We connect e-shops and billing systems using our own InSync application

How to send invoices automatically between your e-shop and billing system? What to do if the e-shop platform does not offer direct integration for exporting and importing invoices? Where to find a universal centralized solution?

At TRITON IT we have been at the heart of several e-shops and provide IT support to others. One of the challenges that our clients face and that we have been asked to solve several times is the import and export of invoices. Many e-shops reach a stage where sales in their online store are growing at such a rate that many processes, including transferring invoices to accounting systems, need to be automated. However, it happens that the e-shop platform does not provide direct integration with the invoicing system, so the e-shop owner is forced to resort to a third-party software solution.

Boxed e-shop solutions have lists of preferred suppliers (the aforementioned third parties) that offer invoice import/export. They usually work on the basis of “Give us 10 to 20 thousand, pay us 600 CZK per month. Give us access to your e-shop and accounting / invoicing system. And we will arrange the import/export for you”.

But such an approach has its drawbacks. The e-shop owner does not have access to the administration of the closed system, which is hosted by a third party, and has no control over changes to the linked systems. Each change requires a new order with the supplier.

Then there are the commonly used integration tools like Keboola, which allow you to link virtually anything to anything. However, they are not suitable for this particular invoice import/export example because they do not contain the application logic that processes the invoices and stores them in the desired location.

Developing your own application

In order to offer our clients an efficient and affordable invoice import/export solution, we decided to develop a custom application that would allow for the movement of invoices, plus be designed universally for future integration of any systems. The development of the application was entrusted to our developer Miroslav Zubek, who asked us to allow him to choose InSync as the topic of his bachelor thesis. We are very grateful to the UpGates e-shop platform, which provided us with free access to the top-level e-shop administration for the purpose of testing and debugging the application.

The InSync application is designed to be able to connect any e-shop with any billing tool. In addition, it provides the e-shop owner with an administrative interface in which he or she can select and link any number of systems and determine how and how often invoices will be sent from one system to the others. InSync is optimised to queue the invoice sending processes, ensuring that synchronisation takes place sequentially.

A pilot run of the application was tested with our client MISURA, who needed to transfer invoices from an e-shop operated by UpGates to their FlexiBee accounting system. Thanks to the client’s feedback, we also suggested extending the application to synchronize contacts or inventory, for example.