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BILL v3 API Data Source

The BILL v3 API connector enables you to ingest accounts payable, accounts receivable, and financial transaction data from your BILL organization into Nexla. Follow the instructions below to create a new data flow that ingests data from a BILL v3 API source in Nexla.
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BILL v3 API

Create a New Data Flow​

  1. To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Then, select the desired flow type from the list, and click the Create button.

  2. Select the BILL v3 API connector tile from the list of available connectors. Then, select the credential that will be used to connect to the BILL v3 API instance, and click Next; or, create a new BILL v3 API credential for use in this flow.

  3. In Nexla, BILL v3 API data sources can be created using pre-built endpoint templates, which expedite source setup for common BILL v3 API endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding BILL v3 API endpoint, making source configuration easy and efficient.
    • To configure this source using a template, follow the instructions in Configure Using a Template.

    BILL v3 API sources can also be configured manually, allowing you to ingest data from BILL v3 API endpoints not included in the pre-built templates or apply further customizations to exactly suit your needs.
    • To configure this source manually, follow the instructions in Configure Manually.

Configure Using a Template​

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common BILL v3 API endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding BILL v3 API endpoint, making data source setup easy and efficient.

Endpoint Settings​

  • Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below. Click on an endpoint to see more information about it and how to configure your data source for this endpoint.

    List Login Organizations

    This endpoint retrieves the list of BILL organizations associated with the signed-in user. Use this endpoint to discover the organization IDs available to your BILL account before configuring other endpoints.

    • This endpoint does not require any additional parameters. Nexla will automatically call GET /v3/login/organizations using the credential's developer key.
    • The response contains an organizations array; each element is emitted as an individual record into the resulting Nexset.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL List Organizations reference.

    List Bills

    This endpoint retrieves a paginated list of all bills (AP) in your BILL organization. Use it for accounts payable reporting, syncing bills to an external system, or building aging analyses.

    • No additional parameters are required. Nexla calls GET /v3/bills?limit=100 and automatically follows the nextCursor token to retrieve all pages.
    • Each element of the bills array in the response becomes a record in the Nexset.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL List Bills reference.

    Get Bill

    This endpoint retrieves detailed information about a single bill. Use it when you need full bill detail (line items, approvers, status, payment history) for a specific bill ID.

    • Enter the unique identifier of the bill in the Bill ID field. Bill IDs can be discovered using the List Bills endpoint.
    • Nexla calls {'GET /v3/bills/{bill_id}'} and emits the object at $.bill as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL Get Bill reference.

    List Payments

    This endpoint retrieves a paginated list of all AP payments in your BILL organization. Use it to sync outbound payment activity to ERP, accounting, or cash-management systems.

    • No additional parameters are required. Nexla calls GET /v3/payments?limit=100 and automatically follows the nextCursor token.
    • Each element of the payments array is emitted as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL List Payments reference.

    Get Payment

    This endpoint retrieves detailed information about a specific AP payment, including the bills covered by the payment, payment method, and processing status.

    • Enter the unique identifier of the payment in the Payment ID field. Payment IDs can be discovered using the List Payments endpoint.
    • Nexla calls {'GET /v3/payments/{payment_id}'} and emits the object at $.payment as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL Get Payment reference.

    List Vendors

    This endpoint retrieves a paginated list of all vendors in your BILL organization. Use it to synchronize vendor master data with ERP, CRM, or procurement systems.

    • No additional parameters are required. Nexla calls GET /v3/vendors?limit=100 and automatically follows the nextCursor token.
    • Each element of the vendors array is emitted as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL List Vendors reference.

    Get Vendor

    This endpoint retrieves detailed information about a single vendor, including remittance details, tax information, and contact data.

    • Enter the unique identifier of the vendor in the Vendor ID field. Vendor IDs can be discovered using the List Vendors endpoint.
    • Nexla calls {'GET /v3/vendors/{vendor_id}'} and emits the object at $.vendor as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL Get Vendor reference.

    List Customers

    This endpoint retrieves a paginated list of all AR customers in your BILL organization. Use it to maintain a customer master list in downstream finance and CRM systems.

    • No additional parameters are required. Nexla calls GET /v3/customers?limit=100 and automatically follows the nextCursor token.
    • Each element of the customers array is emitted as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL List Customers reference.

