Integrations - what you can connect and where to start

The integration catalogue opens as a long list, and the first instinct is to connect everything. Do not: each integration wants keys, and half of them also want money from a provider. This article is about what is in the catalogue and the order in which to touch it.

Where this lives in the CRM

• The catalogue and your connected integrations: Settings - Integrations.
• Webhooks are a separate section, Settings - Webhooks. Visible to companies whose plan includes API access.

How connecting works

Every integration is a catalogue entry plus your settings for it. The settings differ, the sequence does not: pick the provider, fill in the fields, press "Test connection". The test really calls the provider and returns either your account details or the text of the error - that is, it answers "is this key working?" before anything starts depending on the integration.

Two properties worth knowing:

• Secret fields are masked. A token pasted once is never shown again - only its last four characters are. That is inconvenient exactly once, and it keeps the token out of a screenshot in a support chat.
• The webhook sets itself up. Where the provider has to send events to us - messengers, telephony, SMS delivery reports - the address and the secret key are created when the integration is switched on. It can also be done by hand, with the "Set up webhook" and "Check webhook" buttons.

What is in the catalogue

Messengers and chats. Telegram - the salon's own bot, which needs a token from BotFather. WhatsApp - through the cloud API: phone number id, access token and verify token. Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct - one Meta authorisation, no manual keys. Plus Slack, SendPulse, an email chat, a web chat and a site widget. Messages from all of these arrive in a single chats section and attach to the client card.

SMS. TurboSMS, Kyivstar, Zadarma, Twilio, eSputnik. They need the provider's key and a registered sender name (some check its format: 3 to 11 characters). We do not resell SMS: the salon pays the provider directly, which is why messages are not limited by us at all.

Email. Gmail (Google authorisation), MailerSend, Mailjet, SendGrid, Zoho Mail. They need an API key and a sender address on a verified domain. Your own email integration lifts the daily limit of our mail server, because the mail goes out through you.

Telephony. Zadarma, Binotel, UniTalk, Ringostat, Twilio. An incoming call pops up with the client's name; a missed one turns into a notification and, if you want, into a lead.

Payments. LiqPay, Hutko, RozetkaPay, WayForPay, monopay. They need merchant keys. This is clients paying you - prepayment on online booking, payment links; paying for the BeeSection subscription itself is separate and needs no setup.

Calendar. Google Calendar - bookings synced into specialists' personal calendars, connected with a Google authorisation.

Documents, spreadsheets, storage. Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Workspace - also through a Google authorisation.

Document flow and signing. The built-in document flow (no external keys), Vchasno, M.E.Doc, Diia.Signature, DocuSign, Adobe Sign, Zoho Sign.

Fiscal receipts. Checkbox - a licence key and, if needed, cashier credentials; there is a test mode.

Delivery. Nova Poshta - an API key from the business account, also with a test mode.

CRM and marketing. Zoho CRM, Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Books, eSputnik (SMS, Viber and email in one integration).

Reviews. Google - reviews on the company profile, via a Google authorisation.

Other. City detection by IP for the public pages. Speech recognition and AI: OpenAI, Whisper, Google Speech, Yandex SpeechKit, AWS Transcribe or your own server, for transcribing calls.

The catalogue has a life of its own and keeps growing; an entry missing from your list today may appear after an update.

Where to start

The order that saves time:

1. Nothing at all, if you have just registered. Online booking, Telegram reminders to clients and email work without a single integration. Start taking bookings instead of configuring things.
2. Chats, if your client conversations live in messengers. Your own Telegram bot and Instagram Direct remove the main pain: requests stop getting lost in private messages. The chats section is part of the Salon plan.
3. Telephony, if people book by phone. A missed call that became a lead usually pays for the setup in the first week.
4. Payments, once you start counting no-shows in money. Prepayment on online booking is available from the Start plan, and it needs a connected payment service.
5. SMS last. It is the only channel you pay for separately, and it is needed only for the clients you cannot reach any other way.
6. Webhooks, once you have a system of your own. They need a plan with API access; they come with their own request signature and delivery retries.

What is not in the catalogue

So you do not go looking: marketplaces (Rozetka, Prom) and 1C accounting are not there. For bookkeeping there is Checkbox and Zoho Books. If the provider you need is missing but has an API, that is a job for webhooks and the REST API - and it is worth telling us about it, because we can see which ones get asked for most.