API integration for URSSAF
We build your URSSAF connector
« URSSAF API » names two incompatible products: the open-data catalogue on open.urssaf.fr, and machine-to-machine DPAE filing. We scope which one you want, then we ship the connector. Not both in the same class.
- Senior product team
- public-data connectors in production
- from scoping to monitoring
What does the URSSAF API provide and how can it be integrated into HR or payroll software?
URSSAF exposes APIs for automating social declarations and accessing employment statistics. The DPAE API allows the pre-employment declaration to be submitted directly from your HR software, without logging into the portal manually, as soon as a new employee is created. URSSAF's open data lets you enrich an application with employment indicators by sector and region. You integrate these APIs in HRIS systems, payroll software or personnel management tools to automate declaratory obligations and reduce the risk of omission.
What our clients build on the URSSAF APIs
A DPAE module in an HRIS
On hire validation, machine-to-machine filing, storage of the acknowledgement, a chase if D-8 is not covered.
A territorial dashboard
Aggregated DPAE and payroll mass by département, for a franchise or staffing network. No employer SIRET in these datasets.
Micro-entrepreneur market study
Stock by NAF and département, for a B2B sales tool that needs an order of magnitude, not a nominative file.
Payroll-vendor compliance audit
How do your customers still file the DPAE? If the answer is « by email », they have been out of time since 2022.
What it changes in your HR or research product
Engineering in service of a measurable outcome: the right product scoped in one question, not six weeks lost.
A pre-sales question, not a single client
« Do you want the stats, or to file the DPAE? » The URLs do not look alike. A single UrssafClient is an architecture error.
DPAE is no longer a PDF
Filing acknowledgement, certificate of conformity, business acknowledgement. That is the difference between a hire module and a hire that is compliant on day one.
Open data does not know your customers
Catalogue DPAE figures are aggregated by region. No « my employers » filter. Promising the opposite is illegal, not ambitious.
The vigilance certificate is elsewhere
It does not come out of open.urssaf.fr. A private SaaS that promises it via open data promises something that does not exist.
How we ship your URSSAF connector
Scoping
Open data or DPAE, volume, legal D-8 deadline, fallback to the official teleservice. We split the two contracts before writing a line.
Development
Two separate connectors. Open data: long cache, records or exports. DPAE: secrets per employer file, a log of acknowledgements.
Acceptance testing
Replay on your datasets or hire files, testing the records ceiling, testing the fallback if the DPAE SI is down.
Monitoring
Freshness of open-data datasets, alerts on DPAE rejection, timestamps on acknowledgements. You see a missed filing before an Urssaf audit does.
What the URSSAF APIs allow
- Open-data catalogue
- 124 datasets on Explore v2.1: headcount, payroll mass, micro-entrepreneurs, aggregated DPAE, nationwide insolvency stats.
- ODSQL and exports
- The same Huwise mechanics as BODACC: records for a region, exports for the whole of France, Urssaf / Licence ouverte attribution.
- Machine-to-machine DPAE filing
- Authentication, filing, return lookup, download. Concentrators on port 8443 for filing / lookup / download.
- DSN convergence
- A vendor already on machine DSN has a path. A vendor that has never done DSN does not. Email and CFT have been dead since 2022.
The vocabulary of the URSSAF APIs
- DPAE
- Pre-hire declaration, mandatory within the 8 days before the hire. Proof of the real date matters in audits. A workflow that files « when HR has time » creates an Urssaf risk.
- open.urssaf.fr
- The open-data portal, Explore v2.1, 124 aggregated datasets. No employer SIRET. Useful for an observatory, useless for a hire file.
- DSN API
- The path the DPAE offer converges on (GIP-MDS). A vendor already on machine DSN has a head start. A payroll vendor without DSN starts from zero.
- Port 8443
- Concentrators for DPAE filing, lookup and download. Not authentication. Forgetting the port breaks only some clients, the worst diagnosis.
- Vigilance certificate
- It does not come from Urssaf open data. It circulates notably via API Entreprise, for authorised administrations. A private SaaS does not get it through this keyword.
- records vs exports
- The same Huwise trap as BODACC. A dashboard that queries on every view wastes an unpublished ceiling and slows everyone down.
