What is Operating?

Operating is a platform for consultancies to manage their operations: resource planning, time tracking, project financials, invoicing, and reporting. The Operating API gives you programmatic access to all of these capabilities, enabling you to:

Sync time entries from external time tracking systems
Integrate with your CRM to automatically create projects from won deals
Pull data into BI tools for custom reporting and dashboards
Connect your HRIS to keep person records synchronized
Automate invoice generation and sync with accounting systems
Build custom workflows for resource allocation and capacity planning

Quick Start

If you're new to the Operating API, start here:

— Get your API key, authenticate, and make your first request in 5 minutes
API conventions — Learn how pagination, filtering, and error handling work across all endpoints

These two guides give you the foundation to work with any Operating API endpoint.

What You'll Need

An Operating account with API access enabled
Basic familiarity with REST APIs
An API client or terminal (we use cURL in our examples)

Common Integration Scenarios

Once you've completed the quick start, explore these guides based on your use case:

Syncing Time Tracking Data

If you're integrating Operating with an external time tracking system:

How to sync time entries from an external system — Idempotent sync patterns, bulk operations, and external identifiers
External identifiers in Operating API — Using external IDs to maintain references between systems

Setting Up Projects

If you're automating project creation or integrating with your CRM:

How to set up a project with positions, allocations, and rate cards — Complete workflow from project creation to resource allocation
Integrating your CRM with Operating — Sync deals and create projects from your CRM

Generating Invoices

If you're building invoice automation:

How to create invoices via the API — Working with billable items, line items, and invoice generation

Building Reports

If you're pulling Operating data into BI tools or dashboards:

How to build planned vs actuals reports — Combining planned work (allocations) with actual work (time entries)
Understanding the data model — How projects, positions, allocations, and time entries relate

Managing People

If you're syncing person data with your HRIS:

Integrating your HR system with Operating — Person records, working hours, and employment dates
Importing time off allocations to Operating — Sync vacation and leave from external systems

Understanding Operating Concepts

Operating uses consulting-specific terminology. Key concepts to understand:

API entity relations — Visual overview of how entities relate
Understanding billing types and revenue recognition — How time-and-materials, fixed-price, and non-billable projects work
Operating data model — Deep dive into core entities and their relationships

See the full glossary for definitions of all Operating terms.

API Reference

Once you're familiar with the basics, browse the complete API endpoint reference for detailed information on all available operations.

Getting Help

Documentation issues: If you find errors or unclear sections in these docs, use the "Suggest Edits" button
API questions: Contact support at support@operating.app
Feature requests: Reach out to your Operating account manager or email support@operating.app

What's Next?

Start with Your first API call to authenticate and make your first request, then move on to API conventions to understand how the API works.