How to Sync Accounts

This how-to covers the fetch and match phase of Chart of Accounts Sync: retrieving accounts from the Accounting System and Pleo, then determining what action is needed for each. For the write operations, see How to Create, Update, and Archive Accounts. Your integration must:

Retrieve active accounts from the AS
Retrieve all Accounts (active and archived) from Pleo
Match AS accounts to Pleo Accounts by externalId to determine what action is needed

Prerequisites

Before you begin:

You’re familiar with the Chart of Accounts Sync Overview and the Integration Design for Syncing Accounts
Your integration is authenticated using one of the supported authentication methods
Your integration can call Pleo’s Chart of Accounts API endpoints

Scenario

This how-to uses a consistent example to illustrate each step. The table below shows the starting state in both systems before this sync runs.

Account (AS)	externalId	AS Status	Account (Pleo)	Pleo Status
1000 - Office Supplies	ext-1000	Active	1000 - Office Supplies	Active
2000 - Travel	ext-2000	Active	2000 - Travel	Archived
3000 - Software	ext-3000	Active	—	Does not exist
4000 - Marketing	ext-4000	Active	4000 - Advertising	Active
—	5000	—	5000 - Entertainment	Active

Steps

1. Retrieve Active Accounts from the Accounting System

Fetch all active accounts from the Chart of Accounts in the AS. Example Pseudo:

activeASAccounts = fetchActiveAccountsFromAS()

Example Result

Account	externalId	AS Status
1000 - Office Supplies	ext-1000	Active
2000 - Travel	ext-2000	Active
3000 - Software	ext-3000	Active
4000 - Marketing	ext-4000	Active

2. Retrieve All Accounts from Pleo

API Endpoint: POST /v1/chart-of-accounts:search Example parameters:

companyId: 12abc3d4-e567-890e-1234-abc56e78fabc
includeArchived: true

Fetch both active and archived Accounts from Pleo. Including archived Accounts allows unarchiving rather than creating duplicates. Example Pseudo:

pleoAccounts = fetchAccountsFromPleo(includeArchived: true)

Example Request

OAuth 2.0
API Key

curl -X POST "https://external.staging.pleo.io/v1/chart-of-accounts:search" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <access_token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
        "companyId": "12abc3d4-e567-890e-1234-abc56e78fabc",
        "includeArchived": true
      }'

curl --request POST \
  -u "pls_1ab2cd3e4f5g6h7a89b012c34de56f78_gabc90:" \
  -H "Accept: application/json;charset=UTF-8" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "https://external.staging.pleo.io/v1/chart-of-accounts:search" \
  -d '{
        "companyId": "12abc3d4-e567-890e-1234-abc56e78fabc",
        "includeArchived": true
      }' \
| jq

Example Response

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "7ea2006f-180e-4c52-a2bb-562d3a62fd48",
      "companyId": "12abc3d4-e567-890e-1234-abc56e78fabc",
      "code": "5000",
      "externalId": "5000",
      "name": "Entertainment",
      "archived": false
    },
    {
      "id": "a470bfbe-8046-4b43-a4d9-4f5796acdd93",
      "companyId": "12abc3d4-e567-890e-1234-abc56e78fabc",
      "code": "4000",
      "externalId": "ext-4000",
      "name": "Advertising",
      "archived": false
    },
    {
      "id": "d8371c2d-3f62-47df-a8d6-6a3ba6387e00",
      "companyId": "12abc3d4-e567-890e-1234-abc56e78fabc",
      "code": "2000",
      "externalId": "ext-2000",
      "name": "Travel",
      "archived": true
    },
    {
      "id": "77049275-e102-4ce4-84e5-c90852765fcd",
      "companyId": "12abc3d4-e567-890e-1234-abc56e78fabc",
      "code": "1000",
      "externalId": "ext-1000",
      "name": "Office Supplies",
      "archived": false
    }
  ],
  "pagination": {
    "hasPreviousPage": false,
    "hasNextPage": false,
    "currentRequestPagination": {
      "sortingKeys": [],
      "sortingOrder": [],
      "parameters": {}
    },
    "startCursor": "AAAAAADKHEEOIDOJO34A=AAAAAADKHEEOIDOJO34A=P2RAA3YYBZGFFIV3KYWTUYX5JA",
    "endCursor": "AAAAAADKCVM2UIAPLIEA=AAAAAADKHEETOMBB2K4A=BLNKLWE6ZBBDLLU24XGZ4GAFAI",
    "total": 4
  }
}

Example Result

Account (Pleo)	externalId	Pleo Status
1000 - Office Supplies	ext-1000	Active
2000 - Travel	ext-2000	Archived
4000 - Advertising	ext-4000	Active
5000 - Entertainment	5000	Active

What it looks like in Pleo Web App

3. Match AS Accounts to Pleo Accounts by externalId

For each active AS account, attempt to find a matching Account in Pleo using externalId. Example Pseudo:

pleoAccountsByExternalId = index pleoAccounts by externalId

for account in activeASAccounts:
    matchedAccount = pleoAccountsByExternalId[account.externalId]

    if matchedAccount is null:
        createAccount(account)
    else if matchedAccount.archived == true:
        unarchiveAndUpdate(matchedAccount, account)
    else if matchedAccount.name != account.name or matchedAccount.code != account.code:
        updateAccount(matchedAccount, account)
    // else: no action needed

Example Result

AS Account	Pleo Account	Pleo Status	Action
1000 - Office Supplies	1000 - Office Supplies	Active, matches	No action
2000 - Travel	2000 - Travel	Archived	Unarchive
3000 - Software	—	Does not exist	Create
4000 - Marketing	4000 - Advertising	Active, differs	Update
—	5000 - Entertainment	Active	Archive

What Comes Next?

this how-to is part of:

Chart of Accounts Sync Workflow Guide

Get Started

Integration Design

Workflow Guides

How-to's

How to Sync Accounts

Prerequisites

Scenario

Steps

1. Retrieve Active Accounts from the Accounting System

Example Result

2. Retrieve All Accounts from Pleo

Example Request

Example Response

Example Result

What it looks like in Pleo Web App

3. Match AS Accounts to Pleo Accounts by externalId

Example Result

What Comes Next?

​Prerequisites

​Scenario

​Steps

​1. Retrieve Active Accounts from the Accounting System

​Example Result

​2. Retrieve All Accounts from Pleo

​Example Request

​Example Response

​Example Result

​What it looks like in Pleo Web App

​3. Match AS Accounts to Pleo Accounts by externalId

​Example Result

​What Comes Next?

​Related Reading

Prerequisites

Scenario

Steps

1. Retrieve Active Accounts from the Accounting System

Example Result

2. Retrieve All Accounts from Pleo

Example Request

Example Response

Example Result

What it looks like in Pleo Web App

3. Match AS Accounts to Pleo Accounts by externalId

Example Result

What Comes Next?

Related Reading