    Get Customer

    This endpoint retrieves detailed information about a specific AR customer, including billing addresses, contacts, and account status.

    • Enter the unique identifier of the customer in the Customer ID field. Customer IDs can be discovered using the List Customers endpoint.
    • Nexla calls {'GET /v3/customers/{customer_id}'} and emits the object at $.customer as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL Get Customer reference.

    List Invoices

    This endpoint retrieves a paginated list of all AR invoices issued by your BILL organization. Use it for AR reporting, revenue recognition, or DSO (days sales outstanding) analysis.

    • No additional parameters are required. Nexla calls GET /v3/invoices?limit=100 and automatically follows the nextCursor token.
    • Each element of the invoices array is emitted as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL List Invoices reference.

    Get Invoice

    This endpoint retrieves detailed information about a single AR invoice, including line items, customer details, and current payment status.

    • Enter the unique identifier of the invoice in the Invoice ID field. Invoice IDs can be discovered using the List Invoices endpoint.
    • Nexla calls {'GET /v3/invoices/{invoice_id}'} and emits the object at $.invoice as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL Get Invoice reference.

    List Vendor Credits

    This endpoint retrieves a paginated list of all vendor credits in your BILL organization. Vendor credits represent amounts owed back to your organization by a vendor and can offset future bills.

    • No additional parameters are required. Nexla calls GET /v3/vendor-credits?limit=100 and automatically follows the nextCursor token.
    • Each element of the vendorCredits array is emitted as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL List Vendor Credits reference.

    List Transactions

    This endpoint retrieves a paginated list of all financial transactions in your BILL organization. Use it for a consolidated view of AP, AR, and payment activity for reconciliation or analytics.

    • No additional parameters are required. Nexla calls GET /v3/transactions?limit=100 and automatically follows the nextCursor token.
    • Each element of the transactions array is emitted as a record.

    For complete details, refer to the BILL List Transactions reference.

Endpoint Testing​

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current settings. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

  • To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.

  • If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.

Configure Manually​

BILL v3 API data sources can be manually configured to ingest data from any valid BILL v3 API endpoint. Manual configuration provides maximum flexibility for accessing endpoints not covered by pre-built templates or when you need custom API configurations.

With manual configuration, you can also create more complex BILL v3 API sources, such as sources that use chained API calls to fetch data from multiple endpoints or sources that require custom request parameters such as filters or sort criteria.

API Method​

  1. To manually configure this source, select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen.

  2. Select the API method that will be used for calls to the BILL v3 API from the Method pulldown menu. BILL v3 API list and get endpoints use:

    • GET: For retrieving bills, payments, vendors, customers, invoices, vendor credits, and transactions.

API Endpoint URL​

  1. Enter the URL of the BILL v3 API endpoint from which this source will fetch data in the Set API URL field. This should be the complete URL including the protocol (https://) and any required path parameters. For example, https://api.bill.com/v3/bills?limit=100 for production or https://gateway.stage.bill.com/connect/v3/bills?limit=100 for sandbox.

Ensure the API endpoint URL is correct and accessible with your current credentials. You can test the endpoint using the Test button after configuring the URL.

Date/Time Macros (API URL)​

Optional

Optionally, the API URL can be customized using macros—all macros added to the API URL will be converted into values when Nexla executes the API call. Macros are dynamic placeholders that allow you to create flexible API endpoints that can adapt to different time periods or data requirements. They are particularly useful with BILL filter parameters such as createdTime or updatedTime for incremental syncs.

Macros are particularly useful for BILL endpoints that accept date filters or pagination parameters that change between data ingestion runs.

  1. To add a macro, type { at the appropriate position in the API URL (within the Set API URL field), and select the desired macro from the dropdown list.

    • {now} – The current datetime

    • {now-1} – The datetime one time unit before the current datetime

    • {now+1} – The datetime one time unit after the current datetime

    • custom – Datetime macros can reference any number of time units before or after the current datetime—for example, enter (now-4) to indicate the datetime four time units before the current datetime

  2. Select the format that will be applied to datetime macros from the Date Format for Date/Time Macro pulldown menu. This format will be applied to the base datetime value of the macro—i.e., the value of {now} in {now-1}.

