Migrate from People First to BambooHR

People First Employee records map to BambooHR Employee. Standard fields (first name, last name, title, department, start date, employment status) have direct equivalents. Because no public People First field schema was confirmed, we require the customer to supply a field inventory before migration mapping is finalised. We apply a type-validation step to catch mismatches (date format, required fields, character limits) before import via BambooHR's POST /employees endpoint.

Department records from People First map to BambooHR Department. We preserve parent-child hierarchy using BambooHR's parentId field where the source hierarchy is available. If the source export flattens the hierarchy into a single parent field, we reconstruct the tree during the transform phase and validate against the BambooHR Department API response.

People First time-off balance data maps to BambooHR Time Off records attached to the Employee. We require the customer to confirm the source accrual model (annual grant vs accrual-based) and map it to the equivalent BambooHR policy type. Accrual history may require truncation if the source exports only current balances rather than a full transaction log; we flag this during discovery and agree on a truncation policy with the customer.

Benefits data referenced in People First maps to BambooHR Benefits Tracking at the Core tier. We flag benefit records for manual verification post-migration because no public People First export schema was found for benefit plan types, enrollment dates, or coverage tiers. The customer provides the People First benefits data export, and we map it to BambooHR's benefit plan fields where a direct equivalent exists.

People First's engagement and recognition records (employee awards, satisfaction scores, recognition events) have no direct BambooHR equivalent object. We map these to a BambooHR Custom Fields section on the Employee record for structured data, or to Note records for free-text recognition history. The customer chooses the strategy during scoping, and we document the chosen mapping in the field inventory handoff.

People First admin and end-user accounts map to BambooHR User records. We extract the user list from the source export, resolve email addresses as the dedupe key, and map role assignments to BambooHR's permission model (Employee, Manager, Admin). Any People First role without a direct BambooHR equivalent is flagged in the inventory for the customer to reassign post-migration.

People First custom fields are not confirmed as accessible via export tooling. If the customer has employer-specific custom fields on Employee or Department, we request a field inventory from People First support or a manual field-level export. Custom fields map to BambooHR Custom Fields on the Employee object (text, dropdown, date, or checkbox type matched during discovery). Fields without a matching BambooHR type are documented in the inventory for manual post-migration re-creation.

Employee documents (contracts, policies, certifications) referenced in People First do not have a confirmed export path. We handle document migration via file-level transfer where the customer can provide a document archive from People First. Documents attach to the corresponding BambooHR Employee record via the Files section. If no archive is available, we document the missing documents in the inventory for manual re-upload.

Active, inactive, and terminated employee statuses from People First map directly to BambooHR Employment Status fields. Termination date, termination type, and eligible-for-rehire flags transfer where present in the source export. We apply BambooHR's required field validation on the status and status-date pair during import.

Job titles and job data from People First map to BambooHR Job records. The Job object in BambooHR stores title, employment status, pay rate, pay type, FLSA status, and EEOC category. We extract job data from the Employee export and create corresponding BambooHR Job entries, linking each to the Employee record via the jobTitleId reference. If People First stores job history (multiple titles per employee), we create multiple Job records and link them chronologically.

Office or work location data from People First maps to BambooHR Location records. Location is used for time-off policy assignment and reporting by geography. If the source export does not include a dedicated location field, we extract it from the employee's address or department metadata and create Location records in BambooHR before the Employee import.

Emergency contact data from People First maps to the BambooHR Emergency Contact section on each Employee record. Fields include name, relationship, home phone, and mobile phone. We include these in the Employee import payload under the emergencyContacts array for the BambooHR API.