← Acumatica integration

Push notifications — when polling is the wrong shape

This provider reads. It queries when asked and re-queries when a tile renders. For most questions that is right, and it is the only option against an instance you cannot configure.

But Acumatica can push. Push Notifications (SM302000) sends a POST to a webhook address whenever data matching a definition changes. Definitions are built on a Generic Inquiry or a data query, so the same inquiry that makes a good board also makes a good trigger. Destinations include a webhook URL, a SignalR hub, and message queues.

When it is worth asking for

Polling is fine for a board someone opens. It is the wrong shape when:

  • The question is "tell me when." A production order slipping its promised date, a purchase receipt landing above its quoted price, an order crossing an approval threshold. Polling for these means either latency or waste.
  • The data changes rarely but matters immediately. Polling a quiet entity every few minutes spends the per-minute budget to learn nothing.
  • You would otherwise poll on a short interval. Every poll is a request against a licensed budget shared with the customer's own integrations. A webhook costs them nothing per event.

What it costs to set up

Someone with admin rights configures the notification on SM302000: pick the inquiry, give it the destination URL, optionally a header for authentication. That is the whole ask. It is a screen, not a customization — no partner build, no code deployed into their instance.

The catch is on our side: it needs a stable public endpoint to receive the POST, which is a different shape from a credential we hold. Worth scoping deliberately rather than promising in a first meeting.

What to ask a customer

If a "tell me when" requirement comes up, the useful question is not "can we have webhooks" but "which inquiry would this fire from?" — that turns an abstract integration request into a named, existing object their team already maintains, and it is usually the same inquiry you would have pinned anyway.

Acumatica also removed ODBC access, so the API and OData are the only supported ways in — there is no read-replica shortcut to fall back on. That makes the budget in api-budget the real ceiling, and makes push worth reaching for sooner than you would with a database you could just query.