Naarvin connects to an ERPNext site with an API key and secret, then reads each linked company's chart of accounts, posted ledger, invoices, payments, customers and suppliers on a schedule you set. Approved journals can go back to ERPNext as draft Journal Entries once an admin turns sending on. ERPNext is one of the connections that runs with customers today.
What does Naarvin read from ERPNext?
Naarvin reads the accounting side of every ERPNext company you link. It only reads, unless an admin later turns on sending for approved journals.
| Data | What Naarvin reads | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Chart of accounts | Every account of the company, with ERPNext's root type and account type | Mapping each account to one finance model |
| General ledger | Submitted GL entries, in the company currency and the account currency | Reports, the close and journal tests |
| Sales and purchase invoices | Submitted invoices with their items and tax rows, what is still outstanding and the day each was settled | Receivables, payables and VAT work |
| Payments | Payment Entries not yet allocated to an invoice | Money on account in the aging |
| Customers and suppliers | Names, VAT numbers and contact details, plus supplier bank accounts and payment terms | Aging, payables and payment runs |
| Cost centres and projects | The values tagged on GL lines | Reports by cost centre or project |
| Who entered each journal | The user who created a Journal Entry and the user who submitted it | Journal tests such as self-approval |
| Exchange rates | Currency Exchange records into your reporting currency | Translating companies in other currencies |
| ERPNext's own statements | Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow, month by month | Checking the loaded books against ERPNext |
Supplier bank accounts read from ERPNext are shown next to the accounts Naarvin has verified and are never paid to as they are: one takes effect only after a second person verifies it. Purchase and sales orders, receipts and delivery notes can be read too, for matching bills to orders, but only once someone switches that on for the connection.
How do you connect ERPNext to Naarvin?
You connect once with an ERPNext user made for Naarvin. Our team does this with you during onboarding, on every plan.
- Create a user for Naarvin in ERPNextGive it read access to accounting, for example the Accounts User role. If you plan to send journals back later, it will also need permission to create Journal Entries.
- Generate its API key and secretOpen the user, then User settings, API Access, Generate Keys. Copy the secret at once: ERPNext shows it only once.
- Enter the site address and the keys in NaarvinUse the address you open ERPNext at, over HTTPS. Naarvin tests the keys and shows which user it signed in as. The key and secret are encrypted when saved and never shown again.
- Choose the companiesEach ERPNext company becomes a company in Naarvin with its own currency, or is linked to an existing one in the same currency.
- Choose when to syncManual only, every few hours, or daily at a set time in your time zone. The first full sync can start as soon as the connection is saved.
- Confirm the account mappingNaarvin suggests where each account belongs in the finance model. A person confirms every suggestion before reports rely on it.
How often does Naarvin sync with ERPNext?
As often as you choose: from every 15 minutes to once a week, or only when someone presses Sync now. Scheduled syncs read what changed since the last one, using ERPNext's modified time with a 15-minute overlap so an entry saved late is not missed.
A full re-sync reads everything again and marks what was removed in ERPNext, including cancelled entries, as deleted in Naarvin. If a full read returns less than half of what Naarvin already holds, it deletes nothing and warns you instead.
How do approved journals go back to ERPNext?
ERPNext is one of six systems Naarvin can send approved journals to directly. Sending is off until an admin turns it on for the connection.
- A journal is drafted in Naarvin, for example an accrual from Close AI or one written by hand, and needs its own approval. The approved amount must match the journal.
- It arrives in ERPNext as a Journal Entry saved as a Draft, for your team to review and submit there. Submitting directly is a setting the admin can choose instead.
- Each line names its account and, where it has them, its customer or supplier and its cost centre.
- The entry's remark carries a Naarvin reference. Before creating anything, Naarvin searches ERPNext for that reference, so a retry after a timeout never creates the entry twice.
- A month signed off in Naarvin takes no new journals until it is reopened.
While sending is off, an approved journal can be exported as a CSV file for ERPNext to import, and recorded in Naarvin with the reference ERPNext gives it. As with any change to your books, try sending on a test company first.
Does it handle several companies and currencies?
Yes. One connection can bring every company on the ERPNext site that you choose, each in its own currency, and you can change the list later. Ledger amounts load in the company currency, with the account-currency amounts kept for foreign-currency accounts.
ERPNext's exchange rates can feed Naarvin's rates. Because a rate applies to every company, they count only when the person who connected ERPNext can manage connections for every company, or when such a person allows them later. Combining the companies into group figures is covered in our guide to consolidation and intercompany eliminations.
What does the ERPNext connection not do?
- It does not load Period Closing Vouchers. They move the year's profit into equity, and loading them would erase the year's profit and loss on the closing date.
- It reads submitted documents only. Drafts in ERPNext stay out of your reports until they are submitted.
- It creates Journal Entries in ERPNext and nothing else: no invoices, payments, customers or accounts.
- It does not read payroll. Frappe HR has its own connection for the payroll register.
Questions people ask
Does Naarvin change anything in ERPNext?
Not by default. It reads only. If an admin turns on sending, Naarvin creates the Journal Entries your team approved, saved as drafts unless the admin chose to submit them directly.
Which ERPNext role does the Naarvin user need?
Read access to accounting is enough to sync, for example the Accounts User role. To send approved journals back, the same user also needs permission to create Journal Entries.
Does it work with a self-hosted ERPNext?
Yes, as long as the site can be reached over HTTPS from the internet. A hosted site and a site on your own server connect the same way.
Can we check that Naarvin loaded the same figures as ERPNext?
Yes. Naarvin keeps ERPNext's own Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet for each month, so the loaded books can be compared with ERPNext account by account before anyone reports on them.