Square Payroll API Essential Guide

What type of API does Square Payroll provide?

REST API

Square provides a REST API for many of their services:

• The Square API follows general REST patterns
• Applications can manage resources like payments, orders, and catalog items by making HTTPS requests to URLs representing those resources
• Square provides language-based SDKs that wrap the REST APIs for convenience

GraphQL API

Square also offers a GraphQL API for some of their services:

• Allows querying exactly the data needed in a single request
• Supports query operations only (no mutations or subscriptions)
• Available for certain graphs like bookings, catalog, customers, merchants, orders, payments, etc.
• Accessed via specific GraphQL endpoints for production and sandbox environments

Key Considerations

• The REST API seems to be more comprehensive and widely used across Square's platform
• The GraphQL API provides benefits like more efficient querying, but has some limitations compared to the REST API
• Square provides SDKs and tools to work with both their REST and GraphQL APIs

Does the Square Payroll API have webhooks?

Webhook Availability

The official Square Payroll API does not appear to have dedicated webhooks. However, Square offers webhooks for various other APIs that may be related to payroll functionality:

1. Labor API webhooks
2. Payments API webhooks
3. Vendors API webhooks

Types of Events

While there are no specific Payroll API webhooks, here are some relevant event types you can subscribe to:

1. Labor API events:

   • Shift created event
   • Shift updated event
   • Shift deleted event

2. Payments API events:

   • payment.created
   • payment.updated

3. Vendors API events:

   • vendor.created
   • vendor.updated

Key Points to Consider

• Square provides webhooks for real-time notifications about various events in a Square account.
• Webhooks replace regular API calls with instant, real-time notifications.
• To use webhooks, you need to create a webhook subscription using the Developer Dashboard or Webhook Subscriptions API.
• Your endpoint must use HTTPS and respond with a 2xx HTTP status code to acknowledge receipt of the event notification.
• Square provides an SLA for webhook event notifications, with most notifications arriving in under 60 seconds.

Best Practices

1. Use idempotency keys to handle potential duplicate event notifications.
2. Implement proper error handling and retries in your webhook endpoint.
3. Test your webhooks in the Sandbox environment before moving to production.
4. Use the Webhook logs page in the Developer Dashboard to monitor and debug webhook events.

While the Square Payroll API doesn't have dedicated webhooks, you can leverage the Labor API, Payments API, and Vendors API webhooks to receive notifications about events that may be relevant to payroll processing.

Rate Limits and other limitations

Based on the search results provided, here are the key points regarding API rate limits for Square's Payroll API:

No Official Public Disclosure of Specific Limits

Square does not publicly disclose specific rate limit numbers for their API, including the Payroll API. As stated by a Square representative:

"At this time we don't disclose the limits. If you follow our guidance on how to handle rate limits you'll be just fine."

Key Considerations

• Rate limits help protect Square's infrastructure and ensure fair usage across all developers
• While specific limits are not disclosed, following Square's guidance on handling rate limits should prevent most issues
• If you have concerns about your specific use case, you may be able to contact Square support for more details

Recommendations for Handling Rate Limits

Square recommends the following approach for dealing with rate limits:

• Implement a retry mechanism with an exponential backoff schedule
• Add some randomness to the retry timing to avoid a "thundering herd effect"
• Monitor responses for 429 RATE_LIMITED errors
• When rate limited, resend requests at an increasingly slower rate

Best Practices

• Implement proper error handling for rate limit errors (429 responses)
• Use exponential backoff and jitter in retry logic
• Consider using Square's SDKs which may have built-in retry logic

In summary, while Square does not publicly disclose specific API rate limits for their Payroll API, they provide guidance on how to properly handle rate limiting through retry mechanisms and proper error handling. By following these best practices, most applications should be able to work within Square's rate limits effectively.

Latest API Version

Based on the search results provided, here are the key points regarding the most recent version of the Square Payroll API:

Current Version

The search results do not explicitly mention a specific version number for the Square Payroll API. However, they do provide some relevant information about recent updates and the API's current state:

1. The most recent update mentioned for the Labor API, which is a component of the team management APIs and related to payroll, was on November 15, 2023 [2].

2. The latest overall update to Square APIs and SDKs mentioned in the changelog is July 17, 2024 [5].

Key Points

1. The Square Payroll API is part of Square's suite of APIs for business management [3].

2. It is closely related to the Labor API, which is used for timekeeping and integrates with Square Payroll [4].

3. Square regularly updates its APIs, with changes and new features being released frequently throughout the year [5].

4. The API documentation and reference guides are available on the Square Developer portal [1][2].

Best Practices

1. Always refer to the official Square Developer documentation for the most up-to-date information on the Payroll API and its features.

2. Check the changelog regularly for updates and new features that may affect your integration [5].

3. Use the latest version of the API to ensure access to all current features and security updates.

4. Consider using Square's SDKs for easier integration with their APIs [2].

In conclusion, while there isn't a specific version number mentioned for the Square Payroll API, it is regularly updated as part of Square's overall API ecosystem. To ensure you're using the most recent version, always refer to the official Square Developer documentation and keep an eye on their changelog for the latest updates.

How to get a Square Payroll developer account and API Keys?

Create a Square Developer Account

1. Go to the Square Developer sign-up page.

2. If you already have a Square account, sign in. Otherwise, you'll need to create a new account by providing the following information:

   • Your name
   • Email address
   • Password
   • Country

3. Agree to Square's Terms, including the Privacy Policy and E-Sign Consent.

4. Enter a business name. If you work for a Square merchant, use their name. Otherwise, you can use your own software development business name.

5. Provide an application name. This is the name of your project and doesn't need to match your final application branding.

6. Optionally, you can provide information about your use case, programming language, and target audience. You can skip these steps if you're unsure.

Set Up Your Developer Application

1. Once your account is created, Square will open your new application in the Developer Dashboard.

2. In the Developer Dashboard, make sure you're in "Sandbox" mode.

3. Go to the "Credentials" page and copy your Sandbox Application ID and Sandbox Access Token.

Get Access to Square Payroll API

1. The Square Payroll API is not automatically available to all developer accounts. You'll need to contact Square's sales team or developer support to request access to the Payroll API specifically.

2. Explain your use case and why you need access to the Payroll API. Square may have additional requirements or an approval process for Payroll API access.

What can you do with the Square Payroll API?

Based on the search results provided, here is a list of data models that can be interacted with using the Square Payroll API, along with what is possible for each:

Team API

• Pull employee data into accounting and payroll systems
• Manage shifts, breaks, and wages for employees in Square Point of Sale

Labor API

• Manage shifts, breaks, and wages for employees

Payments API

• Take and manage payments
• Process online, in-person, and in-app transactions

Orders API

• Get sales data for a Square seller
• Itemize payments
• Push orders to POS

Catalog API

• Manage a Square seller's catalog of products and services
• Create, view, update, or delete catalog entries
• Manage categories, variations, options, discounts, taxes, etc.

Inventory API

• Manage a Square seller's inventory of catalog items

Customers API

• Create and manage customer profiles
• Sync CRM systems with Square

Merchants API

• Retrieve information about an organization that sells with Square

Locations API

• Manage multiple seller locations

Invoices API

• Create, configure, and publish invoices for orders

While not explicitly mentioned as part of the Payroll API, these data models provide related functionality that could be useful for payroll and employee management purposes. The Team and Labor APIs in particular seem most directly relevant to payroll functions.