Using Developer Portal

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Prerequisites

Access to the developer portal experience is restricted to organizations with Technology Partnership or client custom-integration agreements. Developer Portal may not be available for all integration use-cases.

1. Create an Account & Log In

Start by signing up or logging in. A professional email address must be used to sign up for an account. Two-factor authentication will be required for account setup and login.

Once in, you’ll land on your Dashboard, where you can create and manage your integration(s).


2. Register an Integration

Create a new App (sometimes called an integration app) by entering a name and description. You’ll receive sandbox credentials (e.g., API client ID and secret) that let you test against a non-production environment.

The Clients card on your integration app details page will provide you with the companyID (a common required path parameter for Paylocity APIs) to which your credentials have been granted access for the specified environment.


3. Explore the API Docs

Use the API documentation to learn how to make requests, understand authentication, and handle responses.

The following resources are available as guidance on what APIs to use for common integration scenarios:

  • Recipes for step-by-step code implementation instructions
  • Our guide on common partner integration use cases
  • Summary & use case examples presented in each endpoint specification

4. Start Testing

Use your sandbox credentials and create a private Postman workspace forked from our public repository to make test calls and refine your integration until it behaves as expected.


5. Manage Your App

You can:

  • Rotate or expire sandbox credentials
  • Identify what companies your credentials may access for each environment
  • Select which APIs you app has access to in sandbox and view the APIs your app has access to in production once live
  • Stage and request updates to metadata related to your integration app Marketplace listing

6. Prepare for Production

Once tested, you may request production credentials or move your app to live. This will involve:

Requesting launch of your app

  1. From the integration app page click on Manage App > Verify Listing
    This verification process will provide guidance if any required data to complete a review is missing.

  2. Once the verification is successful, a green banner will be presented with a button to initiate a Launch review request. Important: When a launch review is started, you will be unable to update your application details and listing until the review is completed. Make sure all provided information is correct.

  3. During the review process your application status will show as "Under Review" and any updates to this status, such as needing more information or being approved for go-live will be sent via email notifications.

  4. Once approved and marked as "Live" you will be able access the "Production" tab in Developer Portal, where you may provision your API credentials. The Production tab displays your current Production configuration and authorized companyIDs. Updates made in Sandbox do not apply to Production without Paylocity review and approval.

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Best Security Practices

  1. Keep your sandbox and production environments separate and rotate credentials regularly for security
  2. Never hardcode credentials in code. Store them in environment variables or a secure secrets manager
  3. Use secret manager tools for storage and access to credentials such as AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, GCP Secret Manager, and Postman workspace vault
  4. Avoid saving secrets on developer machines or config files unless absolutely necessary, and always encrypt them