Zoho People API Guide

Zoho People API Directory

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Zoho People is a leading HR solution provider which enables companies to automate and simplify their HR operations. Right from streamlining core HR processes, to supporting time and attendance management, to facilitating better performance management and fostering greater learning and development, Zoho People has been transforming HR operations for 4500+ companies for over a decade. 

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With Zoho People API, companies can seamlessly extract and access employee data, update it and integrate this application with other third party applications like ATS, LMS, employee onboarding tools, etc. to facilitate easy exchange of information. 

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Zoho People API Authentication

Like most industry leading HRIS applications, Zoho People API uses OAuth2.0 protocol for authentication. The application leverages Authorization Code Grant Type to obtain the grant token(code), allowing users to share specific data with applications, without sharing user credentials. Zoho People API uses access tokens for secure and temporary access which is used by the applications to make requests to the connected app. 

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Using OAuth2.0, Zoho People API users can revoke a customer's access to the application at any time, prevent disclosure of any credentials, ensure information safeguarding if the client is hacked as access tokens are issued to individual applications, facilitate application of specific scopes to either restrict or provide access to certain data for the client.

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Zoho People API Objects, Data Models & Endpoints

Integrating with any HRIS application requires the knowledge and understanding of the objects, data models and endpoints it uses. Here is a list of the key concepts about Zoho People API which SaaS developers must familiarize themselves with before commencing the integration process. 

Forms API

• POSTInsert Record API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/<inputType>/<formLinkName>/insertRecord?inputData=<inputData>

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• POSTInsert Record API for Adding Employees

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/json/employee/insertRecord?inputData=<inputData>

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• POSTUpdate Record API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/<inputType>/<formLinkName>/updateRecord?inputData=<inputData>&recordId=<recordId>

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• GETGet Bulk Records API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/<formLinkName>/getRecords?sIndex=<record starting index>&limit=<maximum record to fetch>​

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• POSTAdd Department API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/department/records?xmlData=<xmlData>

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• GETFetch Forms API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms?

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• GETFetch Single Record API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/<formLinkName>/getDataByID?recordId=261091000000049003

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• GETFetch Single Record API (Section Wise)

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/<formLinkName>/getRecordByID?recordId=<recordId>

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• GETGet Related Records API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/<formLinkName>/getRelatedRecords?sIndex=<sIndex>&limit=<limit>& parentModule=<parentModule>&id=<id>&lookupfieldName=<lookupfieldName>

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• GETSearch Records Based on Record Values

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/<formLinkName>/getRecords?searchParams={searchField: '<fieldLabelName>', searchOperator: '<operator>', searchText : '<textValue>'}

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• GETGet Fields of Form API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/<formLinkName>/components?

Cases API

• POSTAdd Case API

https://people.zoho.com/api/hrcases/addcase?categoryId=<Category ID>&subject=<subject>&description=<description>

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• GETView Case API

https://people.zoho.com/api/hrcases/viewcase?recordId=<Reord ID of the case>

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• GETView Case Listing API

https://people.zoho.com/api/hrcases/getRequestedCases?index=<index>&status=<status>

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• GETView List of Categories API

https://people.zoho.com/api/hrcases/listCategory?

Timesheet API

• POSTCreate Timesheets API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/timetracker/createtimesheet?user=<user>&timesheetName=<timesheetName>&description=<description>&dateFormat=<dateFormat>&fromDate=<fromDate>&toDate=<toDate>&billableStatus=<billableStatus>&jobId=<jobId>&projectId=<projectId>&clientId=<clientId>&sendforApproval=<sendforApproval>

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• POSTModify Timesheets API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/timetracker/modifytimesheet?timesheetId=<timesheetId>&timesheetName=<timesheetName>&description=<description>&sendforApproval=<sendforApproval>&removeAttachment=<removeAttachment>

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• GETGet Timesheets API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/timetracker/gettimesheet?user=<user>&approvalStatus=<approvalStatus>&employeeStatus=<employeeStatus>&dateFormat=<dateFormat>&fromDate=<fromDate>&toDate=<toDate>&sIndex=<sIndex>&limit=<limit>

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• GETGet Timesheets Details API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/timetracker/gettimesheetdetails?timesheetId=<timesheetId>&dateFormat=<dateFormat>​

