Original classes for SO question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24469690/persisting-jpa-entity-using-crudrepository

AccountRepository.java

package com.jpa.base.repository;

import org.springframework.data.repository.CrudRepository;
import org.springframework.data.repository.query.Param;

import com.jpa.base.entity.Account;

public interface AccountRepository extends CrudRepository<Account, Long>{
	public Account findByEmailAddress(@Param(value="emailAddress") String emailAddress);
	public Account findByAccountId(@Param(value="accountId") Long accountId);

}

AccountServiceImpl.java

package com.jpa.base.service.impl;

import com.jpa.base.entity.Account;
import com.jpa.base.repository.AccountRepository;
import com.jpa.base.service.AccountService;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional;

import javax.persistence.EntityManager;
import javax.persistence.EntityManagerFactory;

@Service("accountService")
@Repository
@Transactional
public class AccountServiceImpl implements AccountService {

    @Autowired
    private AccountRepository accountRepository;

    @Autowired
    EntityManagerFactory emf;

    @Override
    @Transactional(readOnly = true)
    public Account findByAccountId(Long accountId) {
        Account account = accountRepository.findByAccountId(accountId);
        return account;
    }

    @Override
    @Transactional(readOnly = true)
    public Account findByEmailAddress(String emailAddress) {
        Account account = accountRepository.findByEmailAddress(emailAddress);
        return account;
    }

    @Override
    @Transactional(readOnly = false)
    public Account save(Account account) {
        EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();
        em.persist(account);
        em.flush();

        Account saved = em.merge(account);
        return saved;
    }

}