BambooHR Core Workflow A — Employee Management & Reports

Overview

Primary BambooHR workflows: CRUD operations on employees, directory sync to external systems, custom reports, and table data (job history, compensation, emergency contacts).

Prerequisites

• Completed bamboohr-install-auth setup
• BambooHRClient from bamboohr-sdk-patterns
• API key with appropriate permissions (read or read+write)

Instructions

Step 1: Add a New Employee

// POST /employees/ — minimum: firstName + lastName
const newEmpRes = await fetch(`${BASE}/employees/`, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { Authorization: AUTH, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    firstName: 'Sarah',
    lastName: 'Chen',
    department: 'Engineering',
    jobTitle: 'Backend Engineer',
    workEmail: 'sarah.chen@acmecorp.com',
    hireDate: '2026-04-01',
    location: 'San Francisco',
    status: 'Active',
  }),
});

// New employee ID is in the Location header
const locationHeader = newEmpRes.headers.get('Location');
// e.g., "https://api.bamboohr.com/.../v1/employees/456"
const newId = locationHeader?.split('/').pop();
console.log(`Created employee ID: ${newId}`);

Step 2: Update Employee Fields

// POST /employees/{id}/ — only send fields you want to change
await fetch(`${BASE}/employees/${newId}/`, {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { Authorization: AUTH, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    jobTitle: 'Senior Backend Engineer',
    department: 'Platform Engineering',
  }),
});

Fields that trigger position history changes: jobTitle, department, division, location, reportsTo. Updating these creates a new row in the employee's position history table.

Step 3: Directory Sync to External System

interface SyncResult {
  created: number;
  updated: number;
  deactivated: number;
  errors: string[];
}

async function syncBambooHRDirectory(
  onSync: (emp: BambooEmployee, action: string) => Promise<void>,
): Promise<SyncResult> {
  const result: SyncResult = { created: 0, updated: 0, deactivated: 0, errors: [] };

  // Fetch full directory
  const { employees } = await client.getDirectory();

  // Use the "changed since" endpoint for incremental sync
  // GET /employees/changed/?since=2026-03-20T00:00:00Z
  const changedRes = await client.request<Record<string, { lastChanged: string }>>(
    'GET', `/employees/changed/?since=${lastSyncTimestamp}`,
  );

  for (const [empId, meta] of Object.entries(changedRes.employees || {})) {
    try {
      const emp = await client.getEmployee(empId, [
        'firstName', 'lastName', 'workEmail', 'department',
        'jobTitle', 'status', 'hireDate', 'terminationDate',
      ]);

      const action = emp.terminationDate ? 'deactivated' : emp.status === 'Active' ? 'updated' : 'created';
      await onSync(emp as any, action);
      result[action as keyof SyncResult]++;
    } catch (err) {
      result.errors.push(`Employee ${empId}: ${(err as Error).message}`);
    }
  }

  return result;
}

Step 4: Custom Reports

// POST /reports/custom?format=JSON — pull arbitrary field combinations
const headcountReport = await client.customReport(
  ['department', 'division', 'jobTitle', 'hireDate', 'status', 'location'],
  { lastChanged: { includeNull: 'no', value: '2025-01-01T00:00:00Z' } },
);

// Aggregate by department
const deptCounts = new Map<string, number>();
for (const emp of headcountReport.employees) {
  const dept = emp.department || 'Unassigned';
  deptCounts.set(dept, (deptCounts.get(dept) || 0) + 1);
}

console.log('Headcount by Department:');
for (const [dept, count] of [...deptCounts.entries()].sort((a, b) => b[1] - a[1])) {
  console.log(`  ${dept}: ${count}`);
}

Step 5: Saved Reports

// GET /reports/{reportId}?format=JSON — run a saved report from BambooHR
const savedReport = await client.request<{
  title: string;
  employees: Record<string, string>[];
}>('GET', '/reports/42?format=JSON');

console.log(`Report: ${savedReport.title}`);
for (const row of savedReport.employees) {
  console.log(row);
}

Step 6: Employee Table Data

BambooHR stores structured data in "tables" — each employee has rows in tables like jobInfo, employmentStatus, compensation, emergencyContacts.

// GET /employees/{id}/tables/{tableName} — read table rows
const jobHistory = await client.getTableRows(123, 'jobInfo');
// Returns array: [{ date, jobTitle, department, division, location, reportsTo }, ...]

const compensation = await client.getTableRows(123, 'compensation');
// Returns: [{ startDate, rate, type, reason, comment }, ...]

const emergencyContacts = await client.getTableRows(123, 'emergencyContacts');
// Returns: [{ name, relationship, phone, email }, ...]

// POST /employees/{id}/tables/{tableName} — add a new row
await client.addTableRow(123, 'emergencyContacts', {
  name: 'John Smith',
  relationship: 'Spouse',
  phone: '555-0100',
  email: 'john@example.com',
});

Available table names:

Output

• New employees created with auto-assigned IDs
• Employee fields updated with position history tracking
• Directory sync with incremental change detection
• Custom and saved reports with aggregation
• Table data CRUD for job history, compensation, contacts

Error Handling

Resources

• BambooHR Create Employee
• BambooHR Table Fields
• BambooHR Field Names

Next Steps

For time off and benefits workflows, see bamboohr-core-workflow-b.