Connect other apps to your books

TallyPip can work with the other tools you use. An automation tool can turn each new online order into an invoice and its payment, a booking system can add new clients as customers, or your developer can send your own data straight into your books. Some apps have a Connect to TallyPip button: you sign in, choose your business and press Allow. For the rest, you make the app its own key. Either way you can see when it was last used and stop it at any time.

Who can do this

Owners and admins, in Settings › Connected apps (the gear menu, under Your company). Other people on the team don't see it.

Find apps that work with TallyPip

1. 1Open the apps directory (gear menu › Apps, Find apps in Settings › Connected apps, or Apps at the bottom of tallypip.com).
2. 2Pick a category, or look through them all. Each card shows the app, what kind it is and one line about it.
3. 3Open an app to read what it does with TallyPip, who makes it, its privacy policy and where to get help.
4. 4Press Get app. The app's own site opens: follow its steps, and when it asks, connect TallyPip with its button (below).

Using Zapier? TallyPip has its own Zapier app: see Use TallyPip with Zapier.

Every app in the directory is made by its own company, not TallyPip. We look at each one before it's listed, but its own terms and privacy policy apply to what it does with your data. Not there? Most apps can still connect with a key (further down).

Connect an app with its Connect to TallyPip button

1. 1In the other app, press Connect to TallyPip (or choose TallyPip from its list of apps to connect).
2. 2TallyPip opens. Sign in if it asks (with your own TallyPip email, never someone else's).
3. 3Check the page: the app's name, who made it, and what it will be able to do (See your customers, projects, classes and locations, products, invoices, payments, bills and expenses, or see them and add new ones).
4. 4Under Which business? choose the business to connect. Only businesses where you're the owner or an admin are listed; if you have more than one, none is picked for you, so check it's the right one (a sandbox for testing, never your real books by mistake).
5. 5Press Allow. You go straight back to the app, which now shows your business. (Press Cancel to go back without connecting.)

The app now appears in Settings › Connected apps under Apps you've connected, with who connected it and when it was last used, and the owners and admins get an email saying so. There's no key to copy or keep safe: the app gets its own access that renews itself.

Only press Allow for an app you meant to connect, just now. If a page you didn't expect asks you to connect an app to TallyPip, press Cancel.

Connect an app with a key

1. 1Open Settings › Connected apps.
2. 2Under Make a key, type what it's for (for example Zapier or Online store), so you can tell your keys apart later.
3. 3Choose what it may do: Read only (it can see your customers, projects, classes and locations, products, invoices, payments, bills and expenses, but never change anything) or Read and change (it can also add them).
4. 4Press Make a key. The key appears once, starting with tpk_. Press Copy key and paste it into the other app where it asks for your TallyPip key (or API key). Then press Done.
5. 5In the other app, check the connection. It should show your business's name.

The key is shown only once, for your safety: TallyPip keeps just a fingerprint of it. If you lose it, revoke it and make a new one. It takes a minute.

We email the owners and admins whenever a key is made, so nobody can quietly connect an app to your books.

What a connected app can do

• Read: your customers (with what each owes), vendors, products and services, invoices, payments received, bills, expenses, your chart of accounts and your saved sales tax rates.
• Add (Read and change keys): customers, vendors, services and non-inventory items, invoices (as drafts, or sent: in the books and owing), payments on invoices, bills and expenses.
• Not: change or delete anything that's already there, email invoices, add inventory items, see your bank logins, card numbers or tax ID numbers, or reach any other business. Corrections are made in TallyPip itself.

What happens in your books

• Everything an app adds goes through the same checks as when you add it yourself: the next invoice number, your payment terms and sales tax, your closing date, and balanced entries in your books.
• It acts as the person who made the key, with what they're allowed to do. What it adds shows in your lists, reports and Audit log under their name.
• A payment an app records goes into Undeposited Funds (unless the app chooses an account), ready to go to the bank with your next deposit, the same as Receive payment.
• Apps can send a code with each change, so that if their connection drops and they try again, the invoice or payment isn't made twice.

Keep your books safe

• Treat a key like a password: never email it, post it or put it in a shared document. Only give it to apps and people you trust.
• Give each app its own key, and choose Read only when the app only needs to look (a dashboard or report tool).
• Look at Last used on the list now and then. Revoke keys you don't use any more.
• If someone leaves your team, their keys stop working straight away. Make new keys for anything still needed.

Stop an app

Connected with its button? In Settings › Connected apps, under Apps you've connected, press Disconnect next to it and confirm. It stops reaching your books straight away, and any webhooks it added stop too. To use it again, connect it again from the app.

