Migrate from HR Director to BambooHR

HR Director's Employee record maps directly to BambooHR's Employee record. The Employee object is the primary record; all other objects (compensation, absence, documents) link to it via the employee ID. We extract standard fields (name, date of birth, start date, employment status, job title, department, location, work email, work phone, address) and map them to the BambooHR employee field API names. Employment status in HR Director uses a status field; BambooHR's employmentStatus is read-only via the standard API and must be updated via the employmentStatus table, which we handle separately during import sequencing.

HR Director's Organisation-level fields (company name, registration number, address, logo) map to BambooHR's company-level profile settings and Locations. BambooHR does not have a standalone Company object separate from Employee; organisational hierarchy is represented through Departments and Locations attached to employee records. We create Location records in BambooHR that correspond to the HR Director organisation's registered addresses, and we map the primary company address to the BambooHR company profile.

HR Director's departmental structure maps to BambooHR's Department field on the Employee record. We preserve the full department hierarchy (parent department, sub-department) by creating department records in BambooHR before employee import so that the department assignment on each employee record can reference a valid parent. Department name is the dedupe key during import.

HR Director compensation records (effective salary, pay frequency, currency, pay effective date) map to BambooHR's payRate and payRateEffectiveDate fields on the Employee record. We sequence compensation records by effective date and import the most recent effective entry as the current pay rate. Historical compensation records beyond the current rate are documented as a compensation history note in BambooHR's employee record because BambooHR does not natively store a compensation history timeline. We flag any future-dated compensation changes for reconfiguration in BambooHR's payroll settings rather than importing them as historical records.

HR Director absence records (leave type, start date, end date, status, days taken, notes) map to BambooHR's Time Off entries. We extract current PTO and holiday balances and import them as accrual balances in BambooHR's Time Off system, creating Time Off types that correspond to HR Director's leave categories (annual leave, sick leave, parental leave). BambooHR's Time Off policy editor defines entitlement rules; we document every entitlement rule from HR Director as a written configuration guide so that the customer's admin can recreate the rules in BambooHR rather than importing them as data. Balances are imported as seed values against each policy.

HR Director's statutory and contractual holiday entitlement maps to a dedicated Holiday Time Off type in BambooHR. We import the contracted holiday allowance (typically 20-28 days plus bank holidays in the UK context) as the entitlement amount for the UK statutory holiday policy in BambooHR. The customer configures bank holiday dates in BambooHR's Time Off settings; we provide a checklist of the relevant UK bank holidays for the current and prior year.

HR Director emergency contact records (name, relationship, phone number, email) map to the Emergency Contact section on the BambooHR Employee record. We import each emergency contact as a separate entry linked to the same employee record. Relationship values are mapped to BambooHR's allowed relationship types; any HR Director values not supported by BambooHR are flagged for admin review.

HR Director employee documents (contracts, ID copies, right-to-work documents, qualifications, certifications) map to BambooHR's Files section attached to the Employee record. We import documents as file attachments via the BambooHR file upload API, preserving the original file name and attaching it to the correct employee record. Document categories in HR Director map to BambooHR file categories (Contract, Personal, Benefits, Performance). Binary file upload requires chunking for files over 5 MB; we handle this with multipart upload sequencing.

HR Director custom employee attributes (uniform size, certifications, visa status, union membership, etc.) map to BambooHR custom fields created via the Custom Field Builder before migration. We identify all HR Director custom fields during discovery, create equivalent BambooHR custom fields with matching types (short answer, list, checkbox, date), and then import values during the employee migration phase. BambooHR's Custom Field Builder supports short answer, long answer, list (single-select), checkbox, date, file upload, and employee-type fields. Custom fields are scoped per module, so a field relevant only to HR records is created in the HR Data module.

HR Director employment history entries (previous job titles, department changes, location changes, promotion dates) do not map to a native BambooHR object. BambooHR tracks the current job title and start date but does not maintain a native employment history timeline. We document each employment change event (promotions, transfers, title changes) as a note on the employee record in BambooHR with the date, change type, and relevant detail. For customers who require a full audit trail, we create a custom Job History object with fields for change date, previous title, new title, previous department, new department, and change reason.

HR Director benefit plan enrolments (health, dental, pension/401k) map to BambooHR's Benefits Administration module on the Pro and Elite tiers. Benefit elections (plan type, coverage tier, employee contribution, employer contribution, effective date) are imported as benefit records on the employee. BambooHR's Benefits Administration supports open enrollment workflows and life event processing; we seed current benefit elections and document the plan structure for the customer's admin to configure in BambooHR's Benefits settings. Benefits Administration is an add-on on Core tier.

HR Director approval chains on absence requests, new hire onboarding, and payroll runs do not migrate as configured rules to BambooHR. We document every active approval chain during discovery: the triggering event, the approver(s), any conditional routing, escalation path, and notification settings. This is delivered as a written inventory that the customer's HR admin uses to rebuild equivalent rules in BambooHR's Workflows and Approvals app. BambooHR workflows support approval chains with conditional routing, delegation, and reminders.