SFTP File Upload

Introduction

If you are on a PerformYard Enterprise account, you can set up a recurring SFTP file upload to update and maintain employee data via CSV. SFTP can be used to update data for existing employee accounts, create new employee accounts and, if enabled, deactivate employee accounts for users not found in the CSV file. You must be an Admin in PerformYard to set up this integration.

You can learn more here if you want more information about the PerformYard SFTP integration. Please confirm that the integration is available in your PerformYard account with your Customer Success Manager.

Getting Started

To get started, navigate to the SFTP Setup link in the Administration section of PerformYard and click Add SFTP Integration.

Creating your SFTP Integration

Provide an Integration Name/Description for the integration. This value will be displayed in your Bulk User Logs. Optionally, choose if you want the initial setup to be in Test Mode.

Testing Mode allows for any files uploaded via SFTP to be processed for review. This is useful to ensure the desired data transfer is taking place. Note, that no employee data will be updated when Testing Mode is enabled.  Further, Testing Mode will not be subject to the same limitations of upload periodicity.

Deactivating Missing Employees

If your CSV file will only contain active employees within your company, you may want to take advantage of the Deactivate Users When Not Present option. This feature automatically deactivates any users that aren’t found in the uploaded CSV. This eliminates the requirement for an administrator to manually deactivate users in your account.

The absence of an employee (by email address or backup field) would result in deactivating their account with a termination date matching the CSV upload date. If you select this option, there is a mass deactivation backstop if more than 10% of your users would be deactivated based on a single CSV to prevent accidental bulk deactivation should there be an issue with the CSV. 

Selecting a Backup Field

Optionally, you can define a Backup Field that can be referenced for employee identification behind an email address. By default, PerformYard matches a row in your CSV with an existing employee by the email address value. If you’d like to identify employees based on an additional value, select an associated Employee field to be used as a backup. Assigning a field as a backup will allow you to update the email addresses of your users.

Custom Field Mapping for Employee Fields

By default, PerformYard will match header values in your CSV with Employee data fields for transferring data. You can create a mapping for each header value which has a different name than the associated employee field. For all header values that match the associated employee fields, no action is required. 

About your CSV File and Employee Data

At a minimum, your CSV must include Email addresses but can include any additional data fields you would like to update, as with any standard CSV upload. Once a CSV is uploaded, PerformYard will make updates to existing accounts where the email address has matched. Further, where an email address has not been found to correspond to an existing PerformYard account, a new employee account will be created. If an email address in the spreadsheet corresponds to a previously deactivated account, that account will be reinstated.

Finally, complete the setup by clicking Save.

Sending your CSV via SFTP

Once the initial setup has occurred, you can access the necessary URL to configure your SFTP product to send files to PerformYard. You can click on the name of the SFTP setup in the list to display the file transfer location. Copy this location.


Additionally, save the middle 24 character hexadecimal entry (displayed in bold based the above example - sftp.performyard.com/ 51db13a4dd24292eb9876f40/5f9837718c755500088a5c98/). This will be your username for security purposes. This username, when combined with your password, will be required to transfer files.
Generate your initial password by clicking Generate SFTP Password. Unmask the password by clicking the eye icon. Copy this password. If needed you can generate a new password by clicking Update Password, or disable the use of the password by clicking Disable Password.
Once configured and your organization is sending CSV files to PerformYard via non-test SFTP, PerformYard will process files no more frequently than once every 24 hours. If a prior file has been processed within 24 hours, the file will not be processed. The next file, once past 24 hours, will then be processed. That said, you can still upload files via manual CSV as needed outside of this process.
The email address(es) configured in the setup for the SFTP integration will receive a confirmation email for each upload that will include if the upload was completed, completed with errors, not completed, or if the mass deactivation backstop was triggered. Those emails will direct users to the bulk user logs as needed.

Accessing Bulk User Logs

The bulk user logs, found by selecting Bulk User Logs in the left-hand menu of administration, will display a history of uploads along with the status of each sync.
These logs will include the status of each upload, the name of the integration (in the event you have more than one), and then various counts regarding your employees, along with the completion date. Click any specific log to view its details.
Each log provides content about the upload, including the number of employees with or without updates, as well as those created. You can also access the CSV that was uploaded for a detailed understanding of the file uploaded. The employee list can also be filtered by status (Created, Skipped, Synced, No Updates) as appropriate.