3112498 - ExternalTimeData API upsert response does not report a timesheet collision error - SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite

An OData API upsert request to the ExternalTimeData entity to insert a time record in an employee's time sheet yields the following response, without any indication of error:

But when accessing the employee's time sheet via UI, an error can be seen after the upsert:

NOTE: Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental.

SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite

• Employee Central
• OData API

The error which is not reported in the API upsert response is a time collision error. To reproduce it, you must insert a time record on the same day/period in which another time record already exists and cannot coexist with the newly inserted record.

To know more about collisions, please refer to:

• Overview of Clock Time Collisions - SAP Help Portal
• Overview of Duration Collisions - SAP Help Portal

Sample scenario

The employee has a full day absence on Oct 12th currently recorded in his timesheet:

An upsert request is made to insert an attendance time record on Oct 12th as well, where the absence record is already registered in the timesheet as shown above:

POST https://<API_URL>/odata/v2/upsert

The upsert response indicates no error:

But a collision happened and can be verified when accessing the employee's timesheet via UI (refer to Symptom section above).

The ExternalTimeData API only reports technical errors which prevent ExternalTimeData records from being inserted or changed, and will not accuse collision errors and return them in the API request's response, because the collision checks happen on a later step when the ExternalTimeData record gets imported into the timesheet.

Admin Alerts of admin alert type "Import Time Sheets" need to be checked regularly to detect collision errors.

Overview of Clock Time Collisions - SAP Help Portal

Overview of Duration Collisions - SAP Help Portal

ExternalTimeData - SAP Help Portal

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