PAR OPS Back Office — Overview
What is the PAR OPS Back Office API?
The PAR OPS Back Office platform exposes REST/JSON APIs that let integrators manage restaurant/store operations programmatically — scheduling, payroll, inventory, point-of-sale (POS) data, purchasing, employee management, and more.
This developer portal publishes three API references:
- PAR OPS API v1 (Legacy Back Office API) - Core store operations: accounts, calendars, counts, items, payroll, POS, purchasing, scheduling, waste, etc.
- PAR OPS API v2+ (Current Back Office API) - Superset of v1 with expanded coverage: scheduling engine, forecasting, payroll export, HR integration, checklists, line checks, vendors, and more.
- ShiftWorks API (Employee-facing scheduling app) - Shifts, shift swaps, availability, timeclock, chats — used by the ShiftWorks mobile/web experience.
New integrations should use v2+ unless you are maintaining an existing v1 integration. Where equivalent endpoints exist in both v1 and v2+, always use the v2+ version.
Authentication
Every API call requires a DCKey (Integration Key) header, issued by the PAR OPS support team as part of your integration/partnership onboarding. The DCKey alone is enough to authenticate your integration — no username, password, or Auth0 login is required.
Cookie-based login (POST /Account/Login) and Auth0 (OAuth) login (GET /Account/LoginAuth0)
exist only to authenticate individual end users of the PAR OPS portal and mobile apps;
they are not needed for a standard integration.
Who should use this documentation?
This guide is for software developers and technical integrators building server-to-server or client integrations against the PAR OPS Back Office platform — for example, POS vendors, payroll/HR system integrators, or internal tooling teams.
Next Steps
- Request a DCKey from the PAR OPS support team.
- Read the Getting Started guide to make your first authenticated call.
- See the API Families Overview to understand how endpoint groups relate to each other.
- Browse the API References section for the endpoint group(s) you need (v1, v2+, or ShiftWorks).
