Using the Employee synchroniser

The Employee Synchroniser is designed to capture records from an HR or payroll system and, using key data fields (employee and site), populate your Ideagen Workforce Safety system by allocating each employee and their personal records to the correct employee record and also assigning them to their correct site.

It can be used for:

Initial import of all employees
Scheduled updates as often as required

Accepted file types:

Full employee files
Changes only (delta files)

Typical process:

Initial population is by full upload
Ongoing updates can be delta files or full files

⚠️ Note: The Synchroniser settings are only visible and editable to the “superadmin” user. For security purposes, the superadmin default password should be changed and kept secure.

⚙️ Configure Employee Synchroniser

1️⃣ Log in

Log into the Ideagen Workforce Safety Database.

Click the settings icon
Select Settings

2️⃣ Select Synchroniser

Choose Synchroniser – Employee from the Settings page.

3️⃣ Determine Data to Import

Decide what Employee data you want to import from your HR or Payroll system.
Refer to the Employee Data Table to ensure supported fields.

4️⃣ Extract Data into CSV

Extract Employee data from your master database in the prescribed format.
The file name must begin with employee and end with .csv.
- Example: employee_31JUN2010.csv
Save the file in a known network location.

5️⃣ Enter Notification Email

Enter the email address for Synchroniser – Employee notifications.
This can be unique for each synchroniser function.

6️⃣ Notification Preferences

Choose whether to receive:

Error notifications only
Error and success notifications

7️⃣ Specify File Settings

Provide:

Number of columns in your CSV file
CSV Quote character
CSV Separator
If your file has a title row

8️⃣ Map CSV Columns

Match columns to your CSV file fields.

9️⃣ Save Settings

Save your settings (generally no changes needed after first setup).

🔟 Upload via FTP

Use an FTP application to send your file to:

FTP Host: ftp.platinumsafety.com
FTP Port: 21
FTP User: YOURCOMPANYNAME
FTP Password: A unique password provided when subscribing

Note:

Secure FTP is supported via port 22
These details are shown to superadmin in setup

👤 Employee Data Configuration

Employee Setup

The synchroniser supports Employees and two additional optional Other Person Types (e.g., Students and Visitors).

These “Other Persons” have identical fields to employees and can also be synchronised.
For each additional type, create a separate CSV file in the same format and capitalization shown in the setup window.

Example files:

Employee_freetext.csv
Student_freetext.csv
Visitors_freetext.csv

FTP details are the same for all files.

⏱️ Activation

After uploading CSV files to FTP, the scheduled task runs daily at midnight (AEST).
Process window: Midnight to 4 AM.

If no errors:

Changes are applied to the Ideagen Workforce Safety database
CSV file is deleted

If errors:

Changes are rolled back
CSV file is deleted
Full error list emailed to the nominated address
Correct errors and resubmit the file the next day

✅ Data Field Mapping

Every mapped field must have an entry in the CSV (even if blank).
Required fields are shown in red bold text in the Employee Data Table.

