Glossary

Short definitions of the terms used throughout this documentation. For how these fit together when you build, see How it works.

Each Unified API also has its own glossary for domain-specific terms. See the Glossary section under each API vertical (for example Accounting glossary).

Connector

A piece of software Chift can talk to: Odoo, Sage, Shopify, Lightspeed. You choose which connectors to activate for your customers in your account configuration. Chift’s API paths and fields call these integrations; the two words mean the same thing.

Consumer

One of your customers, as Chift knows them. Identified by a UUID (consumerid) that you pass in almost every API request to say whose data you want. Manage them via the API or in the platform.

End-user

The real person who works for or represents the consumer and performs the authentication and configuration of the connection. For example, the accountant who enters their accounting software credentials, or the manager who selects folders or locations during post-connection setup. The end-user is not the same as the Consumer: the consumer is the business entity Chift tracks by consumerid, while the end-user is the individual acting on its behalf.

Connection

The link between one consumer and one connector, holding that customer’s credentials and configuration, for example one customer’s Odoo credentials. A consumer can have several connections, but only one per connector. See Create a connection.

Post-connection

A follow-up question asked after credentials are accepted, such as which accounting folder or POS location to use. See Connection lifecycle.

Unified API

One consistent API shape covering many connectors in the same category. Chift has seven: Accounting, Invoicing, POS, E-commerce, Payment, PMS, and Banking. See Unified APIs overview.

Sync

A pre-built synchronization between two Chift APIs, built and run by Chift instead of by your engineering team. A sync contains one or more flows, each triggered by an event or a timer (e.g. nightly at 4 AM), running a process such as “get invoices and inject them into accounting” for every consumer linked to the sync. See Syncs.

Mapping

A correspondence your consumer confirms during onboarding to a sync, for example matching tax rates between their POS and their accounting software.