API and webhooks: connect your own software, Zapier or Make

Who is it for?

Businesses that already run other software and want EasyTaskr to talk to it: a web shop built by an agency, a warehouse system, a reporting spreadsheet, or a no-code automation in Zapier or Make. The settings page itself says it plainly: "Most businesses never need anything here." If you do not have another system to connect, you can skip this page.

What does it do?

• Lets you create API keys, each allowed only what you tick: products, stock, customers, orders, invoices and webhooks, read or change.
• Gives your software a documented web API to list and read records, create products and customers, adjust stock and place orders.
• Sends signed webhook messages for seven events: new order, order paid, new invoice, payment received, stock count changed, product changed and new customer.
• Keeps a log of recent deliveries, with Send again.
• Works with Zapier and Make, which can subscribe and unsubscribe to events with a key.

How do I switch it on?

API and webhooks is off by default. Your EasyTaskr contact switches it on for your business; it cannot be turned on from your own Settings yet. Then the owner or an admin opens Settings, API and webhooks. Nobody else can see the page.

How do I make a key?

1. In API keys, press Create a key.
2. Under What will use this key?, name it after the system, such as "Web shop".
3. Under What may it do?, switch on Read or Change for each kind of record. Read is ticked for you to start; change only what you need. Invoices are read only.
4. Choose when it Stops working: never, in 30 days, in 90 days or in a year.
5. Press Create key.
6. Copy the key now. "This is the only time we can show it to you." Only a scrambled version is kept.

The key list shows each key's name, the start of the key, what it may do in words, when it was last used and whether it is active. Revoke key stops one at once and keeps the record, so the log can still say which key did what.

Nothing is implied: a key that may place orders cannot read orders unless you also tick that.

What can the API do?

A few rules keep it safe. Orders go through the same order engine as your staff use, so prices, VAT, discounts, credit limits and stock rules all apply, and a key cannot set its own price. Stock changes are adjustments with a reason, never "set the count", so every change shows in stock history. A key cannot change a customer's credit limit. Lists come back a page at a time, and you can ask for only what changed since a given time, which makes a nightly sync cheap.

Your developer will find the full reference, and how to test a key, in the Connecting other apps section of the page.

How do I add a webhook?

1. In Webhooks, press Add a webhook.
2. Type the Address. It must start with https:// and be on the public internet.
3. Under Send me, tick the events you want.
4. Press Add webhook. Copy the signing secret it shows; your system uses it to check each message really came from EasyTaskr.
5. Open the webhook and press Send a test to check your system receives it.

Each webhook shows a health pill: Working, Not used yet, Failing or Stopped. Open one to see What it sends, Recent deliveries (Delivered, Trying again or Failed, with Send again), and Secret and removal, where New secret replaces the signing secret and Remove webhook deletes it. Switch off pauses it without removing it.

Most events reach you within about 30 seconds. Stock changes are grouped, at most one message per product every 10 seconds, with the levels per warehouse.

Step by step: send new orders to a spreadsheet with Zapier

1. Ask your EasyTaskr contact to switch on API and webhooks.
2. In Zapier, start a new automation with Zapier's own webhook trigger that catches a hook, and copy the address Zapier gives you.
3. In EasyTaskr, open Settings, API and webhooks, and press Add a webhook.
4. Paste Zapier's address into Address.
5. Under Send me, tick New order, then press Add webhook.
6. Open the webhook and press Send a test, so Zapier sees what an order looks like.
7. In Zapier, add a step that writes each order to a row in your spreadsheet, using the fields from the test.
8. Place a real order in EasyTaskr and check the row appears within a minute or so.

A ready-made EasyTaskr app inside Zapier is not published yet. A developer building one would use a key with webhook rights, so the app can subscribe and unsubscribe by itself; webhooks added that way show on the settings page as added by an app.

How do I keep it safe?

Give each system its own key, so you can revoke one without breaking the others. Tick only what that system needs, and set an expiry for anything temporary, such as a contractor's test. Keep the signing secret for each webhook out of shared documents and check the signature on every message your system receives.

What does it not do yet?

• No ready-made Zapier or Make app; the API has what they need, but the listing is not built.
• Orders cannot carry their own price, so a marketplace selling at a different price cannot use it as is.
• Invoices cannot be created or changed with a key.
• Up to 120 requests a minute per key; ask your EasyTaskr contact if a large sync needs more.

Related features

If you sell on Shopify, WooCommerce, eBay or Amazon, the built-in sales channels may already do what you need without the API. To send your books to an accountant's software, see Xero and QuickBooks. Our article on POS vs ERP explains where one system ends and another should begin.