The modified_at field

The modified_at value is the date the data object was last modified in Merge's database. This value will likely be different than the date the object was last been updated in the third-party system.

• Note that all Merge timestamps follow standard ISO 8601 format in the UTC timezone.

How does modified_at get updated?

The modified_at field will be updated when there are changes to common model fields. This includes all properties of the standard common model, Field Mappings, and Remote Field Classes, but this does not include fields found in Remote Data.

The modified_after and modified_before filters

The modified_at field can be leveraged to query data modified before or after a specific date. For example, if you would like to query data that was modified after 01/01/2023, you can use the modified_after timestamp filter. This will query data that has a value within the modified_at field after the date of 01/01/2023. You can also use the modified_before timestamp filter to do the opposite and pull data before.

The modified_after query parameter is most commonly used to efficiently sync data after the initial pull from Merge. If you store the timestamp of when you last started pulling data for a given Linked Account, you can use it with modified_after to only pull updates since your last sync.

When not to use modified_after filter?

1. It is generally not recommended to use the expand query parameter with the modified_after query parameter as modified_after parameter does not take into account expanded objects.

   For example, if you query GET /employees with both params, as shown below, in the scenario that a Group's name is updated, the Employees within the modified Group would not be returned (unless the Employee itself was modified).

   GET /employees?expand=groups&modified_after=2025-01-01T:00:00:00Z

2. Do not use modified_after along with any other query param filter such as employment_status as it could lead to loss of data. For example, filtering for Active employees modified after certain time could lead to an Inactive employee being filtered out.