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Chrome River connector

How to use the Chrome River connector to pull expense reports and their receipts directly into VAT4U

Written by Milica

Before you start: set up API access in Chrome River

VAT4U connects using a dedicated API user, not your own Chrome River login.

  1. In your Chrome River environment, create a new user for VAT4U.

  2. Give that user read-only access to the entity (or entities) you want VAT4U to pull data from.

  3. Note down the username, API key, and customer code for that user — you'll need all three in the next step.

Connecting the connector

  1. Go to Company settings → Connectors and open Chrome River.

2. Enter your Chrome River Username, Chrome River API Key, and Chrome River Customer Code.

3. Save. You can test the connection at any time from the same screen — if the test fails, double-check the three values above and that the API user still has active read access in Chrome River.

If you ever need to stop syncing with Chrome River, you can disconnect the connector from the same screen. Disconnecting doesn't remove or affect anything you've already imported — it only stops new extractions.

Pulling data: on-demand vs. scheduled

Once connected, you can retrieve data two ways:

On-demand extraction

Use this for a one-off pull — for example, backfilling a past period.

  1. Click Start new data extraction.

  2. Give it a name.

  3. Choose the extraction basis (see below).

  4. Set a start date and end date.

  5. Optionally filter by report status or report owner's country.

  6. Choose whether to skip duplicate reports (on by default — see Duplicate handling below).

  7. Start the extraction.

Scheduled extraction

Use this to keep pulling new data automatically on a recurring basis.

  1. Click Schedule automated extractions.

  2. Choose a frequency: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly.

  3. Choose the day it should run each period (day of the week for weekly; a day of the month, 1–28, for the others).

  4. Choose the extraction basis and any status/country filters, as above.

Each run automatically covers the previous full period relative to its run date — for example, a monthly schedule set to run on the 5th pulls all of last calendar month; a quarterly schedule pulls the previous full calendar quarter; a yearly schedule pulls the previous full calendar year. You don't set dates yourself for scheduled runs — VAT4U calculates them for you.

Extraction basis: which date actually matters

This is separate from the date range you pick, and it changes what gets included:

  • Report submit date — includes a report if it was submitted within your chosen period.

  • Item export date — includes the entire report if at least one of its line items was exported within your chosen period.

If an extraction seems to be missing or including reports you didn't expect, this setting is usually why — check it before checking the date range.

How far back can you go?

There's no fixed limit on VAT4U's side. For on-demand extractions, you can set any start date you like — how much data actually comes back depends entirely on what your Chrome River environment has and what your API user has access to. If you need a very old period and get little or no data back, check retention/permissions on the Chrome River side first.

Duplicate handling

By default, VAT4U skips any report it has already pulled in a previous extraction (matched by Chrome River's own report ID). This is:

  • Optional for on-demand extractions (you can turn it off to re-pull everything).

  • Always on for scheduled extractions.

Skipped reports aren't lost — you can retrieve them separately later from the extraction's detail view using Retrieve duplicate reports, if you genuinely need them again.

Monitoring an extraction

Each extraction appears in the Chrome River connector's extraction list with a status:

  • Queued / Started / Processing — still running. Larger date ranges or report volumes take longer.

  • Finished — done; a results file is ready.

  • Failed — something went wrong with the run as a whole (see Troubleshooting).

Open an extraction to see a progress view plus counts of reports that succeeded, failed, or were skipped as duplicates. From there you can:

  • Restart failed reports — retries just the reports that didn't come through.

  • Retrieve duplicate reports — pulls in reports that were skipped as duplicates.

Importing the data into VAT4U

An extraction produces a results file — it is not automatically added to your expenses. Once an extraction is Finished:

  1. Open it and click Import.

  2. You'll land in the normal Import wizard, pre-configured for Chrome River data (line items belonging to the same report are grouped together automatically, and standard fields are pre-mapped).

  3. Review and complete the import as you would any other import.

Expenses imported this way are tagged with Chrome River as their data source, so you can always tell where they came from.

Receipts and supporting documents

Receipts attached to a report (or to individual line items) are fetched along with the report data. If a receipt can't be retrieved — for example because it was removed on the Chrome River side — the expense will still come through, just without that attachment; you can add the document manually in that case.

Troubleshooting

"Connectivity test failed" / connection shows as interrupted
Your stored credentials are no longer valid — most often the API key expired or was regenerated, the customer code changed, or the API user's access was revoked in Chrome River. Re-enter the three credential fields and test again.

An extraction shows "Failed"
The run hit a problem partway through (for example, Chrome River was temporarily unavailable, or the credentials stopped working mid-run). Check the connection details are still valid, then start a new extraction for the same period.

Some reports in an extraction show as failed, but not all
This usually clears up with Restart failed reports — VAT4U will retry just those. If the same reports keep failing, it's worth checking whether the report has an unusual structure in Chrome River (for example, no line items).

An extraction finished but returned no data
Double-check your date range, extraction basis (submit vs. export date — see above), and any status/country filters — a mismatch between these and how the report was actually submitted/exported is the most common cause. Also confirm the API user's access in Chrome River covers the entity you expect data from.

If none of the above resolves it, reach out to us with the extraction name and approximate run time and we'll take a closer look.

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