Consulting and recruiting
Bullhorn to Avionte or TempWorks: what breaks in a staffing data migration
By SourceX Editorial · Updated
Short answer
A Bullhorn to Avionte or TempWorks migration breaks where a recruiting-first data model meets a payroll-first one. Bullhorn spreads a hire across submissions, interviews and placements; back-office platforms center on the employee, the order and the assignment. Map that chain deliberately, carry Bullhorn IDs into a legacy field, and archive the history the target cannot hold.
Key takeaways
- The target platform runs payroll and billing, so it needs tax, worksite and rate fields Bullhorn never captured.
- Submission and interview history rarely has a one-to-one home in the target and is often cut down to a current status.
- A flat CSV export loses links, status history and notes attached to several records at once.
- Storing every Bullhorn ID in a legacy field lets anyone trace an imported record back to the archive.
- Decide import versus archive for each record group before mapping a single field.
Why is this migration harder than an ATS-to-ATS move?#
A Bullhorn to Avionte or TempWorks migration is harder than swapping one applicant tracking system for another because the destination also pays people and bills clients. Bullhorn's core records describe recruiting: who applied, who was sent to which client and who got the job. A back-office staffing platform needs to know who is on payroll, at what pay and bill rates, at which worksite and under which tax rules.
That difference shows up in every object. A Bullhorn candidate may be someone who applied once or a temp on a fifth assignment, and the target usually treats those two people differently. A Bullhorn placement records dates and rates; an assignment in a back-office system drives timecards, invoices and paychecks, so it has to be complete before the first payroll run.
Firms that ran Bullhorn alongside a separate payroll service or back-office product have a second source to reconcile. Pay and bill history lives there, not in the recruiting records, and the two rarely agree perfectly on names, rates and dates.
How do Bullhorn objects map to Avionte or TempWorks?#
Bullhorn objects map to concepts rather than to identical tables, and the exact names on the target side vary by product, edition and configuration. Use the table as a starting map, then confirm each row against the target's import templates and your implementation team's field list.
| Bullhorn object | Usual target concept | What tends to break |
|---|---|---|
| ClientCorporation | Customer or company, often with department and worksite levels below it | One Bullhorn company may need splitting into several billing or worksite records |
| ClientContact | Customer contact, supervisor or timecard approver | Contacts who moved between companies are duplicated or attached to the wrong one |
| Candidate | Applicant, talent or employee record | Applicants and payroll employees forced into one status, or employee fields left blank |
| JobOrder | Order or job order | Open and filled logic differs, and multi-seat orders are miscounted |
| JobSubmission and its status history | Pipeline or candidate-on-order record, where one exists | Step-by-step history reduced to the latest status |
| Client submissions and interview appointments | Activities or interview records | Dates survive, but the link to the specific order is lost |
| Placement | Assignment | Rates, rate changes and end reasons incomplete for payroll |
| Notes and tasks | Activities, messages or comments | A note linked to several records lands on only one |
| File attachments | Documents on the applicant or employee | Resumes and signed forms imported without a parent record |
- 01Your work records
- 02Personal details removed
- 03You approve the release
- 04Licensed to AI developers
The submission chain: the history with no clean home#
The submission chain is the sequence from a candidate's submission to an order, through client review and interviews, to a placement or rejection, and it is the history most often lost in this migration. In Bullhorn each step is a dated status on the JobSubmission, plus related appointments and notes. Platforms built around payroll often track the pipeline more simply, so there may be nowhere to load years of step-by-step history.
There are three realistic options, and many firms combine them by the age of the record. Whatever you choose, decide before mapping. History squeezed into whatever field happens to be free is worse than a clean archive, because nobody can later tell which dates are real.
- Import open pipelines in full, so recruiters keep working active orders without re-entering candidates.
- Import closed submissions as one dated activity per candidate and order, summarizing the final status and key step dates.
- Keep the full status history in a structured archive keyed by Bullhorn IDs, so time-to-submit and fill-rate analysis remains possible.
What flattens in a CSV export?#
A CSV export flattens anything that is a relationship, a history or a file, because each row holds one record with one value per column. Bullhorn's knowledge base, for example, describes CSV exports of candidate, sales contact or company records from Bullhorn Automation, run by admins from a saved list or custom search. Lists like that are fine for checks and small loads, not for moving a full history.