The real constraints of the URSSAF APIs
Two products, two contracts
Statistical open data on one side, DPAE filing on the other. Treating them as one integration is the pre-sales error of this keyword (320 searches).
Open data is aggregated
« DPAE by region » is not the client's DPAE. No employer SIRET. A « my customers » filter is impossible, and promising it is false.
D-8 is not a UX suggestion
The DPAE is filed within the 8 days before the hire. Pushing filing to the end of the HR workflow creates an audit risk, not comfort.
DPAE email has been dead since 2022
Email channel stopped on 1 July 2022, CFT at the end of 2022. Any internal procedure that « still sends by email » is already out of time. The API is not a nice-to-have.
URSSAF open data or DPAE API?
Two systems behind the same keyword. The right choice is one pre-sales question.
| Criterion | Urssaf open dataHuwise catalogue | DPAE APIHire filing |
|---|---|---|
| Host | open.urssaf.fr | depot.dpae-edi.urssaf.fr |
| Access | Open, no key | Account, DSN-like |
| Grain | Region / NAF aggregates | One employee's hire |
| Employer SIRET | Absent from public sets | At the heart of the filing |
| Legal deadline | Not applicable | 8 days before the hire |
| Fallback | Last local extract | Official teleservice, not email |
| The right case | Observatory, market study | HRIS / payroll software |
We do not combine them in the same client. We may combine them in the same product, behind two connectors and two clauses.
What we measure on a URSSAF integration
The other public APIs
The bricks we most often wire up alongside, once the Urssaf product is scoped.
URSSAFWe build your URSSAF connectorThis page
API AdresseNormalise the establishment or employee address, INSEE code included.
Météo FranceWarnings and observations, unrelated to DPAE: another channel, another secret.
SNCF & transportEmployee travel, when the HRIS also manages the trip, not the declaration.API ParticulierWe build your API Particulier connector
France TravailWe build your France Travail connector
DVF & cadastreWe build your DVF and cadastre connector
LegifranceWe build your Légifrance connector
API GéoWe build your API Géo connectorWe combine URSSAF with
The stack around Urssaf on our projects.
URSSAF integration: your questions
First decide: open-data stats, or DPAE filing. For open data, an Explore v2.1 client, a long cache, records for a region, exports for France, Urssaf attribution. For DPAE, a separate connector: authentication on mon.urssaf.fr/authentifier_dpae, filing / lookup / download on the dpae-edi hosts (port 8443 except auth), a log of acknowledgements, a match to the employee, a fallback to the teleservice if the API is down. Never email. Never both in the same class.
Open data is free. DPAE is a payroll / HRIS vendor project, not a widget. A territorial dashboard on three datasets is a short job. A DPAE module with acknowledgements, rejections, D-8 and sandbox / prod environments is a project of its own, longer if you have never done DSN. We scope the product and give a firm estimate before we start. The vigilance certificate, if it appears in the brief, is another product (API Entreprise) and another contract.
No. Neither open data nor the DPAE API serves the vigilance certificate, the contributor account, or nominative headcount. The certificate circulates notably via API Entreprise, reserved for authorised administrations. A private SaaS that promises « we fetch the Urssaf certificate from the open-data API » promises something that does not exist. We say so in the first meeting. We check it in the first meeting, before any estimate, so we do not sell a flow that does not exist.
Open data describes aggregates (hires by region, payroll mass, micro-entrepreneurs). The DPAE API files the declaration of a real hire, with an acknowledgement you can oppose. Hosts, auth, grain, GDPR and fallback have nothing in common. The SEO keyword merges them; the contract must not. That is the commercial split of this page. If the brief mixes the two, we write two connectors and two clauses, or we drop one.
No. The email channel was stopped on 1 July 2022, CFT at the end of 2022. Any internal procedure that « still sends the DPAE by email » has been out of time for four years. The API, or the official teleservice, are the remaining channels. For a payroll vendor, this is no longer a product option: it is compliance. For a payroll vendor, the DPAE job is compliance, not a nice-to-have parked at the end of the backlog.
A URSSAF integration project?
Let's talk. 30 minutes to scope the product (open data or DPAE), check what each API actually allows, and tell you frankly what is feasible.
Discuss my URSSAF project