Posted in Digital Commerce
June 30, 2026
field analysis
Accurate Industries: building B2B commerce on Acumatica
Accurate Industries is the largest steam room and sauna equipment distributor in the US, selling thousands of products across B2C and B2B. It runs Acumatica as its system of record and Drupal Commerce as its storefront. The two didn't talk out of the box, so the work that decided the build was the integration: a custom, bi-directional connector between Acumatica and Drupal Commerce that Acro built and maintains.
Key takeaway
The Accurate Industries build worked because the Acumatica-to-storefront integration was treated as the main event, not an afterthought. The ERP keeps the operational truth; the storefront renders it.
Accurate Industries sells thousands of steam room and sauna products across several domains, both B2C and B2B. Acumatica runs the business: product catalogue, stock, order fulfillment, and customer records. Drupal Commerce runs the buying experience. The problem was the gap between them. Out of the box the two systems didn't talk, so staff bridged them by hand, the "swivel-chair" pattern where a person copies data from one screen into another.
The problem: two good systems that didn't talk
Product data lived in Acumatica, but building product pages meant re-entering it in Drupal. Accounts and orders, specialized discount pricing, fulfillment status, and stock levels all had to be reconciled across the two systems by hand. Every manual step was a chance for the storefront and the ERP to disagree, and reconciling them cost time the operations team didn't have. The fix wasn't a better storefront or a better ERP. Both were fine. It was connecting them properly.
Why the integration was the real project
Acumatica publishes an OpenAPI specification, so the obvious first move is to generate an API client from it. Acro did that, and found it wasn't sufficient on its own. Acumatica's API needs discovery and session handling that a generated client doesn't give you, so Acro built two pieces: a PHP library that handles authentication, discovery, and session management against Acumatica, and a Drupal integration module that maps Acumatica's entities to Drupal Commerce. Together they form a bi-directional connector, so a change in one system flows to the other without a person in the middle.
"We generated an API client based on the OpenAPI specification that Acumatica provides. That was not sufficient, though."
Shawn McCabe
Chief Technology Officer, Acro Commerce
What the connector carries
The connector keeps Acumatica as the system of record and lets the storefront read and write against it: product information, customer accounts, orders placed online and offline, price management including the specialized discounts Accurate's buyers expect, and stock. Because pricing and inventory come from Acumatica rather than a nightly export, the storefront shows what the ERP actually holds. The storefront's job is to render the operational truth, not to keep its own copy of it.
What other manufacturers and distributors can take from it
Accurate Industries is a Drupal Commerce build, but the lesson isn't platform-specific. When a business already runs Acumatica well and already has a storefront that suits it, the highest-leverage work is usually the integration between them, not a replatform. Scope the connector against the business rules that matter most, pricing, inventory, and order accuracy, and treat Acumatica's API surface as something to build a proper client and library around rather than call naively. That's the difference between a build that holds up and one that quietly drifts out of sync.
For a wider view of when a native connector, middleware, or a decoupled build fits, see our comparison of the three ways to connect commerce to Acumatica.
Related Articles
Acumatica ecommerce: how to architect commerce on Acumatica ERP
- Acumatica commerce readiness: what VARs and customers need to know
- Acumatica native commerce, decoupled commerce, or middleware: when to choose each
- How Acumatica VARs qualify a commerce opportunity
- Customer-specific pricing in Acumatica ecommerce
- Accurate Industries: building B2B commerce on Acumatica
- Eagle Fence Distributing: Acumatica + B2B commerce for distributors
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Accurate Industries run B2B commerce on Acumatica?
Accurate Industries runs Acumatica as its system of record and Drupal Commerce as its storefront, connected by a custom bi-directional integration Acro built. Acumatica holds the product data, pricing, inventory, and orders; the storefront reads and writes against it through the connector, so the two systems stay in agreement without manual re-entry.
Why wasn't Acumatica's OpenAPI spec enough on its own?
Acro generated an API client from Acumatica's OpenAPI specification, but it wasn't sufficient by itself. Acumatica's API needs discovery and session handling that a generated client doesn't provide, so Acro built a PHP library for authentication, discovery, and session management, plus a Drupal module that maps Acumatica's entities to Drupal Commerce.
What did Acro Commerce build for Accurate Industries?
A bi-directional connector between Acumatica and Drupal Commerce: a PHP library that handles authentication, discovery, and session management against Acumatica, and a Drupal integration module that maps the ERP's entities into the storefront. It carries product data, customer accounts, online and offline orders, price management including specialized discounts, and stock.
Does the storefront hold its own pricing and inventory?
No. Acumatica stays the system of record. Pricing, including specialized discount pricing, and inventory come from Acumatica through the connector rather than a nightly export, so the storefront reflects what the ERP actually holds instead of a stale copy.
Is this approach specific to Drupal Commerce?
The Accurate Industries build uses Drupal Commerce, but the principle applies to any Acumatica storefront: when the ERP and the storefront both suit the business, the highest-leverage work is a well-scoped integration between them. The platform matters less than treating the connector as the main project.
Where can I read the full Accurate Industries story?
Acro Commerce publishes the case study at acrocommerce.com. It walks the operational starting point, the OpenAPI-to-custom-connector path, and what the bi-directional integration carries between Acumatica and Drupal Commerce.
Next step
Get the foundation right before you build.
For readers scoping a platform decision or wanting a full architecture recommendation.