How to Automate Payroll API Employee Updates?
Description
Give your HR team a simple way to search, view, and update employee records from a payroll system, while every action is logged to Google Sheets for audit. It works well for teams that want an AI assistant to help with employee questions and safe changes.
An MCP server trigger exposes three tools to your agent client: search employees, get employee by ID, and update employee. A switch routes each call to the right path. The workflow calls the payroll API with pagination, filters results, and strips sensitive fields before sending data back. Updates run through a field allowlist and a guard check, then the API is called to apply changes. Every request and response is written to Google Sheets for traceability, and clear success or error messages are returned.
You will need a payroll API token and a Google Sheets account. After setup, HR can answer questions faster and make safe edits without logging into multiple systems. It fits cases like start dates, work patterns, and quick profile updates, all with a clean audit trail.
Tools Required
What this workflow does?
- MCP Server Trigger exposes three tools to your AI client for search, get by ID, and update actions.
- Switch node routes each operation to the right API path.
- HTTP Request nodes call the payroll API with pagination to collect multiple pages of results.
- Filter nodes match employee records by query and exact IDs.
- Set nodes strip sensitive fields so only safe data is returned.
- Valid Fields Only and an If check block updates to read only fields.
- Google Sheets node logs every call, including inputs and outcomes, for audit.
- Aggregate nodes combine results into clean responses for the client.
- Clear success and error responses make testing and support easy.
What are the benefits?
- Reduce manual employee lookups from 20 minutes to 1 minute
- Automate up to 90% of routine update steps with one request
- Improve data quality by removing sensitive fields before output
- Handle three times more HR requests per hour with agent tools
- Connect payroll data with Google Sheets for a clear audit trail
How to set this up?
- Import the template into n8n: Create a new workflow in n8n > Click the three dots menu > Select 'Import from File' > Choose the downloaded JSON file.
- You'll need accounts with Google Sheets and PayCaptain. See the Tools Required section above for links to create accounts with these services.
- Create a Google Sheet for logging. Add headers like timestamp, tool, operation, query, employeeId, status, resultCount, and error.
- Open the Google Sheets node in n8n. In the credential dropdown, click Create new credential and follow the on screen steps to connect your Google Sheets account using OAuth2.
- Select your spreadsheet and worksheet in the Google Sheets node. Map the columns to the fields written by the node.
- Generate an API key or token in your payroll system account. In n8n credentials, create an HTTP Header Auth credential with an Authorization header set to Bearer your_token_here.
- Assign the HTTP Header Auth credential to all HTTP Request nodes that call the payroll API, including Get Employees, Get Employees1, and Update Employee1.
- Open the MCP Server Trigger node. Enable authentication if required for your environment and set allowed origins or access rules as needed.
- Review the Valid Fields Only node. Add or remove allowed update fields so only safe attributes can be changed.
- Review the Strip Sensitive Fields nodes and confirm which fields are removed from all responses.
- Test each path: run a search, a get by ID, and an update from your MCP client. Check that the switch routes correctly, results are filtered, and responses are formatted.
- Open the Google Sheet and confirm that each tool call is logged with the right details.
- If you see 401 errors, verify the API token. If Google Sheets does not write, reauthorize the credential and confirm the spreadsheet ID and sheet name. If updates are blocked, adjust the allowed fields list.
Need help or want to customize this?
Ask in the Free Futurise Community.
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