Migrating From BambooHR to Folks HR: A Complete Guide
The decision to move from BambooHR to Folks HR is often the easy part. Planning the migration without disrupting payroll, losing employee data, or creating extra work for your HR team is where the real challenge begins.
That's exactly what this guide is designed to help with.
We'll walk you through every stage of the migration, from planning and data preparation to implementation, validation, and go-live, so you can transition to Folks HR with confidence and avoid the most common mistakes along the way.
Why Move From BambooHR to Folks HR?
Many Canadian organizations don't switch because BambooHR isn't working. They switch because Folks HR is better aligned with Canadian payroll, compliance, and day-to-day HR operations.
- Canadian payroll is available within the platform. If your organization chooses Folks Payroll, employee data, salary changes, and time off details can flow directly into payroll without relying on a separate integration.
- It's built for Canadian workplaces. Folks supports English and French users and stores data on Canadian servers by default.
- More HR capabilities are available in one platform. Core HR, recruiting, performance, training, electronic signatures, and absence management are available together.
Apart from those reasons, your data also stays in Canada by default. Folks stores employee and payroll data on Canadian servers and holds SOC 2 Type 2 certification, which may support organizations with Canadian data residency requirements under PIPEDA and Quebec’s Law 25.
If these are important considerations for your organization, migrating from BambooHR to Folks HR is a well-supported decision.
Before You Migrate From BambooHR to Folks HR
A successful migration starts before you export your data. Take time to plan ahead to reduce delays and avoid rework.
Audit Your Current BambooHR Setup
Start by reviewing how your organization currently uses BambooHR.
Identify the employee records, documents, time off policies, and integrations you'll need to migrate. Also identify outdated fields, unused policies, or historical data that no longer needs to be carried forward.
Decide What to Migrate and What to Archive
Not every record needs to move into Folks HR.
Determine which employee data, documents, and time off balances should be migrated, and which historical records should be retained as an archive.
This is also the right time to decide how historical payroll records and tax documents, including T4 and RL1 slips from your current payroll provider, will be retained after the transition.
Assemble Your Team and Timeline
A BambooHR to Folks HR migration typically involves HR, payroll, IT, and finance.
Assign an owner for each area and plan your timeline around your payroll and hiring calendars. Avoid making major payroll changes in the middle of a pay period, and build in time for testing and validation.
Your overall timeline will depend on your company size, the amount of data you're migrating, and the number of integrations you're rebuilding.
How to Migrate From BambooHR to Folks HR
Migrating from BambooHR to Folks HR involves two workstreams: the HRIS migration and the Folks HR implementation.
The first focuses on moving your HR data from BambooHR, while the second covers configuring Folks HR, rebuilding integrations, and, if applicable, implementing Folks Payroll.
HRIS Migration
These tasks are specific to organizations moving away from BambooHR.
Step 1: Export Your Data From BambooHR
Export your data from BambooHR while you still have full access to the platform.
Download employee records, current time off balances, documents, and any reports you want to keep for reference. Organize your exports by data type, such as employee records, documents, time off, and performance data, since each category will be mapped differently in Folks HR.
Keep a clean copy of these files as your archive, regardless of which records you ultimately import.
Map and Migrate Employee Records
Field mapping is where migrations succeed or fail.
Match each BambooHR field to its Folks equivalent before importing, including employee identifiers, employment details, compensation data, and custom fields.
Flag anything that doesn't have a clean home so you can decide how to handle it. Import a small test batch first, confirm the records look right, then run the full import.
This is also the best opportunity to clean your data rather than carrying existing issues into the new system.
Migrate Documents and Set Up E-Signatures
Move active documents, such as contracts, policies, and signed forms, into Folks' document management system and attach them to the appropriate employee profiles.
If BambooHR contains signed documents, decide which should be reissued for signature in Folks and which can simply be retained for reference. Folks' electronic signature tools can manage future documents directly within the platform.
Validate Parity Before Cutover
Before retiring BambooHR, confirm that Folks accurately reflects your migrated HR data.
Spot-check employee records, time-off balances, documents, and permissions against your BambooHR data. This validation helps ensure your HRIS migration is complete before making Folks your primary HR system.
Folks HR Implementation
These are standard implementation tasks that every new Folks HR customer completes, regardless of which HR system they previously used.
Configure Your Folks HR Account
Set up Folks before importing anything into it.
Define your organizational structure, configure time-off and absence policies, assign roles and permissions, and set your language settings for a bilingual rollout. Configuring your environment first ensures imported data is organized correctly from the start.
Set Up Payroll and Verify Compliance (If Adopting Folks Payroll)
BambooHR does not natively process Canadian payroll. If your organization currently uses a separate payroll provider, such as ADP, Nethris, Ceridian, or another payroll solution, your payroll implementation is a separate workstream that does not involve BambooHR data.
If you're adopting Folks Payroll, plan it as a separate workstream with its own timeline, data sources, and validation steps alongside your HRIS migration.
Choose the Folks Payroll service model that best fits your organization, whether self-service, assisted, or fully managed. Then configure your payroll settings, including pay groups, deduction and contribution rules, direct deposit, and accounting integrations where applicable.
Confirm your CRA and Revenu Québec remittance details, ROE filing, and T4 and RL 1 setup before running a parallel payroll calculation against your current payroll provider. Matching net pay, deductions, and contributions before going live helps verify that your payroll implementation is ready.
