The mapping model
Every approved time entry in Clockify, a product of CAKE.com, becomes a posted project ledger entry in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, a product of Microsoft. This page defines exactly how each Clockify concept translates into a Business Central record, shows a worked example, and states the rules that keep the translation safe. For the flow itself, see How it works. For how the mapping is set up during onboarding, see Getting connected.
What maps to what
| Clockify | Business Central | How the match is made |
|---|---|---|
| User | Resource (Type = Person) | The user’s primary email address |
| Project | Project, plus a default Project Task | An explicit mapping, defined with you at onboarding |
| Task | Project Task | An explicit task mapping where one is defined; otherwise the project’s default task |
| Approved time entry | Project Journal Line, posted to a Project Ledger Entry | The Clockify entry id, stored on both records |
| Entry description | Journal line description | Copied, truncated safely at the field limit |
| Date and duration | Posting date and quantity | The worker’s own calendar day; decimal hours |
| Member cost rate | Unit cost on the line | The member’s cost rate, or their billable rate if no cost rate is set |
Three details are worth spelling out.
The posting date is the worker’s day. An entry is posted on the calendar day the person actually worked, in their own time zone, never the server’s day.
Quantity is decimal hours. Ninety minutes arrives as 1.5, so hours in Business Central are directly comparable with hours in Clockify reports.
Clockify owns the cost. Each line carries the member’s cost rate from Clockify as its unit cost, falling back to the billable rate when no cost rate is set. Prices and billing to customers are not set by version 1, so the ledger shows real cost and nothing invented. Version 1 is USD only.
Every project mapping includes a default Project Task, because Business Central posts time against a task, never against a project alone.
A worked example
Three entries are approved in Clockify on the same day. The people are fictional; the projects are Business Central demo data.
| Person | Work date | Duration | Clockify project | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ana | Aug 12 | 1:30 | Installation of S-200 Server | Rack and cable the S-200 server |
| Ben | Aug 12 | 0:45 | Installation of S-200 Server | Customer sign-off call |
| Clara | Aug 12, finished 23:40 her time | 2:00 | Warehouse Fit-Out | Site survey notes |
Ana, Ben and Clara are mapped by email to resources CL001, CL002 and CL003. The Clockify project “Installation of S-200 Server” is mapped to project PR00010, with its Clockify tasks mapped to tasks 110 and 240. Clara’s project maps to PR00020, default task 1000. The connector writes exactly these journal lines:
| Posting date | Project | Task | Resource | Description | Quantity | Unit cost (USD) | Clockify entry id |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 12 | PR00010 | 110 | CL001 | Rack and cable the S-200 server | 1.5 | 60.00 | 66b9d41e7a03f2c8d5e1a204 |
| Aug 12 | PR00010 | 240 | CL002 | Customer sign-off call | 0.75 | 85.00 | 66b9d5c2b118e04a97f30d71 |
| Aug 12 | PR00020 | 1000 | CL003 | Site survey notes | 2.0 | 70.00 | 66b9d6f04cc2917be2a85b39 |
Clara’s line shows the date rule at work: she finished at 23:40 in her time zone, when a server elsewhere had already reached Aug 13, and her line still posts on Aug 12, her day.
Each line is then posted to the Project Ledger, where it appears in the per-project cost picture. The Clockify entry id travels onto the posted entry, which is what makes duplicates structurally impossible: before writing, the connector asks your Business Central what it already holds, and Business Central itself refuses a second copy of the same entry id. Re-running a sync is always safe.
The rules
Only approved entries sync. Pending or rejected entries never touch your Business Central, so approval in Clockify is the single gate your books sit behind.
Unmapped is held, never guessed. If an entry’s person or project has no mapping, the entry is stored and shown as waiting; a wrong guess posted to the wrong project costs far more to unwind than an entry that waited a day.
The mapping is validated the moment it is saved. Every mapping is checked against live data in your Business Central when it is saved, so a mistyped project number fails in front of the person editing it and can never enter the system.
A mapping change affects future syncs only. What is already posted stays exactly as it was posted, so a report you reconciled yesterday still reconciles today.
A posted entry is never remapped or rewritten. Posted entries are immutable, a Business Central accounting principle. If an entry is edited in Clockify after posting, the connector flags it for review and never silently alters the books; corrections are made as reversal entries that net to zero and leave a full trail.
Not mapped in version 1
Clockify custom fields to Business Central work types, and Clockify tags to dimensions, are deliberately not mapped in version 1. Both are on the roadmap. Business Central’s native Time Sheets are also bypassed in version 1, so time is approved once, in Clockify, not twice; a Time Sheets mode is a possible future phase.