diff --git a/src/main/java/com/splunk/hecclient/HecAckPoller.java b/src/main/java/com/splunk/hecclient/HecAckPoller.java
index 0fcfafa9..832f6af7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/splunk/hecclient/HecAckPoller.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/splunk/hecclient/HecAckPoller.java
@@ -209,9 +209,9 @@ public void stickySessionHandler(HecChannel channel) {
             log.info("Failing {} batches for the channel {}, these will be resent by the connector.", channelBatches.size(), oldChannelId);
             if (pollerCallback != null) {
                 List<EventBatch> expired = new ArrayList<>();
-                Iterator iter = channelBatches.entrySet().iterator();
+                Iterator<Map.Entry<Long,EventBatch>> iter = channelBatches.entrySet().iterator();
                 while(iter.hasNext()) {
-                    Map.Entry<Long, EventBatch> pair = (Map.Entry) iter.next();
+                    Map.Entry<Long, EventBatch> pair = iter.next();
                     EventBatch batch = pair.getValue();
                     totalOutstandingEventBatches.decrementAndGet();
                     batch.fail();
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkRecord.java b/src/main/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkRecord.java
index b8f59745..49701e8f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkRecord.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkRecord.java
@@ -15,8 +15,12 @@
  */
 package com.splunk.kafka.connect;
 
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.builder.HashCodeBuilder;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.builder.EqualsBuilder;
 import org.apache.kafka.connect.header.Headers;
 import org.apache.kafka.connect.sink.SinkRecord;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 /**
  * SplunkSinkRecord provides helper functionality to enable Header support for the Splunk Connect for Kafka, Namely
@@ -27,6 +31,7 @@
  * @since       1.1.0
  */
 public class SplunkSinkRecord {
+    private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SplunkSinkRecord.class);
     Headers headers;
     SplunkSinkConnectorConfig connectorConfig;
     String splunkHeaderIndex = "";
@@ -48,7 +53,10 @@ public SplunkSinkRecord() {}
     public SplunkSinkRecord(SinkRecord record, SplunkSinkConnectorConfig connectorConfig) {
         this.connectorConfig = connectorConfig;
         this.headers = record.headers();
-        setMetadataValues();
+        if(this.headers != null) {
+            log.info("not null headers");
+            setMetadataValues();
+        }
     }
 
     /**
@@ -75,10 +83,49 @@ protected boolean compareRecordHeaders(SinkRecord record) {
     }
 
     private void setMetadataValues() {
-        splunkHeaderIndex = this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerIndex).value().toString();
-        splunkHeaderHost = this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerHost).value().toString();
-        splunkHeaderSource = this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerSource).value().toString();
-        splunkHeaderSourcetype = this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerSourcetype).value().toString();
+        log.info("Made it to setMetadataValues");
+
+        if(this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerIndex).value() != null) {
+            splunkHeaderIndex = this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerIndex).value().toString();
+        }
+        if(this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerHost).value() != null) {
+            splunkHeaderHost = this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerHost).value().toString();
+        }
+        if(this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerSource).value() != null) {
+            splunkHeaderSource = this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerSource).value().toString();
+        }
+        if(this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerSourcetype).value() != null) {
+            splunkHeaderSourcetype = this.headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerSourcetype).value().toString();
+        }
+    }
+
+    public String id() {
+        return splunkHeaderIndex + "$$$" + splunkHeaderHost + "$$$"
+        + splunkHeaderSource + "$$$" + splunkHeaderSourcetype;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public int hashCode() {
+        return new HashCodeBuilder()
+                .append(splunkHeaderIndex)
+                .append(splunkHeaderHost)
+                .append(splunkHeaderSource)
+                .append(splunkHeaderSourcetype)
+                .toHashCode();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
+        if (obj instanceof SplunkSinkRecord) {
+            final SplunkSinkRecord other = (SplunkSinkRecord) obj;
+            return new EqualsBuilder()
+                    .append(splunkHeaderIndex, other.splunkHeaderIndex)
+                    .append(splunkHeaderHost, other.splunkHeaderHost)
+                    .append(splunkHeaderSource, other.splunkHeaderSource)
+                    .append(splunkHeaderSourcetype, other.splunkHeaderSourcetype)
+                    .isEquals();
+        }
+        return false;
     }
 
     public Headers getHeaders() {
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkTask.java b/src/main/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkTask.java
index 736bec8d..1e4422f1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkTask.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkTask.java
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ private void preventTooManyOutstandingEvents() {
 
     private void handleRaw(final Collection<SinkRecord> records) {
         if(connectorConfig.headerSupport) {
-            handleRecordsWithHeader(records);
+            if(records != null) { handleRecordsWithHeader(records); }
         }
 
