Which direction does data move between Exact Online and BigCommerce?

The main flow is BigCommerce into Exact Online. Orders, customers, and shipping details move from BigCommerce into Exact Online as sales invoices and accounts. Exact Online has no webhooks for customer changes, so initial customer sync is done by pull. Once Exact Online has the customer data, updates flow in both directions as orders are placed.

Does Exact Online's 10-minute token lifetime require special handling?

Yes. ml-connector tracks the token expiry time and refreshes the access token before it expires using your refresh token, which lasts 30 days. This ensures that orders keep flowing in without interruption. If a token refresh fails, ml-connector alerts you so credentials can be renewed before the 30-day window closes.

How does ml-connector handle BigCommerce webhook stubs?

BigCommerce webhooks contain only the order ID and event type, not the full order data. ml-connector immediately calls the BigCommerce REST API to fetch the complete order, including line items, totals, and payment status. It validates the webhook signature using HMAC-SHA256 to confirm authenticity, then maps the order into Exact Online as a sales invoice.

Exact OnlineBigCommerce

Exact Online and BigCommerce integration

Exact Online runs your accounting and inventory. BigCommerce runs your online store. Connecting the two means every order your customers place flows directly into Exact Online as a sales invoice with the correct GL account and cost center, no manual data entry. Customers, order totals, shipping addresses, and payment status all sync automatically on a schedule you control. ml-connector bridges the very different APIs on each side and maintains authorization so orders move reliably every single time.

How Exact Online works

Exact Online exposes accounts, sales invoices, sales invoice lines, GL accounts, cost centers, items, and more through a REST API with OData v3 query syntax (filter, select, orderby, top, skip). It is available on region-specific base URLs for the Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and USA. Authentication uses OAuth 2.0 authorization code grant with access tokens that last 10 minutes and refresh tokens valid for 30 days. Exact Online supports webhooks for a broad set of resources including sales invoices and accounts, delivering them via HTTP POST with HMAC-SHA256 signature verification. However, webhook payloads contain only the entity key and action type, so full entity data must be fetched separately via the REST API.

How BigCommerce works

BigCommerce exposes orders, order transactions, refunds, customers, products, variants, and shipping addresses through a REST API using static API key authentication via the X-Auth-Token header. It supports webhooks for orders, products, customers, shipments, and other store events, delivering them via HTTPS POST. Webhook payloads are stubs only, containing the event type and entity ID, so the full order details must be fetched from the REST API immediately after a webhook arrives. BigCommerce has no general ledger accounts, vendors, purchase orders, or accounting dimensions. Order totals must be mapped to GL in your ERP.

What moves between them

The main flow is BigCommerce into Exact Online. When a customer places an order in BigCommerce, ml-connector receives a webhook, fetches the full order details from BigCommerce, and posts it into Exact Online as a sales invoice with individual line items. Customers are synchronized from BigCommerce into Exact Online accounts. Shipping addresses and order totals are preserved. Each sales invoice is mapped to a GL account and cost center you configure, so accounting records land on the correct dimensions in Exact Online.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector stores your BigCommerce API key and Exact Online OAuth 2.0 credentials encrypted. On the Exact Online side, it uses your refresh token to obtain fresh access tokens before they expire (10-minute lifetime), so authorization never lapses. On the BigCommerce side, it accepts webhooks for store/order/created and store/order/updated events, validates the HMAC-SHA256 signature using your store's API account secret, and immediately fetches the full order data via the REST API (webhook stubs do not include line items or totals). It maps the order into a sales invoice with the correct invoice template, GL account, and cost center, then posts it. If Exact Online returns a 401 due to token expiry, ml-connector refreshes and retries. Orders are idempotent by BigCommerce order ID so duplicate webhooks do not create duplicate invoices.

A real-world example

A mid-sized specialty retailer runs Exact Online for accounting, purchasing, and inventory across five regional warehouses, and operates a BigCommerce store for online sales across North America and Europe. Before the integration, the order team exported orders from BigCommerce each day and re-entered them into Exact Online by hand, often missing details or introducing errors. Worse, the accounting team discovered mismatches during month-end close when order counts did not align with AR invoices. With BigCommerce and Exact Online connected, every order flows in automatically, mapped to the correct regional cost center and GL account, and the reconciliation step is gone.

What you can do

Ingest BigCommerce orders via webhook and post them into Exact Online as sales invoices with individual line items.
Map each order to the correct GL account and cost center in Exact Online so accounting records land on valid dimensions.
Synchronize customer data from BigCommerce into Exact Online accounts so AR records have complete customer details.
Maintain Exact Online authorization by refreshing OAuth tokens before expiry, keeping orders moving reliably.
Fetch full order details from BigCommerce stubs and validate webhook signatures, ensuring data integrity on every order.

Questions

Which direction does data move between Exact Online and BigCommerce?: The main flow is BigCommerce into Exact Online. Orders, customers, and shipping details move from BigCommerce into Exact Online as sales invoices and accounts. Exact Online has no webhooks for customer changes, so initial customer sync is done by pull. Once Exact Online has the customer data, updates flow in both directions as orders are placed.
Does Exact Online's 10-minute token lifetime require special handling?: Yes. ml-connector tracks the token expiry time and refreshes the access token before it expires using your refresh token, which lasts 30 days. This ensures that orders keep flowing in without interruption. If a token refresh fails, ml-connector alerts you so credentials can be renewed before the 30-day window closes.
How does ml-connector handle BigCommerce webhook stubs?: BigCommerce webhooks contain only the order ID and event type, not the full order data. ml-connector immediately calls the BigCommerce REST API to fetch the complete order, including line items, totals, and payment status. It validates the webhook signature using HMAC-SHA256 to confirm authenticity, then maps the order into Exact Online as a sales invoice.

Connect Exact Online and BigCommerce

Free to use. Add your credentials, ping your real systems, and see if we fit.

Get started