How the Rotaready-Paycircle integration works

Rotaready is the source of truth for employee and rota data. When you make changes in Rotaready, such as approving an employee, updating their details, or signing off a rota, the integration automatically sends that data to Paycircle in real-time.

This means your team only needs to manage employee information in one place. Rotaready handles the data, and Paycircle receives it ready for payroll processing.

Understanding how each event works helps ensure smooth payroll processing and clarity on where to make updates.

How employee identity works in the integration

The integration links employees between Rotaready and Paycircle using the Rotaready ID. This is the identifier used to match records between the two systems.

Other IDs work as follows:

Payroll ID: Assigned by Paycircle when the employee is created.
HMRC Submission ID: Assigned by Paycircle, either from initial payroll setup if one is provided or allocated automatically.
Employee number and HR ID: These fields in Rotaready are for your own reference and are not used by the integration.

What data transfers: Event types

User Approved Event

Triggered when an employee is approved in Rotaready. This creates the employee record in Paycircle.

New starters: If the start date falls within the current pay period and all required fields are completed, the employee will be automatically marked as complete in Paycircle.
Existing employees: May require additional information to be added manually in Paycircle, such as a tax code or year-to-date values.

📌Note: Employees must be approved in Rotaready before they will appear in Paycircle or on the mapping screen.

User Updated Event

Triggered when an employee's details are changed in Rotaready. This updates the following in Paycircle:

Personal details (name, date of birth, gender, title).
Address.
Bank details.
National Insurance number.
Starter declaration.
Job title.

Validation

The integration validates data against Paycircle requirements. If validation fails, the event will show as failed on the Rotaready Updates page and will need to be corrected in Rotaready before retrying.

Employment Event

Triggered when changes are made to an employee's employment record in Rotaready. This updates the following in Paycircle:

Employment start date.
Employment leave date.

📌Note: Employee number is a Rotaready-only field and is not used by the integration.

Restrictions

Some changes are blocked if the employee has already been submitted to HMRC. The integration will raise an error in these cases; the change will need to be handled manually in Paycircle.

Leaver Details

When a leave date is added in Rotaready, the following transfers to Paycircle automatically:

Employment leave date.
Leaver reason.
Leaver notes.
Whether holiday allowances have been finalised.

Leaver Holiday Pay

Final holiday pay transfers automatically when the holiday allowance is finalised in Rotaready. Ensure the automatic finalisation setting is enabled, or finalise allowances manually before the leaver's final pay run.

Appointment Event

Triggered when changes are made to an employee's appointment in Rotaready, such as site, department, or payroll calendar. This updates the employee's site/department and payroll calendar in Paycircle.

Restrictions

If an employee is moved to a site, department, or payroll calendar that is not linked to their current Paycircle company, the event will fail. This scenario requires manual intervention using the Paycircle Payroll Mover feature.

Rota Sign-off Event

Triggered when rota days are signed off in Rotaready. This imports the time and attendance data into Paycircle for payroll processing, including:

Shifts and hours worked.
Hourly rates.
Daily rates.
Fixed pay elements.

⚠️Important! Each signed-off day generates one event in Paycircle. Rota data will only appear in Paycircle once it has been signed off in Rotaready.

Rota Sign-off Reversed Event

Triggered when sign-off is reversed for a day in Rotaready. This removes the corresponding shift data from Paycircle.

The reversal process removes all data for the affected pay period and re-imports only the dates that are still signed off. This ensures Paycircle always reflects the current signed-off state in Rotaready.

📌Note: This is expected behaviour. If you reverse sign-off to make corrections in Rotaready, simply sign off again once the changes are complete, and the updated data will flow through to Paycircle.

Data validation rules

The integration validates all incoming data. If any of the following rules are not met, the event will fail and must be corrected in Rotaready before retrying.

Personal details

First name and surname are required.
Date of birth must be provided and cannot be more than 100 years in the past.
Title defaults to 'Ms' if not specified.
Gender defaults to 'Female' if not specified.

Contact information

Email address must be in a valid format.
Addresses must use a valid UK postcode format.
National Insurance number must follow the correct format: 2 letters, 6 numbers, 1 letter (e.g. AB123456C).

Employment details

Starter declaration defaults to 'B' if not specified.

Financial information

Bank details require both a valid sort code (6 digits) and a valid account number (8 digits).
Student loan plan information transfers if provided.
Tax code is assigned based on the starter declaration.

How the integration pauses and resumes

The integration automatically pauses when a pay period moves into a calculated state in Paycircle. This prevents data conflicts during payroll processing.

When the pay period moves out of the calculated state, the integration resumes automatically
Any events received during the pause are queued and processed in chronological order
No manual intervention is required

🤓Tip: If events are not processing, check whether the pay period is currently in a calculated state before investigating further. This is the most common reason for events appearing to be stuck.

Items managed separately

Some data types are managed outside the integration to give you more control over how they're processed:

TRONC Payments: TRONC is managed separately from standard payroll. Export TRONC data from Rotaready as a CSV and import it into Paycircle.
Unpaid Absence: Unpaid absence for salaried staff should be entered directly in Paycircle.
Salaried Holiday: Holiday for salaried employees does not generate a separate pay element — salaried employees receive their salary regardless of holiday taken. No action is needed in the integration.
Journal / Cost Attribution: If costs need to be split across different nominal codes or GL codes, this requires manual journal entries or month-end accounting adjustments.
HMRC Submission ID: The HMRC Submission ID is managed in Paycircle. If you need to track IDs across systems, you'll need to maintain a record of Rotaready ID, Paycircle Payroll ID, and HMRC Submission ID.