Payroll integrates with four things in most organisations: time and attendance for hours, HR for people and changes, finance for the journal, and pension or benefit providers for contributions. Each fails in a characteristic way, and knowing which way lets you design the check that catches it.
Hours in, which fails on timing
The hours integration is the highest volume and the one where errors are hardest to spot, because a wrong number looks exactly like a right one. The characteristic failure is timing: a correction arriving after the extract has run. Fix the cut off, make the transfer explicit rather than continuous, and reconcile the totals before the run.
People in, which fails on identity
The HR to payroll feed fails when the same person exists differently in the two systems, typically a rehire, a person with two contracts, or a name change. Decide which system owns identity and make the other follow it. Duplicate records are the visible symptom and are painful to unwind after a pay run.
Journals and provider files, which fail quietly
The finance journal and the pension file are produced after the run and nobody looks at them until something does not balance. Reconcile the journal to the payroll totals every period and confirm provider submissions were accepted rather than merely sent. Both are five minute checks that prevent quarter long investigations.
Questions people ask about payroll software integration
Should integrations be real time?
For payroll, rarely. Explicit scheduled transfers around a cut off are easier to control and to reconcile than continuous sync.
Who owns an integration?
A named person, because connectors break when either product changes. Unowned integrations fail silently.
Is a file transfer good enough?
Frequently yes, and a reliable file with a reconciliation beats a fragile live connection nobody monitors.