CUSTOM SOFTWARE

Connecting Bol.com to Exact Online: what is and isn't possible?

Yes, you can connect bol.com to Exact Online, in three ways: with an app from the Exact App Store, through an integration platform or with custom software on the bol and Exact APIs. Transferring orders is the basis. The real work lies in the payouts and the stock.

What do you actually want to solve?

Anyone looking for an integration between bol and Exact Online usually has one of these three problems:

• Retyping. Every order goes into the accounts by hand.
• The payout doesn’t reconcile. Bol doesn’t pay out per order but per period, after deducting commission, shipping costs and returns. Your accounts then show one amount that doesn’t match anything.
• Stock in two places. You also sell the same item in your own webshop or shop, and the numbers drift apart.

Each of those three needs something different. Lump them together and you build something that half works.

Orders to Exact: this is the basis.

Bol has a retailer API that an integration uses to fetch orders, shipments and returns. A new order becomes a sales order or sales invoice in Exact, with items, quantities and the VAT rate per line.

Decide two things in advance. Do you book all bol sales to one collective account or to an account per buyer? And do you book per order or grouped per day? Per day keeps your general ledger clearer. Discuss this with your accountant.

The payout: this is where the real work is.

Your turnover isn’t what lands in your account. Bol withholds commission, charges shipping and return costs and offsets credit amounts. What comes in is a net amount over a period.

You get it to reconcile by booking turnover, costs and payout separately and matching them up through a clearing account. The commission then appears as an expense in your accounts, and you can see what selling through bol really costs you. If you only book the net amount, your turnover is understated. Ask your accountant how to set up the VAT for this.

Stock: choose one master.

Keeping stock in sync in two directions almost always goes wrong. If you sell the same item on several channels, one system has to hold the truth and the other follows. Usually that’s Exact or your own stock system, with bol following.

There’s always some time between a sale and the updated stock level. With three left on the shelf, that’s the difference between a happy customer and a cancellation. So work with a small buffer rather than the exact number.

Returns and cancellations.

A return isn’t a deleted order but a credit note. Build that into the integration, otherwise your turnover is overstated and someone corrects it by hand at the end of the quarter. The same goes for orders cancelled before they’ve shipped.

Three routes to connect bol and Exact.

A ready-made app. The Exact Online App Store has several integrations with bol, from different makers. You connect them with a few settings. The descriptions in the App Store mainly mention the standard part: orders as a sales order or invoice in Exact, with the VAT code, and a return as a credit note. Check per app what it does with the payout and stock, because that’s where they differ most.

An integration platform. If you sell on more channels than bol, there’s often a platform in between that bundles all sales channels and has one integration with Exact. Handy if you want to manage stock and offers in one place. You do then have an extra system with its own subscription.

Custom work. Your own integration on the bol API and the Exact API. That pays off if the way you work doesn’t fit a standard app: your own way of booking, stock in another system, or bol alongside a webshop and a physical shop. You pay more upfront, and the integration does exactly what you agree.

Start with the app if your process is simple. If you notice you’re working around the app, with corrections at the end of the month, that’s the moment to look further.

What to look out for.

• Booking method. Agree with your accountant how turnover, commission, shipping costs and the payout are booked, and which VAT codes go with them. An integration carries out that agreement; it doesn’t come up with it.
• Returns and corrections. Ask how the integration handles a return, a cancellation and a correction from bol. Does a credit note appear, or does someone have to do it by hand?
• What goes wrong. An unknown item or a deviating VAT rate must become visible, not sit there silently. Ask where you see those alerts.
• Customer data. What bol passes on is there to handle the order. It isn’t meant for your own marketing.
• Timing. An integration fetches orders at set intervals. Expect a delay of a few minutes, not instant.
• Prices and offers. Managing your bol offers from Exact is a separate project, and rarely the first step.

When it pays off.

If you sell something through bol now and then, booking it by hand is fine. An integration becomes interesting when retyping has become daily work, or when you have to reconcile the payout by hand every month.

What TrompTech does here.

We build an integration between bol and Exact Online as custom work. The example on the custom software page, a webshop connected to Exact, starts at €9,500. Custom work usually costs between €3,500 and €12,000, then €249 a month for management. You get a fixed price upfront. All amounts exclude VAT.

If an app from the Exact App Store suits you, we’ll tell you that too. If you want the work between your systems ready for approval in one place, take a look at what TrompTech Layer does. Tell us how you work now, and we’ll look at which route fits.

Do you use AFAS instead of Exact? Then read connecting bol to AFAS.

Custom software usually costs between €3,500 and €12,000, then €249 per month for maintenance, excluding VAT.