Migrate from Paychex to Bullhorn ATS & CRM

Paychex Workers map to Bullhorn Candidate records (representing job seekers and placed contractors) and Bullhorn Contact records (representing client-side hiring managers or internal HR contacts). We use the Worker's email address as the dedupe key. Employment status (active, terminated, on-leave) maps to Bullhorn Candidate status values. The Worker's hire date, start date, and termination date migrate as date fields on the Candidate record for staffing agencies tracking tenure.

Paychex company departments and org hierarchy map to Bullhorn Department records (internal structure) and Corporation records (client or parent organization representation). We extract the full department list with parent-child relationships and map to Bullhorn's CorporateCorporation and Department entities. Bullhorn's Corporation entity represents the employing or client organization and is required before Candidates can be placed against JobOrders.

Paychex Compensation records (pay rates, pay frequency, salary histories, rate types: hourly, salaried, commission) have no native Bullhorn equivalent and must be stored in a Bullhorn custom object. We configure a CompensationHistory custom object with fields for payRate, payFrequency, rateType, effectiveDate, and salaryAmount. Workers with multiple compensation changes over time generate one custom object record per change event, preserving the pay history timeline. This mapping requires Bullhorn Support to create the custom object on Bullhorn ATS (2 available) or Front Office Growth/Enterprise (10 available) editions.

Paychex health insurance, dental, vision, and voluntary benefit enrollments with effective dates and carrier information map to a Bullhorn BenefitsEnrollment custom object. We extract enrollment records with coverage type, carrier, plan name, and effective/termination dates per Worker. Bullhorn ATS editions limit the number of custom objects available: ATS Growth has 0, Bullhorn ATS has 2, and Front Office Growth/Enterprise has 10. We scope custom object creation during discovery to ensure the required objects (Compensation, Benefits, Retirement, PTO, TaxWithholding) fit within the edition limit.

Paid time off current balances, accrual rates, and policy settings per Worker map to a Bullhorn PTOBalance custom object. Custom accrual policies that vary by employee type in Paychex are extracted as policy records with the Worker's assigned policy ID linked. Note that Bullhorn does not natively process PTO requests or accrual calculations; this custom object preserves the historical balance snapshot for HR reference or for import into a replacement HRIS system.

Paychex W-4 equivalents, state tax ID mappings, and locality withholding codes per Worker map to a Bullhorn TaxWithholdingConfig custom object. This preserves the tax election snapshot (federal filing status, allowances, additional withholding, state elections) as a reference record. Bullhorn does not process payroll tax calculations; this record serves as documentation for the customer's replacement payroll provider to reference during setup.

401(k) enrollment status, contribution percentages, employer match configurations, and historical contribution totals per Worker map to a Bullhorn RetirementPlan custom object. Paychex partners with specific custodians; we extract the custodian name, account status, contribution history summary, and match rate. This record is preserved for HR audit purposes or for the customer's new retirement plan administrator to reference during rollover or new enrollment.

WC class codes, rate configurations, and coverage policies stored at the company level in Paychex map to a Bullhorn WorkersCompCoverage custom object. We extract the policy details (carrier, policy number, class codes, premium) and link to the applicable Worker records. This supports staffing agencies placing workers in roles with specific workers' comp requirements, where the placement record in Bullhorn can reference the coverage custom object.

Historical payroll runs containing gross pay, deductions, net pay, and employer tax contributions are extracted per pay period and stored in a Bullhorn PayrollRegister custom object linked to the Worker. We chunk historical registers chronologically to manage API volume. Note that payroll register history is typically large (one record per pay period per Worker), so we scope this carefully: most migrations preserve the current-year register plus the prior-year annual summary rather than multi-year detail.

Paychex Custom Fields created at the company level and assigned to Workers require a two-step extraction: enumerate field definitions first, then pull values per Worker. The extracted values map to Bullhorn Custom Fields on the Candidate entity. Bullhorn allows custom fields on all entities (Candidate, Contact, Corporation, JobOrder, Opportunity, Placement) with field types including text, number, date, dropdown, checkbox, and picker types. We configure the field type mapping during schema design.

Hours worked, overtime, and time-off requests stored per Worker per pay period in Paychex map either to Bullhorn Placement records (for staffing agencies tracking contractor hours against placements) or to a custom object (TimeTrackingEntry) for agencies that need detailed historical hours data. We determine the appropriate target based on whether the customer uses Bullhorn Placements as the billing anchor for contractors.

Paychex stores onboarding documents (I-9, offer letters, direct deposit forms, signed acknowledgments) per Worker. We extract document metadata (type, filename, upload date) and map to Bullhorn ContentDocument records linked via ContentDocumentLink to the corresponding Candidate record. Document content (PDFs) is downloaded from Paychex and uploaded to Bullhorn's document repository tied to the Candidate. Bullhorn's resume parsing populates Candidate text fields; supporting documents attach separately.