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Introduction

Exact Online is cloud business software for small and medium-sized businesses, covering finance, accounting, inventory and projects. Chift supports it in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany, each a separate Exact Online environment.

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Activate Exact Online

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Partner keys

You’ll need your own OAuth2 app, registered with Exact Online. Exact Online runs a separate site per country, so you register one app in each country you target. Exact Online approves each app before external clients can use it. Approval can take a few days.
1

Create your Exact Online developer account

Sign up in the country you target: Belgium · France · Netherlands · Germany.
2

Subscribe to the developer plan (Netherlands and Belgium)

In the Netherlands and Belgium, a paid developer plan is required. Subscribe with the account you just created: Netherlands · Belgium. Skip this step in France and Germany.
3

Register a production app

Your Exact Online user needs the Manage apps role. Log in to the Exact Online App Store, go to Manage my apps and click Register a production app. A testing app cannot be used by external clients.Enter the app name shown in Exact Online’s marketplace. App names are unique per country. Then enter this redirect URL:
4

Submit the app for review

In Manage my apps, open your app and click Submit for review. Fill in the purpose, the scopes, the third-party connections and the security questionnaire, then click Request permission. Set each scope to the level shown below.
The Exact Online scope levels to set when submitting the app for review
Any later change to this form needs a new approval, and every end user must then consent again.

Activate Exact Online in your Chift account

In Connectors, pick the connector for your app’s country: Exact Online BE, NL, FR or DE. Then enter that app’s client ID and client secret.

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Connector settings

The seven Verify user has rights to access settings in the Chift Exact Online connector settings
Seven settings make Chift check that the signed-in Exact Online user has rights on an object in the selected company. The check runs when a connection is tested. Each setting offers the same options:
  • No: no check. This is the default.
  • Retrieval or Creation: Chift checks that right. A user without it gets a 403 error and the connection fails.
The check is skipped when the end user selects several companies. Enable the settings for the objects your integration reads or creates. Missing rights then show up at connection time rather than at the first sync.
The Let the user specify the division? setting in the Post-connection configuration of the Chift Exact Online connector settings
Let the user specify the division?, under Post-connection configuration, decides whether end users pick the Exact Online company (division) to connect after signing in.
  • Ticked: end users pick the company. The option below it lets them pick several.
  • Unticked: end users are not asked. Your integration then gives the company with each API request.
Untick it when one connection must reach every company the end user has access to, and your integration chooses the company per request.

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Test Exact Online

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Vendor fees

Software editor (you)

Developer plan, needed to register an app. Free in France and Germany.In the Netherlands and Belgium, it costs €15 a month excl. VAT, with 2 developer users included and €5 a month per extra user.

End user

No fees. An Exact Online Premium plan raises the daily API limit, see Rate limits.
Developer plan pricing: Netherlands · Belgium. See Exact Online’s developer subscription.

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Connect Exact Online

Each country is a separate Exact Online environment, with its own guide:

Netherlands

Belgium

France

Germany

Before they start, your end users need:
  • an Exact Online account in the country of the connector you give them
  • the company they want to connect allowed for your app, under Import/Export › App permissions › your app › Permitted companies
  • if you turned on a Verify user has rights to access… setting: rights on those objects in that company
To connect, they:
  • choose the analytical axis to use: Not active, Cost Centers or Cost Units
  • sign in to their Exact Online account, in their country’s environment, and authorize your app
  • choose the company or companies to connect

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Rate limits

Exact Online applies these quotas: The per-app quota of one company does not affect other companies. Exact Online also blocks an API key on an endpoint for an hour after too many errors:
  • The block starts after more than 10 errors per user, per company and per endpoint within the hour.
  • Responses 400, 401, 403 and 404 count as errors.
  • The block grows longer if errors continue.
Send well-formed requests and handle validation errors before retrying. Applications that abuse the limits may be throttled or blocked under Exact Online’s fair use policy. When a limit is exceeded, Exact Online returns HTTP 429 Too Many Requests. The response carries the X-RateLimit-Minutely-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset headers.
  • Per-minute limit: Chift retries automatically, up to 6 times.
  • Daily limit: Chift does not retry. It returns 429 with ERROR_RATE_LIMIT and a retry_after value, in seconds, until the reset.
Chift automatically manages these limits to optimize performance and prevent interruptions. However, once the API rate limit is reached, Chift cannot bypass these limitations. See Exact Online’s rate limit documentation.

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Limitations & specificities

Invoice numbers and entry numbers must be whole numbers between 1 and 4,294,967,295.
On an entry line that uses a client or supplier, the general ledger account set on that line must be a receivable or payable account. Exact Online rejects any other account type.
Exact Online limits the description of financial entry lines to 60 characters, and silently cuts anything longer. Put the most identifying information first, such as the structured communication or the counterparty name.
Exact Online rejects a PDF attached to an entry that is not linked to a client or supplier.
Exact Online rejects a client or supplier it considers a duplicate of an existing one, based on uniqueness checks such as the VAT number.
Bank account numbers must be unique in Exact Online.
Exact Online disconnects an app after 30 days without use. Chift does not keep an idle connection alive, so the end user must then authorize the connection again. Connections used at least once a month, for example by scheduled syncs, are not affected. (Exact Online documentation)

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Coverage

The coverage shown is Belgium’s. The four environments are identical, except for a partner’s contacts, available on request in France only.

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Troubleshooting

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Specific errors for Exact Online: