Which direction does data move between SAP Business One and Workday HCM?

The main flow is from Workday HCM into SAP Business One. Worker records, compensation data, and supplier invoices move from Workday into SAP Business One for GL posting and AP processing. GL transactions in SAP Business One require local approval workflows, so ml-connector does not write GL entries back to Workday.

How does the integration handle Workday's lack of webhooks and OAuth token expiry?

ml-connector polls Workday on a fixed schedule (aligned to payroll cycles for workers and compensation, weekly for suppliers). It refreshes the OAuth access token before each Workday call, tracking the 60-minute expiry window and using the long-lived refresh token to obtain a new access token without re-authentication. Retries on HTTP 429 are backed off using the Retry-After header.

How are GL dimensions and supplier invoices matched between the two systems?

Worker records are synced first to ensure cost centers and GL dimensions exist in SAP Business One before payroll accruals are posted. Supplier invoices from Workday are matched against existing SAP Business One purchase orders by supplier name and document number, ensuring every AP entry references a valid GL account and cost center. Records that fail to match are logged in the audit trail for manual review.

SAP Business OneWorkday HCM

SAP Business One and Workday HCM integration

SAP Business One manages purchasing, inventory, and finance in a small-to-midsize manufacturing or wholesale business. Workday HCM runs workforce management and payroll in the cloud. Connecting the two keeps your supplier master in sync, GL accounts reconciled, and payroll accruals posted automatically into SAP Business One without manual re-keying. Worker changes in Workday stay in sync with SAP Business One dimensions, and supplier invoice records from Workday procurement flow into Accounts Payable.

How SAP Business One works

SAP Business One exposes purchase orders, invoices, suppliers, GL accounts, cost centers, dimensions, items, and journal entries through OData v4 REST endpoints at each customer's Service Layer instance. Authentication uses either a session token (30-minute expiry with reuse recommended) or OAuth 2.0 where the customer has IAM configured (v10.0 FP 2305+). The platform supports webhooks for Create/Update/Delete events in v10.0 FP 2602+ if the server-side Webhook Messenger Service is activated, but polling with UpdateDate filters is the default. Because SAP Business One is deployed on-premise, each customer provides their own base URL, and the API does not publish a global shared endpoint.

How Workday HCM works

Workday HCM surfaces workers, positions, organizations, compensation, suppliers, purchase orders, invoices, payments, GL accounts, and cost centers through SOAP and REST APIs. Workday REST API uses OAuth 2.0 with a 60-minute access token expiry and long-lived refresh token, while SOAP uses WS-Security with an Integration System User account. Financial data such as suppliers, invoices, and GL accounts requires the SOAP API only. Workday does not support native webhooks, so integrations must poll on a schedule (minimum 5 minutes recommended). HTTP 429 rate-limit responses include a Retry-After header. API versions release twice per year, and integrations must track deprecation notices.

What moves between them

The integration reads worker and compensation data from Workday HCM on a schedule aligned with payroll cycles and pulls supplier and invoice records on a weekly schedule. Worker records are written to SAP Business One as business partners with cost center and department mappings so payroll accruals post to the correct GL accounts. Supplier invoices from Workday are matched against SAP Business One purchase orders and posted as documents in Accounts Payable. GL postings for payroll accruals flow one direction only, from Workday into SAP Business One, since GL transactions in SAP Business One require local approval workflows.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector refreshes Workday OAuth tokens before each call and retries on HTTP 429 (rate limit) with exponential backoff aligned to the Retry-After header. On the SAP Business One side, it reuses the Service Layer session token across multiple requests to avoid the 5-second cold-start penalty and validates the session (retrying with fresh login if error code -5002 is returned). Worker records are mapped first to ensure cost centers and GL dimensions exist in SAP Business One before posting payroll GL entries. The integration polls Workday on a schedule, since Workday provides no native webhooks, and it uses UpdateDate filters where available to pull only records changed since the last run. Supplier invoice records from Workday do not support date-filtered incremental extraction, so these are polled completely and deduplicated by the invoice document number in SAP Business One before posting.

A real-world example

A regional wholesale distributor runs SAP Business One for procurement and finance on a local server, and Workday HCM for payroll and HR in the cloud. Before the integration, the AP team received supplier invoices from Workday each week and manually created corresponding invoice records in SAP Business One, while the finance manager updated cost centers in SAP Business One when Workday compensation structures changed. With Workday HCM and SAP Business One connected, supplier invoices flow directly from Workday into AP without re-entry, worker cost center assignments sync automatically when Workday compensation is updated, and payroll accruals post into the GL on schedule. The AP team reclaims 3-4 hours per week, and the finance close process starts with supplier and GL records already aligned.

What you can do

Sync workers from Workday HCM into SAP Business One as business partners with matching cost center and department dimensions.
Post payroll accrual GL entries from Workday compensation data into SAP Business One's general ledger on a payroll schedule.
Poll supplier and invoice records from Workday HCM and create corresponding AP documents in SAP Business One, deduplicated by invoice number.
Authenticate Workday with OAuth 2.0 refresh tokens and SAP Business One with session token reuse, handling expiry and retry on rate limits.
Poll Workday on a fixed schedule with UpdateDate filters where available, and track audit trails for every record moved or rejected.

Questions

Which direction does data move between SAP Business One and Workday HCM?: The main flow is from Workday HCM into SAP Business One. Worker records, compensation data, and supplier invoices move from Workday into SAP Business One for GL posting and AP processing. GL transactions in SAP Business One require local approval workflows, so ml-connector does not write GL entries back to Workday.
How does the integration handle Workday's lack of webhooks and OAuth token expiry?: ml-connector polls Workday on a fixed schedule (aligned to payroll cycles for workers and compensation, weekly for suppliers). It refreshes the OAuth access token before each Workday call, tracking the 60-minute expiry window and using the long-lived refresh token to obtain a new access token without re-authentication. Retries on HTTP 429 are backed off using the Retry-After header.
How are GL dimensions and supplier invoices matched between the two systems?: Worker records are synced first to ensure cost centers and GL dimensions exist in SAP Business One before payroll accruals are posted. Supplier invoices from Workday are matched against existing SAP Business One purchase orders by supplier name and document number, ensuring every AP entry references a valid GL account and cost center. Records that fail to match are logged in the audit trail for manual review.

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