Exact Online and Workday HCM integration

What moves between them

The main flow runs from Workday HCM into Exact Online. After each payroll cycle, ml-connector reads Workday's accounting-journal entries and labor-cost GL documents via SOAP and posts them into Exact Online's general ledger, mapped to the correct GL accounts and cost centers from Exact Online's master data. Worker records flow in the same direction so Exact Online headcount reflects Workday hires, terminations, and role changes. Cost centers and organizational hierarchies are aligned in both directions so payroll allocations land on valid Exact Online dimensions. GL postings are read-only in Workday, so ml-connector never writes financial entries back into payroll.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector stores both credential sets encrypted: the OAuth2 tokens for Exact Online (refreshing at the 10-minute boundary before expiry) and the WS-Security credentials for Workday SOAP calls. On the Exact Online side it works with region-specific base URLs per customer and uses the division ID from the /api/v1/current/Me endpoint to scope all queries. Workday SOAP lacks webhook support, so ml-connector polls the accounting-journal and GL endpoints on a schedule tied to your payroll calendar and uses date filters to pull only new postings since the last run. Cost centers and organizational hierarchies are fetched first via both APIs and mapped together, ensuring every payroll line references a GL account and cost center that already exists in Exact Online. Workday rate limits return HTTP 429 with Retry-After headers; ml-connector backs off and retries. The OAuth2 refresh token for Exact Online must be refreshed at least once every 30 days or the user must re-authorize. Every record carries a full audit trail and can be replayed if a downstream call fails.

A real-world example

A mid-sized logistics company operates across three EU countries using Exact Online for accounting and AP/AR management, with Workday HCM for global payroll and workforce management. Before the integration, finance spent 2-3 days each month extracting payroll GL postings from Workday, translating cost-center allocations to Exact Online's regional chart of accounts, and re-entering the labor totals by hand into the general ledger. With Workday HCM and Exact Online connected, each payroll run's GL postings flow automatically into Exact Online, allocated to the correct regional GL accounts and cost centers, and employee hires and terminations keep the two systems aligned. Month-end close begins with labor accounts reconciled, and manual re-keying is eliminated.

What you can do

• •Post Workday HCM payroll GL documents into Exact Online's general ledger, allocated to cost centers and regional GL accounts after every pay run.
• •Keep Exact Online employee records aligned with Workday HCM hires, terminations, and role changes.
• •Map Workday cost centers and organizational hierarchies to Exact Online's GL dimensions so payroll allocates to valid accounts.
• •Authenticate Exact Online via OAuth2 with 30-day refresh-token rotation and Workday HCM via SOAP WS-Security with ISU credentials.
• •Poll Workday on a payroll schedule with date filters, retries on HTTP 429 backoff, and full audit trail on every GL posting.

Questions

How does ml-connector handle Exact Online's region-specific endpoints and division IDs?

ml-connector accepts the region base URL and fetches the division ID from Exact Online's /api/v1/current/Me endpoint at initialization, then scopes all subsequent API calls to that division. Region selection (Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Germany, France, Spain, or USA) is configured per customer during setup. The division ID must be refreshed if the user changes divisions.

Why does Workday HCM financial data require SOAP instead of REST?

Workday exposes workers and positions via REST, but GL accounts, supplier invoices, payments, and accounting journals are available only through SOAP Web Services (WS-Security UsernameToken with Integration System User credentials). ml-connector uses SOAP for financial reads and REST for workforce data, switching auth methods as needed. This split reflects Workday's architecture where financial and procurement endpoints are SOAP-only.

How does ml-connector work around Workday's lack of webhooks?

Workday does not support native webhooks, so ml-connector polls the accounting-journal and GL endpoints on a schedule tied to your payroll calendar (typically weekly or biweekly). It uses date filters to pull only new postings since the last run, reducing API load. HTTP 429 rate-limit responses include Retry-After headers, which ml-connector respects with exponential backoff. Every record is logged with timestamps for audit compliance.