  3. Select the datetime unit that will be used to perform mathematical operations in the included macro(s) from the Time Unit for Operations pulldown menu—for example, for the macro {now-1}, when Day is selected, {now-1} will be converted to the datetime one day before the current datetime.

Lookup-Based Macros (API URL)​

Optional

Column values from existing lookups can also be included as macros in the API URL. Lookup-based macros allow you to reference data from previously configured data sources or lookups, enabling dynamic API endpoints that can adapt based on existing data. For BILL, this is useful for iterating over a list of vendor or bill IDs from another data source.

Lookup-based macros are useful when you need to create API endpoints that reference specific bill, vendor, customer, or invoice IDs from other data sources in your Nexla environment.

  1. To include a lookup column value macro, select the relevant lookup from the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.

  2. Type { at the appropriate position in the API URL, and select the lookup column-based macro from the dropdown list. Lookup-based macros are automatically populated into the macro list when a lookup is selected in the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.

Path to Data​

Optional

If only a subset of the data returned by the BILL v3 API endpoint is needed, you can designate the part(s) of the response that should be included in the Nexset(s) produced from this source by specifying the path to the relevant data within the response. BILL list endpoints return an array under a typed key (e.g., bills, payments, vendors), and BILL get endpoints return a single object under a typed key (e.g., bill, payment, vendor).

Path to Data is essential when API responses have nested structures. For BILL list endpoints, use a path such as $.bills[*], $.payments[*], or $.invoices[*]. For get endpoints, use $.bill, $.payment, or $.invoice.

  • To specify which data should be treated as relevant in responses from this source, enter the path to the relevant data in the Set Path to Data in Response field.

    • For responses in JSON format enter the JSON path that points to the object or array that should be treated as relevant data. JSON paths use dot notation (e.g., $.bills[*] to access the array of bills returned by the List Bills endpoint).
    Path to Data Example:

    To ingest each bill returned by GET /v3/bills as a separate record, set the path to $.bills[*].

Autogenerate Path Suggestions​

Nexla can also autogenerate data path suggestions based on the response from the API endpoint. These suggested paths can be used as-is or modified to exactly suit your needs.

  • To use this feature, click the Test button next to the Set API URL field to fetch a sample response from the API endpoint. Suggested data paths generated based on the content & format of the response will be displayed in the Suggestions box below the Set Path to Data in Response field.

  • Click on a suggestion to automatically populate the Set Path to Data in Response field with the corresponding path. The populated path can be modified directly within the field if further customization is needed.

    PathSuggestions.png

Pagination​

BILL v3 API list endpoints use cursor-based pagination. Each response includes a nextCursor field that should be sent as the cursor query parameter on subsequent requests until BILL returns an empty cursor. The pre-built endpoint templates handle this automatically; for manual configuration, configure pagination on the Advanced tab using the cursor parameter cursor and the response token path $.nextCursor.

BILL list endpoints accept a limit query parameter up to 100. Larger limits will be rejected.

Metadata​

If metadata is included in the response but is located outside of the defined path to relevant data, you can configure Nexla to include this data as common metadata in each record. For BILL, this is useful when you want to preserve top-level response fields such as nextCursor or request timestamps alongside each record.

Metadata paths are particularly useful for preserving BILL response context like the pagination cursor or summary statistics that apply to all records in the response.

  • To specify the location of metadata that should be included with each record, enter the path to the relevant metadata in the Path to Metadata in Response field.

    • For responses in JSON format, enter the JSON path to the object or array that contains the metadata.

Request Headers​

Optional

  • If Nexla should include any additional request headers in API calls to this source, enter the headers & corresponding values as comma-separated pairs in the Request Headers field (e.g., header1:value1,header2:value2). Additional headers may be required for specific BILL endpoints or for content negotiation.

    You do not need to include the devKey or sessionId headers—both are added automatically by Nexla based on your BILL v3 API credential.

Endpoint Testing​

After configuring all settings for the selected endpoint, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current configuration. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

  • To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.

  • If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.

Save & Activate the Source​

  1. Once all of the relevant steps in the above sections have been completed, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new BILL v3 API data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.