How Calxa Unlocked 3 New ERP Markets Without Hiring a Single ERP Developer

Industry

Calxa integration illustration showing connections with QuickBooks, Xero, MYOB, Acumatica, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Industry

Financial reporting & forecasting
(Fintech SaaS)

The Client

Calxa is a leading budgeting and cashflow forecasting platform used by SMEs, accountants, and not-for-profits across Australia and New Zealand.

Historically, Calxa relied on QuickBooks Online and Xero integrations to win customers. However, the market began shifting especially in Australia, where:

  • Xero holds strong market share
  • Larger organisations increasingly adopt Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, MYOB Acumatica, and NetSuite
  • And this segment faces complex reporting, multi-entity, and multi-currency challenges exactly the space where Calxa thrives

To grow, Calxa needed to support these mid-market ERPs.

To execute, they needed deep ERP expertise and fast.

The Challenge

Calxa’s engineering team had strong experience with SME accounting products but faced several major hurdles:

1. Complex ERP landscape they were not familiar with

Microsoft Business Central, MYOB Acumatica, and NetSuite have:

  • Multiple entities (holding + subsidiaries)
  • Multi-currency ledgers
  • Customised charts of accounts
  • Heavy API variations (REST, SOAP, OData, SuiteQL)
  • Client-specific customisations

Calxa’s team did not have the knowledge to build robust, production-grade integrations for all three.

2. High entry barriers

Some ERPs require formal certification before API access.

For example:

  • MYOB Acumatica requires API Developer Certification from Acumatica Academy.

This meant extra time, training, and cost without guarantee of success.

3. Building integrations internally was impractical

Internal development would require:

  • Learning 3 large ERPs
  • Understanding 3× authentication models
  • Managing 3× rate limits & token expiry flows
  • Writing 3× sync engines
  • Creating 3× error-handling & retry mechanisms
  • Writing 3× test suites
  • Extensive QA cycles

Estimated internal effort if built in Australia:

~2,500–3,000+ hours, costing AUD $350,000+, with a 9–12 month timeline.

4. Product demanded a unified experience

Calxa wanted:

  • One unified API layer
  • One unified data model
  • Identical response formats regardless of ERP
  • One codebase for their internal platform

That required architectural thinking beyond writing connectors.

5. Third-party unified API products were not suitable

APIs like Merge.dev, Codat, or Unified.to provide generic connectors but not:

  • Solution design
  • Data modelling
  • Handling multi-entity ERP complexity
  • Custom reporting logic
  • Deep testing across edge cases
  • Consulting on authentication, retry cycles, or rate-limit governance

Using them would still require Calxa’s team to:

  • Build significant custom logic
  • Handle reporting transformations
  • Map multi-entity structures
  • Maintain the integration long-term
  • And pay USD $500–2000/month per connector

This would cost more and deliver less.

Calxa needed a true integration partner, not an API aggregator.

Our Approach

Satva Solutions took full ownership strategically and technically.

1. Discovery Workshop

We studied:

  • Calxa’s existing Xero + QBO integrations
  • Their data model
  • Their forecasting engine
  • How budgets, actuals, and categories flow
  • Reporting logic and internal architecture

This helped us blueprint an ERP-agnostic integration model.

2. Designing a Unified Integration Platform

We translated all requirements into a single architecture:

  • One unified API for Calxa
  • One common data format
  • One unified sync pipeline
  • Controlled token management
  • Automatic retry logic
  • ERP-specific adapters behind the scenes

This ensured Calxa’s product team never deals with ERP complexity again.

3. Building Three Deep ERP Integrations

We developed full-scale connectors for:

Key features:

  • Full chart of account syncing
  • Multi-entity hierarchy mapping
  • Multi-currency balances
  • Budget & Actuals extraction
  • Category mapping to Calxa structure
  • Rate limit protection
  • Token lifecycle management
  • Automatic restart + retry on failure

4. Rigorous End-to-End Testing

We performed:

  • Multi-company test runs
  • Multi-currency validations
  • Customised ERP tenant test cases
  • Failure scenario + timeout testing
  • Load testing for large datasets
  • Edge-case testing for entity hierarchies

This ensured reliability across diverse customer environments.

Calxa Dashboard where shows reports, budgets & cashflow
NetSuite Integration with Calxa: Enhancing Budgeting & Cashflow Forecasting

The Results

1. Massive Engineering Time Saved

Calxa avoided:

  • ~2,500–3,000 hours of internal development
  • 9–12 months of R&D
  • AUD $350,000+ in internal cost

Satva delivered all three integrations in a fraction of the time.

2. Zero need for ERP training

Calxa’s engineering team did not need to learn:

  • OData
  • SuiteQL
  • ERP authentication flows
  • Token renewal
  • ERP entity hierarchies
  • ERP customisation models

It eliminated long learning curves and avoided hiring ERP specialists.

3. QA and Test Coverage Fully Offloaded

Calxa’s QA team did not need to:

  • Understand 3 ERPs
  • Build test cases
  • Learn API quirks
  • Manage ERP sandbox/test data

Our team handled 100% of test coverage.

4. Avoided recurring cost of third-party unified API vendors

Using Codat/Merge would require:

  • USD $500–2,000 per ERP per month
  • Still needing custom logic
  • No consulting or solution design
  • Limited flexibility with custom ERP tenants
  • No help for complex reporting & forecasting structures

With Satva:

  • Zero recurring connector fees
  • Full ownership of code
  • Full flexibility
  • Fully tailored architecture

5. New Revenue Opportunities for Calxa

Calxa can now target:

  • Larger SMEs
  • Mid-market enterprises
  • Multi-entity groups
  • NFPs using Business Central, NetSuite, and Acumatica

This opens up hundreds of potential customers previously not addressable.

6. Competitive Advantage

Compared to other budgeting/forecasting tools, Calxa now offers:

  • Support for 5 major accounting/ERP systems
  • Enterprise-grade integration reliability
  • Unified API for forecasting
  • Faster onboarding of complex organisations

This gives Calxa a significant edge in AU/NZ and global markets.

Conclusion

Calxa was ready to scale beyond SME accounting tools but lacked the ERP expertise to do it themselves.

Satva Solutions delivered:

  • A unified ERP integration platform
  • Three enterprise-grade connectors
  • Robust authentication & token management
  • Multi-entity, multi-currency reporting sync
  • Fully designed, tested, and production-ready architecture

This engagement saved large engineering and QA effort, avoided costly third-party API subscriptions, and unlocked new revenue streams helping Calxa compete strongly in the mid-market ERP space.

Calxa now serves a much wider audience while keeping its internal teams focused on what they do best: building world-class budgeting and forecasting tools.

Technology Stack

  • Asp.Net MVC API with .NET Framework 4.8
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