Paycor is a leading human capital management (HCM) platform built to help organizations run payroll, manage people operations, and make workforce decisions with confidence. Its unified system brings together payroll, HR, time, benefits, and talent data, reducing fragmentation across tools and teams. For organizations that need Paycor to work seamlessly with other business systems, the Paycor APIs provide a direct and reliable way to integrate core workforce data into broader HR, finance, and analytics workflows.
The Paycor API layer is designed for operational use, not experimentation. It enables real-time access to employee, payroll, tax, time, and legal entity data so teams can automate downstream processes, reduce manual reconciliation, and keep systems aligned. Whether you are syncing employee records with internal HR tools, pushing payroll data into finance systems, or building reporting pipelines, the Paycor APIs act as the backbone for scalable HR integrations.
Key Highlights of Paycor APIs
- Employee lifecycle coverage
Manage employees from onboarding to status changes, certifications, and personal data updates using well-defined endpoints. - Payroll-ready integrations
Sync pay rates, earnings, direct deposits, payroll hours, and pay stubs directly into payroll or finance systems without manual uploads. - Accurate tax data handling
Retrieve tax codes, filing statuses, and required tax fields to ensure compliant payroll and employee tax setup. - Real-time data synchronization
Keep employee, payroll, and time data current across systems, reducing mismatches and reconciliation effort. - Built for automation at scale
Designed to support high-volume employee and payroll operations with rate limiting, versioning, and structured error handling. - Strong security controls
Uses standard authentication and authorization mechanisms to protect sensitive HR and payroll data. - Developer-friendly ecosystem
Clear API structure, documentation, sandbox support, and logging make integrations easier to build and maintain.
Paycor API Endpoints
Employee Management
- POST /v1/employees : The Create Employee API allows for the immediate hiring of a new employee and associated Person in Paycor’s system.
- POST /v1/employees/onboarding : The Create Employee Onboarding API allows partners to add a new employee entry for pending hire.
- PUT /v1/employees/{employeeId} : The Update Employee Contact Information API allows for the immediate update of an employee’s contact information in Paycor’s system.
- PATCH /v1/employees/{employeeId}/PersonalData : This API endpoint updates an employee’s personal data.
- POST /v1/employees/{employeeId}/certifications : The Add Employee Certification API allows you to add a certification to an employee’s record.
- POST /v1/employees/{employeeId}/emergencycontact : This API allows the creation of an emergency contact for a specific employee identified by employeeId.
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/person : The Get Person by EmployeeID API retrieves detailed information about a person associated with a given EmployeeID.
Compensation and Payroll
- POST /v1/employees/{employeeId}/DirectDeposits : Add direct deposit details for an employee.
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/DirectDeposits/{directDepositId} : Retrieve direct deposit details for an employee.
- PUT /v1/employees/{employeeId}/HSAaccounts : Update HSA direct deposit information.
- PUT /v1/employees/{employeeId}/compensation : Update employee earnings and pay rate.
- PUT /v1/employees/{employeeId}/earnings : Update employee earnings.
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/earnings/{employeeEarningId} : Retrieve earning details for an employee.
- POST /v1/employees/{employeeId}/payrates : Add a new pay rate for an employee.
- PUT /v1/employees/{employeeId}/payrates/{payrateId} : Update an employee’s pay rate.
- POST /v1/employees/{employeeId}/payrollhours : Import payroll hours for an employee.
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/payschedule : Retrieve upcoming pay schedules.
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/paystubDocumentData : Retrieve document links for employee pay stubs.
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/paystubs : Retrieve employee pay stubs.
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/paystubsytd : Retrieve year-to-date pay stubs.
Tax Management
- GET /v1/employees/taxes/filingStatus/{taxCode} : Retrieve filing status by tax code.
- GET /v1/employees/taxes/taxFields/{taxCode} : Retrieve required tax fields by tax code.
- POST /v1/employees/{employeeId}/taxes : Add tax information for an employee.
Position and Status
- PUT /v1/employees/{employeeId}/position : Update an employee’s position.
- PUT /v1/employees/{employeeId}/positionandstatus : Update both position and status.
- PUT /v1/employees/{employeeId}/status : Update employee status.
Time Management
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/punches : Retrieve time card punches for an employee.
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/schedules : Retrieve employee schedules within a date range.
- DELETE /v1/employees/{employeeId}/schedules/{scheduleId} : Delete an employee schedule.
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/timeoffaccruals : Retrieve time-off accrual balances.
- GET /v1/employees/{employeeId}/timeoffrequests : Retrieve employee time-off requests.
Legal Entity Management
- GET /v1/legalEntities/{legalEntityId}/ats/accounts : Retrieve ATS accounts for a legal entity.
- GET /v1/legalEntities/{legalEntityId}/ats/{atsAccountId}/jobs : Retrieve jobs for an ATS account.
- GET /v1/legalEntities/{legalEntityId}/ats/{atsAccountId}/jobs/{atsJobId} : Retrieve a specific ATS job.
- GET /v1/legalEntities/{legalEntityId}/ats/{atsAccountId}/jobs/{atsJobId}/candidates/{atsCandidateId} : Retrieve a specific ATS candidate.
- GET /v1/legalEntities/{legalEntityId}/persons : Retrieve persons associated with a legal entity.
- GET /v1/legalEntities/{legalEntityId}/punches : Retrieve time punches for a legal entity.
- GET /v1/legalEntities/{legalEntityId}/schedules : Retrieve schedules for a legal entity.
- GET /v1/legalentities/ActivatedLegalEntityTenantList : Retrieve accessible legal entities and tenants.
- GET /v1/legalentities/{legalEntityId} : Retrieve legal entity details by ID.
General Ledger
- GET /v1/generalledger/jobcosting/legalentities/{legalEntityId} : Retrieve job costing details for a legal entity.
- GET /v1/generalledger/legalentities/{legalEntityId} : Retrieve general ledger data for a legal entity.
Miscellaneous
- POST /v1/events/mockevent : Trigger mock event notifications for testing.
FAQs
1. What type of data can be accessed using Paycor APIs?
Paycor APIs provide access to employee, payroll, compensation, tax, time tracking, legal entity, and general ledger data.
2. Are Paycor APIs suitable for real-time integrations?
Yes. Many endpoints support real-time or near real-time data sync, making them suitable for operational systems.
3. Can Paycor APIs support large employee datasets?
They are built to scale, with rate limiting and structured pagination to handle high-volume usage.
4. How secure are Paycor APIs?
They use standard authentication and authorization mechanisms to protect sensitive HR and payroll data.
5. Is there support for testing before production use?
Yes. Sandbox environments and mock event APIs allow teams to test integrations safely.
6. Do Paycor APIs support payroll automation?
Yes. APIs cover payroll hours, earnings, pay rates, direct deposits, and pay stubs, enabling end-to-end payroll workflows.
7. How does Knit simplify Paycor integrations?
Knit abstracts Paycor’s authentication, API changes, and maintenance into a single integration, reducing ongoing engineering effort.
Get Started with Paycor API Integration
Integrating directly with Paycor APIs can be time-consuming due to authentication setup, version management, and ongoing maintenance. Knit API simplifies this process by acting as a unified integration layer. With a single integration to Knit, teams can access Paycor data while offloading authentication, authorization, and long-term maintenance. This approach reduces engineering effort and accelerates time to value, especially for teams managing multiple HR or payroll integrations.
Ready to build this integration?
Explore Knit’s Paycor integration or read more about our Unified HRIS API.
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