Integrating with Advanced Workforce Management

MYOB Advanced supports integration between MYOB Advanced Payroll and MYOB Advanced Workforce Management (WFM). Once this integration has been set up, data can be shared between the two systems:

When employees are created in MYOB Advanced WFM, matching employee records are automatically created in MYOB Advanced Payroll.
Timesheet data entered in MYOB Advanced WFM can be imported into MYOB Advanced Payroll and included in pay runs. For companies in New Zealand, where a record of employees’ work schedules can be kept and used for leave calculations, employees’ standard hours and scheduled hours can also be imported, so that their work schedules are updated automatically.

Integration is supported in MYOB Advanced 2021.1.2 or later.

Integration is also possible in MYOB Advanced 2020.8 and 2021.1.1 via a customisation. Contact MYOB Professional Services for setup advice.

Preparing to integrate

Setting up MYOB Advanced Payroll

Enable the Workforce Management feature

On the Enable/Disable Features screen (CS100000), enable the "Work Force Management" feature.

The “Work Force Management” feature can’t be enabled if the “Employee Self-Service” feature is enabled and vice versa.

The Work Force Management Setup screen (MYSM2050) lets an administrator set up the integration details between MYOB Advanced companies and MYOB Advanced WFM. This screen is available to the admin user only and is not available on menus.

API keys are generated and managed by MYOB and will be set up by the MYOB implementation team.

Set employee defaults

The Workforce Management Preference screen (MPAT1010) lets you set default values for employees’ details that aren’t brought across by the integration:

The screenshot above shows the Workforce Management Preferences screen for Australian companies—in New Zealand, some of the fields differ:

These settings must be configured before syncing employees from Advanced WFM.

The ACC Levy Exempt field is read-only. For it to be populated, you must have set up a 0-rated ACC levy code on the ACC Rates screen (MPPP3011).

Importing employees

If you are integrating MYOB Advanced WFM with an existing MYOB Advanced Payroll installation, you can export employees from the MYOB Advanced Payroll system via an export scenario and import them into MYOB Advanced WFM from the Settings > Importers > Import Employees screen. See Importing employees via Excel/CSV on the MYOB Advanced WFM Help Centre for information on the import file specification.

Ensure that all employees have their pay details set up before exporting—employees without pay details will not be included in the export file.

To import employees into MYOB Advanced Workforce Management

In MYOB Advanced Payroll, use the export scenario to generate the Excel file with employee information.
Download the file.
In MYOB Advanced WFM, go to Management and choose Settings.
On the Settings screen, click IMPORTERS.
On the Importers screen, click EMPLOYEES. The Employee Importer screen opens.
At the bottom right of the screen, click Next.
Upload your Excel file.
Review the employee information.

Some fields only exist in MYOB Advanced WFM, which means information for those fields can’t be exported from MYOB Advanced Payroll. For details on mapping these fields, see the online Employee Importer mapping page, where the Comments column mentions if a field is only for MYOB Advanced WFM.
Save your changes.

The export file contains visible personal information for the exported employees. It’s important that you’re aware of your obligations for handling sensitive employee information in Australia and New Zealand, and that you have a process for the data transfer that ensures you meet these obligations.

The exporter includes an externalId field. When employees are exported from MYOB Advanced Payroll and imported into MYOB Advanced WFM, this field is used to stop the employee being synchronised back to MYOB Advanced Payroll.

Things to considering exporting and importing

Fields set to TBD or Unknown

After exporting from MYOB Advanced Payroll, some fields might be set to TBD or Unknown, as MYOB Advanced Payroll doesn’t store the data for those fields. You need to review these fields, then export again. This affects different fields for Australian and New Zealand companies.

	Fields set to...
Region	TBD	Unknown
Australia	AUSuperFundEmail – You can find this on the super fund’s website. bankInstitutionName – You can find this by searching for it on Google.	visaDetails – You can check with the payroll manager. If they don’t know, they need to ask the employee for this information. visaNumber – You can check with the payroll manager. If they don’t know, they need to ask the employee.
New Zealand	N/A	NZKsIneligibilityReason NZKsLateOptOutReason NZKsLateOptOutReasonOtherExplanation

AUZoneRebate field

Australian companies only. If the employee claims special tax offsets, set this field to True. The payroll manager needs to review the zone rebate and map to zone A, B, or S based on the distance from the nearest town. For more information, see the ATO website.

Bank accounts

When exporting from MYOB Advanced Payroll, the exporter only exports one balance account for a bank account—even if there are multiple bank accounts.

Updating fields in MYOB Advanced WFM

After importing into MYOB Advanced WFM, you need to manually review and update some fields, as MYOB Advanced Payroll doesn’t store this data:

locationId
positionId
ReportingTold
payRuleId
payLevelId

Pay items

A Workforce Management section is available on the Pay Items screen (MPPP2210):

The options in this section affect how the pay item will be used by MYOB Advanced WFM:

Available to Workforce Management – ticking this box indicates that the pay item will be available as a pay type in MYOB Advanced WFM.
Indicates working day (New Zealand only) – this check box is available for pay items with the “Income” type. Ticking this box indicates that any time associated with this pay item should be treated as a working day.

