# How to add WhatsApp to Epicor Kinetic > Source: https://netray.co/integrations/epicor-kinetic-whatsapp > Publisher: Netray (netray.co), AI and integration engineering for ERP and manufacturing systems. > Section: Integrations ## Short answer Connect the WhatsApp Business Platform to Epicor Kinetic with a small middleware service. Kinetic Business Process Methods or Data Directives raise events, the middleware sends approved template messages, and inbound replies call the Kinetic REST API to update the order, shipment or PO. Replies that change data should pass a human check first. ## System Epicor Kinetic ## Capability whatsapp ## Intro Most Kinetic customers already live in email for customer service and supplier chasing. Buyers in many regions, however, answer WhatsApp within minutes and ignore email for days. A distributor or job shop that can push an order acknowledgement, a ship notice or a PO change request to a WhatsApp thread usually closes loops faster than any portal. Kinetic does not ship a WhatsApp connector as a core feature. The practical route is the WhatsApp Business Platform (the Cloud API, or a Business Solution Provider that wraps it) combined with Kinetic's REST API and its event hooks. Whether you run Kinetic in Epicor's cloud, in a private cloud or on-prem changes where the middleware sits, not how the pattern works. The hard part is not sending a message. It is mapping a WhatsApp phone number to a customer contact or supplier contact in Kinetic, honoring opt-in rules, and making sure a casual reply such as 'ok' cannot silently change a firm PO date. ## Use Cases ### Order acknowledgement and ship notices **Description:** When a sales order releases or a shipment is marked shipped, send a template message with the order number, carrier and tracking reference to the contact on the ship-to. ### Supplier PO confirmation **Description:** Send released PO lines to supplier contacts and let them reply with a confirm or a new date. The reply becomes a proposed change on the PO release, not an automatic edit. ### Quote follow-up **Description:** Nudge a customer on an open quote near its expiry date and capture a yes or a revision request as a note against the quote. ### Internal approvals **Description:** Ping a plant manager when a PO or requisition exceeds a threshold and take an approve or reject button reply. ### Past-due AR reminders **Description:** Send a polite invoice reminder with the invoice number and balance, drawn from AR data, only to contacts who opted in. ### Field service updates **Description:** For service jobs, tell a customer the technician is on the way and collect a photo or a signature confirmation to attach to the job. ## System Surface Kinetic REST API: v1 service endpoints per business object (for example Erp.BO.SalesOrderSvc, Erp.BO.POSvc) and the newer v2 OData-style endpoints. Exact paths and authentication options depend on your version. Business Process Methods (BPM) and Data Directives: pre-, post- and base-processing hooks that can call an Epicor Function or an outbound web request when an order, shipment or PO changes. Epicor Functions: server-side custom logic exposed as REST endpoints, useful for a clean 'send notification' and 'receive reply' contract. Business Activity Queries (BAQ) exposed over REST: a controlled, read-only way to fetch the contact, order and shipment fields a message needs without touching tables. Customer, ShipTo and Vendor contact tables (for example CustCnt and VendCnt in many versions) for storing a WhatsApp number and an opt-in flag, ideally in user-defined fields. ## How It Works ### Register the WhatsApp number **Detail:** Set up a Meta business account and a WhatsApp Business Platform number, either directly on the Cloud API or through a BSP. Plan for a number that is not already in use on the consumer app. ### Store phone and consent in Kinetic **Detail:** Add user-defined fields for WhatsApp number and opt-in date on customer and vendor contacts. Capture opt-in at a documented touchpoint, such as the quote form or the portal. ### Raise events from Kinetic **Detail:** Add a post-processing BPM or Data Directive on the events you care about that calls an Epicor Function, which posts a compact event (type, key, contact id) to your middleware. ### Build the middleware **Detail:** A small service validates the event, reads the context through a BAQ or REST call, picks an approved template, fills variables and calls the WhatsApp send endpoint. ### Handle inbound webhooks **Detail:** Meta posts replies to a webhook. Verify the signature, match the sender number to a contact, classify the reply (button, text, media) and store it with the message id. ### Write back safely **Detail:** Low-risk results such as a delivery acknowledgement can be written as a note or a user field. Date or quantity changes become a proposal in a review queue before the REST update runs. ### Monitor and log **Detail:** Log every send, delivery status and reply against the Kinetic key so support can see the full thread from the order screen. ## Example Flows ### Shipment notice with delivery confirmation **Trigger:** A shipment is marked shipped in Kinetic and the ship-to contact has opted in. **Steps:** - The post-processing directive sends the pack number and ship-to key