Boomi Providing Easy Access to Accurate and Reliable OANDA FX Data for Major ERPs

By Boomi

Companies doing business internationally, regardless of their size, have a business need for foreign exchange (FX) data. Reliable and timely currency information is key to maintaining accurate financial and accounting processes and pricing strategies. This is easier said than done.

The OTC (over-the-counter) nature of the FX market makes it opaque, decentralized and fast-moving, with trillions of dollars’ worth of transactions happening on a daily basis. This causes inconsistency in pricing and creates an environment that makes it difficult for corporations to access accurate FX data.

This problem has been addressed by the collaboration between OANDA and Boomi to enable finance, accounting, product and development teams to easily integrate accurate foreign exchange data from a trusted provider into their various software systems (ERP, CRM, accounting, EPM, procurement and more).

Warning: Bad Data Ahead

Inaccurate currency data can hurt organizations in various ways. Data management products that are not consistently dependable or that do not update frequently can undermine operations and harm a company’s bottom line.

Also, untrusted sources, such as unproven data providers or rates aggregators, can also raise questions with tax or accounting auditors and ultimately result in penalties if the data proves to be inaccurate. When used for price localization, inaccurate currency data might have a negative impact on customers and their relationship with the brand.

If this wasn’t enough to justify implementing FX data best practices, consider that way too many companies today still rely on manual processes to input FX data into their systems. Spreadsheets, emails, instant messages and information flow through organizations in various non-efficient ways, which expose companies to the risk of manual errors regardless of the reliability of the data source.

Constructing Accurate Rates

Now available on the Boomi integration platform, the OANDA API offers the gold standard in exchange rates. As a Forex market maker, OANDA has access to real-time FX data from all major participants in the interbank market. OANDA trades billions of dollars per day directly with these entities and, in so doing, has a complete view of the tradeable data-sets on a real-time basis for the global FX market.

The key difference between rates aggregators and market makers is that rates aggregators do not construct their own accurate price but rather an indicative one, which may not accurately reflect the FX market. This can create inaccurate prices or “spikes” that wreak havoc if passed through to the end user. Market makers like OANDA actually create FX data based on real exchanges to ensure the most accurate data possible.

OANDA Exchange Rates API

The OANDA Exchange Rates API offers an extensive data set with exchange rates for 200+ currencies, precious metals, and 38,000+ currency pairs available. Customers can now access daily average rates on the Boomi platform.

Daily average rates are most commonly used by accounting and tax professionals for financial reporting, various accounting and audit needs, and reconciling a company’s financial reports. Average rates are available in weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly and custom timeframes.

The API also offers daily averages for 540 currency pairs from 25 different central banks across the globe, such as Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank of Canada, Banco de Mexico and more.

OANDA’s API on the Boomi Integration Platform

OANDA is the first foreign exchange rates provider with a connector on the Boomi integration platform. The recently released connector allows companies to query OANDA’s daily exchange rate data into their ERP (MSFT Dynamics AX/GP, SAP, Workday, Oracle E-business Suite, QAD, etc), CRM (Salesforce), procurement (Coupa), or EPM system (Anaplan).

Through this integration, companies can build sophisticated workflows and increase automation in their systems. The OANDA connector supports the query action to retrieve exchange rate data through the OANDA Exchange Rates API and simplifies the implementation for users by handling details of the connection request headers, error handling and more.

The connector is very easy to sign up for and implement. Companies already using the Boomi integration platform can start using the connector in just a few minutes, rather than taking weeks to months to integrate on their own. Learn more about how to set up the OANDA connector in the Boomi Community.