An Application Programming Interface is a key that unlocks connections. If you have two systems, and if you have an open API between them, it means the connection has been unlocked. They can now talk to one another. The information from the fields can now talk to one another. The information may flow in one direction, or it may flow in both directions through the fields unlocked by the API. If you want to connect an app to accounting software, then the simplest way to do that is for the software to have an open API.

There’s a number of ways you can go in and connect into a solution. But typically, these days, we’re doing it through an open API. There are things, like a registry key, and you can come in the back end that way. Also, the functionality within the software may offer you the ability to upload a CSV file to it. That is doable, but quite clunky and manual process. The open API connection typically, I as the end-user doesn’t have to worry about it. It’s a very simple push-button connection, and the connection happens. Or you get a specialist in to do the connection, depending on the complexity involved there. But I as the end-user normally don’t have to worry about thinking about what’s happening there. I will however once a connection has been made, checked the data has flowed through as I expect it should have. I will also monitor to see if a connection breaks. If a connection breaks, it is important to reconnect as quickly as possible, but also check what happened with the data, while the connection was broken. It may need to be imported, or egad! Manually entered.