FreshBooks API for staff time tracking is here, and more!

by Taavi on May 15, 2008

We’re happy to announce that we’ve extended the FreshBooks API to allow staff access to time tracking functions! Yes, that includes our OSX Widget, and other time tracker add-ons. 

Notable features

• Each staff member receives a unique API token, just like the admin user. This identifies the staff member for any actions he or she takes via the API.
• We speak the same great API for both staff and the admin account! This means that time trackers that work with the admin account should continue to work seamlessly for your staff members.
• We respect the access restrictions you’ve set. Your staff members will be able to view and edit the same information (no more, and no less) through the API as they would be able through the application itself.
• This change shouldn’t affect any API applications you already had running. If it does, let us know!

How to find your staff token

First of all, the admin user has to enable the FreshBooks API. Then any staff member can browse over to his or her Profile page (link at the top, beside Help and Logout). The token and access URL will be displayed at the bottom of the page. The admin user can also find any staff member’s token, by Editing the staff member in question.

Caveats

Of course, there are always caveats. In order to release this feature as soon as possible for your use-while maintaining the same security you expect from FreshBooks-we’ve only implemented the client, project, task, and time_entry API methods. Staff members trying to access unimplemented features will receive an API error response.

And more!

We’ve made a few other updates to the API:

• client.get now returns the client’s current credit balance
• project.list and task.list now only return active, non-archived items, just like you expect when tracking time in your browser.

We’ll be updating the API docs today to reflect these changes. So go forth and track time, and let us know what you think. Enjoy!