When it comes to connecting external systems to Sage Intacct, there are a few important things to keep in mind—especially if you’re planning to create a custom integration. Understanding how Sage Intacct handles API usage can help you design an integration that’s both efficient and scalable.
Start with Marketplace Partners Whenever Possible
Sage Intacct’s Marketplace partners get a major advantage: their API calls don’t count against your account’s API usage limits. Because of that, Marketplace solutions are always the easiest and most efficient starting point. If a tool you need already exists in the Marketplace, it can save you setup time—and preserve your API capacity.
When You Need to Integrate a Non-Marketplace Solution
If the system you’re integrating isn’t available in the Sage Intacct Marketplace, you’ll need the Web Services Developer module. This module gives you the unique senderID required to establish an API connection, and any activity from this integration will count toward your monthly usage tier. Every Sage Intacct subscription includes a base tier, but heavier integrations may require a higher tier depending on volume.
Understanding What Counts as an API Transaction
Not all API activity is created equal. Sage Intacct tracks API usage based on transactions, and knowing how these are counted can help you design integrations that avoid unnecessary overhead.
Here’s how Sage defines a transaction:
-
Each individual record created, updated, or deleted counts as one transaction.
Even if a request contains multiple operations, each record is tallied separately. -
A single query counts as only one transaction, no matter how many results it returns.
In other words, a request and a transaction aren’t always the same thing:
-
A request may bundle multiple operations.
-
A transaction is counted per record affected.
-
A query is always just one transaction.
Real-World Examples
Here’s how those rules play out in practice:
-
Creating 10 AP bills = 10 transactions, regardless of how many line items each bill contains.
-
Running one query that pulls 200 AP bills = 1 transaction.
-
Retrieving 4,000 AP bills using paged queries (2,000 per page, due to API limits) = 2 transactions.
If your main purpose is reporting—such as populating a data warehouse—queries tend to be efficient and unlikely to cause usage issues.
API Performance Tiers
Sage Intacct offers multiple API performance tiers. Each tier includes a monthly allocation of API transactions, and higher tiers provide significantly more capacity. You can upgrade to a higher tier at any time if your integration volume increases. Downgrades, however, can only occur at your next annual renewal.