Connect to Paylocity Data in DBeaver



Use the CData ODBC Driver to connect to Paylocity data in DBeaver.

NOTE: The Legacy ODBC driver was removed in DBeaver Community Edition 23.1. As an alternative, you can use a CData JDBC Driver (learn how here: How to Connect DBeaver to Paylocity via JDBC). If you need to use ODBC Drivers, refer to the DBeaver Documentation.


The CData ODBC Driver for Paylocity enables access to live data from Paylocity under the ODBC standard, allowing you work with Paylocity data in a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and directly, using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to manage Paylocity data with visual tools in DBeaver like the query browser.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Paylocity data in DBeaver due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from DBeaver to Paylocity, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Paylocity and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can manage and analyze Paylocity data.

Connect to Paylocity

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can configure the DSN using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the Help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

Set the following to establish a connection to Paylocity:

  • RSAPublicKey: Set this to the RSA Key associated with your Paylocity, if the RSA Encryption is enabled in the Paylocity account.

    This property is required for executing Insert and Update statements, and it is not required if the feature is disabled.

  • UseSandbox: Set to true if you are using sandbox account.
  • CustomFieldsCategory: Set this to the Customfields category. This is required when IncludeCustomFields is set to true. The default value for this property is PayrollAndHR.
  • Key: The AES symmetric key(base 64 encoded) encrypted with the Paylocity Public Key. It is the key used to encrypt the content.

    Paylocity will decrypt the AES key using RSA decryption.
    It is an optional property if the IV value not provided, The driver will generate a key internally.

  • IV: The AES IV (base 64 encoded) used when encrypting the content. It is an optional property if the Key value not provided, The driver will generate an IV internally.

Connect Using OAuth Authentication

You must use OAuth to authenticate with Paylocity. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Paylocity using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the Help documentation.

The Pay Entry API

The Pay Entry API is completely separate from the rest of the Paylocity API. It uses a separate Client ID and Secret, and must be explicitly requested from Paylocity for access to be granted for an account. The Pay Entry API allows you to automatically submit payroll information for individual employees, and little else. Due to the extremely limited nature of what is offered by the Pay Entry API, we have elected not to give it a separate schema, but it may be enabled via the UsePayEntryAPI connection property.

Please be aware that when setting UsePayEntryAPI to true, you may only use the CreatePayEntryImportBatch & MergePayEntryImportBatchgtable stored procedures, the InputTimeEntry table, and the OAuth stored procedures. Attempts to use other features of the product will result in an error. You must also store your OAuthAccessToken separately, which often means setting a different OAuthSettingsLocation when using this connection property.

Finally, set the "Map To WVarchar connection property to False in the DSN Configuration window for the driver. This configuration will allow string types to be mapped to SQL_VARCHAR and prevent SQL_WVARCHAR types from being displayed as NULL.

Connecting to the Paylocity ODBC Data Source in DBeaver

  1. Open the DBeaver application and in the Database menu, select the New Database Connection option.
  2. In the 'Connect to a database' window, select ODBC and click Next.
  3. In the Database/Schema field, enter the DSN name (CData Paylocity Source by default). It will be automatically added to the JDBC URL as well.
  4. Click the Test Connection button. You should receive a 'Connected' message after DBeaver has detected the DSN, along with details about the driver if the connection is successful.

Query Paylocity Data

You can now query information from the tables exposed by the data source connection. You can expand the database structure in order to view all the tables. You can retrieve the table's data by right-clicking on a table name and selecting View data. The data will then be available in the Data tab.

Free Trial & More Information

At this point, you have connected to live Paylocity data from DBeaver. For more information, visit the CData ODBC Driver page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live Paylocity data DBeaver today.

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Paylocity Icon Paylocity ODBC Driver

The Paylocity ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Paylocity, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Paylocity data like you would a database - read, write, and update Paylocity FALSE, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.