How to Create a Flex5 API Key for Your CRM

A Flex5 API key is what lets another system, such as your CRM, read and add records in Flex. For the Flex Rental Solutions CRM integration, Booked55 uses it to bring new Flex clients in and to add new clients to Flex.

This is step 2 of 3. You need API access turned on first.

Before you start

• Flex has approved API access for your account, and you have accepted the Terms & Conditions on the API page. How to request API access.
• Your company is on Flex Enterprise or Flex GTS. Flex Lite has no API access.

Whose key is it? Use a dedicated Flex user

A Flex API key is tied to the user who creates it. It has exactly that user's permissions, and when that user's permissions change, so does the key.

That's why Flex recommends a dedicated user: one that exists only for the API and has only the permissions it needs. Flex's example name is “API Automation User”. For Booked55, that user must be able to see and add contacts, both clients and companies.

A dedicated user also keeps the sync apart from any one person. A key works with the permissions of the Flex user who made it, so a key you make as yourself changes whenever your own Flex access does.

1. In Flex, create a user for the integration, for example “API Automation User”.
2. Give it only the permissions it needs. For Booked55, that's seeing and adding contacts (clients and companies).
3. Sign in to Flex5 as that user.

Create the key

Signed in as the user the key should belong to:

1. Go to Main Menu > Integrations > API.
2. Click the Add API Key icon at the bottom of the page.
3. Enter a Description that says what the key is for, such as “Booked55”.
4. Click OK.
5. In the API Key column, click Copy API Key to Clipboard.

Paste the key straight into Booked55, or into your password manager if you'll connect later.

Keep it safe

• Treat it like a password. A Flex key never expires, so don't email it around or leave it in a shared document.
• Booked55 doesn't show it again. Booked55 checks the key with Flex, stores it encrypted and never displays it. The Flex card shows only its last four characters.
• You can switch it off at any time. Click Disconnect on the Flex card in Booked55. If Flex ever refuses the key, Booked55 pauses the sync and its Flex card says so.

If it doesn't work

There's no way to add a key

Flex only allows keys after API access is approved and the Terms & Conditions are accepted on the API page. If there's no Request Access button either, check your plan: Flex Lite has no API access.

Booked55 won't accept the key

• Flex no longer accepts it. Create a new key.
• It was copied with a space at the start or end. Copy it again with Copy API Key to Clipboard and paste it as it is.
• The Flex user can't see and add contacts. Give that user permission for clients and companies, or create the key as a user who has it.

Next: connect Flex to Booked55

With the key on your clipboard, connect Flex to Booked55. You paste your Flex address and the key, click Connect, and your Flex clients start coming in.

Flex Rental Solutions and Flex5 are trademarks of their owner. Booked55 is not affiliated with Flex Rental Solutions.