# How to add WhatsApp to Epicor Prophet 21 > Source: https://netray.co/integrations/epicor-prophet-21-whatsapp > Publisher: Netray (netray.co), AI and integration engineering for ERP and manufacturing systems. > Section: Integrations ## Short answer Prophet 21 has no native WhatsApp channel, so you connect the WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API or a BSP) to a small middleware service that reads P21 through its middleware APIs or a read-only SQL Server view and posts replies back through the Transaction or Interactive API. Start with outbound notifications using approved templates, then add inbound replies once opt-in and routing rules are clear. ## System Epicor Prophet 21 ## Capability whatsapp ## Intro Distributors on Prophet 21 live on the phone and in text threads. Counter staff, outside sales and truck drivers already use WhatsApp with customers and suppliers, but the order, the quote and the pick ticket live in P21. The result is people retyping order numbers into chats and pasting tracking numbers from the carrier site. The goal is not a chatbot that replaces your inside sales team. It is a thin, auditable bridge: P21 events become templated WhatsApp messages, and a customer or supplier reply becomes a note, a confirmation or a drafted transaction that a person reviews. Because P21 is frequently installed on-premises against SQL Server, the design has to work without opening the database to the internet. This page covers the P21 side (where the data and events come from), the WhatsApp side (templates, opt-in, the 24 hour window), and the glue in between, with honest options for buying, building or using a partner. ## Use Cases ### Order and backorder status **Description:** A customer messages an order number or PO reference and gets the current status, ship date and any backordered lines, read from the sales order header and lines. ### Shipment and delivery alerts **Description:** When a shipment is confirmed or an invoice is created, send a template with carrier and tracking details so the customer stops calling the counter. ### Quote follow-up and approval **Description:** Send a quote summary and let the buyer reply with an approve or change request that lands as a note on the quote for the salesperson to convert. ### Supplier PO confirmations **Description:** Ping a vendor contact about an open purchase order due date and capture the confirmed date they reply with, staged for the buyer to accept. ### Will-call and pickup ready **Description:** Notify a contractor the moment a will-call order is staged, with a pickup window and the order number to quote at the counter. ### Past due and payment reminders **Description:** Send a polite reminder for open invoices with the invoice number and balance, with a reply path to the credit department. ## System Surface P21 middleware web services (REST with OData style data services plus transaction and interactive endpoints, depending on version). These are the supported way to read and create sales orders, quotes and notes without touching tables directly. SQL Server database for read-only reporting access: sales order header and line tables (commonly oe_hdr and oe_line), item master and location tables (inv_mast, inv_loc), customer and contact tables, and invoice tables. Table and column names vary by version, so confirm against your data dictionary. Built-in alerts and business rules (Dynachange style rules) that can fire on save of an order or shipment and call out to a service or write to a queue table. Crystal or other scheduled report output on a file share, a pragmatic export route when events are not available. Customer and ship-to contact records holding phone numbers, which you will need to normalise to E.164 format and mark with opt-in status in a side table rather than inside P21 fields. ## How It Works ### Register the WhatsApp Business Platform number **Detail:** Create a Meta Business account, verify the business, and register a dedicated number either directly on the Cloud API or through a BSP. Do not reuse a personal handset number. ### Build the opt-in ledger **Detail:** Create a small table outside P21 keyed by customer and contact, storing phone, consent source, timestamp and opt-out. Only message contacts with a recorded opt-in. ### Pick the event source from P21 **Detail:** Prefer a business rule or alert that writes an event row to a queue table or calls a listener. If not possible, poll a read-only view for new shipments and status changes on a short interval. ### Define and get templates approved **Detail:** Write utility templates such as order shipped, will-call ready and quote available, with placeholders for order number, date and tracking. Templates are required for any message outside the 24 hour customer service window. ### Run the integration service inside your network **Detail:** A small service reads the queue, looks up the contact and opt-in, sends via the WhatsApp API, and stores the message ID against the P21 document for traceability. ### Handle inbound webhooks **Detail:** Expose a single HTTPS webhook endpoint (reverse proxy in a DMZ) that verifies the signature, matches the sender to a contact, and routes replies to a note on the order or to a person. ### Write back with review **Detail:** Post notes or confirmations through the P21 transaction or interactive API under a service user with narrow rights. Anything that changes quantities, prices or dates goes to a human queue first. ## Example Flows ### Shipment alert with tracking **Trigger:** A shipment is confirmed in P21 for a customer with WhatsApp opt-in. **Steps:** - The rule writes an event row with order number and ship-to. - The service reads the carrier and