Accounting and bookkeeping solutions provider Digits announced the release of Digits API, an application programming interface that allows computers to connect directly with the company’s Autonomous General Ledger system without needing custom integrations.
“Since Digits is AI-native, we were able to rethink the integration playbook entirely,” said Jeff Seibert, founder and CEO of Digits, in a statement. “For the first time, we’re opening the foundations of the AGL to everyone. This means faster and smarter AI-powered integrations and better access to our ledger from developers and accounting partners. This is the future of open, programmable accounting, something our customers are very excited about.”
An API is a type of software that lets computer programs communicate with each other, enabling direct passage of data. Any software integration depends on API access to function.
Traditionally, integrations need to be built customized for the solution being integrated. Developers generally need to synchronize the chart of accounts and all vendors, build mapping UIs and have users manually map their own data, then apply heuristics and hope that it works and does not create duplicate data. The Digits Connect API, on the other hand, allows users to bypass those steps and simply send raw transaction data to the AGL for processing. Once it receives the data, the AGL will automatically research the vendor, enrich their profile, and post a fully categorized entry to the ledger. This is because the API is designed to understand not just raw data but the context behind it.
By using the Digits Connect API to access the AGL, people can automate categorization, vendor matching and reconciliation using AI-driven logic built directly into the platform. The API also opens the door to what Digits said was “programmable accounting,” such as adding intelligent ledger functionality to a product.
Digits also now supports dimensional accounting across departments, locations and projects, so businesses can classify and analyze their financial data from every angle. This means users can classify and analyze payroll, expenses or revenue by different parts of the business—without exporting to spreadsheets or managing manual tags.
The Digits Connect API is free—with no partner fees, usage paywalls or marketplace lock-ins. Seibert said in an email that while the API does have rate limits to prevent abuse, it is not tied to monetization requirements and “we will happily raise them for legitimate use cases.”
“On principle, as the founder and CEO, I believe deeply in the open web and have promoted open data exchange my entire career,” said Seibert. “I believe APIs fundamentally accrue value to the host platforms, and the cost of operating the API pales in comparison to the value Digits receives as the central system of record for our customers. In all honesty, it is not that expensive to operate a modern web API, and companies that claim otherwise are likely suffering from legacy technical architecture mistakes. Digits has been designed from day one as a high-volume ledger that will scale with our customers’ requirements, and to me, that fundamentally includes their right to API access to their data.”
