Sage Intacct and BambooHR integration

What moves between them

Employee records and org structure flow from BambooHR into Sage Intacct. New hires, terminations, and employment status changes in BambooHR are polled or received via webhook and mapped to Sage Intacct dimensions tied to cost centers and GL accounts. BambooHR webhook payloads are lightweight, so ml-connector fetches full employee details with a follow-up GET request after receiving a webhook. The sync runs on a schedule tied to your payroll calendar and business processes in Sage Intacct. Sage Intacct dimensions are read-only in the direction of this flow; ml-connector does not write back to BambooHR.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector manages two separate credential systems: it maintains a Sage Intacct XML session cache keyed on senderId, companyId, and userId (refreshing every 50 minutes); and it stores BambooHR OAuth tokens and refresh tokens encrypted, automatically refreshing when a call returns 401 (Access Token Expired). Because Sage Intacct serializes all operations through a single XML gateway, ml-connector batches requests where possible to minimize round trips. BambooHR requires explicit field enumeration, so ml-connector pre-computes the fields parameter for employee and status queries. BambooHR webhooks are optional; if enabled, ml-connector validates the SHA-256 HMAC signature and fetches full employee details before mapping. Both systems use HTTP POST for authentication: Sage Intacct requires parsing XML response bodies for application-level errors (not HTTP status), and BambooHR may return 503 with Retry-After, so ml-connector respects both. Employee records are mapped to Sage Intacct dimensions by department, location, and role so cost allocation to GL accounts happens automatically on payroll posting. Every record carries a full audit trail and can be replayed if a dimension lookup fails.

A real-world example

A mid-sized professional services firm runs Sage Intacct for financial accounting and project costing, and uses BambooHR for employee records and compensation. Before the integration, the finance team manually reviewed BambooHR for new hires and org changes each pay cycle, then logged into Sage Intacct to update cost center dimensions and GL account assignments. This manual sync meant cost allocations were sometimes out of sync with current org structure, and month-end close required chasing differences between HR headcount and the labor accounts in the ledger. With Sage Intacct and BambooHR connected, each new hire, termination, or org change in BambooHR flows into Sage Intacct dimensions automatically, and the firm's cost allocation always reflects current workforce structure.

What you can do

• •Sync employee records and org structure from BambooHR into Sage Intacct dimensions and cost centers so payroll GL posting allocates to current workforce.
• •Keep Sage Intacct headcount and department dimensions aligned with BambooHR employment status changes, new hires, and terminations.
• •Map BambooHR employee attributes (location, role, department) to Sage Intacct GL accounts and cost centers so revenue and cost reporting reflects current org structure.
• •Authenticate Sage Intacct with session-based XML credentials and BambooHR with OAuth 2.0, automatically refreshing both when they expire.
• •Accept optional BambooHR webhooks for real-time employee lifecycle events while supporting polling as a fallback when webhooks are not configured.

Questions

How does ml-connector handle the different authentication layers between Sage Intacct and BambooHR?

Sage Intacct uses XML session-based auth with senderId, userId, and companyId, which ml-connector caches for 50 minutes and auto-refreshes. BambooHR uses OAuth 2.0 with per-customer subdomains; ml-connector stores the OAuth tokens encrypted and refreshes them when a call returns 401. Both are managed independently, so a session expiry in one system does not affect the other.

Can ml-connector receive real-time updates from BambooHR or does it only poll?

ml-connector supports both. If you enable BambooHR webhooks (employee.created, employee.updated, employee.deleted), ml-connector validates the SHA-256 HMAC signature and fetches full employee details immediately. If webhooks are not configured, ml-connector falls back to polling on a schedule tied to your payroll calendar.

Why does ml-connector require explicit field enumeration for BambooHR employee queries?

BambooHR API requires clients to specify which fields to return via the fields parameter (up to 400 per request). ml-connector pre-computes the correct field set for employee records and status data so all necessary attributes are retrieved in one request without missing employment status or compensation history fields that are versioned tables, not single values.