ERP API capabilities compared: which UK ERPs support modern portals
Not every ERP can support a modern customer portal or staff portal equally. The biggest factor is the API: how it authenticates, which business entities it exposes, and how stable it is across upgrades. This table summarises what Sysgraft found when auditing the REST APIs of 18 ERP platforms commonly used by UK manufacturing and distribution SMEs.
| ERP platform | Tier | API model | Key exposed entities |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamics 365 Business Central | Tier 1 | Excellent public REST and OData v4 API covering Sales Orders, Items, Customers, Vendors, Posted Invoices, Warehouse and Production, plus custom and automation APIs via AL extensions. | Sales Orders, Items, Customers, Vendors, Posted Sales Invoices, Warehouse Entries, Production Orders |
| Sage 200 | Tier 2 | REST API covering core financials, sales and purchase orders, stock and customers. | Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Stock Items, Customers, Suppliers, Invoices, Nominal balances |
| OrderWise | Tier 2 | Documented REST API covering Orders, Stock, Customers, Invoices and Contacts, well suited to high-volume order and stock operations. | Sales Orders, Stock, Customers, Invoices, Contacts, Despatch records |
| Kerridge K8 | Tier 2 | API access through the KCS partner programme, covering orders, pricing, stock and customer accounts — the same family of APIs that underpins OrderWise integrations. | Sales Orders, Pricing, Stock, Customer Accounts, Trade Counter transactions |
| SAP Business One | Tier 3 | Service Layer REST API (OData-based) with comprehensive entity coverage, plus the DI API for deeper integration. | Business Partners, Sales/Purchase Orders, Items, Production Orders, Invoices, Stock |
| Epicor Kinetic | Tier 3 | REST API (v1/v2) with strong manufacturing entity coverage — jobs, BOMs, operations, stock and orders — plus Epicor Functions for custom endpoints. | Jobs, BOMs, Operations, Parts, Sales Orders, Stock, Work Centres |
| SYSPRO | Tier 3 | SYSPRO REST API and the e. | Sales Orders, Inventory, Customers, Bills of Material, Work in Progress, Purchase Orders |
| NetSuite | Tier 3 | SuiteTalk REST and SOAP web services plus SuiteScript and RESTlets give comprehensive, well-documented SaaS coverage. | Sales Orders, Items, Customers, Invoices, Inventory, Custom Records |
| Infor CloudSuite | Tier 3 | Integration through the Infor ION API framework and Infor OS, exposing manufacturing and commercial entities via a managed REST gateway. | Orders, Items, Customers, Production, Inventory (via ION APIs) |
| IFS Cloud / Applications | Tier 3 | IFS exposes OData-based projection REST APIs across production, maintenance, service and supply chain, designed for extension. | Work Orders, Service Orders, Production, Inventory, Customers, Assets |
| Access Dimensions | Tier 3 | The Access API exposes financials, orders, contacts and stock with a reasonable footprint for the core interface use cases. | Financials, Sales Orders, Contacts, Stock, Invoices |
| Pegasus Opera | Tier 3 | API coverage varies by version (Opera 3 vs Opera SE); access is via the Pegasus SDK / web service layer and is confirmed per deployment. | Sales Orders, Stock, Customers, Nominal, Invoices (version dependent) |
| Priority ERP | Tier 3 | Priority's REST API (OData-style) gives strong coverage across manufacturing and commercial entities and is straightforward to work against. | Orders, Items, Customers, Production, Inventory, Invoices |
| Acumatica | Tier 3 | A well-documented contract-based REST API gives clean, version-stable access to orders, inventory, customers and more. | Sales Orders, Inventory, Customers, Invoices, Shipments |
| Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations | Tier 3 | OData REST APIs and the Data Management Framework give comprehensive entity coverage, in some areas deeper than Business Central. | Sales Orders, Released Products, Customers, Production Orders, Inventory, Ledger |
| Intact iQ | Tier 3 | A REST API covering orders, stock, customers and financials supports the core distribution interface use cases. | Sales Orders, Stock, Customers, Financials, Invoices |
| Brightpearl | Tier 3 | A well-structured REST API covering orders, inventory, customers and fulfilment, with automation features built in. | Sales Orders, Inventory, Contacts, Fulfilments, Invoices |
| Sage 50 | Tier 3 | API coverage is more limited than Sage 200 — access is via the Sage 50 SDO / data layer and is confirmed per use case. | Customers, Invoices, Stock, Sales Orders (subset) |
Tiering reflects API quality, UK SME installed base and integration confidence from Sysgraft's audit. API surface varies by version and edition; the discovery sprint validates the exact coverage for your specific deployment before any build commitment.
How to read this
A strong API is necessary but not sufficient. Three things decide whether a portal is feasible on a given platform: authentication (can staff use single sign-on, can customers be securely scoped), entity coverage (are the orders, stock, invoices and production records you need actually exposed, read and write), and version stability (does the API change often, and is there a deprecation policy). Cloud-native platforms with contract-based or OData APIs tend to be the most stable; older desktop-era systems vary most by version, which is exactly why every Sysgraft build is preceded by a live API audit.