Map your systems: buyers
Your buying stack already has a system of record, a planning workflow, and a billing process. Switchboard slots into them: orders go in machine-readable, confirmations and delivery records come back in the formats your systems already reconcile. Win the business you decline today without hiring a buying desk.
Where each system lands
Every row is one of your systems, the Switchboard object it feeds or consumes, and the connection that carries it. Full shapes: the object model.
| Your system | What it holds | Switchboard object | How it connects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planning tools | Audiences, budgets, flight plans | packages, avails, rates; or a proposal_request when you want the seller to plan | catalog and avails reads, or proposals |
| Order management | Campaigns, IOs, statuses | orders; your external_order_id is the join key, echoed on every event | POST /orders, tracked by webhooks or event replay |
| Agency system of record | Estimates, buylines, invoices to match | buyer_metadata.estimate_id: the estimate number echoed on EDI delivery so records match automatically | Confirmed orders deliver into agency systems of record over the industry's EDI rails; see EDI delivery |
| Billing & finance | Invoices, credit | settlement: direct by default, cleared by agreement | GET /settlement/invoices, GET /settlement/credit |
| Post-buy reporting | Delivery vs goal | delivery posts per order, in the traded currency | Attached as artifacts; swept via reconciliation |
| Your agents | The buying loop itself | the same API, tool by tool | MCP server or A2A; humans keep the approval decisions |
The loop your integration runs
- Discover. List sellers, read catalogs, check avails against cached plans, refetch narrowly right before booking.
- Book. Create the order with locked rates. Idempotent on your
external_order_id: retries are safe. - Track. Webhooks are hints; the snapshot is truth and replay fills any gap. Switch on
status. - Reconcile. Delivery posts and EDI records land in the systems your billing already runs.
Every order pauses at the seller's approval gate, and your own confirm gate on document orders is yours to keep. Built for people and their agents: the loop automates, the decisions stay human.