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BambooHR Zapier integrationAutomate BambooHR with Zapier.

The BambooHR Zapier integration gives you 9 triggers, 7 actions and 1 search. This page explains each one in plain words, which two react instantly, what plan you need, how to connect your HR account and where a Zap usually gets stuck, before you open the editor.

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Overview

What the BambooHR Zapier integration does for your HR team

The BambooHR Zapier integration connects your HR records to the rest of your tools, so hires, departures, time off and employee changes move on their own. BambooHR is the HR software many small and midsized companies use to hold their people data; Zapier watches for an event there and acts somewhere else, without code.

Three results HR teams usually build first. An onboarding kickoff: New Employee fires when a record is created, and the next steps can open accounts or tell IT. A clean offboarding: Terminated Employee starts the Zap the moment someone is marked as leaving, so access removal does not wait. Time off without the back and forth: New Time Off Request picks up a request, and Respond to Time Off Request approves, denies or cancels it according to your rule.

The most useful thing to know before you build: only two triggers here are instant, Terminated Employee and Updated Employee. They start the Zap right away on any plan. The other seven wait for Zapier's next check. So if a change in a standard field must reach other tools fast, pick Updated Employee over New Updated Employee (Include Custom Fields Changes), and keep the second one for custom fields.

What Zapier does not do: there is no action to terminate an employee or delete a record, and BambooHR is reserved for paid Zapier plans. To compare the building blocks, see the BambooHR n8n integration and the BambooHR Make integration.

Vocabulary

Zapier vocabulary in one minute

Seven words come back on every line of this page. Here they are once, in ordinary English.

Zap
The automation you build on Zapier: one starting event, then one or more steps that run every time that event happens.
Trigger
The event in BambooHR that starts the Zap, such as a new employee record. Once the Zap is on, Zapier waits for it.
Action
What the Zap does once started: the step that creates, updates or uploads something for you, like a timesheet entry.
Task
The unit Zapier bills. One task is one action the Zap completed successfully; your plan counts those.
Polling vs instant
A polling trigger is checked on a timer for new items. An instant one is pushed by BambooHR the moment it happens.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap continue only when what arrived meets your condition, and quietly stops it otherwise.
Search step
A step that looks up something already in an app, here an employee, so later steps can reuse what it found.
Cost

What a BambooHR Zap really costs

BambooHR is a premium app on Zapier: it does not run on the free plan, only on paid plans and during the free trial. Once you are on one, the bill is counted in tasks.

  • Premium appYes, paid plan or free trial
  • Instant triggers2 of 9, no interval
  • Trigger checksNever billed
  • Failed actionNot billed

The trigger never costs a task, and neither does checking BambooHR for new items, however often Zapier looks. You pay one task each time an action works; an action that fails is not counted. In a Zap with several actions, each successful one counts on its own, so a Zap that creates an employee and uploads a file uses two tasks per run. A filter or a search makes the Zap multi-step, which paid plans allow. The polling interval then depends on your plan, while the two instant triggers ignore it.

Connect

Connect your BambooHR account to Zapier

  1. 01

    Open your connections

    In Zapier, go to the Apps page of your account and click + Add connection. A connection is your BambooHR account linked once, then reused by every step that talks to BambooHR.

  2. 02

    Pick BambooHR

    Type BambooHR in the search box of the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. A new tab opens where you sign in to BambooHR itself, not to Zapier.

  3. 03

    Sign in and allow access

    Log in with a BambooHR user who can see the employees and time off the Zap will touch, then grant Zapier access. Close the tab and the connection appears in your list.

First Zap

Build your first BambooHR Zap

GoalTime off requests that match your rule get an answer in BambooHR on their own.

  1. 01

    Start the Zap

    Start a new Zap in the editor. Search BambooHR in the first card, choose New Time Off Request as the trigger and select your BambooHR connection.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent requests the connected user can approve, so you set up the next steps on a real one.

