# Create a payroll template

Operation ID: `createPayrollTemplate`

Group: Accounting › Payroll Templates

[Open in the interactive reference](https://docs.api.lensing.ai/lensing/v1/endpoints/createPayrollTemplate)

`POST /accounting/payroll-templates`

Retry-safe: A write that accepts Idempotency-Key: repeating a request with the same key replays the stored answer instead of executing twice.

Creates a payroll template with its categories and entity assignments. The template serves the legal entities in entityIds, and each category names the debit and credit accounts for one kind of payroll amount.

The name must be unique within the tenant, or the request fails with DUPLICATE_NAME. Send at least one category and at least one legal entity. Category names must be unique within the template, and at least one category must name a debit or credit account.

status isn't an input. The template is 'active' when it has an active netPay category and an active grossPay category, and 'inactive' otherwise.

The response contains only the new template's id. To see the template, use GET accounting/payroll-templates/:id.

## Parameters

| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `Api-Version` | header | string · v1 | yes | The API version this request targets, named by its public identifier. Required on every request; omitting it, or naming a version this company does not have, is answered with 400. This document describes version `v1`. |
| `Idempotency-Key` | header | string | no | An opaque caller-chosen string (1-255 characters) that makes this request safe to retry. Repeating the same key with an identical request body replays the original response instead of re-executing - but only once that original request succeeded; a failed attempt re-executes on retry. Repeating the key with a different body is answered with 422. A key still in flight is answered with 409 - as is a key whose original request was interrupted before it finished, for a few minutes afterwards, until that attempt is presumed dead. A completed response stays replayable for 24 hours. The key is scoped to the caller, not to the action: reusing it for a different action is answered with 409 or 422 rather than treated independently. On read actions this header is ignored. On write actions that cannot offer the guarantee it is answered with `400 IDEMPOTENCY_NOT_SUPPORTED` rather than silently ignored. |

## Request body

Required, `application/json`: createPayrollTemplateInput.

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `name` | string | yes | The name of the payroll template. Unique across all payroll templates. Example: `"Germany monthly payroll"`. |
| `groupBy` | string | yes | How payroll lines are entered. Accepted values: 'Employee', 'Department', 'Multi-level'. Example: `"Employee"`. |
| `journalEntryDate` | string | yes | The date the journal entry uses. Accepted values: 'payrollDate', 'endDate'. Example: `"payrollDate"`. |
| `journalEntryGroupBy` | string | yes | How journal lines are aggregated by default. Accepted values: 'account', 'accountAndPayrollCategory', 'payrollCategory', 'payrollCategoryByEmployee'. Example: `"account"`. |
| `description` | string | no | A free-form description of the template. |
| `clearingAccountId` | string | no | The clearing account used when posting. See id on GET accounting/accounts/:id. |
| `source` | string | no | The payroll system the template imports from. Accepted values: 'datev', 'datevEmployeePayroll', 'datevEmployeePayrollPersonLevel', 'rippling', 'lexware', 'briars', 'gusto', 'adpGLReport', 'adpPayrollHistory', 'sage', 'none'. |
| `entityIds` | array<string> | yes | The complete set of legal entities this template serves. At least one is required. See id on GET base/entities. Example: `["8f2c1d40-5a6b-4c7d-9e80-1f2a3b4c5d6e"]`. |
| `categories` | array<object> | yes | The categories this template defines. At least one is required. Category names must be unique, and at most one category may be netPay. Example: `[{"name":"Gross Pay","subType":"grossPay","payee":"employee","isManagedFromPayroll":false,"debitAccountId":"7c1a9e40-2b53-4d68-9f01-3a5b7c9d1e24"},{"name":"Net Pay","subType":"netPay","payee":"employee","isManagedFromPayroll":false,"creditAccountId":"7c1a9e40-2b53-4d68-9f01-3a5b7c9d1e24"}]`. |
| `categories[].name` | string | yes | The name of the category. Unique within the template. |
| `categories[].subType` | string | yes | What the category represents. Accepted values: 'grossPay', 'deduction', 'netPay', 'employer'. At most one netPay category per template. |
| `categories[].status` | string | no | Whether the category is usable. Accepted values: 'active', 'inactive'. Defaults to 'active'. |
| `categories[].payee` | string | no | Who gets paid, as a payee code from your tenant's configured payee list, for example 'employee', 'payrollProvider', 'benefitsProvider' or 'taxOffice'. |
| `categories[].isManagedFromPayroll` | boolean | yes | Whether payment for this category is managed from payroll. Required, the category model has no default. |
| `categories[].debitAccountId` | string | no | The account debited for this category. See id on GET accounting/accounts/:id. |
| `categories[].creditAccountId` | string | no | The account credited for this category. See id on GET accounting/accounts/:id. |
| `categories[].debitJournalAggregation` | string | no | How debit journal lines are aggregated. Accepted values: 'account', 'accountAndPayrollCategory', 'payrollCategory', 'payrollCategoryByEmployee'. Defaults to the template's setting. 'payrollCategoryByEmployee' requires groupBy 'Employee'. |
| `categories[].creditJournalAggregation` | string | no | How credit journal lines are aggregated. The same values and rule as the debit side apply. |
| `categories[].debitTags` | array<object> | no | Tags stamped on every journal line this category debits, at most one per dimension. Supported dimension: 'vendor'. Requires debitJournalAggregation to be above 'account'. |
| `categories[].debitTags[].dimension` | string | yes | The tag dimension. Accepted values: 'vendor'. |
| `categories[].debitTags[].id` | string | yes | The tagged record. For 'vendor', see id on GET accounting/vendors/:id. |
| `categories[].creditTags` | array<object> | no | Tags stamped on every journal line this category credits. The same values and rules as the debit side apply. |
| `categories[].creditTags[].dimension` | string | yes | The tag dimension. Accepted values: 'vendor'. |
| `categories[].creditTags[].id` | string | yes | The tagged record. For 'vendor', see id on GET accounting/vendors/:id. |

```json
{
  "name": "Germany monthly payroll",
  "groupBy": "Employee",
  "journalEntryDate": "payrollDate",
  "journalEntryGroupBy": "account",
  "description": "<description>",
  "clearingAccountId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "source": "<source>",
  "entityIds": [
    "8f2c1d40-5a6b-4c7d-9e80-1f2a3b4c5d6e"
  ],
  "categories": [
    {
      "name": "Gross Pay",
      "subType": "grossPay",
      "payee": "employee",
      "isManagedFromPayroll": false,
      "debitAccountId": "7c1a9e40-2b53-4d68-9f01-3a5b7c9d1e24"
    },
    {
      "name": "Net Pay",
      "subType": "netPay",
      "payee": "employee",
      "isManagedFromPayroll": false,
      "creditAccountId": "7c1a9e40-2b53-4d68-9f01-3a5b7c9d1e24"
    }
  ]
}
```

