Connecting to Moneybird

Of the common packages, Moneybird is the quickest one to start with.

Getting access

For your own administration you create a personal token yourself. Your software can start straight away with it, with no application and no waiting. That is the real difference with the other packages, and in practice it saves days.

If you are building something that has to work at other Moneybird users too, you register an app and sign-in runs on OAuth. The user grants permission themselves and you never see their password.

Every request goes to an address containing the administration number. If your client works with several administrations, your software has to know which one applies. The API is on version 2 and answers in JSON or XML.

Testing without touching your live administration

Moneybird offers sandbox administrations. They have every feature a normal administration has, and invoices created in one carry a watermark so they cannot pass as real.

That sounds like a detail and is not. With a package that has no test environment, trying something means working inside a client's books, with cleanup afterwards. Here you build and test first, and the integration only reaches the real administration once it is right.

The limits

Moneybird allows 150 requests per five minutes per IP address. For reports the limit is lower, at 50 per five minutes. Go over it and the API answers with a 429, telling you how long to wait.

For most integrations that is ample. It bites during a first load, when you want to move a few thousand customers or invoices across in one go. An integration that reads the wait time and respects it gets through cleanly; one that does not falls over halfway.

What we build here

We connect Moneybird to online stores, to time tracking and to custom software. An order or a finished project then becomes an invoice on its own, and your software sees in Moneybird that the invoice has been paid.

Because you create the token yourself, a Moneybird integration can often be a small, self-contained project. In the intro call we look at the flow you want and at the volumes, and after that you get a proposal with one price and one delivery date.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Can we create and hold the token ourselves?

Yes, and that is our preference. The token stays yours and you can revoke access at any moment, including if you ever continue with someone else.

Our accountant works in our Moneybird. Will they notice the integration?

Entries the integration makes sit in the administration like any other. Agree up front how an invoice from the integration is recognisable, for instance by its own number series, so your accountant can tell where something came from.

What happens to an invoice Moneybird rejects?

It belongs on a list someone actually sees, with the reason attached. A missing VAT code or an unknown customer is quickly fixed, but only if the error is visible. An integration that swallows errors quietly leaves you feeling fine for months.

Can we move to another package later?

You can, and the part of your software that talks to Moneybird gets replaced. We keep that part separate for exactly this reason, so the rest of your software is not tied to it.