to the middleware. - The middleware reads carrier, tracking and line summary through a BAQ. - It sends a shipment template with a tracking link and a 'Received' quick-reply button. - On button press the webhook stores the timestamp and posts a note on the shipment. **Result:** Customer service sees a confirmed receipt on the order without an email chase. ### Supplier confirms a changed PO date **Trigger:** A buyer revises a PO release date in Kinetic. **Steps:** - The directive emits a PO change event with the PO number and release. - The middleware sends the supplier contact a template listing the new date with Confirm and Cannot meet buttons. - A Cannot meet reply opens a free-text follow-up for the proposed date. - The reply lands in a buyer review queue; on approval the PO release is updated by REST. **Result:** Buyers get structured supplier answers in hours, and the PO is only changed by a human decision. ## On Prem If Kinetic is on-prem, the middleware can sit in the same network segment and call Kinetic internally, while only the webhook endpoint is exposed to the internet through a reverse proxy with IP allow-listing for Meta. Message content leaves your network by design, since WhatsApp is a cloud service, so keep templates free of pricing, drawings or export-controlled details and send references that the recipient resolves in a portal. No AI is needed for this pattern; if you later add AI to classify free-text replies, run an open-weight model locally so reply text does not go to a third-party model. ## Security - Treat WhatsApp as an external channel: send identifiers and status, not margins, costs or controlled technical data. - Use a dedicated Kinetic integration user with least-privilege access to the specific services the middleware calls. - Verify webhook signatures and reject replies from numbers not mapped to a known contact. - Keep opt-in evidence and honor opt-outs immediately; Meta enforces quality ratings on this. - Store tokens and API keys in a secrets vault, not in BPM code or user fields. ## Options ### Off-the-shelf BSP workflow tool with an HTTP connector **Fit:** Low volume, simple notices, where Kinetic events can be posted by a directive or polled via BAQ. **Effort:** Days to a couple of weeks; template approval adds calendar time. ### Build in-house middleware **Fit:** IT team comfortable with REST, webhooks and Epicor Functions, wanting full control of data and write-back rules. **Effort:** Several weeks including testing and consent handling. ### Partner such as Netray with an Epicor consultancy **Fit:** Two-way flows with review queues and optional private AI to interpret replies. **Effort:** Typically a few weeks for a scoped first flow, depending on volume and approvals. ## Pitfalls - Free-form messages are only allowed inside the 24-hour customer service window; outside it you need an approved template. - Phone numbers in contact records are often unformatted. Normalize to E.164 before matching. - A shared company number across several Kinetic companies or sites needs a clear routing key, or replies land on the wrong order. - Do not let a text reply directly update dates or quantities; ambiguous text will eventually corrupt a schedule. - Heavy BPM logic inside a directive slows transactions. Post a small event and do the work outside Kinetic. ## Faq ### Does Epicor Kinetic have a native WhatsApp integration? **Answer:** Not as a standard core feature that I would rely on. The usual approach is the WhatsApp Business Platform plus middleware that listens to Kinetic events and calls its REST API. Check your version and any marketplace add-ons your Epicor partner offers, since availability changes. ### Can I use the normal WhatsApp app for this? **Answer:** No. Automated business messaging must go through the WhatsApp Business Platform, either the Cloud API or a Business Solution Provider. The consumer and the small-business app are not designed for system-triggered traffic and risk number bans. ### Where should the integration run for on-prem Kinetic? **Answer:** Run the middleware inside your network next to the Kinetic application server, calling the REST API locally. Expose only the webhook receiver through a hardened reverse proxy. Outbound traffic to Meta is then the only external dependency. ### How do replies get back into Kinetic? **Answer:** The webhook stores the reply and maps the sender to a contact. Safe results become notes or user-defined fields. Anything that changes a date, quantity or price is queued for a person to approve before a REST update is made. ### Do we need AI for WhatsApp with Kinetic? **Answer:** No. Notices and button replies need no AI. AI becomes useful when suppliers answer in free text in several languages and you want it classified and drafted into a proposed change, ideally with a model running on your own hardware. ## Search terms epicor kinetic whatsapp integration, whatsapp for epicor kinetic, epicor kinetic whatsapp api, epicor whatsapp order notifications, send whatsapp from epicor, epicor kinetic bpm webhook, whatsapp business api erp manufacturing, epicor supplier confirmation whatsapp, epicor kinetic customer notifications --- Talk to an engineer: https://netray.co/contact?intent=erp_ai | Machine catalog: https://netray.co/agent/catalog.json