Use Microsoft Copilot Studio to talk to your Paylocity Data via CData Connect AI

Microsoft Copilot Studio is a no-code/low-code platform for creating AI Agents that can automate tasks, answer questions, and assist with various business processes. When combined with CData Connect AI Remote MCP, you can leverage Copilot Studio to interact with your Paylocity data in real-time. This article outlines the process of connecting to Paylocity using Connect AI Remote MCP and creating a connection in Copilot Studio to interact with your Paylocity data.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for connecting to Paylocity data. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between Microsoft Copilot Studio and Paylocity. This allows you to ask questions and take actions on your Paylocity data using Microsoft Copilot Studio, all without the need for data replication to a natively supported database. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to Paylocity. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Paylocity data.

In this article, we show how to build a agent in Microsoft Copilot Studio to conversational explore (or Vibe Query) your data. The connectivity principals apply to any Copilot agent. With Connect AI you can build workflows and agents with access to live Paylocity data, plus hundreds of other sources.

Step 1: Configure Paylocity Connectivity for Microsoft Copilot Studio

Connectivity to Paylocity from Microsoft Copilot Studio is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with Paylocity data from Microsoft Copilot Studio, we start by creating and configuring a Paylocity connection in CData Connect AI.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Connections and click Add Connection 👁 Adding a Connection
   
2. Select "Paylocity" from the Add Connection panel 👁 Selecting a data source
   
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Paylocity.

   Set the following to establish a connection to Paylocity:

   • RSAPublicKey: Set this to the RSA Key associated with your Paylocity, if the RSA Encryption is enabled in the Paylocity account.

     This property is required for executing Insert and Update statements, and it is not required if the feature is disabled.

   • UseSandbox: Set to true if you are using sandbox account.
   • CustomFieldsCategory: Set this to the Customfields category. This is required when IncludeCustomFields is set to true. The default value for this property is PayrollAndHR.
   • Key: The AES symmetric key(base 64 encoded) encrypted with the Paylocity Public Key. It is the key used to encrypt the content.

     Paylocity will decrypt the AES key using RSA decryption.
     It is an optional property if the IV value not provided, The driver will generate a key internally.

   • IV: The AES IV (base 64 encoded) used when encrypting the content. It is an optional property if the Key value not provided, The driver will generate an IV internally.

   Connect Using OAuth Authentication

   You must use OAuth to authenticate with Paylocity. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Paylocity using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the Help documentation.

   The Pay Entry API

   The Pay Entry API is completely separate from the rest of the Paylocity API. It uses a separate Client ID and Secret, and must be explicitly requested from Paylocity for access to be granted for an account. The Pay Entry API allows you to automatically submit payroll information for individual employees, and little else. Due to the extremely limited nature of what is offered by the Pay Entry API, we have elected not to give it a separate schema, but it may be enabled via the UsePayEntryAPI connection property.

   Please be aware that when setting UsePayEntryAPI to true, you may only use the CreatePayEntryImportBatch & MergePayEntryImportBatchgtable stored procedures, the InputTimeEntry table, and the OAuth stored procedures. Attempts to use other features of the product will result in an error. You must also store your OAuthAccessToken separately, which often means setting a different OAuthSettingsLocation when using this connection property. 👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   Click Save & Test

4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Paylocity Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, we are ready to connect to Paylocity data from Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Step 2: Connect Microsoft Copilot Studio to CData Connect AI

Follow these steps to add a CData Connect AI MCP connection in Microsoft Copilot Studio:

1. Under Tools, click Add tool, then click + New Tool. 👁 Add a Tool to the Copilot agent
   
2. In the Add Tool window, search for and click CData Connect AI. 👁 Select Model Context Protocol
   
3. In the Connect to CData Connect AI window, click Create to authenticate your connection CData Connect AI using OAuth authentication. 👁 Configure the MCP Tool
   
4. Click Add and configure to add the CData Connect AI Tool to your agent. 👁 Create a new connection for the MCP Tool
   

Optional: Give the AI Agent context

This step establishes the AI Agent's role and provides context for the conversation through the Instructions property in the Agent. By providing instructions that explicitly informs the agent about its role as an MCP Server expert and lists the available tools, you can enhance the agent's understanding and response accuracy. For example, you can set the System Message to:

You are an expert at using the MCP Client tool connected which is the CData Connect AI MCP Server. Always search thoroughly and use the most relevant MCP Client tool for each query. Below are the available tools and a description of each:
queryData: Execute SQL queries against connected data sources and retrieve results. When you use the queryData tool, ensure you use the following format for the table name: catalog.schema.tableName
getCatalogs: Retrieve a list of available connections from CData Connect AI. The connection names should be used as catalog names in other tools and in any queries to CData Connect AI. Use the `getSchemas` tool to get a list of available schemas for a specific catalog.
getSchemas: Retrieve a list of available database schemas from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog. Use the `getTables` tool to get a list of available tables for a specific catalog and schema.
getTables: Retrieve a list of available database tables from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog and schema. Use the `getColumns` tool to get a list of available columns for a specific table.
getColumns: Retrieve a list of available database columns from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog, schema, and table.
getProcedures: Retrieve a list of stored procedures from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog and schema
getProcedureParameters: Retrieve a list of stored procedure parameters from CData Connect AI for a specific catalog, schema, and procedure.
executeProcedure: Execute stored procedures with parameters against connected data sources
 

Step 3: Explore Live Paylocity Data with Microsoft Copilot Studio

With the Agent created in Microsoft Copilot Studio and the MCP tool connected, you can now interact with your Paylocity data using Microsoft Copilot Studio. The MCP tool allows you to send queries and receive responses from the Paylocity data source in real-time.

Open the chat window in your Microsoft Copilot Studio Agent to begin interacting with your Paylocity data. You can ask questions, retrieve data, and perform actions on your Paylocity data using the MCP tool: 👁 Interact with your data using the MCP Tool in Microsoft Copilot Studio

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