How to Get Deputy API Access (Rostering, Timesheets and Payroll)

Who this is for

Operations and payroll managers who want Deputy rostering and timesheet data connected to payroll, accounting or an in-house system.

Question this answers

How do I get Deputy API access and what can I connect Deputy to?

What you'll leave with

The difference between a permanent token and the OAuth flow
How to get developer access
What the Deputy API exposes
Why award interpretation is the hard part, not the API
When a Deputy integration needs a developer

Permanent tokens and OAuth

Deputy offers two ways in, and the right one depends on who the integration is for.

A permanent token, for connecting your own Deputy account to your own systems. It behaves like a long lived API key, which makes it the practical choice for internal work.
OAuth 2.0, for software that other businesses will connect their Deputy account to. If you are building a product, this is your path.

Most people searching for a Deputy API key want the first one. It is the lighter option and does not require building a consent flow.

A permanent token carries the permissions of the user who created it. Create it from an account with the access the integration needs and no more, rather than from the owner account out of convenience.

Getting access, step by step

Confirm your Deputy plan includes API access before designing anything around it.
Sign in to the Deputy developer area with an account the business controls, not an individual's personal login.
Generate a permanent token for internal use, or register an application if other businesses will connect their own Deputy.
Note your install URL. Deputy accounts sit on their own subdomain, and API calls go to that address rather than a single shared endpoint. This trips up first attempts regularly.
Store the token securely and plan for rotation. A permanent token that lives in a spreadsheet is a problem waiting to happen.

Check the current process with Deputy before planning around it. Plan eligibility and developer tooling change. Treat this as orientation and confirm against Deputy's own documentation.

What the Deputy API lets you do

Employees, records, contact details and employment settings
Rosters and shifts, read published rosters, create and update shifts
Timesheets, actual hours worked, including start, stop and break data
Locations and areas, which matters for multi site operations
Leave, requests and balances
Sales and demand data, used to drive rostering against forecast
Journals and notes, the operational record around a shift

The most common request by a distance is moving approved timesheet data into payroll, and the second is bringing sales or job data in so rosters reflect actual demand.

The payroll reality nobody mentions

Before commissioning a custom Deputy to payroll integration, check the official connectors. Deputy already integrates with the major Australian payroll platforms, and if a standard connector covers your situation it will be cheaper and better supported than anything custom.

Custom work is warranted when the standard connector cannot express what your business actually does. That is usually one of:

Staff working across multiple locations, entities or cost centres in a single pay period
Cost coding that has to follow the job or venue rather than the employee's default
Allowances, penalties or agreements the connector does not model
An in-house or older payroll system with no Deputy connector at all

When to bring in a developer

You probably do not need outside help if you are

Using an official Deputy connector to a mainstream payroll platform
Pulling roster or timesheet data into a dashboard, read only
Running a one-off export for a payroll audit or review
Testing whether the API exposes a field you need

You likely need specialist help if you are

Sending Deputy timesheets into a payroll system with no official connector
Award interpretation has to be modelled explicitly and tested against real pay runs.
Cost coding hours across multiple venues, entities or jobs
One employee working two locations in a day is the case that breaks naive mappings.
Driving rosters from live sales or job data
Requires a reliable feed from the other system and rules for what happens when it is late.
Syncing employees two ways between Deputy and an HR system
Onboarding, termination and rehire are the edge cases that matter most.
Building reporting across Deputy, payroll and accounting together
Three systems with three definitions of a period, a cost centre and an employee.

Deputy is a capable platform with a clean API. When these projects get difficult it is almost never the integration itself. It is the payroll rules underneath, which is why we scope that part first and price it honestly rather than discovering it during the build.

Key takeaways

For your own account, a permanent token is usually the simplest route
OAuth is for integrations other businesses will connect their Deputy to
The API covers employees, rosters, timesheets, locations, leave and sales data
Deputy already has official connectors to the major payroll platforms, check those first
Award interpretation, not the API, is what makes payroll integrations expensive to get wrong

DeputyAPI IntegrationIntegrationsPayroll