Establishing a Connection

Configure a Connection Profile

From the CData ribbon, click Get Data and select From Paylocity connection/s to launch the CData Query window. To setup a new connection, you will have to click the New Paylocity Connection button. Here you can set the connection settings, test the connection, and save the connection profile.

Connecting to Paylocity

Paylocity provides two ways to connect: via the Pay Entry API, and via the standard Paylocity API.

Before you connect, set these properties (if applicable):

If you are using a Sandbox account, set UseSandbox to true; otherwise, false.
If IncludeCustomFields is true, set CustomFieldsCategory to the Customfields category. The default value for this property is PayrollAndHR.

For sites that have opted-in to encryption:

Set only one of the following encryption properties:
- Key: The AES symmetric key (base 64 encoded) is encrypted with the Paylocity Public Key. This key is used to encrypt Paylocity content. Paylocity decrypts the AES key using RSA decryption.
  Used if the IV value is not provided.
- IV: The AES IV (base 64 encoded) used when encrypting Paylocity. If no Key value is provided, IV is generated internally.
If RSA encryption is enabled in your Paylocity account, set RSAPublicKey to the RSA Key associated with your Paylocity. (This property is required for executing Insert and Update statements.) If the feature is disabled, it is not required.

The Pay Entry API

The Pay Entry API is an extremely limited connection that enables users to automatically submit payroll information for individual employees, and little else. Due to the extremely limited nature of what is offered by the Pay Entry API, it does not have a seaparate schema. However, it can be enabled via the UsePayEntryAPI connection property.

The Pay Entry API is completely separate from the rest of the Paylocity API. It uses a separate Client ID and Secret, and must be explicitly requested from Paylocity for access to be granted for an account.

Note that when setting UsePayEntryAPI to true, you may only use the following stored procedures:

Attempts to use other features of the product will result in an error.

Also, the OAuthAccessToken you obtain for use with the Pay Entry API must be stored separately. This often requires you to set a different OAuthSettingsLocation when using this connection property.

Authenticating to Paylocity

Paylocity supports OAuth authentication for all connections to data, from either Pay Entry API or the standard Payloticity API. To enable this authentication from all OAuth flows, you must set AuthScheme to OAuth, and you must create a custom OAuth application.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to Paylocity from the three most common authentication flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application. For a complete list of connection string properties available in Paylocity, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

To authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth application, you must get and refresh the OAuth access token. After you do that, you are ready to connect.

Get and refresh the OAuth access token:

InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
OAuthClientId = the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
OAuthClientSecret = the client secret that was assigned when you registered your application.
CallbackURL = the redirect URI that was defined when you registered your application.

When you connect, the add-in opens Paylocity's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

When the access token expires, the add-in refreshes it automatically.

Automatic refresh of the OAuth access token:

To have the add-in automatically refresh the OAuth access token, do the following:

Before connecting to data for the first time, set the following connection parameters:
- InitiateOAuth = REFRESH.
- OAuthClientId = the client Id in your application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret = the client secret in your application settings.
- OAuthAccessToken = the access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
- OAuthSettingsLocation = the path where you want the add-in to save the OAuth values, which persist across connections.
On subsequent data connections, set the following:
- InitiateOAuth
- OAuthSettingsLocation

Manual refresh of the OAuth access token:

The only value needed to manually refresh the OAuth access token is the OAuth refresh token.

To manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken after the ExpiresIn period (returned by GetOAuthAccessToken) has elapsed, call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
Set the following connection properties:
- OAuthClientId = the Client Id in your application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret = the Client Secret in your application settings.
Call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with OAuthRefreshToken set to the OAuth refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
After the new tokens have been retrieved, set the OAuthAccessToken property to the value returned by RefreshOAuthAccessToken. This opens a new connection.

Store the OAuth refresh token so that you can use it to manually refresh the OAuth access token after it has expired.

Connection Properties

The Connection properties describe the various options that can be used to establish a connection.

Managing Connections

After successfully authenticating to Paylocity you will be able to customize the data you are importing. To learn more about this, see Managing Connections.

Excel Add-In for Paylocity