tracking number from the shipment data. - It sends the approved order shipped template to the contact. - The WhatsApp message ID is logged against the order. **Result:** The customer has tracking in hand and the counter gets fewer where is my order calls. ### Customer asks for order status **Trigger:** A known customer sends an order number in an open 24 hour window. **Steps:** - The webhook matches the phone number to a customer contact. - The service checks that the order belongs to that customer account. - It reads header status, promise date and backordered lines. - It replies with a short summary and a button to reach inside sales. **Result:** A routine status question is answered in seconds without a staff lookup. ### Vendor confirms a due date **Trigger:** A purchase order line is within a week of its promise date and unconfirmed. **Steps:** - The service sends a template asking the vendor contact to confirm the date. - The vendor replies with a date. - The reply is parsed and stored as a proposed change, not applied. - The buyer sees it in a review list and accepts or rejects it. **Result:** Supplier dates are captured quickly while the buyer stays in control of the PO. ## On Prem P21 on-premises does not need to be exposed to Meta. Keep SQL Server and the middleware inside your network, run the integration service on a server in the same zone, and let it make only outbound HTTPS calls to the WhatsApp API. The one inbound piece is the webhook, which should terminate on a reverse proxy or a small cloud relay that forwards verified messages over an outbound-initiated channel or a locked-down tunnel. Message content passes through Meta, so keep sensitive pricing and customer-specific terms out of templates. If you want an AI layer to interpret free-text replies, run an open-weight model locally so customer messages and order data are not sent to a third-party model API. ## Security - Use a dedicated P21 service account with the minimum menus and APIs needed; never reuse a named employee login. - Verify the webhook signature and match sender numbers to known contacts before reading any order data. - Check that the requested order belongs to the sender's customer account to prevent one customer seeing another's orders. - Keep consent and opt-out records and honour stop requests immediately. - Log every inbound and outbound message with the P21 document reference for audit. ## Options ### Off-the-shelf connector or iPaaS flow **Fit:** Fine for simple shipment and status notifications if a P21 connector exists in your integration platform and your events are reachable. **Effort:** Days to a couple of weeks, plus template approval time. ### Build in-house on the P21 APIs **Fit:** Good if you have a developer who knows the middleware and WhatsApp Cloud API and want full control over opt-in and routing. **Effort:** Roughly four to eight weeks for outbound plus inbound with review. ### Partner such as Netray **Fit:** Useful when you want inbound replies understood by a private model, tied to P21 roles, and run on your own hardware. **Effort:** A scoped pilot over several weeks, then extension flow by flow. ## Pitfalls - Messaging contacts without proper opt-in will get the number flagged and quality-rated down. - Free-text outbound messages outside the 24 hour window are rejected; every proactive message needs an approved template. - P21 phone fields are free text, so expect junk formats; normalise before sending. - Polling production tables aggressively can hurt SQL Server performance; use a view or queue with an index. - Auto-posting supplier replies into POs causes silent date errors; stage them for review. ## Faq ### Does Prophet 21 have a built-in WhatsApp feature? **Answer:** Not as a standard feature that I am aware of. Some Epicor customer communication tools handle email and portal notices, but WhatsApp needs the Business Platform plus an integration layer. Check your version and add-ons, then confirm with your Epicor representative before building. ### Can we use a normal WhatsApp Business app number? **Answer:** For anything automated, no. The app is meant for manual use. Automated and templated messaging runs on the WhatsApp Business Platform, either the Cloud API directly or through a business solution provider, using a number registered to that platform. ### How does it read data if P21 is on-premises? **Answer:** A service inside your network reads P21 through the middleware APIs or a read-only SQL Server view and only makes outbound HTTPS calls to WhatsApp. Nothing in your database has to be reachable from the internet, apart from a tightly controlled webhook endpoint. ### Can customers place orders over WhatsApp? **Answer:** Technically yes, but treat it carefully. A safer pattern is to capture the request, draft the sales order or quote in a staging state, and have inside sales confirm pricing, availability and credit before it becomes a real order in P21. ### What does it cost to run? **Answer:** Meta charges per conversation or per template message depending on category and country, and a BSP may add a platform fee. Utility templates for shipping alerts are usually cheap per message. Budget for the integration build and ongoing template management as the larger cost. ## Search terms epicor prophet 21 whatsapp integration, whatsapp for epicor prophet 21, p21 whatsapp api, prophet 21 whatsapp order status, epicor p21 whatsapp notifications, whatsapp business api distribution erp, send shipment tracking whatsapp from erp, prophet 21 customer messaging, p21 sms and whatsapp alerts, whatsapp quote approval erp --- Talk to an engineer: https://netray.co/contact?intent=erp_ai | Machine catalog: https://netray.co/agent/catalog.json