If you are using Java configuration in a spring-data-jpa project, make sure you are scanning the package that the entity is in. For example, if the entity lived com.foo.myservice.things then the following configuration annotation below would not pick it up.
You could fix it by loosening it up to just com.foo.myservice (of course, keep in mind any other effects of broadening your scope to scan for entities).
@Configuration
@EnableJpaAuditing
@EnableJpaRepositories("com.foo.myservice.repositories")
public class RepositoryConfiguration {
}