Connecting your ERP: what integration really involves

"Do we have to replace our ERP?" is usually the first question, and the answer is a firm no. Fawtara doesn't care which system creates your invoices — SAP, Oracle, Dynamics, Tally, Zoho, a point-of-sale system, or something built in-house a decade ago. It cares that the invoice leaves your environment as valid PINT-OM through an accredited provider. Integration is the bridge, and it's a well-trodden one.

The two ways in

• Pre-built connectors — for mainstream ERPs and accounting packages, a connector installs alongside your system and handles extraction and status write-back. Minimal or no customization of your core, which matters at upgrade time.
• REST API — for custom systems or teams that prefer owning the pipe. You post invoice data; the provider returns validation results and delivery status. A competent developer has a sandbox call working in an afternoon.

Both patterns are bi-directional: statuses, acknowledgments, and rejections flow back into your system, so your team works where they always have instead of babysitting a second screen.

What actually takes the time

Not the plumbing — the mapping. Your invoice fields have to line up with PINT-OM's, your tax logic has to survive line-level validation, and your edge cases (credit notes, self-billing, reverse-charge, prepayments) each need a decision. This is where finance and IT need to sit at the same table; it's also where most of the value of an experienced provider shows up, because they've seen your edge case before.

The five-step path

• 1 — Discovery & scoping: invoicing flows, systems, VAT profile, agreed plan.
• 2 — Environment & access: sandbox up, connector installed or API credentials issued, test data loaded.
• 3 — Integration & mapping: fields to PINT-OM, tax logic configured, build complete.
• 4 — Testing & validation: end-to-end UAT with simulated OTA submissions. Exceptions surface here, on purpose.
• 5 — Go-live & hypercare: controlled cut-over, live monitoring, a named contact while it beds in.

For a standard single-ERP landscape, plan on about five weeks end to end. Multi-entity and multi-system environments are scoped case by case — the honest answer is "it depends on your landscape," and anyone who quotes a timeline before seeing it is guessing.