If you want to use the rate supplied by MYOB Advanced WFM for this pay item, select Current Pay under Override Value on the Additional Info tab, and select Use Custom Rate on the Calculation Method tab.

Entitlements

Entitlements in MYOB Advanced Payroll can be made available to leave types in MYOB Advanced WFM (see Setting up MYOB Advanced WFM. The existing options available under Self-Service on the Entitlements screen (MPPP3300) also apply to MYOB Advanced WFM:

Show Leave Balances – when this check box is ticked, the entitlement will be available for selection in MYOB Advanced WFM.
Show Projected Leave Balances – when this check box is ticked, employees will be able to see their projected balance for the entitlement when requesting leave in MYOB Advanced WFM.

(NZ only) Employee definition of a week

An “Employee Schedule - Standard Hours” option is available in the Definition of a Week dropdown on the Pay Details screen (MPPP2310). When this option is selected for an employee, their definition of a week will be determined by their Standard Hours, which are set up in MYOB Advanced WFM. A Standard Hours column is visible on the Employee Work Schedule screen (MPPP2260) to show the Standard Hours for each employee (if there are any):

Employees’ Standard Hours and Scheduled Hours values can be pulled into MYOB Advanced Payroll from MYOB Advanced WFM in one of two ways:

When importing timesheet data—see Importing Timesheet Batches.
By using the Employee Work Schedule Import screen (MPPP2261):

Select one or more employees and click Import Work Schedules (or click Import All Work Schedules) to import Standard Hours and Scheduled Hours from the specified date ranges for the selected employees.

You can use the Schedules button on this screen to set up a schedule so that employees’ work schedules are updated automatically.

Setting up MYOB Advanced WFM

To enable data to be imported from MYOB Advanced WFM to MYOB Advanced Payroll, records in MYOB Advanced WFM must be set up with data that maps them to records in MYOB Advanced Payroll.

(NZ only) Set default KiwiSaver employer contribution

Before creating employees, the Default KiwiSaver employer contribution must be set in MYOB Advanced WFM at Management > Settings > Company Settings.

To map pay types

Pay types in MYOB Advanced WFM are mapped to pay items in MYOB Advanced Payroll. When setting up a pay type, enter the ID of the pay item that it maps to into the External Mapping field:

The Calculate in Payroll option determines what rate will be applied to hours with this pay type when they are imported into MYOB Advanced Payroll:

If ticked, any MYOB Advanced WFM rate is ignored. The rate associated with the pay item in MYOB Advanced Payroll is always used.
If not ticked, the MYOB Advanced WFM rate is used. If there is no MYOB Advanced WFM rate, the rate associated with the pay item in MYOB Advanced Payroll is always used.

For New Zealand companies, when mapping leave pay items, the Calculate in Payroll option behaves differently depending on the leave type:

FBAPS leave pay items always work as described above.
Annual leave pay items never use the MYOB Advanced WFM rate. So, for annual leave pay items, we recommend ticking Calculate in Payroll.

To map leave types

Leave types in MYOB Advanced WFM are mapped to entitlements in MYOB Advanced Payroll. When setting up a leave type, all entitlements that have the Show Leave Balances option ticked will be available for selection in the Service Type field. Select the entitlement that the leave type maps to here:

For Australian companies, only entitlements with units in Hours are supported for integration with MYOB Advanced WFM at present.

To map cost centres

Cost centres in MYOB Advanced WFM can be mapped to subaccounts in MYOB Advanced Payroll by setting up a data map on the Data Maps screen (MPPP7020). To make this process easier, you can use the Export CSV button on the Cost Centres screen in MYOB Advanced WFM to export a list of cost centres. This list can then be edited to add columns for subaccount mappings and imported into the Data Maps screen.

See the Importing Timesheets white paper on the MYOB Advanced Education Centre for more information on data mapping.

When setting up a cost centre, you can enter the ID of the subaccount that it maps to into the External ID field:

Integrating with Advanced WFM

Importing timesheet batches

1. Import from MYOB Advanced WFM

In MYOB Advanced Payroll Use the Timesheet Batches screen (MPPP7060) pull timesheet data from MYOB Advanced WFM:

Click Import External Timesheets to pull in timesheets from MYOB Advanced WFM. Timesheets are imported from any pay runs in MYOB Advanced WFM that are in the “Finalised” status and have not already been imported.

