Which direction does data move between Exact Online and FedEx?

The main flow is Exact Online into FedEx. Sales orders and line items are read from Exact Online and sent to FedEx to create shipments and labels. Tracking events flow the opposite direction, from FedEx back into Exact Online, where they are attached to the original sales order. There is no write-back to Exact Online order data itself; tracking updates are read-only attachments to the order.

How does ml-connector handle OAuth and rate limits on both sides?

Exact Online tokens are refreshed every 10 minutes before expiry. FedEx tokens are cached for one hour to avoid IP-level rate limits on token requests, which trigger a 10-minute suspension after 3 tokens in 5 seconds. Transaction-level rate limits (1,400 per 10 seconds) are handled with exponential backoff and retry queuing.

What happens if a shipment label is created twice?

ml-connector stores the FedEx transactionId on every shipment record to prevent duplicate label creation if a job replays. If the same Exact Online order triggers a label creation twice, the transactionId acts as a deduplication key on the FedEx side.

Exact OnlineFedEx

Exact Online and FedEx integration

Exact Online is the ERP where your sales orders live. FedEx is where those orders ship and where tracking begins. Connecting the two keeps your inventory, fulfillment, and customer visibility in real time. When an Exact Online sales order is ready to ship, ml-connector creates the FedEx shipment and generates the label. As the package moves, FedEx tracking events flow back into Exact Online, so your order status and customer portal always reflect where the shipment is.

How Exact Online works

Exact Online is a cloud-based ERP platform covering accounting, purchasing, sales, inventory, HR, and project management. It exposes sales orders, purchase orders, invoices, items, GL accounts, cost centers, and goods deliveries through a REST API with OData v3 query syntax. Regional deployment options include separate base URLs for Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and USA, each requiring a division ID. Authentication is OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code Grant with a 10-minute access token lifetime and 30-day refresh token rotation. The platform supports both webhooks for real-time notifications on order and invoice changes and polling via the REST API. A full list of webhook-enabled topics includes sales orders, sales invoices, purchase orders, GL accounts, and goods deliveries, with HMAC-SHA256 signature validation on every payload.

How FedEx works

FedEx is a shipping and logistics REST API platform for label creation, shipment tracking, rate quoting, and international customs compliance. Requests are authenticated via OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials with an API key and secret from the FedEx Developer Portal. The platform enforces IP-level rate limits at 3 tokens per second, with a 1,400-transaction limit per 10 seconds per project. FedEx supports webhooks through Advanced Integrated Visibility, a paid subscription for tracking push events, or free polling via the Track API for historical and in-transit tracking. Sandbox and production environments have separate base URLs. The Ship API includes a transactionId field for client-side deduplication, and the Track API accepts up to 30 tracking numbers per request.

What moves between them

The main flow is Exact Online into FedEx. Sales orders and line items from Exact Online flow to FedEx to create shipments and generate labels. As FedEx processes shipments, tracking events flow back into Exact Online, where they are attached to the original sales order so the order status always reflects current package location. FedEx account numbers are mapped per Exact Online division, and cost centers from Exact Online can be applied to shipment billing. The sync happens on a schedule you define, typically hourly or at the end of each business day.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector bridges the two OAuth flows: Exact Online's Authorization Code Grant with 10-minute token refresh, and FedEx's Client Credentials flow with token caching at the IP level to avoid rate limits on token requests. Every Exact Online access token is refreshed before expiry; FedEx tokens are cached for one hour. Sales orders are read from Exact Online via REST polling and mapped to FedEx shipments using the division ID to route to the correct account number. Tracking events from FedEx are retrieved via the Track API, which accepts up to 30 tracking numbers per request, and written back into Exact Online using the sales order line items as the anchor. Because Exact Online's webhook CallbackURL domain must match the redirect_uri domain registered in the App Center, ml-connector can optionally receive real-time order notifications rather than polling. FedEx transactionIds are stored on shipment records to prevent duplicate label creation if a job replays. Rate limits are handled with exponential backoff: FedEx IP-level auth limits trigger a 10-minute hold before retrying token requests, and transaction-level limits queue retries. Every shipment creation and tracking update carries a full audit trail.

A real-world example

A mid-sized distributor uses Exact Online to manage sales orders across three regional divisions in Europe and one in the USA. Orders flow through the ERP daily, creating thousands of shipments via FedEx across different freight services (parcel, LTL, international). Before the integration, the warehouse team manually logged into FedEx to create labels for each order, entered the FedEx tracking numbers into Exact Online by hand, and customers received tracking links in order confirmation emails weeks late, if at all. With Exact Online and FedEx connected, sales orders trigger automatic shipment creation in FedEx, labels print at the warehouse immediately, and tracking data flows back into Exact Online within minutes of label creation. Customers now receive tracking links in their order confirmation email, and the back office has real-time visibility into which orders have shipped.

What you can do

Create FedEx shipments and generate labels automatically when sales orders in Exact Online are marked ready to ship.
Sync FedEx tracking data back into Exact Online sales orders so order status and customer visibility stay current.
Map Exact Online divisions to FedEx account numbers and apply cost centers to shipment billing.
Bridge OAuth 2.0 on both sides, manage token refresh cycles, and handle rate limits with exponential backoff.
Maintain a full audit trail on every shipment creation and tracking event, with replay capability if a downstream call fails.

Questions

Which direction does data move between Exact Online and FedEx?: The main flow is Exact Online into FedEx. Sales orders and line items are read from Exact Online and sent to FedEx to create shipments and labels. Tracking events flow the opposite direction, from FedEx back into Exact Online, where they are attached to the original sales order. There is no write-back to Exact Online order data itself; tracking updates are read-only attachments to the order.
How does ml-connector handle OAuth and rate limits on both sides?: Exact Online tokens are refreshed every 10 minutes before expiry. FedEx tokens are cached for one hour to avoid IP-level rate limits on token requests, which trigger a 10-minute suspension after 3 tokens in 5 seconds. Transaction-level rate limits (1,400 per 10 seconds) are handled with exponential backoff and retry queuing.
What happens if a shipment label is created twice?: ml-connector stores the FedEx transactionId on every shipment record to prevent duplicate label creation if a job replays. If the same Exact Online order triggers a label creation twice, the transactionId acts as a deduplication key on the FedEx side.

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