Introducing Data Refresh: On-Demand Data Syncs

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new Data Refresh endpoint, allowing you to request new data whenever you need it.

The Finch API syncs data with providers on a set cadence. This enables Finch to provide developers a reliable, low-latency API. But, we know sometimes you need to refresh your data sooner than Finch's retrieval schedule.

Kick off a new sync any time with Data Refresh

Data Refresh is a new endpoint which lets you enqueue a new job on demand without waiting for the next scheduled sync.

We are excited about enabling use cases where near-real-time data is critical. For example:

• A health insurance provider that needs to check for qualifying life events on employee payroll data to ensure accurate coverage
• A retirement company that needs to knows when its customers run payroll, and check for new pay runs in a time-sensitive use-case (e.g. confirming deductions)
• A compensation application services a customer undergoing a tender offer and needs to see updated employee directory information in short order
• A financial planning application services a customer making changes to their payroll system while doing financial modeling, and wants to see the changes in near-real-time.

How it works

First, you’ll need a way to trigger a refresh in your application. This is typically triggered by a refresh button built into the product or through some backend workflow. Then you can use this workflow to send a request to our POST /jobs/automated endpoint and we’ll kick off a new job to fetch any new updates. While the job is running, you can use our GET /jobs/automated endpoint to check on the status of the job. After the data is updated, you can call each individual data endpoint to retrieve the latest data. Check out our docs to learn more.

Improved Data Syncs management for better visibility

But that’s not all—we’ve also released new Jobs Management endpoints to give you more visibility and control into jobs run by Finch. With these endpoints, you’ll also be able to view the status of a data sync job, as well as timestamps related to key lifecycle events by sending a request to GET /jobs/automated. Use this endpoint to understand and communicate with your customers the last updated time, status of the current sync, and more.

Getting Started

The /jobs endpoint is available to everyone today. Anyone with API keys, please reach out to Sales or your Account Manager to enable the feature in production. If you don’t have API keys, sign up for a free account!