Importing timesheets from MYOB Advanced WFM has the following effects:

Timesheet data records appear on this screen, and can be imported into the MYOB Advanced Payroll system in the same way as other timesheet/time card data.
For NZ companies, employee’s schedules are updated on the Employee Work Schedule screen (MPPP2260) based on the imported data:
- Data on employees’ shifts is imported into the Scheduled Hours field on their schedules.
- The Working Day checkboxes on employees’ schedules are ticked or cleared as appropriate, according to the days they worked.

You can use the Schedules button on this screen to set up a schedule so that timesheets are imported automatically.

2. Import into MYOB Advanced Payroll pay runs

Once imported from MYOB Advanced WFM, the timesheet data can be imported into pay runs via the Import Timesheets screen (MPPP7030).
Extra columns are available on the Import Timesheets screen to contain extra data that may be included in timesheets from MYOB Advanced WFM:

Holiday start date (NZ companies only) – this column is populated for Annual Leave requests.
Rate – this column will be populated if the data from MYOB Advanced WFM includes a rate (see To map pay types).

Once imported on this screen, you can bring the timesheet data into a pay run in the same way as any other timesheets—see the Importing Timesheets white paper on the MYOB Advanced Education Centre for details.

Synchronising employee records

Once the integration has been set up, any time an employee is created in MYOB Advanced WFM, a matching employee record will be created in MYOB Advanced Payroll. Employees can be created in two ways:

By an employee following the MYOB Advanced WFM onboarding process. When the employee clicks Submit at the end of the process, the information they entered is used to create the employee record in MYOB Advanced.
By a manager clicking the + button on the Management > Employees screen in MYOB Advanced WFM. After the manager completes the Add New Employee form and clicks Add Employee, the information they entered is used to create the employee record in Advanced.

In MYOB Advanced, the employee record is created with the following details:

Employees screen (EP203000)
- The Personal Info, Contact Info and Address Info sections are populated with information entered by the employee during the onboarding process.
- The Employee Settings section is populated with the defaults from the Workforce Management Preferences screen (see page 4).
Pay Details screen (MPPP2310)
- Pay items are added to the employee’s Standard Pay
- Superannuation/KiwiSaver pay items are added to the employee’s Standard Pay where possible—see Synchronising superannuation.
- The Pay Distribution tab is populated with the bank account details entered by the employee during the onboarding process.
- In Australia, the Taxation tab is populated with the TFN declaration details entered by the employee during the onboarding process.
- In NZ, the Definition of Week tab is populated with the employee’s Standard Hours (if they exist).

The employee is initially set to Inactive—the record can be made Active once a payroll administrator has checked the record to make sure that it has all of the necessary information (see Validating the synchronisation).

The employee record is assigned an Employee ID by MYOB Advanced Payroll —this ID is displayed in MYOB Advanced WFM in the Reference field on the employee’s Personal Information tab:

Synchronising superannuation

When an employee is added from MYOB Advanced WFM, superannuation pay items are added to their Standard Pay, as long as pay items that correspond to the employee’s superannuation details exist in MYOB Advanced Payroll. (If corresponding pay items don’t exist, they should be created before syncing employees.)

In Australia, if a pay item exists in MYOB Advanced Payroll for the Super fund that the employee chose during the onboarding process, that super pay item will be added to their Standard Pay.
In New Zealand, if a pay item exists in MYOB Advanced Payroll for the KiwiSaver rate that the employee chose during the onboarding process, that KiwiSaver pay item will be added to their Standard Pay.

In both cases, if there is no pay item in MYOB Advanced Payroll that matches the employee’s superannuation information, an action will be displayed for this on the employee’s Onboarding Actions tab (see Onboarding actions).

Validating the synchronisation

When an employee was added automatically from MYOB Advanced WFM, a WFM Status field is available on the Pay Details screen (MPPP2310):

When the employee is first created, this field is set to “Onboarding”. Once a payroll administrator has reviewed the new employee record and taken any actions necessary (see below), they can change the status to “Onboarded”. The employee’s Status cannot be set to “Active” until their WFM Status is “Onboarded”.

Once the employee is Active, you can include them in pays in MYOB Advanced Payroll and import timesheet data for the employee from MYOB Advanced WFM into MYOB Advanced Payroll.

Onboarding actions

An Onboarding Actions tab is available on the Pay Details screen for employees who were added from MYOB Advanced WFM. This tab displays any actions that a payroll administrator may need to take before activating the employee record, e.g. reviewing settings or adding missing information.

Employee sync issues report

An Employee Sync Issues report is available in MYOB Advanced WFM at Management > Reporting > Employee. This report displays any issues that occurred when MYOB Advanced WFM attempted to send employee information to MYOB Advanced Payroll.

If the sync failed because of a connection or setup issue, click the Sync link in the Actions column to resend the employee information to MYOB Advanced Payroll.

If the sync failed due to errors in the employee’s data, e.g. the employee has the wrong postcode for their country, a manager should update the employee’s record on the Employees screen in MYOB Advanced WFM; when they click Update Employee, the system will resync the employee‘s information with MYOB Advanced Payroll.