         else if (connectorConfig.hasMetaDataConfigured()) {
@@ -158,21 +158,63 @@ else if (connectorConfig.hasMetaDataConfigured()) {
     }
 
     private void handleRecordsWithHeader(final Collection<SinkRecord> records) {
-        List<SinkRecord> recordsWithSameHeaders = new ArrayList<>();
-        SplunkSinkRecord splunkSinkRecord = new SplunkSinkRecord();
+        HashMap<String, ArrayList<SinkRecord>> recordsWithSameHeaders = new HashMap<>();
 
         for (SinkRecord record : records) {
-            if (splunkSinkRecord.compareRecordHeaders(record)) {
-                recordsWithSameHeaders.add(record);
-                continue;
+            String key = headerId(record);
+            if (!recordsWithSameHeaders.containsKey(key)) {
+                ArrayList<SinkRecord> recordList = new ArrayList<SinkRecord>();
+                recordsWithSameHeaders.put(key, recordList);
             }
+            ArrayList<SinkRecord> recordList = recordsWithSameHeaders.get(key);
+            recordList.add(record);
+            recordsWithSameHeaders.put(key, recordList);
+        }
+
+        int index = 0;
+        Iterator<Map.Entry<String, ArrayList<SinkRecord>>> itr = recordsWithSameHeaders.entrySet().iterator();
+        while(itr.hasNext()) {
+            Map.Entry set = itr.next();
+            String splunkSinkRecordKey = (String)set.getKey();
+            ArrayList<SinkRecord> recordArrayList = (ArrayList)set.getValue();
+            EventBatch batch = createRawHeaderEventBatch(splunkSinkRecordKey);
+            sendEvents(recordArrayList, batch);
+            index++;
+        }
+        log.debug("{} records have been bucketed in to {} batches",records.size(), index);
+    }
+
+    public String headerId(SinkRecord sinkRecord) {
+        Headers headers = sinkRecord.headers();
+        String headerId = "";
+
+        if(headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerIndex) != null) {
+            headerId += headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerIndex).value().toString();
+        }
+
+        headerId = insertheaderToken(headerId);
+
+        if(headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerHost) != null) {
+            headerId += headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerHost).value().toString();
+        }
+
+        headerId = insertheaderToken(headerId);
 
-            EventBatch batch = createRawHeaderEventBatch(splunkSinkRecord);
-            sendEvents(recordsWithSameHeaders, batch);
-            recordsWithSameHeaders.clear();
-            recordsWithSameHeaders.add(record);
-            splunkSinkRecord = new SplunkSinkRecord(record, connectorConfig);
+        if(headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerSource) != null) {
+            headerId += headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerSource).value().toString();
         }
+
+        headerId = insertheaderToken(headerId);
+
+        if(headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerSourcetype) != null) {
+            headerId += headers.lastWithName(connectorConfig.headerSourcetype).value().toString();
+        }
+
+        return headerId;
+    }
+
+    public String insertheaderToken(String id) {
+        return id + "$$$";
     }
 
     private void handleEvent(final Collection<SinkRecord> records) {
@@ -217,15 +259,17 @@ private void send(final EventBatch batch) {
         }
     }
 
-    private EventBatch createRawHeaderEventBatch(SplunkSinkRecord splunkSinkRecord) {
+    private EventBatch createRawHeaderEventBatch(String splunkSinkRecord) {
+        String[] split = splunkSinkRecord.split("[$]{3}");
+
         return RawEventBatch.factory()
-                .setIndex(splunkSinkRecord.getSplunkHeaderIndex())
-                .setSourcetype(splunkSinkRecord.getSplunkHeaderSourcetype())
-                .setSource(splunkSinkRecord.getSplunkHeaderSource())
-                .setHost(splunkSinkRecord.getSplunkHeaderHost())
+                .setIndex(split[0])
+                .setSourcetype(split[1])
+                .setSource(split[2])
+                .setHost(split[3])
                 .build();
-
     }
+
     // setup metadata on RawEventBatch
     private EventBatch createRawEventBatch(final TopicPartition tp) {
         if (tp == null) {
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkTaskTest.java b/src/test/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkTaskTest.java
index 59c34170..5a0448a8 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkTaskTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/splunk/kafka/connect/SplunkSinkTaskTest.java
@@ -226,6 +226,12 @@ public void putWithRawAndAckWithoutMeta() {
         putWithSuccess(true, false);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void handleRecordsWithHeaders() {
+
+
+    }
+
     private void putWithSuccess(boolean raw, boolean withMeta) {
         int batchSize = 100;
         int total = 1000;