Pennylane is a French Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that started as an accounting tool designed to streamline accounting, financial management, and collaboration between accountants and businesses.
As it aims to centralize all financial data in one place, it now offers a broad range of services, including, but not limited to, accounting, invoicing and procurement.
Integrating your financial software (invoicing, POS, ERP, etc.) with Pennylane enables you to:
- Save hours of manual data transfers.
- Leverage financial data for features like cashflow forecasting.
This guide covers all the essentials for integrating with the Pennylane API, including best practices, API specifics, and use-case examples.
What it the Pennylane API?
Pennylane’s API offers a range of enpoints that you can use to pull or send data and perform actions useful for your product. For example, your can generate accounting entries in Pennylane by sending transaction information.
Two Pennylane APIs available
Company API (API Entreprise)
- For a company to connect to single account
- Automate invoices, quotes, and subscriptions.
- Sync supplier invoices and mark payments.
- Manage clients, suppliers, and products.
- Create and update accounting entries, import receipts, and generate FEC files.
Firm API (API Cabinet)
- For accounting firms to connect to multiple client companies at once
- Access client accounting data (trial balance, FEC, general ledger).
- Retrieve client lists, detailed records, and fiscal years.
Chift’s Unified Accounting API also lets you connect with dozens of accounting platforms, including Pennylane, through a single integration.
[[cta_unified_accounting]]
Examples of Pennylane API integration use cases
Integrating with Pennylane can expand the functionalities of your product and drastically improve the experience for your users. Here are a few ways our clients are leveraging connectivity with Pennylane.
Assessing loan eligibility in 30seconds - Defacto (digital lending)
Defacto is a B2B fintech lender providing instant, pay-as-you-go financing to cover stock, marketing, and B2B receivables for SMEs.
Their algorithm, using financial data pulled from software connected to Chift’s Unified Accounting and Unified Invoicing APIs, is able to generate a loan eligibility status in as little as 30 seconds.
Read the full case study here: How Defacto expands their TAM by leveraging Chift’s API integrations
Powering pre-accounting - Axonaut (ERP)
Axonaut users can automatically export financial data and create accounting entries in Pennylane (and a multitude of other accounting software), saving hours of tedious manual work for their accountant and themselves.
Read the full case study here: How Axonaut streamlined integration processes and saves resources with Chift
Payment reconciliation - Mollie (payment provider)
As companies using payment providers receive payments with amounts that don’t match what they invoiced clients (since the payout has payment fees deduced), payment reconciliation can be a headache. This only gets worse when refunds get added to the mix. Mollie, a popular payment provider, uses Chift’s Pennylane connector to send transaction data, allowing easy payment reconciliation.
Cashflow forecasting - Agicap (cashflow management)
Agicap uses Chift’s Unified Accounting API to import their users’ open invoices (supplier and clients) from their respective accounting software (including Pennylane) into Agicap and gain access to future cash operations.
Please note that Agicap also uses the connector to send pre-accounting data to Pennylane, automating accounting for their users.
Read the full case study here: How Agicap enhances cash flow management through seamless integrations with Chift
Pennylane API integration setup
In order to start setting up the Pennylane API integration, you will need to do the following steps:
- To activate and integration with Pennylane, you need to have a client plan Essential or above. Furthermore, your user account will need to have at least a “gestionnaire” role (Company settings > Team management).
- Choose a name for your connexion
- Click "Authorise" to finalise the connexion
- You will be redirected to a Pennylane login page to authenticate yourself.
Best practices for a seamless integration with the Pennylane API
Here are a few tips to help you build with Pennylane’s API:
Choose the right API version
Pennylane offers multiple API versions, each with its own rate limits, filters, and capabilities. Always check the latest version’s documentation to ensure it meets your needs. If upgrading from an older version, review the changes to avoid compatibility issues.
Stay up to date
Pennylane’s API is continuously evolving, with new features, deprecations, and improvements. Regularly monitor API updates and subscribe to changelogs to ensure your integration remains compatible and optimized.
Implement pagination efficiently
For endpoints returning large datasets, proper pagination is essential. Use the recommended pagination methods to retrieve data efficiently while respecting rate limits, ensuring your queries remain performant and scalable.
By following these best practices, you’ll build a robust, future-proof integration with Pennylane’s API.
Connect to Pennylane and other popular accounting software with a single API integration
Chift’s Unified accounting API allows you to easily integrate with all major European accounting tools in a single integration, whitout wasting time and money on integration maintenance. In addition to Pennylane, connect to MyUnisoft, Inqom, Horus, ACD, Cegid Loop and more.
Chift’s Unified Accounting API provides scalable, cost-efficient integrations enabling rapid growth while significantly reducing integration costs. With instant, one-click activations and real-time management via a centralized dashboard, your software maintains compatibility and stays ahead of the competition.
Empower your users by automating data transfers, eliminating manual entry, and enhancing user experience with integrations that seamlessly handle authentication and pre-built mapping steps.
Curious about how you can use Chift’s Unified Accounting API for your integrations? Reach out to our team for a demo.
Other Pennylane API questions you might have
What endpoints are included in the Pennylane API?
Chift’s Pennylane connector gives you access to a wide range of end-points, including but not limited to:
- Clients
%%/clients%% - Suppliers
%%/suppliers%% - VAT Codes
%%/vat-codes%% - Journal Entries
%%/journal-entries%%
Consult our Pennylane API documentation for a full list of available routes.
What are the Pennylane API rate limits?
The API rate limit is 4 API calls/requests per second for all endpoints except customer invoices, which is limited to 2.
How do you get the Pennylane API key?
Authentication can be handled in two ways on Pennylane: with an API Key or with OAuth2. For safety and convenience, we recommend using OAuth2 when setting up Pennylane API Integrations to manage access rights precisely.
