Exact Online and TrueCommerce integration

What moves between them

The main flow runs from Exact Online into TrueCommerce. Purchase orders and purchase order changes from Exact Online are pulled on a schedule and transformed into EDI X12 850 documents (Purchase Orders) for delivery to your suppliers via TrueCommerce. When suppliers acknowledge orders via 855 (Purchase Order Acknowledgments) or send invoices via 810 documents, ml-connector pulls these from TrueCommerce and posts them back into Exact Online as purchase invoice records and line items. Cost centers from Exact Online are mapped to TrueCommerce supplier GL accounts so all documents carry the correct financial dimensions.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector stores both credential sets encrypted. On the Exact Online side, it manages OAuth 2.0 token refresh automatically, requesting a fresh access token every 8 minutes (before the 10-minute expiry) and using the rotating refresh token to maintain long-lived connections without re-authentication. For TrueCommerce, it stores SFTP credentials and connects to integrationftp.truecommerce.com on port 22. Since both systems are pull-only, ml-connector polls Exact Online and TrueCommerce on a schedule you define, typically aligned with your procurement calendar. Before any purchase order ships to TrueCommerce, cost centers are resolved from Exact Online so every EDI 850 document carries a valid destination and GL account. When invoices and acknowledgments arrive from TrueCommerce, ml-connector normalizes the EDI payload and inserts them as purchase invoices into Exact Online, matching to the originating purchase order by document number. Every record carries a full audit trail and can be replayed if a downstream posting fails.

A real-world example

A mid-sized manufacturing company runs Exact Online for accounting, purchasing, and inventory across three European sites. The company sources from 40 suppliers distributed across the EU, many of whom require EDI order transmission via a TrueCommerce trading partner network. Before the integration, procurement staff exported purchase orders from Exact Online to a local folder every morning, manually formatted them for EDI, and uploaded them to TrueCommerce FTP. Supplier acknowledgments arrived as EDI 855 documents in TrueCommerce, which the AP team then re-entered manually into Exact Online. With Exact Online and TrueCommerce connected, each purchase order flows automatically from Exact Online to suppliers within minutes of approval, and acknowledgments flow back and post as invoice records without re-entry. The AP team now spends procurement processing time on exception handling and three-way matching rather than data re-keying.

What you can do

• •Export purchase orders and purchase order changes from Exact Online to TrueCommerce as EDI X12 850 documents for delivery to suppliers.
• •Receive purchase order acknowledgments (EDI 855) and invoices (EDI 810) from TrueCommerce and post them back into Exact Online with line items and cost center allocation.
• •Manage Exact Online OAuth 2.0 authentication, including automatic token refresh every 8 minutes and rotating refresh token rotation.
• •Store TrueCommerce SFTP credentials encrypted and poll SFTP on a schedule aligned with your procurement rhythm.
• •Track every purchase order, acknowledgment, and invoice with a full audit trail and replay failed records if downstream posting fails.

Questions

How does ml-connector handle the different authentication methods between Exact Online and TrueCommerce?

Exact Online uses OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code Grant. ml-connector automatically refreshes the access token every 8 minutes before expiry and manages the rotating refresh token to maintain long-lived sessions. TrueCommerce credentials are provisioned during account setup and stored encrypted. ml-connector presents these credentials on every SFTP connection.

What happens when a purchase order is acknowledged or invoiced from a supplier?

When a supplier sends an acknowledgment (EDI 855) or invoice (EDI 810) via TrueCommerce, ml-connector retrieves it from the SFTP folder and transforms it from EDI format into Exact Online purchase invoice records. The invoice is matched to the originating purchase order by document number, and cost center information from Exact Online is preserved so the invoice lands on the correct GL account.

Why does ml-connector need to poll both systems instead of relying on push notifications?

Exact Online webhooks contain only entity keys and action types, not full entity data, so fetching the complete record still requires a separate REST call. TrueCommerce's push capabilities are available only through managed implementation, not self-serve. Polling on a schedule tied to your procurement calendar gives consistent, predictable sync behavior without dependency on webhook delivery reliability.