Working Smarter with Intacct Smart Event API Calls

• January 7, 2016
• Kathy Jastrzebski

Now that you have dimension relationships set up and your data has never been cleaner and your reports more accurate you may also wonder what else can we automate? (Dimension Relationship Setup Guide) How about ensuring Dimensional Values (Customers, Vendors, Departments, Projects, etc.) are set up correctly? We spent all those months making sure the data being imported to your new company during implementation was the best, cleanest version of your historic data. How do we maintain that once we’re live and many people now have access? For example, when setting up a project that begins with the letters “NE”, how do we make sure that the Project Type is set to EPC? What if you could have Intacct automatically fill out the Project Type whenever a new project is set up that has a name starting with NE? Well now you can with Smart Event API’s.

What is a Smart Event API call?

A Smart Event API Call is similar to a Smart Rule but instead of resulting in a warning or error (or in the case of a Smart Event Email, an email) it results in an action that takes place in Intacct.

Navigation

Customization Services: Customization Services > Smart Events > Add

Platform Services: Home Page > Platform Services > Smart Events > Add

Step 1: Choose object to extend

Which object should trigger the Smart Event API to occur? In this example it is when the user is setting up an new Project, so I’ll choose Project here.

Step 2: Select event properties

Action: What do we want Intacct to do?

Events: Under what circumstances should the Smart Event trigger? Adding a new project, Setting a project (in other words editing), or Deleting a Project?

Condition: What specific conditions should the Smart Event trigger under? (Use the Smart Rule writing instructions found in this blog post here.) In my example, I’d like the Smart Event to trigger when the Project’s name starts with NE so I’ll write:

(left({!PROJECT.NAME!},2)==”NE”)

The left formula takes the two leftmost letters in the Project Name field and evaluates what they are. Should the Project Name begin with “NE”, the Smart Event API will trigger. Should the name start with “RE” or any other letters/numbers, nothing will happen.

Step 3: Entering API arguments for a web services API call

An API call is what Intacct is actually doing. (Think of Step 2 as our call to action to Intacct, and Step 3 is Intacct following through by changing the Project Type). We need a little bit of programming here to write this but should not be too overwhelming here.

What exactly does all that mean? Each command has an open and end tag. Notice: <update> also has </update>. <Project> has it’s pair </Project>. When reading the code you want to look at the pairs. The action takes place in the middle where we are telling Intacct to change the <ProjectType> field to EPC. The only trick is the <PROJECTID>{!PROJECT.PROJECTID!}<?PROJECTID> – that just means we want Intacct to update the project we are currently modifying.

Step 4: Select deployment options

Now, just give your new API call an ID (similar to Smart Rules and Smart Events no spaces or special characters allowed here) and Save.

Step 5: Watch your Smart Event API in action!

1. Create the new Project with a Name of “NE1234”. Let’s assume the Project looks like this (notice the blank Project Type field):

2. Save the Project.

3. View the Project you just created. The Project now has A Project Type of EPC!

Have an idea for a Smart Event API you think your company might find useful but can’t quite get the API body step right or need help troubleshooting? We’re just a quick email away – contact the CLA Intacct team!

, Platform Applications and Add-Ons | 1 Comment »