  3. 03

    Add a filter

    Click the plus icon, choose Filter, then set the field, the rule and the value of your approval rule. Requests that do not match stop here and stay for a person to handle.

  4. 04

    Add the answer

    Add a BambooHR step with Respond to Time Off Request. Put the request ID from the trigger in the Request field as a custom value, then pick the status to send.

  5. 05

    Test and publish

    Test the step on a request you can safely approve, then click Publish. From now on, each matching request gets its answer at the next check.

Triggers

BambooHR triggers on Zapier

9 events start a Zap when something happens in BambooHR, and 2 of them are instant: the app calls Zapier straight away, whatever your plan.

1

New Employee Started

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers on a new employee's start date.”

Waits for the start date written in an employee's record, then sets the Zap off on that day rather than when the profile was typed in.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one.
When to use it
sending a welcome message or adding the person to a team channel on their first day, not on the day HR filled in the form.
Watch out
a wrong start date in BambooHR moves the whole welcome sequence with it.
2

New Employee

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new employee is created.”

Reacts as soon as a new employee record exists in BambooHR, whatever the start date. It is the earliest signal you get that someone is joining.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one.
When to use it
preparing a laptop order, creating accounts or warning a manager well before the first day arrives.
Watch out
if records come in through a bulk import, a large batch can hit Zapier's flood protection and be held back instead of firing one by one.
3

Changed Report (Legacy)

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a company report changes. Works best with reports sorted by a date field in descending order. Use this trigger only for reports BambooHR hasn't yet migrated to its current Report Builder — for those, use "Changed Report" instead.”

Watches a company report built with BambooHR's older report tool and fires when its content changes. Use it only for reports BambooHR has not yet moved to its current Report Builder.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one.
When to use it
an old headcount or anniversary report that still lives in the previous tool and feeds a sheet elsewhere.
Watch out
it works best on a report sorted by a date field, newest first.
4

Changed Report

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a company report changes. Works best with reports sorted by a date field in descending order. Use a report created in the current Report Builder.”

The current version of the report trigger: point it at a report made in BambooHR's current Report Builder, and each change in that report starts the Zap.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one.
When to use it
following a custom list, such as probation end dates, sorted by date newest first.
Watch out
if your report is missing from the list, BambooHR has not migrated it yet; switch to the Legacy trigger.
5

Terminated Employee

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when an employee is terminated.”

Starts the Zap when an employee is marked as terminated in BambooHR. It is one of the two triggers of this app that BambooHR pushes itself, so nothing waits.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
an offboarding checklist where removing access to tools should not depend on someone remembering to ask IT.
Watch out
the Zap only reacts to departures recorded after it is switched on; people who left before are never picked up.
6

New Time Off

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new time off is found for the selected conditions. Limited to those employees and time off types that you have view access to.”

Fires when time off is found that matches the conditions you choose in the trigger, typically leave that has been booked. You decide which cases count.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one.
When to use it
putting confirmed leave into a shared team calendar so nobody books a meeting with someone who is away.
Watch out
it only sees the employees and the time off types the connected user is allowed to view in BambooHR.
7

New Time Off Request

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new time off request is created by an employee whose requests you're able to approve.”

Picks up each new request an employee submits, before anyone has said yes or no. This is the starting point of any approval Zap.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one.
When to use it
sending the request to the manager where they actually read messages, or pairing it with Respond to Time Off Request for simple cases.
Watch out
only requests the connected user is able to approve come through; a user without approval rights sees nothing.
8

Updated Employee

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when specific employee fields are updated.”

Follows the fields you pick in an employee record, such as job title or department, and starts the Zap when one of them changes. It is the second instant trigger of BambooHR.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
keeping another tool's directory up to date the minute HR moves someone to a new team.
Watch out
two fields are required: the fields to watch and the fields to send on. Leave out a field and later steps cannot use it.
9

New Updated Employee (Include Custom Fields Changes)

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when an employee is updated (include custom fields changes).”

