Tutorial: Microsoft Entra integration with Ceridian Dayforce HCM

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate Ceridian Dayforce HCM with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate Ceridian Dayforce HCM with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Ceridian Dayforce HCM.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Ceridian Dayforce HCM with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
  • Manage your accounts in one central location.

Prerequisites

To get started, you need the following items:

  • A Microsoft Entra subscription. If you don't have a subscription, you can get a free account.
  • Ceridian Dayforce HCM single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on in a test environment.

  • Ceridian Dayforce HCM supports SP initiated SSO

To configure the integration of Ceridian Dayforce HCM into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add Ceridian Dayforce HCM from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > New application.
  3. In the Add from the gallery section, type Ceridian Dayforce HCM in the search box.
  4. Select Ceridian Dayforce HCM from results panel and then add the app. Wait a few seconds while the app is added to your tenant.

Alternatively, you can also use the Enterprise App Configuration Wizard. In this wizard, you can add an application to your tenant, add users/groups to the app, assign roles, as well as walk through the SSO configuration as well. Learn more about Microsoft 365 wizards.

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO for Ceridian Dayforce HCM

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Ceridian Dayforce HCM using a test user called B.Simon. For SSO to work, you need to establish a link relationship between a Microsoft Entra user and the related user in Ceridian Dayforce HCM.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Ceridian Dayforce HCM, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure Microsoft Entra SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
    1. Create a Microsoft Entra test user - to test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with B.Simon.
    2. Assign the Microsoft Entra test user - to enable B.Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on.
  2. Configure Ceridian Dayforce HCM SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Ceridian Dayforce HCM test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Ceridian Dayforce HCM that is linked to the Microsoft Entra representation of user.
  3. Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra SSO

Follow these steps to enable Microsoft Entra SSO.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Ceridian Dayforce HCM > Single sign-on.

  3. On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.

  4. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, click the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.

    Edit Basic SAML Configuration

  5. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, perform the following steps:

    Ceridian Dayforce HCM Domain and URLs single sign-on information

    a. In the Sign On URL textbox, type the URL used by your users to sign on to your Ceridian Dayforce HCM application.

    Environment URL
    For production https://sso.dayforcehcm.com/<DayforcehcmNamespace>
    For test https://ssotest.dayforcehcm.com/<DayforcehcmNamespace>

    b. In the Identifier textbox, type the URL using the following pattern:

    Environment URL
    For production https://ncpingfederate.dayforcehcm.com/sp
    For test https://fs-test.dayforcehcm.com/sp

    c. In the Reply URL textbox, type the URL used by Microsoft Entra ID to post the response.

    Environment URL
    For production https://ncpingfederate.dayforcehcm.com/sp/ACS.saml2
    For test https://fs-test.dayforcehcm.com/sp/ACS.saml2

    Note

    These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Sign-On URL, Identifier and Reply URL. Contact Ceridian Dayforce HCM Client support team to get these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  6. Ceridian Dayforce HCM application expects the SAML assertions in a specific format. Configure the following claims for this application. You can manage the values of these attributes from the User Attributes section on application integration page. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, click Edit button to open User Attributes dialog.

    Screenshot shows User Attributes with the Edit icon selected.

  7. In the User Claims section on the User Attributes dialog, configure SAML token attribute as shown in the image above and perform the following steps:

    Name Source Attribute
    name user.extensionattribute2

    a. Click Add new claim to open the Manage user claims dialog.

    Screenshot shows User claims with the option to Add new claim.

    Screenshot shows the Manage user claims dialog box where you can enter the values described.

    b. In the Name textbox, type the attribute name shown for that row.

    c. Leave the Namespace blank.

    d. Select Source as Attribute.

    e. From the Source attribute list, select the user attribute you want to use for your implementation. For example, if you want to use the EmployeeID as unique user identifier and you have stored the attribute value in the ExtensionAttribute2, then select user.extensionattribute2.

    f. Click Ok

    g. Click Save.

  8. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Metadata XML from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  9. On the Set up Ceridian Dayforce HCM section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.

    Copy configuration URLs

Create a Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll create a test user called B.Simon.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
  3. Select New user > Create new user, at the top of the screen.
  4. In the User properties, follow these steps:
    1. In the Display name field, enter B.Simon.
    2. In the User principal name field, enter the username@companydomain.extension. For example, B.Simon@contoso.com.
    3. Select the Show password check box, and then write down the value that's displayed in the Password box.
    4. Select Review + create.
  5. Select Create.

Assign the Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll enable B.Simon to use single sign-on by granting access to Ceridian Dayforce HCM.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Ceridian Dayforce HCM.
  3. In the app's overview page, select Users and groups.
  4. Select Add user/group, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
    1. In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
    2. If you are expecting a role to be assigned to the users, you can select it from the Select a role dropdown. If no role has been set up for this app, you see "Default Access" role selected.
    3. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure Ceridian Dayforce HCM SSO

To configure single sign-on on Ceridian Dayforce HCM side, you need to send the downloaded Metadata XML and appropriate copied URLs from the application configuration to Ceridian Dayforce HCM support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create Ceridian Dayforce HCM test user

In this section, you create a user called Britta Simon in Ceridian Dayforce HCM. Work with Ceridian Dayforce HCM support team to add the users in the Ceridian Dayforce HCM platform. Users must be created and activated before you use single sign-on.

Test SSO

In this section, you test your Microsoft Entra single sign-on configuration with following options.

  • Click on Test this application, this will redirect to Ceridian Dayforce HCM Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to Ceridian Dayforce HCM Sign-on URL directly and initiate the login flow from there.

  • You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the Ceridian Dayforce HCM tile in the My Apps, this will redirect to Ceridian Dayforce HCM Sign-on URL. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure Ceridian Dayforce HCM you can enforce session control, which protects exfiltration and infiltration of your organization’s sensitive data in real time. Session control extends from Conditional Access. Learn how to enforce session control with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.