The API and integrations
CrewBarn is built API-first: what the app does, your own tools can do too. And it plugs into the services you already pay for, with your own accounts and keys, so each provider bills you directly.
The intro, in words
Plugged into what you use
This is the API and integrations in CrewBarn. It plugs into services Harlow and Finch already pay for, on their own accounts, and what the app does, their own tools can do too.
We'll follow Dana as she sets each one up, step by step.
Texts and cards: Texts from her own number
Dana wants customer texts to come from Harlow and Finch's own Twilio number. The setup asks for three things from her Twilio dashboard: the Account SID, the Auth token, and the number customers will see.
The Auth token is stored encrypted and never shown again. Then she sends a test text to her own mobile. It goes only to her, never to a customer.
It arrives, so she ticks Turn on customer texts from my Twilio number. Twilio bills her directly, and replies still land in the CrewBarn inbox.
Texts and cards: Cards, paid to her
Next, cards. Under Payments, she presses Connect Stripe. Stripe's own setup opens, she finishes it, and comes back.
She presses Refresh status, and it reads Connected: Tap to Pay in the field, and card payments in the portal. The money goes to Harlow and Finch, not to CrewBarn.
Texts and cards: Half done, or GoDaddy
If she'd closed Stripe part way through, the button would read Finish Stripe setup, and pick up where she left off.
And if Harlow and Finch used GoDaddy Payments and its terminal instead, she'd press Connect GoDaddy Payments on the same page.
QuickBooks: Sign in once
Harlow and Finch's accountant still uses QuickBooks Online. Dana presses Connect QuickBooks, signs in to QuickBooks, and says yes. There are no keys to copy.
Back in CrewBarn, under What to bring over, she ticks Customers, Products and Services, and Invoices.
QuickBooks: Both sides, the same records
She presses Import from QuickBooks. When it's done, it reads Import complete, with how many were created, updated and skipped for each.
Then she presses Push to QuickBooks, which sends the CrewBarn records QuickBooks doesn't have yet, like this week's invoices.
QuickBooks: Again, without duplicates
A month later, the accountant has changed a few customers in QuickBooks. Dana runs the import again.
Every record is linked to its match, so this time they're counted as updated, not created twice. And anything that came from QuickBooks isn't pushed back.
QuickBooks: One afternoon, no retyping
In one afternoon, texts, cards and the accountant's books were connected, each on Harlow and Finch's own account, with nothing typed in twice.
The API: A key for each tool
Dana keeps a jobs report in her own spreadsheet tool. In API tokens, she presses Create token, names it after the tool, and picks when it runs out.
The token is shown once, and never again, so she copies it into the tool. It can only reach Harlow and Finch's data, and never more than Dana herself can.
The endpoint guide shows her the jobs request, what to send, what comes back, and a ready example to copy.
The API: Told the moment it's paid
She also wants her own system told the moment an invoice is paid. In Webhooks, she adds a new webhook endpoint: her address, and the event invoice dot paid. She presses Create.
Each endpoint has a signing secret. Every message carries a signature made with it, so her system can check it really came from CrewBarn.
She presses Send test, then opens the log: delivered, with her server's answer.
The API: When her end is down
If her server were down, the endpoint would show red, failing, with how many times in a row and the last answer it got.
She fixes her end, sends a test again, and the log shows it delivered.
Partners: A partner asks
Bayside Property Group wants Harlow and Finch's work in its own facilities system. In its portal, under API and Webhooks, Bayside presses Request API access.
Bayside's line reads Requested. Nothing is shared yet.
Partners: Nobody gets in unless she says so
In Partner connections, Dana sees Bayside under Requested access. She presses Approve, and it reads Active.
In Bayside's portal, the line turns Connected. Bayside presses Generate API token, and can now pull its own invoices, jobs, visits and shared photos, and get webhooks back.
Partners: Seen, and stopped
Any time, View access log shows everything Bayside asked for, and when.
When the contract ends, Dana presses Revoke. Bayside is turned away straight away, and its portal says access was revoked by the contractor.
If Dana had pressed Decline in the first place, Bayside would never have got in at all.
Partners: Shared on purpose
So the tools and the partners get exactly what Dana approved, she can see what they took, and she can stop any of it in one press.
The whole picture: Connected, opened, controlled
That's the API and integrations: texts from her own number, cards through Stripe or GoDaddy, and QuickBooks imported and pushed without duplicates.
Tokens and webhooks for her own tools, and partners who ask, are approved, are logged, and can be revoked.
API & integrations: Plugged in, on your own keys
Your accounts, your keys, and an open door only where you open it.
CrewBarn is in beta, and free for life for trades that help test it.
The REST API
The API covers customers, jobs, estimates, invoices, payments, the catalog, inventory, equipment, purchasing, staff, messages and reports. The endpoint guide in the app explains every one in plain words: what it does, the details you can send, each piece of information you get back, what each error means, and a ready example to copy.
Tokens are long-lasting keys you make for each outside tool. Each one carries the permissions of the person who made it and only reaches your own company's data. A token is shown once, runs out when you choose, shows when it was last used, and can be revoked straight away.
Webhooks
Tell your own systems the moment something happens, like a new job or a paid invoice. Pick the events for each address. Each message is signed with a secret, so your system can prove it came from CrewBarn. Send a test, read the delivery log, and see when an endpoint has been failing.
Partners and AI tools
Partners you invite, like subcontractors and franchises, can ask to pull your work into their own systems. Nobody gets in unless you approve them, and you can read their access log and revoke them at any time. The AI connector lets your own AI assistant read your CrewBarn data, with your permission.
Integrations
- Phones and texts: Twilio or net2phone for calls and recordings. Send customer texts from your own Twilio number, and replies still land in your CrewBarn inbox.
- Call transcripts: AssemblyAI or OpenAI.
- AI for CBI: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Azure OpenAI, on your own key.
- Payments: Stripe, including Tap to Pay on a tech's phone, and GoDaddy Payments with its Smart Terminal. The money goes to you.
- QuickBooks Online: sign in once. Import customers, products and services, and invoices from QuickBooks, and push the ones that aren't there yet. Running it again updates, it doesn't duplicate. Mappings and a journal export cover the rest.
- Google: Maps and address lookup, and review requests that link to your Google listing after finished jobs. One Google sign-in lists your website in Google Search Console and links your Google Business Profile, so reviews come into CrewBarn, get answered by rules you set, and new blog posts are shared to your listing.
- Cloudflare: one connection sets up your website address and certificate, and optional file storage in your own account.
- Email, tax and more: Resend for email from your own domain, TaxJar and Zip-Tax for sales tax rates, the NHTSA VIN decoder, GPS tracker feeds, and AWS KMS keys.
Open source dashboard
The work dashboard (jobs, customers, scheduling, dispatch, estimates, invoicing, inventory and the Tool Shed) is open source under the MIT license. Run it on your own domain, brand it and change it. The CrewBarn service behind it, meaning the API, your data, billing and the provider connections, is not open source. Imports and exports mean your data comes in and goes out whenever you want.
How it works
- Make an API token for each outside tool, with an end date.
- Read the endpoint guide and copy an example.
- Add webhook endpoints for the events your systems need.
- Connect phones, payments, QuickBooks and Cloudflare with your own accounts.
- Approve partners who ask for access, and revoke them any time.