Catches updates to an employee record, custom fields included. That is its whole reason to exist next to Updated Employee: the fields your company added itself.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one.
When to use it
a custom field like a T-shirt size or a cost center must reach another system.
Watch out
a Zap that writes back to the same employee with Update Employee can wake this trigger again and loop.
Actions

BambooHR actions on Zapier

BambooHR gives you 7 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Add Timesheet Clock Entries

Action

In Zapier“Adds one or more timesheet clock entries for an employee.”

Writes one or more clock-in and clock-out entries on an employee's timesheet, from a time tracking tool or a form.

When to use it
people log hours somewhere else and payroll needs them in BambooHR.
Watch out
the employee ID, the date in YYYY-MM-DD form, the start time and the end time are all required. A missing one makes the step fail.
2

Create Employee

Action

In Zapier“Creates a new employee.”

Adds a new person to BambooHR from data that arrives in another tool, so a signed offer does not have to be typed twice.

When to use it
your recruiting tool marks a candidate as hired and the HR record should exist the same day.
Watch out
pair it with Find Employee first if the same person could come through twice.
3

Get Summary of Who's Out

Action

In Zapier“Get a summary of who's out of the office on a given date.”

Reads who is out of the office on a given date and hands that list to the next step. It changes nothing in BambooHR.

When to use it
posting the absences of the day to a team channel each time your chosen trigger fires.
Watch out
it still counts as a task each time it succeeds, even though it only reads.
4

Respond to Time Off Request

Action

In Zapier“Approve, deny, or cancel a time off request.”

Approves, denies or cancels a time off request, the same decision a manager would make on screen.

When to use it
after a filter, to answer simple cases on their own and leave the rest to a person.
Watch out
the Request field needs the request ID, usually taken from New Time Off Request as a custom value, and Status is required too.
5

Update Employee

Action

In Zapier“Updates an existing employee.”

Changes fields on an existing employee record, picked in the required Employee field, with values coming from earlier steps.

When to use it
a new phone number or address entered in a self-service form should land in the HR record.
Watch out
never point it at the record that started the Zap through an update trigger, or each write starts the Zap again.
6

Upload Employee File

Action

In Zapier“Uploads an Employee File.”

Stores a document in an employee's files in BambooHR, and lets you decide whether that employee can see it.

When to use it
a contract signed in an e-signature tool should be filed in the right profile without downloads.
Watch out
the employee, the file and the sharing choice are required, and users who are not employees do not appear in the list.
7

API Request (Beta)

Action

In Zapier“This is an advanced action which makes a raw HTTP request that includes this integration's authentication.”

An advanced step for when no ready-made action fits: it sends a raw request to BambooHR using the connection you already set up.

When to use it
someone on the team knows BambooHR's API and needs one call the list above does not offer.
Watch out
the method, the URL and Stop on error are required, and requests can only go to BambooHR's own domains.
Searches

The BambooHR search on Zapier

1 search step looks for data that already exists in BambooHR, so a later step can use it.

A search step creates nothing. It finds an employee who already exists, so a later step can use their record. In the editor it sits at the bottom of the action list, under SEARCH.

1

Find Employee

SearchFind or create

In Zapier“Finds an employee by searching.”

Looks up an employee in BambooHR by the field you choose in Search By, with the value you map in Search Value, both required.

When to use it
before Update Employee or Upload Employee File, to get the right person from an email address another tool sent. The Find or Create Employee entry in the editor is this same search with the create box ticked.
Watch out
it adds a step, so the Zap becomes multi-step.

The three settings every search exposes

  1. Successful if no search results are found?
    Left on its default, a search that finds nobody stops the Zap there. Switch it on and the Zap carries on with an empty result.
  2. Create Employee if it doesn't exist yet?
    Ticking it turns the search into a find-or-create: the setting above disappears and Zapier asks for what it needs to create the missing employee.
  3. If multiple search results are found?
    Three exits: keep the first match, which is the default, stop the Zap, or pass every match on at once.
When it breaks

When a BambooHR Zap breaks

Zapier keeps a help article called Common Problems with BambooHR on Zapier. The cases below come from what the triggers and fields themselves tell you.