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• POSTApprove Timesheets API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/timetracker/approvetimesheet?authtoken=<authtoken>&timesheetId=<timesheetId>&approvalStatus=<approvalStatus>&timeLogs=<timeLogs>&comments=<comments>&isAllLevelApprove=<isAllLevelApprove>​

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• POSTDelete Timesheets API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/timetracker/deletetimesheet?timesheetId=<timesheetId>​

Onboarding API

• POSTTrigger Onboarding API

https://people.zoho.com/api/<Employee|Candidate>/triggerOnboarding​

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• POSTAdd Candidate API

https://people.zoho.in/people/api/forms/json/Candidate/insertRecord?inputData=<inputData>​

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• POSTUpdate Candidate API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/<inputType>/Candidate/updateRecord?inputData=<inputData>&recordId=<recordId>

Leave API

• POSTAdd Leave API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/<inputType>/<formLinkName>/insertRecord?inputData=<inputData>

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• POSTGet Record API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/forms/leave/getDataByID?recordId=413124000068132003

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• PATCHCancel Leave API

https://people.zoho.com/api/v2/leavetracker/leaves/records/cancel/<record-id>

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• GETUser Report API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/v2/leavetracker/reports/user

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• GETLeave Booked and Balance Report API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/v2/leavetracker/reports/bookedAndBalance

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• GETLeave Bradford API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/v2/leavetracker/reports/bradford

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• GETEncashment Report API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/v2/leavetracker/reports/encashment

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• GETLOP Report API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/v2/leavetracker/reports/lop

• POSTAdd Leave Balance API

https://people.zoho.com/api/leave/addBalance?balanceData=<balanceData>&dateFormat=<dateFormat>

Attendance API

• POSTBulk Import API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/attendance/bulkImport?data=<JSONArray>

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• GETFetch Last Attendance Entries API

https://people.zoho.com/api/attendance/fetchLatestAttEntries?duration=5&dateTimeFormat=dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss

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• POSTAttendance Check In Check Out API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/attendance?dateFormat=<dateFormat>&checkIn=<checkin time>&checkOut=<checkout time>&empId=<employeeId>&emailId=<emailId>&mapId=<mapId>

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• POSTAttendance Entries API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/attendance/getAttendanceEntries?date=<date>&dateFormat=<dateformat>&erecno=<erecno>&mapId=<mapId>&emailId=<emailId>&empId=<empId>

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• POSTAttendance User Report API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/attendance/getUserReport?sdate=<sdate>&edate=<edate>&empId=<employeeId>&emailId=<emailId>&mapId=<mapId>&dateFormat=<dateFormat>

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• POSTEmployee Shift Mapping API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/attendance/updateUserShift?dateFormat=<dateformat>&empId=<employee Id>&shiftName=<shift name>&fdate=<FromDate>&tdate=<toDate>

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• GETGetting Shift Details Of Employee API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/attendance/getShiftConfiguration?empId=<employee Id>&emailId<email Id>=&mapId<Mapper ID>=&sdate<startDate>=&edate=<endDate>

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• GETGet Regularization Records API

https://people.zoho.com/people/api/attendance/getRegularizationRecords

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For more information and details on other endpoints, check out this detailed resource. 

Zoho People API Use Cases

• Quick candidate onboarding with offer letter management, new hire portal, customizable workflows and status-view reports
• Cloud-based attendance management system to generate insightful reports, regularize attendance, option to check in from anywhere 
• Simple time off management tool with leave policy compliance, instant access to employee leave history, mobile leave applications and approvals and multi-location time off and holiday management
• Productivity timesheets to view the details of the time spent on every project, task, and client, get a centralized overview of your tasks and time resources, calculate payouts faster with accurate employee time logs and automate invoicing
• Shift scheduling to map employees to standard shifts, enable automatic shift rotation with a custom scheduler, mark, track, and analyze breaks and allowances
• Performance management with 360-degree, continuous feedback system, to evaluate employees with customized performance appraisal methods
• Case management to sort and organize employee questions, track their status, and reply promptly from a central location with an easily accessible knowledge base

Top customers

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• Zomato, an Indian multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery company
• The Logical Indian, an independent and public-spirited digital media platform for Indian millennials
• IIFL Finance, a leading finance & investment services company
• Meesho, an online shopping platform
• Waterfield Advisors, a leading independent Multi-Family Office and Wealth Advisory Firm
• DLT Labs, a global leader in the development and delivery of enterprise blockchain technologies and solutions

Zoho People API FAQs

• Does Zoho People have an API?
  