Rebuild Integrations and Connections
Reconnect the systems that integrate with Folks HR, including your accounting software and any tools that send or receive employee data.
If you're continuing with your existing payroll provider, this is also where you'll reconnect it to Folks HR. Folks offers accounting integrations with QuickBooks and Xero, along with an API to connect to other systems. Test each integration with sample data before considering it complete.
Train Admins and Managers
Train administrators before rolling the platform out to everyone else.
Administrators should understand system configuration, reporting, and any modules your organization uses, while managers should become familiar with approvals, time off validation, and team management. Folks' onboarding resources and bilingual help center can support this process.
Go Live and Roll Out Employee Self Service
Once your HRIS migration has been validated and your implementation tasks are complete, you're ready to go live.
Announce the change to employees, introduce the Folks mobile app and self-service tools, and keep your implementation team available during the first operating cycle. If you're also implementing Folks Payroll, provide additional support during the first live payroll run.
Retain your BambooHR archive and any historical records in accordance with the retention strategy established during planning.
Your BambooHR to Folks HR Migration Checklist
By this point, you should have a clear migration plan in place. Use the checklist below to confirm you've completed the essential migration and implementation tasks before going live.
Planning
- Audit your current BambooHR setup, including employee fields, documents, policies, integrations, and payroll provider.
- Decide what data will be migrated and what will be archived.
- Confirm how historical tax documents, such as T4s and RL1s, will be retained.
- Assign owners for HR, payroll, IT, and finance.
- Build a timeline around your payroll and hiring calendars.
HRIS Migration
- Export employee data, documents, and reports from BambooHR.
- Map BambooHR fields to their Folks HR equivalents.
- Import a test batch and verify the results.
- Complete the full employee and document migration.
- Reconcile employee records and time off balances.
- Validate parity between BambooHR and Folks HR before cutover.
Folks HR Implementation
- Configure your organizational structure, roles, permissions, and time off policies.
- Configure bilingual language preferences.
- Rebuild and test integrations with accounting and other connected systems.
- Train administrators and managers.
- Launch Folks HR and employee self-service.
Folks Payroll Implementation (If Adopting Folks Payroll)
- Choose your Folks Payroll service model.
- Configure payroll settings and accounting integrations.
- Confirm CRA and Revenu Québec remittance details, ROE filing, and T4/RL1 setup.
- Run a parallel payroll calculation against your current payroll provider.
- Support the first live payroll cycle.
Post Launch
- Retain your BambooHR archive in accordance with your retention plan.
- Gather feedback from administrators and managers.
- Refine configurations as needed.
What Success Looks Like After Migrating From BambooHR to Folks HR
Before considering your migration complete, take a moment to confirm everything is working as expected.
A successful transition means employee records and time off balances match your BambooHR data, documents and historical records are accessible, and integrations are moving information without manual work. If you're adopting Folks Payroll, your first payroll run should also be validated before relying on it.
Your administrators and managers should be comfortable using Folks for their day-to-day responsibilities, while employees should be able to confidently use self-service for routine tasks.
Once those pieces are in place and BambooHR is no longer part of your daily operations, you've successfully completed the migration and can focus on getting the most from your new HR system.
Common Challenges When Migrating From BambooHR to Folks HR
Even with a well-planned migration, a few common issues can delay your rollout or create unnecessary work after going live. Knowing what to watch for ahead of time can help you avoid disruptions and keep your migration on track.
Poor Payroll Planning
If your organization plans to adopt Folks Payroll, treat it as a separate implementation alongside your HRIS migration.
Plan your payroll go-live around the start of a pay period whenever possible. Avoid making the switch at year-end, and run a parallel payroll calculation against your current payroll provider before relying on Folks Payroll.
A successful parallel run gives you confidence that payroll figures match your existing process before employees are paid.
Incorrect Field Mapping and Data Quality
Employee records are only as reliable as the data you migrate. Before importing anything, map every BambooHR field to its equivalent in Folks HR, including custom fields that may not have a direct match.
This is also the best opportunity to clean your data by correcting outdated information, removing duplicate records, and leaving behind data you no longer need.
Compliance and Historical Record Management
Don't wait until after you go live to decide what happens to historical records. During the planning stage, determine how you'll retain or archive employee documents, historical payroll records, and tax documents, including T4 and RL 1 slips, from your current payroll provider.
Having a clear retention plan helps maintain compliance and ensures important records remain accessible when needed.
Broken Integrations and Incomplete Validation
Rebuilding integrations is only part of the process.
Test every connection with sample data before considering it complete. Then validate that employee records, time off balances, documents, and permissions match your BambooHR data before retiring your old system. If you're implementing Folks Payroll, also verify payroll calculations against your current payroll provider before going live.
Taking the time to validate everything up front can prevent issues after launch.
Rushing the Rollout
Successful migrations rarely happen on the shortest possible timeline. Build time into your project for testing, validation, training, and employee communication.
Introduce administrators and managers to Folks before launch day so they're comfortable with their responsibilities, and keep your implementation team available after going live to quickly resolve any issues that arise.
Conclusion
Migrating from BambooHR to Folks HR doesn't have to be complicated when you approach it with a clear plan. By preparing your data, validating your migration, and following a structured implementation, you can make the transition with minimal disruption while setting your team up for long-term success.
If you're ready to make the switch, the next step is to see how Folks HR fits your organization's workflows and implementation requirements. Book a Folks HR demo to explore the platform and learn how their team can support your transition.
Book a Folks HR demo today to get started.