## Response

`200` Success

Under `data` (createPayrollTemplateOutput):

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `id` | string | yes | The unique identifier for the created payroll template. Example: `"d4a1c7e0-2b93-4f56-8071-9e3a5c8b1d42"`. |

```json
{
  "data": {
    "id": "d4a1c7e0-2b93-4f56-8071-9e3a5c8b1d42"
  },
  "diagnostics": [
    {
      "code": "<code>",
      "message": "<message>",
      "severity": "error",
      "path": [
        "<path>"
      ],
      "details": "<details>"
    }
  ]
}
```

## Response headers

- `Idempotency-Replayed` — Present and `true` only when this response replays a previously stored one for the same Idempotency-Key, rather than reflecting a live execution. Absent on a live response - never sent as `false`.

## Errors

| Code | Status |
| --- | --- |
| `REFERENCE_NOT_FOUND` | 400 |
| `DUPLICATE_NAME` | 400 |
| `NO_CATEGORIES` | 400 |
| `DUPLICATE_CATEGORY_NAME` | 400 |
| `MULTIPLE_NET_PAY_CATEGORIES` | 400 |
| `AGGREGATION_REQUIRES_EMPLOYEE_GROUPING` | 400 |
| `NO_ENTITIES` | 400 |
| `NO_CATEGORY_ACCOUNTS` | 400 |
| `TAGS_REQUIRE_CATEGORY_AGGREGATION` | 400 |
| `INVALID_CATEGORY_TAG` | 400 |
| `IDEMPOTENCY_KEY_CONFLICT` | 409 |
| `IDEMPOTENCY_PAYLOAD_MISMATCH` | 422 |

## Statuses

- `400` — Invalid request or business failure. Codes: REFERENCE_NOT_FOUND, DUPLICATE_NAME, NO_CATEGORIES, DUPLICATE_CATEGORY_NAME, MULTIPLE_NET_PAY_CATEGORIES, AGGREGATION_REQUIRES_EMPLOYEE_GROUPING, NO_ENTITIES, NO_CATEGORY_ACCOUNTS, TAGS_REQUIRE_CATEGORY_AGGREGATION, INVALID_CATEGORY_TAG
- `401` — The request carries no valid access token.
- `403` — Not authorized
- `404` — Not found
- `409` — The Idempotency-Key is still being processed by another request.
- `422` — The Idempotency-Key was already used with a different request payload.
- `429` — Too many requests from this client address. The response has no body and no `Retry-After` header.
- `500` — Internal server error