What can I learn from this page? | How to import employee data from Dayforce to Culture Amp with step-by-step integration setup, syncing details, and troubleshooting tips. |
Who is this guide for? | Account Admins |
📌 Note: Dayforce uses our full import process. When your data syncs, any employees not included in your data file will become inactive as former employees, with their End Date set to the import date. See: Importing your user data to Culture Amp for more information.
Culture Amp can import your employee data directly from Dayforce. The set-up process is straightforward and can usually be completed in one sitting without technical support. You can set up your integration to sync data manually (as triggered by an admin user) or automatically daily.
Before You Begin:
Within Dayforce, you will need to create a role and a user that has access to the required data, as well as create a report that contains the data you would like to import into Culture Amp. Please follow the instructions below to get started.
Register for a Dayforce developer account as this is required to access the Dayforce documentation. The Dayforce Support Article can be found here.
Configure a user/role in Dayforce with the relevant permissions required to read the information from the Dayforce web services.
📌 Note: Culture Amp will be using RESTful post and patch operations to access the data in Dayforce (any configurations for SOAP services can be ignored, configurations that impact SOAP and RESTful services should be followed)
Allow List
Approve Culture Amp's IP addresses to ensure smooth integration with Dayforce. If these IPs are blocked, the integration will fail.
For setup details, see the Dayforce Guide here.
Step 1: Create a Report
Create a report that contains all the employees and demographics you want to import into Culture Amp. For the integration to match employees and core fields, if any of the fields below are included in your report, they must be named exactly as they are in the list below:
Name
Preferred Name
Employee Id
Email
Date of Birth
Start Date
End Date
Language
Manager Email
Manager
Performance Rating
We recommend that you start with our Employee Data File Template. Make a copy of this document, then follow these steps to ensure you’ve formatted it correctly.
📌 Note:
Culture Amp only requires permission to get (read) information from Dayforce.
If you plan to create a hierarchy or already have a hierarchy enabled, every employee except one must be assigned a manager using a unique manager identifier (e.g., Manager Email or Manager ID)
Step 2: Connect Dayforce (formerly Ceridian) and Culture Amp
Sign in to Culture Amp with an account that has Account Administrator access.
Navigate to your Settings > Data Integrations page in the Culture Amp platform. Select the dayforce Logo.
Enter the Dayforce Company Name Space, Username, Password, and ReportId, and select Validate Details
The Company Namespace is the same as the value that is entered on the Dayforce log-in screen in the company field.
The report Id is the id of the report you created above and is located in Dayforce on the report properties screen under the General tab in a field called Report Integration Name
The username and password are the username and password of the user you created above
You now have a connection between Dayforce and Culture Amp. If you cannot validate the connection, please ensure you are using the correct company ID and that you have submitted a request to Dayforce to allow Culture Amp access to your company details.
Step 3: Set Sync Settings and Save
We recommend leaving daily syncs disabled for now. The best practice is first to do a manual sync where you get to review how the imported data will change your existing employee data before confirming you would like to commit those changes. After you have confirmed that data is importing correctly, you can enable daily syncs.
Enter the email address of a person that should be contacted in case of any integration errors.
Select the Save settings to save the integration
Step 4: Manually Sync Data
You can now sync your user data into Culture Amp, which replaces the old data in Culture Amp with the new data from Dayforce (formerly Ceridian).
Even if you have turned on auto-syncs, we strongly recommend running a manual sync after setting up your integration to confirm everything is working correctly. You’ll be prompted to do this when you save your integration. Otherwise, you can run a manual sync by navigating to the Settings > Data Integrations page and clicking the Sync Button or via your Settings > Users > Import Users.
From here, Culture Amp will step you through the same verification process as if you were uploading users via the Import Users process. Once you’ve reviewed your data and clicked Import data, the sync will run in the background and could take anywhere from a couple of seconds to a few minutes. No data will be imported until you click 'Import data.'
