Time Connector
Biometric attendance data into SAP SuccessFactors
Your people punch in and out many times a day: short breaks, missed punches, moves between sites. Left unpaired, that data does not survive the trip to payroll.
Who it's for
Three conditions
You run SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and SAP SuccessFactors Time Tracking. Time Tracking is live, with the time valuations you pay against already configured. And you have SAP Integration Suite, the integration service on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), SAP's own platform for extending its products, because that is where Time Connector runs. It is a Raptors-built integration: it takes the raw punches your devices record, pairs them against each employee's planned schedule, and writes completed attendance records into Time Tracking. Your tenant stays the system of record.
What it does
Six things Time Connector does
Unpaired punches are closed
A clock-in with no clock-out cannot be valued, so it sits as a gap until someone chases it. Time Connector closes it after a number of days you set, with the code SAP SuccessFactors designates, so the record reaches payroll as a record. The manager is notified when the punch is missed, before that day arrives.
Only the punches that matter
The first clock-in and the last clock-out of the day are kept; the punches between them are ignored; payroll has no use for them. If an early clock-out was recorded for a short break and a later valid clock-out follows, the earlier one is dropped and the later one stands, so the pair is kept current through the day.
Punch type read from the schedule
Some devices record a punch without knowing whether it is an in or an out. Time Connector classifies it against the employee's planned working hours, so the record is typed before it is written. A punch that maps to no schedule at all is counted as overtime rather than discarded.
Grace periods and rules you set
Early arrivals and late departures inside a window you define are not flagged as anomalies, and the window can differ by job role. Mapping rules are configurable for cases specific to your organisation. Grace periods are held in a configuration object inside SAP SuccessFactors, where your team already works.
More than one source of punches
Punch data can arrive from time-recording machines, from mobile applications and from third-party systems, and the same pairing runs on all of it. A workforce spread across several sites does not need the same device everywhere, and a site without a machine can still punch.
Employees see their own hours
Each employee can see their check-ins, check-outs and total working hours on their own SAP SuccessFactors profile, as the punches arrive. Someone who forgot to punch submits an attendance request through the system, instead of being caught by the missed-punch process and deducted for a day they worked.
Where it sits
Between your devices and your tenant
Time Connector runs on SAP Business Technology Platform, beside your SAP SuccessFactors tenant rather than inside it. Raw punches land in a punch store from your machines, mobile applications and other systems. Time Connector reads them from there, pairs them, and writes the completed records to Time Tracking and back to the store. Your tenant holds the record of what was worked.
From device to payroll
Six steps between a punch and a payroll line
Every punch goes through six steps between the device and the payroll line. The first one runs every ten minutes by default, and the interval is yours to set.
Retrieval
The latest punches are pulled from the punch store on the set interval, from every source that feeds it.
Classification
Each punch is typed as an in or an out against the schedule already assigned to the employee, including where the device could not tell.
Pairing
The first in and the last out of the day are kept and paired. A later valid clock-out replaces an earlier one recorded for a break.
Alert
The manager is notified when a punch is missed or an anomaly is found. Which events notify, and whom, is configurable.
Closure
A punch still unpaired after the number of days you set is closed with the code SAP SuccessFactors designates for it, so no record is left open.
Write to Time Tracking
Typed, paired records are written into SAP SuccessFactors Time Tracking and back to the punch store, and appear on the employee's own profile.
From there, SAP SuccessFactors Time Tracking values the paired record against the time valuations you already configured, and that valued time is what payroll reads. Time Connector's job ends at the record. What the record is worth is decided where it always was.
Questions
Five things people ask first
Which devices does it work with?
Punches can come from time-recording machines, mobile applications and third-party systems, and the pairing is the same for all of them. Whether the machines you already have on site are among them depends on how they store and hand over their punches, which is a setup question. Bring the device list to the call and we will tell you plainly.
What happens when a machine goes offline?
While it is offline, no punches from it reach Time Connector. When it comes back online, the punches it recorded during the outage are sent on to the punch store and mapped to their schedules in the usual way. The day is completed late rather than left open.
Our shifts cross midnight.
A shift scheduled from one evening into the next morning is treated as one shift, not split across two calendar days. A clock-out a quarter of an hour after the scheduled end is recorded inside that shift, on the day the shift belongs to.
An employee forgot to punch. What happens to their pay?
The employee submits an attendance request through the system. That keeps them out of the missed-punch process and out of a deduction for a day they worked. A punch that is never paired is closed after the number of days you set, using the P30-P20 code that SAP SuccessFactors designates for the case, so no record is left open, and the manager was notified when the punch was missed.
We are still implementing SAP SuccessFactors. Is it too early?
No. Time Connector needs Time Tracking live with its time valuations configured, so it is designed in during the implementation and switched on when that point is reached, with grace periods set by job role from the start rather than added afterward. Punches recorded before that point can be classified afterward, wherever the punch and schedule history exists.
Show us a week of your punch data
A call with the team that built Time Connector. Bring the devices you run and a week of punches, and we walk through how each one would be typed, paired and closed against your schedules.