---
title: "Developer guide to get employee data from Payfit API"
description: "Learn how to use the Payfit API to retrieve employee and accounting data efficiently. This step-by-step guide covers prerequisites, endpoints, Python code examples, pitfalls to avoid, and FAQs."
source_url: "https://www.getknit.dev/blog/developer-guide-to-get-employee-data-from-payfit-api"
page_type: "blog"
---

_This is an educational blog post from Knit's blog: “Developer guide to get employee data from Payfit API”._

# Developer guide to get employee data from Payfit API

### Introduction

The **Payfit API** empowers businesses to programmatically access payroll and HR data, from employee records to accounting insights, allowing smoother integrations with your internal systems.

This article, part of our in-depth [**HRIS API series**](https://www.getknit.dev/blog/full-list-of-knits-hris-api-guides), focuses on how to **fetch employee and accounting data using Payfit’s API**.

### Prerequisites

Before making requests to Payfit’s API, ensure you have:

*   Access to Payfit’s Partner API with valid credentials.
*   The **Company ID** for which you want to retrieve data.
*   A **Python environment** set up with libraries like `requests`.

### API Endpoints

The following Payfit endpoints are typically used for accessing company and employee-level data:

*   **Company Information:**  
    `GET https://partner-api.payfit.com/companies/{companyId}`
*   **Accounting Data:**  
    `GET https://partner-api.payfit.com/companies/{companyId}/accounting-v2`

#### Step 1: Fetch Company Information

```
import requests

def get_company_info(company_id, headers):
    url = f"https://partner-api.payfit.com/companies/{company_id}"
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
    return response.json()
```

#### Step 2: Fetch Employee Accounting Data

```
def get_employee_accounting_data(company_id, date, headers):
    url = f"https://partner-api.payfit.com/companies/{company_id}/accounting-v2"
    params = {"date": date}
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
    return response.json()
```

**Note:** The `date` parameter should follow the format `YYYYMM` (e.g., `202212` for December 2022).

### Common Pitfalls to Avoid

1.  **Incorrect endpoint usage:** Always verify you’re using the latest Payfit API version.
2.  **Authentication errors:** Missing or invalid tokens can lead to 401 Unauthorized errors.
3.  **Ignoring rate limits:** Payfit enforces rate limits add retry logic with exponential backoff.
4.  **Invalid date formats:** Ensure dates follow the correct `YYYYMM` format.
5.  **Not validating company IDs:** Invalid IDs can cause 404 or empty responses.
6.  **Poor error handling:** Always check response codes and handle failures gracefully.

### Frequently Asked Questions

**1\. What authentication method does Payfit API use?**  
Typically OAuth or API key-based authentication, depending on your access level.

**2\. How can I handle API rate limits?**  
Use retry logic with exponential backoff and respect the `Retry-After` header.

**3\. What is the correct date format for accounting data?**  
Use `YYYYMM`, e.g., `202401` for January 2024.

**4\. Can I retrieve data for multiple months in one call?**  
No, each API request fetches data for a single month.

**5\. What if I get a 401 Unauthorized error?**  
Double-check your API token and ensure it hasn’t expired.

**6\. How should I handle response errors?**  
Implement robust error handling based on HTTP status codes (e.g., 400, 401, 429, 500).

### Why Use Knit for Payfit API Integration

Integrating directly with Payfit can be time-consuming, especially with complex authentication and version updates.  
**Knit** simplifies this by offering a **single, unified API** to access Payfit and other HRIS systems with built-in:

*   Authentication and authorization handling
*   Continuous integration maintenance
*   Unified data models for employees, payroll, and accounting

By integrating with [Knit](https://developers.getknit.dev/reference/hris-apps) once, your team can connect to Payfit and dozens of other systems effortlessly saving engineering hours and reducing maintenance overhead.


## Related pages

- [How Knit works](https://md.getknit.dev/how-knit-works)
- [Unified API product](https://md.getknit.dev/products/unified-api)