Troubleshooting Integration Issues
Switching From CSV Uploads to the Integration
Switching From CSV Uploads to the Integration
If you already have existing data in Culture Amp as a result of doing CSV uploads or using a different integration, then there are a few things to pay attention to:
When doing your first sync via the Dayforce integration, you could see errors related to matching employees. Please review the troubleshooting information in Duplicate employees in Culture Amp section below.
If your additional demographics have a different name in Dayforce than they are currently titled in Culture Amp, they will be created as a new demographic after your first sync. We would recommend keeping this in mind if you trend results in surveys for demographic groups over time. When you run your next survey, you can reach out to the Culture Amp product support team to do a once-off mapping of the previous demographic name to the new demographic name from Dayforce. To avoid confusion from users about which demographic to use, we would recommend navigating to the Settings > Account Demographics page and deleting the old demographics after your first sync (this will not impact any previous survey results or comparisons).
Duplicate Employees in Culture Amp
Duplicate Employees in Culture Amp
Culture Amp will match employees in Dayforce to employees in Culture Amp based on the employee's email address. If the same employee has a different email address in Culture Amp and Dayforce, duplicate employees will be created in Culture Amp. To reconcile the duplicates, please follow the steps below.
Resolving Duplicates Before Changes Have Been Applied to Culture Amp
Resolving Duplicates Before Changes Have Been Applied to Culture Amp
Feedback on all employees to be created/updated/deactivated will be provided on the ‘Review’ screen during the first sync. Ideally, you would then abort the sync and update employee emails in Culture Amp to match Dayforce data.
In Culture Amp, employees' email addresses can be updated via a user modal: Go to the Users page and click on the name of the employee you want to update, then update the employee's email. Repeat for all duplicated employees. After that, you can try integration sync again.
Resolving Duplicates After Changes Have Been Applied to Culture Amp
Resolving Duplicates After Changes Have Been Applied to Culture Amp
If you did not address the duplicates on the first sync and duplicate employees have been created, it is possible to resolve the duplicates by:
Deactivate the newest employee and remove the email from it, e.g., by assigning a fake ID/email to allow saving.
Update existing user records to match employee emails in Dayforce. This will allow us to retain the history of the existing employee record.
Handling of Inactive Employees
Handling of Inactive Employees
During an HRIS sync, all employees (active and inactive) may be imported (depending on your custom report logic).
If an employee has a past End Date they will be made inactive in Culture Amp as a former employee. If an employee has a future Termination Date they will be made inactive in Culture Amp upon that date (Note: some HRIS do not support future Term dates). Any updates to inactive employees, such as a changed end date or any other update to demographic information, may be applied during the sync. If an employee is active in Culture Amp but not present in your HRIS report, they will be made inactive in Culture Amp as a former employee. This is because the data is processed using our Full Import process.
The default behavior for users left off your HRIS sync file is to set their end date to the import date, categorizing them as former employees. If you prefer that these users be treated as deactivated instead, just contact Culture Amp Support, and we can adjust the default setting.
Sync Blocked to Protect Employee Privacy
Sync Blocked to Protect Employee Privacy
Your automated daily sync might be blocked if Culture Amp suspects that one of your employees may have had their details mixed up with another. You will receive a notification of this via email.
If a combination of an employee's Name, Date of Birth, or Email is changed, the sync will be blocked. This is to prevent an employee from accidentally getting access to another employee's private information, such as performance reviews.
If you've intentionally changed the employee's details, you can run a manual sync to push through the change. Simply click 'Import data' from the Users page and select Sync. Culture Amp will guide you through the rest.
Investigating and Resolving Any Data Issues
Investigating and Resolving Any Data Issues
Once the first integration has been performed, and integration history has been created, the first step when investigating data issues is to check the import summary for your most recent import. This will provide information about the state of your integration.
To find this information, go to Account Administration > Import History and select your most recent import.
If there was a problem with your last import, you will either be able to view errors on this page or you will be prompted to run a manual sync to identify any problems.
💬 Need help? Just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support Conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.