Byte8 FreeAgent Accounting

Magento 2 connector for FreeAgent. Syncs invoices, credit notes, customers, and payments from Magento into FreeAgent in near real time, with full sync-status visibility from the Magento admin.

This module is the per-provider thin client. The heavy lifting (OAuth token custody, FreeAgent API calls, retry, audit) lives in the Byte8 Ledger SaaS — see Architecture below.

Features

• One-click Connect — pairing-code flow (no OAuth callback wrangling). Generate a code in Magento admin, paste into ledger.byte8.io, done.
• Outbound sync observers — invoice.created / invoice.paid / creditmemo.created / customer.upserted events fire on every save and queue durably (no inline HTTP — checkout stays snappy).
• FreeAgent Status chips in the admin — sortable + filterable column on Sales → Invoices and Sales → Credit Memos grids; "FreeAgent Accounting" info block on every invoice / credit-memo detail page. Operators see what synced without leaving Magento.
• Per-binding policy — default income category, default payment_terms_in_days, Magento product type → FreeAgent item_type map, initial invoice status (Draft / Sent), payment-method map, invoice-number prefix, sync filters. All configured from the ledger dashboard, not Magento admin.
• Coexists with the Sage connector — both modules ship side-by-side Sage Status and FreeAgent Status columns; JOIN aliases are namespaced so the data lanes don't collide.
• Idempotent everything — every event carries a stable idempotency key (invoice.created:{entity_id} etc); ledger dedupes via the shared entity_xref table. Observer re-fires, duplicate saves, replay all safe.
• Operator-visible failures — failed deliveries surface as a banner on the admin config page (not a silent 24h drop).

Connect flow

1. Stores → Configuration → Byte8 → FreeAgent → click Generate pairing code (30-min TTL).
2. Click Open Byte8 Ledger to land on ledger.byte8.io, sign in, paste the code + your Magento URL.
3. Ledger calls back into Magento (POST /V1/byte8/freeagent_accounting/setup/pair) with the api_key. The connection status block flips to "Connected" — you're done.
4. Authorise FreeAgent OAuth from the ledger dashboard (one click, redirects to FreeAgent.com and back).

After connecting, Sales-side observers fire automatically; no per-merchant configuration required for the happy path. Per-tenant sync policy (default income category, payment terms, etc.) is configured from the ledger dashboard, not Magento admin.

What syncs

What's intentionally NOT synced today: catalog product upsert (FreeAgent's product model is too lightweight for the v1 buyer profile), stock-quantity sync (same reason), inbound polling (FreeAgent → Magento writeback is Enterprise-on-request scope).

Sync visibility in Magento admin

• Sales → Invoices grid — "FreeAgent Status" column with chips: ✓ Synced / ⏳ Pending / ⏸ Skipped / ✗ Failed / —. Sortable + filterable. Hover for FreeAgent URL, skip-reason, or error-code.
• Sales → Credit Memos grid — same column.
• Invoice / Credit Memo detail pages — "FreeAgent Accounting" info block beside "Order Information" with status, FreeAgent URL, last sync timestamp, skip/error context.

Pending chips appear immediately when an observer fires (write-through to byte8_entity_sync_state at enqueue time); terminal status (synced / skipped / failed) lands within 60s once the ledger worker picks up the event.

For full per-event audit trail (with retry, error message, payload diff), use the ledger dashboard at ledger.byte8.io.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────┐     ┌────────────────────┐
│  Magento 2          │◄───►│   Byte8 Ledger       │◄───►│   FreeAgent v2     │
│  (this module +     │ JWT │   (SaaS chassis)     │OAuth│   API              │
│   byte8/module-     │     │                      │     │                    │
│   client)           │     │   apps/ledger        │     │                    │
└─────────────────────┘     └──────────────────────┘     └────────────────────┘

This module is thin by design. It owns:

• Magento-side observers (queue events on save)
• Pairing-code flow + admin config blocks
• Inbound REST endpoint at /V1/byte8/freeagent_accounting/setup/pair (the only provider-namespaced route — canonical entity getters + sync-state callback live in byte8/module-client)
• The "FreeAgent Status" admin grid columns + detail blocks reading from byte8_entity_sync_state

It does NOT own OAuth token custody, FreeAgent API calls, retry logic, dead-letter queues, or per-tenant rate limiting — those all live in the Byte8 Ledger SaaS. This split means the module can stay tiny (no PHP-side OAuth dependencies, no vendor/ bloat) and a single ledger instance services every connected merchant.

Requirements

• PHP 8.1+ (8.4 supported)
• Magento Open Source / Adobe Commerce 2.4.4+
• MySQL 8.0+ / MariaDB 10.6+
• A Byte8 Ledger account (pairing code issued from ledger.byte8.io)
• Outbound HTTPS to ledger.byte8.io (port 443). Provider-side network access (api.freeagent.com) happens from the ledger SaaS — Magento never talks to FreeAgent directly.

Installation

composer require byte8/magento-freeagent-accounting
bin/magento module:enable Byte8_Core Byte8_Client Byte8_FreeAgentAccounting
bin/magento setup:upgrade
bin/magento cache:flush

The byte8/magento-freeagent-accounting metapackage pulls in byte8/module-core + byte8/module-client + this module.

Console commands

bin/magento byte8:client:outbox:inspect
bin/magento byte8:client:outbox:requeue <entity_id>
bin/magento byte8:client:outbox:cleanup [--days=30]

Outbox triage commands (live in byte8/module-client and apply to every Byte8 provider, FreeAgent included). See module-client/SECURITY.md for the full operator runbook.

Configuration

Stores → Configuration → Byte8 → FreeAgent:

• Connection status — paired / not paired, dead-letter banner on failed deliveries.
• Pairing code — generate / regenerate. 30-min TTL.
• Open Byte8 Ledger — quick redirect to the dashboard.
• Disconnect — revokes the binding both sides.

All sync policy (default income category, payment terms, product item-type map, invoice status default, payment method map, sync filters, …) is configured from the ledger dashboard, not Magento admin. See byte8.io docs for the full list.

License

MIT

Support

Byte8 Ltd — support@byte8.io