Dates deserve a separate check. Time zones and date formats can shift between systems, and a start date moved by a day can change which payroll week an assignment lands in.
| Bullhorn structure | What a CSV row shows | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| A note linked to a candidate, a contact and an order | One row, often under one parent | Extract notes with every linked record ID |
| Submission status changes over time | The current status only | Extract the status history as its own table |
| Placement rate changes | The latest rates | Extract each change with its effective date |
| Multi-select skills or categories | One delimited text string | Split into rows and map to the target's skill list |
| Custom fields | System names or labels without definitions | Export the field map and confirm what each field really holds |
| Owner and recruiter fields | User IDs or names of departed staff | Map users first, including inactive ones |
| Resumes and documents | Nothing, or a file name | Pull files separately, indexed by parent ID |
Back-office fields Bullhorn never held#
Back-office fields are the payroll, tax and billing details Avionte or TempWorks needs before a migrated temp can be paid, and most were never in Bullhorn. They come from your payroll provider, onboarding tool or accounting system, and they must be reconciled with the recruiting records person by person and customer by customer.
These fields make a migration fail loudly, on the first payroll. The recruiting history fails quietly, months later, when a branch manager asks how long forklift orders used to take to fill and nobody can answer.
- Employee tax setup, withholding elections and direct deposit details.
- Employment eligibility records and onboarding documents.
- Pay and bill rates by effective date, including overtime and markup rules.
- Workers' compensation class codes by job and state.
- Worksite addresses, which can drive tax jurisdiction.
- Customer invoice settings, purchase order requirements and billing contacts.
- Year-to-date payroll balances for employees who move mid-year.
Decide import versus archive before you map#
Import versus archive is a decision per record group: import what the business runs on today, and archive what it may need to look up, analyze or prove later. Most firms import active employees, open orders, current customers and recent applicants, and archive the rest.
Store every Bullhorn ID in a legacy ID field in the target. It costs little and lets anyone trace an imported employee, customer or order back to the archive when a question comes up.
| Record group | Import | Archive |
|---|---|---|
| Active temps and current assignments | Yes, reconciled with payroll | Original Bullhorn placement history |
| Open orders and live pipelines | Yes | Closed orders and their submissions |
| Customers and contacts with recent activity | Yes | Dormant accounts and departed contacts |
| Applicants never submitted | Recent ones, within your retention policy | Older ones only if retention rules allow; otherwise delete |
| Notes and activities | Recent notes on active records | Full history with all linked IDs |
Illustrative: a light industrial firm consolidates onto one platform#
Illustrative: a fictional light industrial and clerical staffing firm runs Bullhorn for recruiting and an outside payroll service for its temps, and decides to move both onto one back-office platform. The first trial import loads every Bullhorn candidate as an employee, and the payroll team finds a long list of records with no tax setup and no pay history.
The COO restarts with a split. Applicants load as applicants; only people paid in the current year load as employees, matched to payroll records through a reconciliation report the payroll lead signs off. Placement rate histories are rebuilt from the payroll service rather than Bullhorn, because payroll was the system of record for what people were actually paid.
Closed submissions go to an archive table keyed by Bullhorn IDs, with one summary activity on each candidate. The first payroll runs clean, and the archive still answers fill-time questions by branch and job type.
How SourceX views a retired Bullhorn archive#
SourceX looks at a retired Bullhorn archive as a record of staffing work: orders, the submission chain, client feedback and placement outcomes in sequence. With candidate identities removed, those workflow records can matter for AI development, and the archive structure chosen during migration decides whether the sequence survives.
A review starts with metadata only and follows the SourceX five-step transaction: Supply, Rights, Preparation, Approval and Delivery. Candidate personal data, pay details tied to named workers and client-confidential material are excluded or removed in preparation, and the firm approves the package before anything is delivered.
Frequently asked questions
Can Avionte or TempWorks import our Bullhorn data for us?
Target vendors and migration specialists often offer import services, but scope varies widely. Ask which record types, how much history and which attachments are included, what extract format they need, and who reconciles payroll fields. Get those answers written into the statement of work rather than taken from a sales call.
Should we migrate candidates who never worked for us?
Only recent ones that your retention policy and privacy notices allow you to keep. Older applicants who were never submitted are usually better deleted on schedule than loaded into a payroll-centered system, where they clutter searches and sit in records that payroll staff can see.
What happens to integrations connected to Bullhorn?
Each one needs rewiring or replacement: job boards, texting, onboarding, background screening, e-signature and VMS connectors. Each also holds its own data. Export what you need from every connected tool before its access ends, because the new platform's integrations will not reach back into the old ones.
How do we keep reporting comparable across the cutover?
Define key measures such as fill rate and time to submit the same way in both systems, and keep a crosswalk from old Bullhorn status values to new ones. Run the measures on the archive and on the new platform for an overlap period so leaders can see where definitions shifted.
Do we still need Bullhorn access after cutover?
Ideally yes, read access through validation, so you can compare records side by side. Check your contract for post-termination access and export terms before you send a non-renewal notice, and do not schedule cutover for the last day of access.
Sources
- Bullhorn's knowledge base says Bullhorn Automation users can export candidate, sales contact or company records to CSV from a saved list or a custom search, and only admins can run the export. Source
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