AFAS API: what it can and can't do

When someone types "afas api", they usually aren't looking for a marketing story but a concrete answer: can my process work with this, or not. This article provides that answer without detours: what the APIAn agreed connection point with which two systems can read and write each other's data, without anyone having to type anything over. is, what GetConnectors and UpdateConnectors do for you, where the limits are, and what it means for the ownership of your integration if you build with it.

What exactly is the AFAS API?

AFAS Profit does not have a separate product called "the AFAS API" — the interface is standard in every Profit environment and is officially called the Connector API. It works with two types of connectors. GetConnectors retrieve data: accounts, contacts, products, prices, projects, hours, invoices, sales orders, and outstanding items. UpdateConnectors write data: a new relationship, an order, a timesheet entry or a change. Both use REST/JSON or the older SOAP/XML, secured with an AfasToken that you create yourself and can revoke at any time. No separate subscription is needed: the integration capability is already included in your Profit license; an AFAS administrator just needs to enable the specific connectors.

What can the AFAS API do?

If a data point is visible to a user in Profit, you can usually access it via the API as well — provided the associated connector is opened. This is how you integrate AFAS in practice with WooCommerce, Shopify, Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, Power BI, planning tools, time tracking packages, payroll processors and custom software. Every integration that writes something back to AFAS automatically complies with the business rules already in Profit: if a field is required in the screens, it is also required via the API. This prevents an integration from accidentally creating messy data that an employee could never have entered via the screen.

For reading and writing large datasets, GetConnectors supports pagination: a call returns 100 rows by default, with a maximum of 10.000 per call. A year-end overview of 40.000 invoices therefore requires at least four consecutive calls — a detail most integration developers plan for upfront, but that rarely appears in a quote unless you ask.

What can’t the AFAS API do?

Four limits come up most often in practice. No real-time webhooks: AFAS doesn't send a notification when something changes, so you retrieve and send data on a schedule, usually every fifteen minutes or every hour. No unrestricted database access: you can only access the fields included in a connector; you can't just run a query across the entire Profit database. No bypassing business rules or licenses: if your Profit environment doesn't use a module, the API won't open that module either. And no guarantee of immediate processing: An UpdateConnector accepts a record, but the actual processing in Profit can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes, which matters if you're building a process that waits for confirmation.

GetConnectors versus UpdateConnectors: when should you use each?

The choice is simple in practice: if you're reading something from AFAS, it's a GetConnector; if something changes in AFAS, it's an UpdateConnector. Most integrations use both simultaneously.

A calculation example makes the schedule concrete: if you synchronize three GetConnectors and two UpdateConnectors every fifteen minutes, that’s four times an hour, 96 times a day, and about 2,900 synchronizations a month — without anyone ever having to check them manually, as long as error messages go somewhere someone will see them.

Build a working integration through the AFAS API in five steps

1. Choose one process, not everything at once.Start where the most manual work happens: usually from quote to order, or from webshop to AFAS.
2. Enable the right connectors in Profit.An AFAS administrator identifies the GetConnectors and UpdateConnectors needed for the integration and creates the AfasToken.
3. Build and test in a staging environment.Start by running it alongside a small part of the data, so errors stay small and visible before it goes live.
4. Set up a schedule and error handling.Agree how often the connection runs and who gets notified if a record doesn't sync.
5. Hand everything over.The token, source code, documentation, and access go to your own team. You're not tied to the developer.

Allow two to six weeks from kickoff to go-live, depending on the number of fields and exceptions in the process.

What does this mean for ownership of your connection?

Because the API works with an AfasToken that your Profit environment issues itself, ownership in practice is a matter of agreements, not technology. We build these types of integrations via the API for organizations with 3 to 250 employees, with a fixed price upfront and complete transfer to your own team. What this costs and which six factors determine the price is detailed in what an AFAS integration costs. If you work with Exact Online as well as AFAS, then Connect AFAS and Exact to your other systems the place to read more. If you're already paying a partner a monthly maintenance fee, compare that with what an AFAS partner costs per month. A broader overview of how integrations work for SMEs, regardless of which system you use, is in integrating systems in SMEs — the pillar this article is built on. Want to see what something like this looks like as a service, with scope and price upfront? See how we connect systems.

According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), a large part of Dutch SMEs is now using ERPThe system where your accounting, inventory, purchasing and sales come together.-, CRM- or BI-software and already exchanges some of that data electronically with other parties, as shown in the table ICT use in businesses by company size. That table doesn’t measure whether those packages also communicate with each other automatically — and that’s exactly the difference between using software and getting software to work together.

Frequently asked questions