Workday Financial Management and Stampli integration

What moves between them

Supplier and purchase order master records flow from Workday into Stampli via CSV files uploaded to SFTP. Stampli's approval workflow enriches and validates invoices against PO lines, then exports approved invoice and payment files back to SFTP. ml-connector polls Workday every 15-30 minutes for new supplier and PO changes, uploads those as CSV to Stampli's inbound directory, then polls Stampli's outbound directory on the same interval for approved invoice and payment exports. Once invoices are downloaded, ml-connector transforms them into Workday journal entry format, maps GL accounts and worktags to the matching Workday dimensions, and submits the entries into Workday's general ledger via SOAP. The cycle repeats on the defined schedule, typically daily or weekly depending on invoice volume.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector stores both credential sets encrypted: Workday's ISU credentials for SOAP and Stampli's SFTP credentials. Workday polling uses date-range filters to fetch only records modified since the last run, minimizing data transfer and tenant-level rate risk. For suppliers and POs, ml-connector builds a CSV in Stampli's standard format and uploads it to SFTP's inbound directory. Stampli's internal sync reads the files and enriches them with approval workflows. When invoices are approved, Stampli exports CSV or XML files to its outbound SFTP directory. ml-connector polls the outbound directory, downloads new files, parses GL account mappings, validates that mapped GL accounts and worktags exist in the Workday tenant, and constructs SOAP Journal Entry requests for submission. Each invoice carries its full lineage: source file name, download timestamp, account mappings applied, and submission result. Rate limiting is not applicable to SFTP file transfer, but Workday's SOAP tenant may throttle if polling intervals fall below 5 minutes. ml-connector implements exponential backoff on transient SFTP connection failures and logs all successes, failures, and transformations for audit.

A real-world example

A mid-market global manufacturer operates Workday Financial Management across multiple legal entities and cost centers. The company purchases raw materials and services from a global supplier base managed in Workday, and receives hundreds of invoices per week from those suppliers. Before Stampli integration, invoices arrived by email or paper, were manually matched to POs in Workday, routed through a spreadsheet approval workflow, and re-keyed into Workday's accounts payable ledger. With Workday and Stampli connected through ml-connector, suppliers and PO line items flow automatically into Stampli for approval matching. Once approved, invoices and their GL account assignments flow back into Workday's journal entries without manual re-entry. Month-end close is accelerated because invoices are pre-matched and validated before GL posting, and the supplier master in both systems stays in sync.

What you can do

• •Sync Workday suppliers and purchase orders to Stampli via SFTP CSV files for approval workflow matching.
• •Map and post approved invoices from Stampli back into Workday's general ledger as balanced journal entries.
• •Validate GL accounts and worktags in Workday before submitting invoice journal entries.
• •Poll on a configurable schedule with full audit trail on every file uploaded, downloaded, parsed, and submitted.
• •Handle SFTP file transport and Workday SOAP/REST authentication, with exponential backoff on transient failures.

Questions

How does data move between Workday and Stampli without a public API?

Stampli does not expose a public REST API; third-party integration uses SFTP with CSV or XML file templates only. ml-connector polls Workday on a 15-30 minute interval for supplier and PO changes, uploads CSV files to Stampli's inbound SFTP directory, then polls the outbound directory for approved invoice exports. Once downloaded, ml-connector parses the invoice files, maps GL accounts to Workday dimensions, and submits journal entries via SOAP.

What happens if an invoice GL account does not exist in the Workday tenant?

ml-connector validates all GL account mappings against the Workday tenant before submission. If a GL account is missing, the record is logged as a validation failure and the invoice is not posted. Correcting the account mapping in Stampli and re-exporting the file triggers a retry on the next poll cycle.

How does ml-connector handle Workday's lack of native webhooks?

Workday Financial Management publishes no webhooks or change-data-capture stream, so ml-connector uses polling with date-range filters on Get operations. Polling every 15-30 minutes balances data freshness against tenant rate-limit risk, since intervals shorter than 5 minutes may trigger Workday's throttling.