslips and/or termination pay settings; and remove and/or add any employee filters. To do this, you will need to follow the steps below
- Navigate to Settings from the left sidebar
- Under the Integrations heading, select PeopleHR
How the sync works in Pento
Understanding how the data is synced from PeopleHR to Pento is useful to ensure your Employee's details are accurate and up to date.
Syncing is executed when Pento is first connected to PeopleHR (described above), each time the integration settings are updated in Pento and every hour.
Pento will check for any changes to the mapped fields on employees.
How Employee data is synced
Employee data is synced using the Employee ID i.e. If there is an employee with the same ID on Pento and PeopleHR, the employee data in Pento will be populated with the employee data from PeopleHR for the fields defined in the Mapping settings. Any fields defined as Do not map will not be synced.
Please note – PeopleHR is the source of truth for your employee data, mapped fields will be overwritten with the value in PeopleHR each time the integration syncs. If the value of these fields in PeopleHR are null or empty, this will overwrite any values you add directly to Pento
New Starters
Any new employees should be added to PeopleHR using a unique and previously unused Employee ID. Once you have added them to PeopleHR, as long as the Employee ID is not present on any active or terminated record in Pento, a new employee record will be created for them.
Please refer to our help article How to Add a New Starter to Pento for further guidance
Syncing individual employees
If you are connected to PeopleHR but an employee's data is not syncing, you can pull through the updates by syncing an individual employee. To do this, you will need to follow the steps below:
- Navigate to Employees from the left sidebar
- Search for the relevant employee
- To the right of the employee details, select the box with '...'
- Select Sync now
You will also see a timestamp with the last time and date an employee was synced. Once you have triggered Sync now, you will see a successful banner and an updated timestamp.
You can also sync individual employees if you have paused syncing in your PeopleHR settings in Pento.
Frequently Asked Questions
I updated my employee's data in PeopleHR, why hasn't it synced with Pento?
Syncing is executed every hour, however, you may need to wait a short period for it to update. You can try and force the sync through by syncing individual employees.
Alternatively, it could be that the information on PeopleHR was entered in an invalid format for Pento, see further guidance on accepted formatting here. If this still doesn't pull the changes through, you will need to contact support who will be able to assist.
Employees are showing as Pending in the Employees list
Employees will only show as Ready once all the required information has been synced. Please refer to our help article How to ready your employees for payroll and ensure the data is entered on PeopleHR.
Please note – You will need to check/add any missing data in PeopleHR as this is the source of truth in Pento
I need to finalise my payroll, however, some employee data is yet to sync, what should I do?
If you are unable to wait for a sync to execute and syncing individual employees has not worked, you can update Pento directly, however, once the sync has been executed, the information on Pento will be overwritten with the data from PeopleHR, if it is invalid, it will update the fields in Pento to be blank.
Alternatively, you can pause syncing in your integration settings, update Pento directly and unpause the sync once the payroll has been submitted. You will need to make sure any changes you made to Pento are updated in your HRIS if you require them to be synced going forward.
I updated Pento, but not PeopleHR
As PeopleHR is the source of truth for Pento, you will need to ensure any changes you make on Pento, are the same in PeopleHR, otherwise, the values in Pento will be overwritten with the values in PeopleHR, if the value of these fields in PeopleHR are null or empty, this will overwrite any values you add directly to Pento.
Are Title and Gender mapped from PeopleHR to Pento?
Due to HMRC requirements, we need to report an employee's Gender and Title on the FPS each month. Currently, HMRC requires the title to match the gender normative associated with a title, therefore Pento syncs the Gender from PeopleHR, and assumes the Title from it.