Table 1. - Data fields

Damstra Safety field name	Synchroniser Picklist fields	CSV format parameters (# of characters)
Employee No.	EMPLOYEE NO	Alphanumeric (50)
First Name	FIRST NAME	Alphanumeric (64)
Middle Name	MIDDLE NAMES	Alphanumeric (64)
Last Name	LAST NAME	Alphanumeric (64)
Gender	GENDER	Male, Female OR Leave blank (unspecified):
Email Address	EMAIL ADDRESS	Alphanumeric (100)
Site (by name)	SITE (BY NAME)	Use Site by name if the site names in your CSV file match the site names in the Damstra Safety...
..or.. Site (by ID)	SITE (BY CODE)	...otherwise use Site (by CODE)
Shift	SHIFT	Alphanumeric (40)
Department	DEPARTMENT	Department: Alphanumeric (255)
Position	POSITION	Job Position: Alphanumeric (255)
Supervisor	SUPERVISOR BY EMPLOYEE NO.	Supervisor : Alphanumeric (100)
Key Appointments checkbox	SUPERVISOR CHECK	Supervisor : Check (0/1)
Key Appointments checkbox	MANAGER CHECK	Manager : Check (0/1)
Key Appointments checkbox	INVESTIGATOR CHECK	Investigator : Check (0/1)
Hire Date	HIRE DATE	DD/MM/YYYY
Employment Ceased	EMPLOYMENT CEASED DATE	DD/MM/YYYY
(Employment Ceased) Archive	EMPLOYMENT CEASED DATE (ARCHIVED)	DD/MM/YYYY
Date of birth	DOB	DD/MM/YYYY
Home Phone	HOME PHONE	Alphanumeric (30)
Work Phone	WORK PHONE	Alphanumeric (30)
Ext	WORK EXTENSION	Alphanumeric (10)
Mobile Phone	MOBILE PHONE	Alphanumeric (30)
Contact Street Address	CONTACT STREET ADDRESS	Alphanumeric (64)
Contact Suburb	CONTACT SUBURB	Alphanumeric (64)
Contact City	CONTACT CITY	Alpha numeric (64)
Contact Area Code	CONTACT AREA CODE	Alphanumeric (30)
(Emergency Contact) Name	NOK NAME	Next of Kin Full name: Alphanumeric (100)
(Emergency Contact) Address	NOK ADDRESS	Next of Kin Full address: Alphanumeric (256)
(Emergency Contact) Home	NOK HOME PHONE	Next of Kin: Alphanumeric (30)
(Emergency Contact) Work Phone	NOK WORK PHONE	Next of Kin: Alphanumeric (30)
(Emergency Contact) Mobile	NOK MOBILE PHONE	Next of Kin: Alphanumeric (30)
(ALT) Name	ALTERNATE NAME	Alternate Contact Full name: Alphanumeric (100)
(ALT) Address	ALTERNATE ADDRESS	Alternate Contact Full address: Alphanumeric (256)
(ALT) Home Phone	ALTERNATE HOME PHONE	Alternate Contact: Alphanumeric (30)
(ALT) Work Phone	ALTERNATE WORK PHONE	Alternate Contact: Alphanumeric (30)
(ALT) Mobile Phone	ALTERNATE MOBILE PHONE	Alternate Contact: Alphanumeric (30)

❓ FAQ's - Employees

Q. What happens if I run a full CSV file of all employees on an existing database ?
A.The Synchroniser will only update records that have changed.

Q. What happens if I run a CSV file of changes only on an existing database ?
A.Any changed records will be updated - all other data will remain intact as it was prior to updating.

Q. What will happen If an existing employee has had a change of name, site, position or other information ?
A.The new information will show after the Synchroniser has run.
If the employee has been assigned a new site, then they will appear at that new site. Only the information that has been changed will be updated.
Any additional information will be added.

Q. If an employee has not been assigned a site ?
A.They will appear in all sites.

Q. Do I need to build departments in Damstra Safety's Organisation Structure the same as is required for sites
A.No. Departments (and job positions) are universal lists in Damstra Safety that are automatically imported as part of the sync process.

Q. If an employee has not been assigned an employee number ?
A.None of the Synchroniser changes will be committed to the database.

Q. What happens if an employee has change of Employee number ?
A.A new employee record will be added - the old record will be retained and must be removed manually.

Q. If some employee fields have not been provided in the CSV ?
A.Those fields will not have values in the Damstra Safety database after synchronisation e.g. if an employee has a Home Street address in Damstra Safety, but the next CSV file to action has no data in the street field, then the street will be removed from the Damstra Safety database.

Q. If some employee fields have duplicate/identical primary key values i.e. they are not unique records ?
A.The synchroniser will run both records in order. The first records details will be overwritten by the second record.

Q. Do I need to do a Damstra Safety database backup ?
A.No. Damstra Safety Cloud service does a daily backup of your data on your behalf.

Q. Can I change an employee record in the Damstra Safety if the Synchroniser is trying to change that record ?
A.Yes - the Damstra Safety will reflect the entry which is most current.

Q. My master database records are not in the same format as the Damstra Safety fields ?
A.The update will not be successful - the CSV must match all the Damstra Safety field parameters.

Q. My master database records has a new site which has not been added to the Damstra Safety database ?
A.The update will not be successful - the CSV must match all the Damstra Safety field parameters - this includes spelling capitalisation, or site ID if synchronising by Site code.