SAP ECC HR to Workday Data Migration

Moving from SAP HCM to Workday? Settle automates the mapping between SAP's infotype-based HR data model and Workday's worker-centric architecture — preserving employee history, org structures, compensation, and benefits.

Working with enterprise teams on active migration programs

settle — SAP ECC HRWorkday
SourceTarget
PA0001 (Org Assignment)Worker / Position
PA0002 (Personal Data)Worker Personal Info
PA0006 (Addresses)Worker Address
PA0008 (Basic Pay)Compensation Plan
PA0014 (Recurring Ded.)Deduction
+6 more objects mappedEvery row validated
See full mapping →

Days

to production-ready mappings

Roughly half

the cost of consulting-led delivery

Every row

validated before go-live

Enterprise migrations routinely run months behind schedule. Yours doesn't have to.

This guide is for VPs of IT, data architects, and migration leads at companies moving data from SAP ECC HR to Workday — whether you're scoping, planning, or mid-program.

SAP ECC HR stores employee data across infotypes — PA0001 (organizational assignment), PA0002 (personal data), PA0006 (addresses), PA0008 (pay) — each representing a time-dependent data slice. Workday uses a fundamentally different worker-centric model where all data relates to a worker record through effective-dated business processes. Settle translates SAP's infotype architecture to Workday's worker model automatically.

Based on the founding team's enterprise migration experience

Last updated July 2026

How Settle automates your SAP ECC HR to Workday migration

  • Settle profiles all SAP infotypes and maps each to the corresponding Workday worker object — PA0001 to organizational assignment, PA0002 to personal data, PA0008 to compensation plan — with field-level mapping including custom infotype extensions.

  • SAP org structures (org units, positions, jobs) are mapped to Workday's supervisory organization hierarchy with reporting line preservation and position management translation.

  • Compensation data across PA0008 (basic pay), PA0014 (deductions), and custom wage types is mapped to Workday compensation plans, earning codes, and deduction codes with payroll continuity validation.

  • Settle generates effective-dated transaction history from SAP's time-dependent infotype records — reconstructing the Workday event timeline that business processes require.

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Migration timeline: manual vs. Settle

Traditional approach

Timeline

12–18 months

Estimated cost

$1.5M+

Team size

8–15 consultants

Typically requires

×Manual field mapping in spreadsheets

×Custom ABAP/SQL extraction scripts

×3–5 mock migration cycles

×Dedicated source system consultants

×Manual reconciliation testing

With Settle

Enterprise benchmarks

Timeline

Days

Estimated cost

A fraction of consulting cost

Team size

2–4 internal resources

Included

Schema profiling & analysis

AI-generated field mappings

Transformation SQL

Validation & readiness reports

Production-ready load files

Common challenges migrating from SAP ECC HR to Workday

Infotype architecture to Workday worker model

SAP stores HR data across 100+ infotypes, each with its own table structure and time-dependency rules. Workday organizes all data around the worker record through business processes and effective-dated events. Translating infotype snapshots into Workday's event-based history requires mapping each infotype to the correct Workday business process and reconstructing the event timeline.

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Organizational structure translation

SAP uses organizational units (org units), positions, and jobs in an Enterprise Structure. Workday uses supervisory organizations, positions, and job profiles in a different hierarchy model. The org structure mapping affects reporting lines, security, and business process routing — it must be architected before employee data can migrate.

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Compensation and payroll continuity

SAP pay scale structures (PA0008), recurring deductions (PA0014), and wage types must map to Workday compensation plans, earning codes, and deduction codes. Payroll continuity across the cutover — ensuring employees are paid correctly in the first Workday payroll run — is the highest-risk element of the migration.

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Historical data and time-dependent records

SAP infotypes store full history with begin/end dates for every change. Workday uses effective-dated transactions. Deciding how much history to migrate (full career history vs. current snapshot plus recent changes) significantly impacts timeline and complexity. Each historical infotype record must be converted to a Workday effective-dated transaction.

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SAP ECC HR to Workday field mapping — what data moves

11 data objects typically migrated

Source ObjectTarget Object
PA0001 (Org Assignment)Worker / Position
PA0002 (Personal Data)Worker Personal Info
PA0006 (Addresses)Worker Address
PA0008 (Basic Pay)Compensation Plan
PA0014 (Recurring Ded.)Deduction
PA0021 (Family Members)Dependent
PA0105 (Communication)Worker Contact Info
PA0041 (Date Specs)Worker History Events
HRP1000/1001 (Org Units)Supervisory Organization
T527X (Positions)Position
PA0167 (Benefits)Benefit Election

Typical enterprise migrations include 500K–10M+ records across these objects. Settle handles profiling and mapping at enterprise scale.

The cost of manual SAP ECC HR to Workday migration

SAP ECC HR to Workday is one of the largest and most common HCM migration corridors. Companies migrate because Workday offers a modern cloud-native HR platform with superior employee self-service, analytics, and user experience compared to SAP's aging HCM module. This migration is often timed with broader SAP simplification efforts — companies moving to S/4HANA sometimes carve out HR/HCM to Workday rather than migrating it to SAP SuccessFactors.

The technical complexity is driven by SAP's infotype architecture. SAP stores HR data in over 100 infotypes (PA0001 for org assignment, PA0002 for personal data, PA0006 for addresses, PA0008 for basic pay, PA0014 for recurring deductions, PA0021 for family members). Each infotype has time-dependent records (effective dates). Workday uses a completely different data model — workers with staffing events, compensation plans, and benefit elections organized through business processes. The structural translation is non-trivial.

These migrations are typically managed by HR consulting firms (Deloitte, Mercer, Accenture) over 12–18 months. The data conversion workstream — mapping infotypes to Workday objects, converting time-dependent records, and validating payroll continuity — is one of the most labor-intensive parts of the program.

Consulting-led delivery for migrations in this class typically runs $1.5M+. Settle prices it fixed and scoped — read the full cost breakdown.

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Frequently asked questions

A typical SAP HR to Workday migration takes 12–18 months end-to-end, with data conversion running 4–8 months. The timeline depends on infotype complexity, historical depth, number of country-specific payroll configurations, and the scope of benefits data. Settle runs the same migration in days — every row validated before load.

Exceptions surface before the first load, not after the third.

Built by the team that ran Fortune 500 migrations by hand. Currently onboarding enterprise design partners on active migration programs.

Ready to migrate from SAP ECC HR to Workday?

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