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How to Sync HRIS Data from Namely

How to sync HRIS data from Namely

Jared Ellis avatar
Written by Jared Ellis
Updated over a week ago

What can I learn from this page?

How to sync HRIS data from Namely

Who is this guide for?

Account Admins

📌 Note: Namely 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.

How to Integrate with Namely

Culture Amp can import all your employee data directly from Namely using the Reports object from the Namely API. 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 Account Administrator) or automatically on a daily basis.


Step 1: Create a Custom Report in Namely

Create a Report in Namely that has your required fields. At a minimum you must include:

  • Name: available in the report under the Add Column section. In the report this will appear as the Full Name column.

  • Email: available in the Add Column section.

  • User Status: available in the Add Column section.

  • Departure Date: available in the Add Column section.

  • Reports To Email: available in the Add Column section.

You can also add any other columns you wish to use as demographics such as Department, Gender, or Country. Other columns we recommend to get the most out of the platform are Preferred Name (profiles_preferred_name), Date of Birth (DOB) and Start Date (Start Date). Date of Birth and Start Date will be used for generating Age and Tenure Demographics.

Important things to check:

  • First Name and Last Name: When you first create a report it will include the First Name and Last Name columns which you will need to remove in favor of using the Name field which a minimum requirement

  • Employee number: Only include the Employee Number field if you populate it within Namely. If you don't use this field in Namely, Culture Amp will use the Namely ID of each employee as their Culture Amp Employee ID in order to match user records across syncs.

  • Language: You can also include Language (Native Language) if you wish to set a preferred language for your employees. Please do not include the 'Language' column as this will be read as a string of text and will not accurately set employees' preferred languages.

Finding Your Report ID:

To set up your Namely integration, you’ll need the report identifier for your custom report. To get this information, access your custom report as normal. In your browser URL bar, you'll see information similar to https://acme.namely.com/reports/123-1af2-4ha. The Report ID number we need is the 123-1af2-4ha information located at the end of the URL


Step 2: Create a Personal Access Token

To create a Personal Access Token in Namely:

  1. Log in to Namely as the user account that you wish to use for the key creation. Best practice is to use an account that only has access to the data fields that you wish to sync.

  2. Ensure this account has access to the custom report you created in the previous step.

  3. Click on your Profile image in the top right corner of the window

  4. Select API

  5. Select Personal Access Tokens

  6. Enter a token name into the text field and Select Create

  7. Copy the value of the Personal Access Token created which will be in the form of 333e42ef58a08755f84aa4877399ca355639829d. Have this ready to paste into the Culture Amp platform as part of Step 3.

Ensure the user account you use to create a Personal Access Token is not SSO-enabled, otherwise, the sync will fail with the error message "Invalid access token provided.".

More information about the Personal Access Token is available in the Namely Developers Portal in the Permanent Access Tokens section of the Authentication article.


Step 3: Add the Integration in Culture Amp

Once you have the Namely report configured, navigate to the Settings > Data integrations page in the Culture Amp platform. Here you can enter the Subdomain (you can find this in the URL when accessing Namely; It's the acme in, http://acme.namely.com), Personal Access Token that you have copied during the Step 2 and Report ID.

During set up in Culture Amp, you have the option to decide if you want to enable automatic syncs, and set a contact email address that will be sent notifications if there are any issues with the integration.

You will also need to configure the integration with the same Date Format you use in Namely. You can find this under Profile > Settings. For example, if you use ISO 8601 (year/mm/dd) in Namely, set the Date Format selector to the same value in Culture Amp. Make sure that this format is consistently used in Namely for all dates that you want to sync into Culture Amp (e.g. start date, end/departure date, date of birth).


Step 4: Sync Your User Data

You're now able to sync your user data into Culture Amp. Namely data will replace the data that is in Culture Amp for the users that are included in the report and deactivate the users that are not in the report.

If you have enabled daily syncs, we recommend running a manual sync after setting up your integration to confirm everything is syncing correctly. You’ll be prompted to do this when you save your integration. You can run a manual sync at any time by navigating to your Settings > Users > Import Users page, or via the sync button on the Settings > Data integrations page.

Once you have started a manual sync, Culture Amp will step you through the same verification process as if you were uploading your data manually via the Import Users process. After you have reviewed your data and clicked import, the sync will run in the background and could take anywhere from a couple of seconds to a few minutes.


Add Your Hierarchy

Once your integration has been successfully set up, the process of adding hierarchy to your account is quite easy! The steps to add hierarchy to your account can be located via our Add your hierarchy guide.


Troubleshooting Integration Issues

The first step when investigating HRIS 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.

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 Termination 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 as a former employee 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.

📌 Note: 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 are treated as deactivated instead, just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support Conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist and we can adjust the default setting.

Sync Blocked due to Swapped Employee IDs

Your sync might be blocked if Culture Amp suspects that one of your employees may have had their details mixed up with another.

If a combination of an employee's Name, Date of Birth, Email or Employee ID are changed, the sync may be blocked. This is to prevent an employee 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.


💬 Need further help? Just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support Conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.

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