Pull from Coupa

How to use Parabola's Coupa integration

Parabola's Coupa integration allows teams to pull invoices and purchase orders directly into automated workflows, enabling real-time spend analysis and cross-system reconciliations without manual data exports.

• Automatically retrieve invoice and purchase order data for reconciliation and reporting
• Combine Coupa financial data with ERP, warehouse, and sales channel information
• Track procurement performance and identify billing discrepancies
• Build automated dashboards showing spend by supplier, status, and time period

Learn more about Parabola's Coupa integration below.

How to authenticate

Coupa uses OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials for secure API access. To connect Coupa to Parabola, you'll need to create an OAuth client in your Coupa instance and obtain your credentials.

Creating an OAuth client in Coupa:

1. Log in to your Coupa instance as an administrator with integration permissions.
2. Navigate to Setup > Oauth2/OpenID Connect Clients. (You can type "oauth" in the search box to find it quickly.)
3. Click Create.
4. From the Grant Type dropdown, select Client credentials.
5. Fill in the required fields:
   • Name: Give your client a descriptive name (e.g., "Parabola Integration")
   • Login: Your admin username
   • Contact First Name, Contact Last Name, and Contact Email: Your contact information
6. Select the Scopes you need for your integration:
   • core.accounting.read – Required to access invoices
   • core.purchase_order.read – Required to access purchase orders
   • You can add additional scopes based on your specific needs
7. Click Save.
8. After saving, you'll see your Client ID (Identifier) and Client Secret. Copy these credentials to a secure location—you'll need them to connect in Parabola.

Connecting in Parabola:

1. In your Parabola flow, add a Pull from Coupa step.
2. Click Authorize and you'll be prompted to enter:
   • Client ID: Your Coupa OAuth client identifier
   • Client Secret: Your Coupa OAuth client secret
   • Instance: Your Coupa subdomain (e.g., if your Coupa URL is https://acme.coupahost.com, enter acme)
   • Scopes: The scopes you selected when creating the client (e.g., core.accounting.read core.purchase_order.read). Each scope must be separated by a space.
3. Click Connect. Parabola will securely store your credentials and automatically handle token generation and refresh.
4. Once authenticated, select the data you want to pull and configure any filters.

Available data

Using the Coupa integration in Parabola, you can pull:

• Invoices: Invoice records including invoice numbers, status (draft, pending approval, approved, paid, voided, disputed, etc.), creation and update timestamps, totals, and file URLs for invoice PDFs. Filter by date ranges, status, or account type.
• Invoice details by ID: Retrieve full details for a specific invoice using its unique identifier.
• Purchase orders: Purchase order records including PO numbers, status (draft, pending approval, approved, issued, closed, canceled, etc.), creation and update timestamps, order totals, and export status. Filter by date ranges, status, export status, or account type.

All data can be filtered by creation date, update date, status, and account type. The integration supports pagination to handle large datasets efficiently.

Common use cases

• Three-way match reconciliation: Pull invoices and purchase orders from Coupa, combine with receiving data from your warehouse or ERP, and automatically flag discrepancies in quantities, pricing, or missing documents.
• Spend analysis and reporting: Aggregate invoice data by supplier, category, or time period to create automated dashboards showing spending trends, budget utilization, and savings opportunities.
• Invoice processing automation: Monitor pending and approved invoices, combine with payment data from your accounting system, and track time-to-payment or identify invoices stuck in approval workflows.
• Purchase order tracking: Track PO status from creation through closure, identify open POs aging beyond expected timelines, and alert procurement teams about delayed orders or missing receipts.
• Supplier performance monitoring: Combine invoice and PO data to calculate on-time delivery rates, analyze invoice accuracy, and identify suppliers with frequent disputes or billing issues.
• Month-end close acceleration: Automate the extraction and reconciliation of invoices and purchase orders against your general ledger or ERP system to reduce manual effort during financial close periods.

Tips for using Parabola with Coupa

• Schedule your flows to run daily or hourly during critical periods like month-end close to keep financial data current and reduce last-minute reconciliation work.
• Use date filters strategically: Filter by created-at or updated-at dates to pull only recent records, reducing API load and speeding up your flows. For ongoing reconciliations, pull data from the last 30-90 days.
• Ask for just the fields you need: Use the fields setting to pull in the minimal fields that the Flow needs to operate. The less fields you request, the faster the data will be returned by Coupa to Parabola. Large amounts of data can take a long time to pull without reducing the fields.
• Combine with other systems: Join Coupa invoices and purchase orders with data from your ERP (NetSuite, SAP, etc.), warehouse management system, or procurement tools to create comprehensive operational views and catch cross-system discrepancies.
• Add validation checks: Use Parabola's Filter and Formula steps to flag exceptions like invoices without matching purchase orders, POs in "issued" status for over 60 days, or invoices with disputed status.
• Set up alerts: Configure Email or Slack notifications in Parabola to alert finance and procurement teams when specific conditions are met, such as high-value invoices pending approval or POs exceeding budget thresholds.
• Document your workflow: Use Parabola's step notes to explain your logic and filters so teammates can easily understand and maintain your flows as business requirements evolve.

By connecting Coupa with Parabola, you transform procurement and invoice data into automated workflows that deliver real-time visibility, faster reconciliations, and proactive exception management—all without manual exports or spreadsheet work.