Payroll Engine API

Run Indian payroll from inside your own product.

A REST API over the INDPayroll engine: employees and salary structures, the attendance and leave a period is built from, payroll runs, payslips, bank files, and the PF, ESI, professional tax, LWF and TDS returns that follow. JSON in, JSON out - or a filing-ready file when you ask for one.

Base URLhttps://api.indpayroll.com/v1

Quickstart

From a key to a calculated payslip in six calls.

Authentication

Bearer keys, HMAC signing, scopes and sandbox mode.

API reference

All 171 endpoints, generated from the spec.

OpenAPI 3.1 spec

Take the YAML and generate your own client.

What the engine does

INDPayroll calculates Indian payroll: it spreads a CTC across a salary structure, pro-rates it against attendance and leave, applies PF, ESI, professional tax, TDS and LWF as the statute defines them, and produces payslips, bank files and filing-ready returns. The API exposes all of it - the same engine the product runs on, with no screen in the way.

There are 171 endpoints across 14 groups. You will not need most of them: a calculate-only integration uses one.

Two ways to integrate

	Calculate only	Embed the engine
You hold	Employees, attendance, everything.	Your own UI; INDPayroll holds the payroll data.
You call	`POST /payroll-runs/preview` with the inputs inline.	Employees, inputs, then create, calculate, lock and mark paid.
We store	Nothing. No run, no payslip, no id.	Runs, payslips, statutory files, the audit trail.
You get	Fully calculated slips as JSON.	Slips, PDFs, bank files, ECR, 24Q, FnF, reports.

Both shapes use the same objects and the same calculation. Start with preview whichever you are building - it is the fastest way to see a real number.

Base URLs

Environment	Base URL	Keys
Production	https://api.indpayroll.com/v1	indp_live_...
Sandbox	https://sandbox-api.indpayroll.com/v1	indp_test_...

Sandbox is the same engine over synthetic organizations, and nothing is ever submitted to EPFO, ESIC or TRACES from it. Build there first.

Your first call

GET /me proves the key works and tells you which organizations it can reach - the organization_id every other call wants.

Request

curl https://sandbox-api.indpayroll.com/v1/me \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INDP_API_KEY" \
  -H "INDP-Version: 2026-09-01"

Response

{
  "key_id": "indp_test_9f2c41ab",
  "mode": "sandbox",
  "company": { "id": 17, "name": "Acme Technologies Private Limited" },
  "scopes": ["org:read", "employees:write", "payroll:write", "statutory:read"],
  "organization_ids": [42],
  "rate_limits": { "requests_per_minute": 600, "payroll_runs_per_hour": 60 },
  "api_version": "2026-09-01"
}

Conventions

	How it works
Money	A decimal number of rupees to two places - `82654.67`, never paise integers.
Dates	`YYYY-MM-DD`. Timestamps are RFC 3339 in UTC.
Employee ids	INDPayroll's id, or your own prefixed with `ext:` - `/employees/ext:emp-1001`. Upserts match on `external_id`.
Lists	`{ data, meta }`, with `page` and `per_page`. See Pagination and formats.
Errors	`{ error }` with a stable `code` and a `request_id`. See Errors.
Retries	Send an `Idempotency-Key` on every mutating call. See Idempotency.
Files	Reports and statutory endpoints take `?format=` with `xlsx`, `csv`, `txt` or `pdf`.

Before you start

A sandbox key pair from the partner console.
An organization with its statutory identifiers set - PF code, ESI code, PAN, TAN and a PT state. Statutory output is only as good as these.
A salary structure: components, and a salary group that arranges them.
Somewhere to receive webhooks, if you would rather not poll.

Ahead of general availabilityThe Payroll Engine API is documented here for partners building against the contract. Talk to us at /contact before you ship - we will get you keys and walk your integration.