Integration of Employee Time Administration in Business ByDesign

Since a few years, ByDesign has supported the integration of employee data from an external HR system such as SAP Successfactors Employee Central, via the Master Data Replication interface.

Amongst customers who opt for this integration, there are some Professional Services customers wherein employees need to record time on projects. Time administrators prefer that the time master data aspects like assignment of time accounts, time models, evaluation of overtime etc. happen within the ByD system itself, while other personnel administration data be controlled via the master data replication.

With the 2011 release, this can be explicitly stated in business configuration.

The time administration integration can be scoped only if the corresponding functionality in personnel administration is scoped.

Integration scoping option in Business Configuration

When scoped, the editing of the Time profile in the Time File would be locked, and an error message be shown when a modification is attempted.

Time profile locked for editing

It must be noted that the administrators will still be allowed to adjust / create time entries for their employees.

The time model assignments would only be affected via integration in the master data replication work center.

Time administration section in employee replication request

For this to work, it must also be ensured that in the code list mapping (a fine tuning activity in business configuration), the entry for WorkingTimeModelTypeCode is made.

Entry for Time Models in Code List Mapping fine tuning activity

It is expected that the time model IDs appearing in the master data replication must match what is already present in the ByD system, else an error will be thrown during the employee replication process.

Conversely, if the time administration integration is not scoped, the time administrators have full control over the time profile in ByD – assignment of time models, time account rules etc. The administrator can create own time profile entries in the Time file. The time data part of the master data replication request is ignored.

The integration of the time recording entries themselves with an external system does not require any business configuration – this can be performed in two ways –
ODATA – you can create custom ODATA web services using the ODATA modeller on the Employee Time business object, SOAP – using the Manage Employee Times web service bundled with the Time administration Communication Scenario