Most failures come from rights, report versions and the way Zapier watches BambooHR. Read these six cases before you publish, and keep the Zapier troubleshooting guide close for anything else.

  • Time off triggers that stay silent

    The connected user cannot approve those requests or view those leave types. Zapier only sees what that BambooHR user sees.

  • A report missing from Changed Report

    BambooHR has not migrated it to the current Report Builder yet. Use Changed Report (Legacy) for that report until it moves.

  • Past hires and departures never arrive

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you switch it on. Employees created last quarter stay out; moving that backlog is a separate job.

  • A Zap that updates itself in a loop

    An update trigger plus Update Employee on the same person: each write wakes the Zap again and the task count drains fast.

  • A bulk import that seems ignored

    Import a large batch of employees at once and Zapier's flood protection can hold the trigger back instead of firing for each record.

  • An employee missing from Upload Employee File

    Users who are not employees are not offered in the Employee field, so files can only go to real employee profiles.
Need help

Need help automating BambooHR with Zapier?

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FAQ

BambooHR Zapier integration: frequent questions

01Is the BambooHR Zapier integration free?
No. BambooHR is a premium app on Zapier, so the free plan cannot use it at all. You need a paid Zapier plan, or the free trial while it lasts. The free plan would limit you to one trigger and one action anyway. On a paid plan, your Zaps can also have several steps, which BambooHR Zaps often need: a filter before answering a time off request, or a search to find the right employee before updating their record.
02How many Zapier tasks does a BambooHR Zap use?
One task per action that succeeds, nothing for the trigger. Zapier checking BambooHR for new hires or requests is free, however often it happens. A Zap that answers each matching time off request uses one task per answer. A Zap that creates an employee and then uploads their contract uses two tasks per person. Reading actions count too: Get Summary of Who's Out costs a task each time it works. A failed action is not billed, but the run stops there.
03Does BambooHR on Zapier work in real time?
Only for two triggers. Terminated Employee and Updated Employee are instant: BambooHR tells Zapier the moment it happens, and the Zap starts right away on any plan. The other seven triggers are polling: Zapier checks BambooHR at a fixed interval, which is 2 minutes on Professional and 1 minute on Team and Enterprise. So a new hire or a new time off request can wait up to one interval, while a departure or a watched field change goes through at once.
04What does it take to connect BambooHR to Zapier?
A BambooHR account, a paid Zapier plan or trial, and the right user. You add the connection from the Apps page, sign in to BambooHR in the new tab, then grant access. Pick the user with care: the time off triggers only see requests that user can approve and leave types that user can view. An account with narrow rights connects fine, then returns nothing when tested, which looks like a bug but is a permission question.
05Why is a BambooHR report missing from the Changed Report trigger?
Because it was not built in BambooHR's current Report Builder. Changed Report only lists reports made in the current tool. Older reports that BambooHR has not migrated yet are handled by a separate trigger, Changed Report (Legacy). Both work best on a report sorted by a date field, newest first. You pick the report in the required Report field of Changed Report, which is where the gap shows. Once BambooHR moves your report, switch the Zap to the current trigger.
06What if the BambooHR action you need does not exist on Zapier?
Then the editor does not offer it, and there are two ways out. The first is API Request (Beta), an advanced step that sends a raw request to BambooHR with your existing connection, for someone comfortable with BambooHR's API. The second is another automation tool that covers BambooHR with a different list of operations. On Zapier, there is no step to terminate an employee or to delete a record, so those stay manual in BambooHR.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for BambooHR?
It depends on your criteria rather than on a winner. Zapier gives you two instant triggers, a time off approval action and a quick sign-in connection, but BambooHR needs a paid plan there. Make and n8n each have their own BambooHR page with their own list of operations, which matters if you need one Zapier lacks. Compare the operations you need, then the cost at your volume of hires and requests, before choosing.
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