Connected with a key? In Settings › Connected apps, press Revoke next to its key and confirm. The app can't reach your books from that moment, and any webhooks it added stop too. Revoking can't be undone; to connect the app again, make a new key. Revoked keys stay listed under Revoked keys so you can see what was connected.

Webhooks: tell an app the moment something happens

Instead of checking your books every few minutes, an app can be told straight away when a customer is added, an invoice is made, sent, paid or voided, a payment comes in, or a bill or expense is entered. TallyPip sends that news to the app's address (a webhook endpoint). Most automation tools add their own endpoint when you connect them, and it appears in the list on its own. To add one yourself:

1. 1Get the address from the other app (it starts with https://; the app may call it a webhook URL).
2. 2In Settings › Connected apps, under Webhooks, paste it into Endpoint address and say what it's for.
3. 3Under Which news? keep Everything, or choose Choose and tick only what the app needs.
4. 4Press Add endpoint. A signing secret (starting whsec_) appears once: copy it into the other app if it asks, so it can check each message really came from TallyPip. Then press Done.
5. 5Press Send a test, then open Recent messages: the test should say Delivered.

• TallyPip sends only to secure (https) addresses on the public internet, and signs every message.
• Things brought over from another app when you switched (past transactions, starting balances) don't send news.
• If the app doesn't answer, TallyPip tries again (after a minute, then up to a day apart) for almost two days. Recent messages shows each try and the answer; Try again sends one that gave up.
• An endpoint that hasn't answered for 48 hours is turned off, and owners and admins get an email. Fix the app, then press Turn on: the messages that gave up in the last few days go again.
• Pause stops sending for a while; news that happens while it's paused isn't sent later. Delete removes the endpoint and its history.

For developers

Building an app yourself? A free sandbox business has sample books to try it against, without touching your real ones (it can't email customers, connect a bank or take payments). The API's addresses, what to send and what comes back are on the developer page. Money is in whole cents, and every request needs the key in an Authorization: Bearer header.

Building an app many businesses will use? Give it a Connect to TallyPip button: register it at Your apps for a client ID and secret, and follow the Connect to TallyPip guide (standard OAuth 2.0). A new app is in development: only you can connect it, to your own businesses. When it's ready for everyone, press Ask for review under it and we'll look it over, make it live and email you.

To be listed in the apps directory, open Apps directory under your app on Your apps: upload a square logo, fill in who makes it, a category, one line and a description, the Get app address (your page that starts connecting), your privacy policy and a support email, and press Save listing. Then press Ask for review. Once we've published it, later changes to the listing, logo, name or website show after we've looked at them: press Ask for review again.

Something not right?

• The app says the key doesn't work (401): the key was revoked, mistyped, or the person who made it left the team. Make a new key and paste it again, the whole key, starting with tpk_.
• "This app can't connect" when you press Connect: it says why. "Still being built and tested by its maker": the app isn't open to everyone yet; ask its makers. "Asked to send you back to an address it hasn't registered" or "isn't registered with TallyPip": something's wrong in the app; tell its makers (TallyPip stops there to keep you safe).
• No business to choose, or "you aren't one in any business yet": only an owner or an admin can connect an app. New to TallyPip? Set up your business first, then connect again from the app. On someone else's team? Ask the owner.
• An app connected with its button asks you to connect again: it was disconnected, the person who connected it left the team, it wasn't used for 100 days, or the app noticed something wrong and TallyPip stopped it for safety. Press its Connect to TallyPip button again.
• The app can read but can't add anything (403): the key is Read only. Make a Read and change key and use that instead.
• "This business is read-only": the free trial or plan has ended. Choose a plan in Settings › Subscriptions and billing and the app carries on.
• An invoice from the app was refused: the app shows TallyPip's reason, for example a date before your closing date, a number already used, or a line without a price. Fix it in the app and send it again.
• The app says it's paused (503): TallyPip's API is paused for a short while. Your keys are kept; the app can try again later. Webhook messages wait and go out when it's back.
• A webhook says "Answered 404" or "Answered 500": the app's address changed or the app had a problem. Check the address in the app, delete the endpoint and add the new one, then Send a test.
• "leads to a private address" or "has no address": the address isn't on the public internet, or the name doesn't exist. Use the exact address the app gives you.
• "Answered 301" or another redirect: TallyPip doesn't follow redirects. Use the final address (often with or without a trailing / or www).
• An endpoint says "Stopped: its app's key was revoked": the app needs connecting again with a new key; it adds a new endpoint itself. Delete the old one.
• Something was added twice, or wrong: fix or delete it in TallyPip as usual, then check the app's settings. Still stuck? Write to us from Help and say which app.