TutorialMay 22, 20267 min read

Sync Dolibarr with Pennylane painlessly

Your accountant is on Pennylane, your operations on Dolibarr? Here is how to connect both and never re-enter an invoice again.

Typical setup: Dolibarr for ops, Pennylane for accounting

Many French SMBs have this setup today: Dolibarr for commercial management (quotes, invoices, clients, stock) and Pennylane for accounting with their accountant. The bridge between both is often manual, via monthly or quarterly CSV exports. It wastes time, and entry errors on the Pennylane side cause discrepancies you must reconcile at review time. Automatic sync removes these frictions and gives your accountancy firm an always-up-to-date view of your activity.

Common setup: Dolibarr ops + Pennylane accounting + firm
Monthly CSV bridge = time loss and errors
Dolibarr/Pennylane gaps to fix at review
Accountancy firm never real-time without sync
Solution: automatic API-based sync

What syncs and which direction

DolicraftPennylane manages three main flows. First flow: sales invoices Dolibarr → Pennylane, with lines, client, payment method and due date. Second flow: supplier invoices Dolibarr → Pennylane (useful if you record expenses in Dolibarr). Third flow: payment entries Pennylane → Dolibarr, which lets you close invoices in Dolibarr when payment is fed back from the bank by Pennylane. This bidirectional loop avoids double entry and keeps both systems aligned.

Sales invoices Dolibarr → Pennylane
Supplier invoices Dolibarr → Pennylane
Cash receipts Pennylane → Dolibarr
Contact and third-party sync
Configurable accounting account mapping

Setup in 4 steps

Setup fits in four simple steps. First, generate a Pennylane API token from your account admin. Then install DolicraftPennylane in Dolibarr and paste the token. Third step: configure the accounting account mapping (e.g. your sales invoices go to account 706, purchases to 607). Final step: choose sync frequency (real-time, daily, weekly) and enable the cron. Allow 30 minutes of configuration for a standard SMB.

Generate Pennylane API token in admin
Install and configure the Dolibarr module
Map accounting accounts and journals
Choose frequency (real-time, daily, weekly)
30 minutes of setup for a standard SMB

Mapping errors and reconciliation strategy

In the first weeks some syncs will fail — that's normal. The main cause: a Dolibarr accounting account not mapped to its Pennylane equivalent. The module surfaces an error log with the exact list of stuck invoices and reason. You fix the mapping, retry, and sync resumes. Golden rule: never manually edit on Pennylane entries that Dolibarr will re-push, otherwise you create duplicates. Always fix the root cause in Dolibarr.

First weeks: mapping errors are normal
Detailed error log for targeted fixes
Always fix on Dolibarr side, never on Pennylane
Manual retry after fix
Typical stabilisation in 2 to 4 weeks

What you and your accountant see

Once sync is stable, your accountancy firm sees all your entries real-time on Pennylane. No more month-end export requests. On your side, in Dolibarr, you keep your usual management UI for billing, client tracking and operations. Payments fed back automatically from Pennylane close your Dolibarr invoices, removing manual matching work. It's one of those automation investments that pays back in under a month — a typical SMB saves 4 to 6 hours per month.