  • Yes, Zoho People provides a REST API for accessing and managing HR data programmatically - employee records, attendance, timesheets, cases, leave, and custom form data. The API uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication and returns data in JSON or XML format.
• How do I authenticate with the Zoho People API?
  
  • The Zoho People API uses OAuth 2.0 with the Authorization Code Grant Type - you obtain a grant token via the OAuth consent flow, then exchange it for an access token used in API requests. Access tokens are temporary and scoped to individual applications, meaning customers can revoke access at any time without exposing credentials. For multi-tenant integrations, each customer must complete the OAuth flow separately.
• What data can I access through the Zoho People API?
  
  • The Zoho People API exposes employee profiles, employment details, departments, attendance records, timesheets, leave requests, HR cases, and custom form data. It uses a forms-based data model where most HR data is structured as form records with configurable fields. Data availability depends on which Zoho People modules your organisation uses.
• How do I access attendance data through the Zoho People API?
  
  • Zoho People provides dedicated attendance endpoints — use the Attendance Entries API to add or retrieve clock-in/out records, and the Timesheet API to create and manage timesheet entries. Endpoints follow the pattern people.zoho.com/people/api/timetracker/... for timesheets and people.zoho.com/people/api/attendance/... for attendance.
• What are the main Zoho People API endpoints?
  
  • Zoho People's core API endpoints include: Forms API for inserting, updating, fetching, and searching employee and HR records; Cases API for HR case management; Timesheet API for timetracking entries; and Attendance API for clock-in/out data. Most endpoints follow the base URL people.zoho.com/people/api/ and use Zoho's form-based data model where records are tied to named forms.
• What are the Zoho People API rate limits?
  
  • Zoho People does not publicly document specific API rate limit thresholds. In practice, rate limits are enforced and vary by Zoho People plan tier. Implement pagination using the sIndex and limit parameters when fetching bulk records to avoid hitting limits, and add retry logic with exponential backoff for any rate limit responses.
• What are common Zoho People API integration use cases?
  
  • Common Zoho People API integration use cases include: syncing employee data from an ATS into Zoho People at onboarding; pushing timesheet data from time-tracking tools into Zoho People for payroll processing; pulling attendance records into analytics dashboards; syncing leave balances with scheduling tools; and integrating with LMS platforms to track employee training and compliance.
• What are the main challenges of building a Zoho People API integration?
  
  • The main challenges are Zoho People's forms-based data model (records are tied to named forms rather than standard object types, requiring familiarity with each customer's form configuration), managing OAuth credentials across multiple customer accounts, handling custom fields that vary by account, and undocumented rate limits. For multi-tenant SaaS products, per-customer OAuth setup adds onboarding friction.
• What to do when you cannot use searchParams on Zoho People API (HTTP Status 400)? Answer
• How to achieve webhook integration between Podio and Zoho People? Answer
• How to get the attendance API from Zoho People in postman? Answer
• What to do if permission is denied when trying to fetch records from Zoho People? Answer
• How to parse through the following ZOHO People JSON string using VB.NET? Answer
• How to write a custom function in Zoho People Deluge to fetch all the dates between from and to given? Answer
• How to sync Zoho People with Google Calendar API for event time update without changing date? Answer

How to integrate with Zoho People API

To integrate your preferred applications with Zoho People API, you need valid Zoho People user credentials. In addition you also must have a valid authentication token or OAuth to access Zoho People API. 

Get started with Zoho People API

Integrating with Zoho People API requires engineering bandwidth, resources and knowledge. Invariably, building and maintaining this integration can be extremely expensive for SaaS companies. Fortunately, with Knit, a unified HRIS API, you can easily integrate with Zoho People API and other multiple HRIS applications at once. Knit enables users to normalize data from across HRIS applications, including Zoho People, 10x faster, ensure higher security with double encryption and facilitates bi-directional data sync with webhook architecture to ensure guaranteed scalability, irrespective of data load. Book a demo to learn how you can get started with Zoho People API with ease. 

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