Zamino

Connecting your first data source

Which data source should you connect first? A quick decision tree based on what you're trying to learn from Zamino.

Getting started3 min read

Zamino can connect to a growing catalog of business systems — accounting, banking, POS, ERP, documents, and custom webhooks. You don't need to wire them all up on day one. Start with one, let it prove itself, and add more as your questions get richer.

🤔 What are you trying to see first?

💰 You want financial visibility

Connect your accounting tool first. This is the most common starting point — it gives Zamino the spine of your business.

  • QuickBooks Online — the deepest integration, with optional Live mode for real-time questions (no nightly sync wait).
  • Xero — full read access to invoices, bills, contacts, and your chart of accounts.

You'll be able to ask about revenue, margin, expenses, AR/AP aging, vendor spend, and customer profitability within minutes.

🏦 You want a clean cash picture

Connect your bank accounts and credit cards through Plaid. Plaid covers 12,000+ institutions in the US, UK, and EU, so wiring up your operating account, payroll account, and Amex usually takes one OAuth flow per bank.

Best for: monitoring cash on hand, catching unusual transactions, and reconciling spend against the books.

🛒 You run retail or hospitality

Connect your POS so order-level data flows in immediately.

  • Clover — orders, items, payments, refunds, and tip data.
  • Coming soon: Square, Shopify, Stripe.

Best for: top-SKU analysis, daypart trends, refund-rate monitoring, and same-store comparisons.

🏭 You run a manufacturer or operations-heavy business

Connect MRPEasy for ERP data — purchase orders, manufacturing orders, customer orders, stock items, and returns. Or connect MySQL if you have your own operational database (read-only with auto schema discovery).

📄 You have docs to mine

Connect Google Drive to let Zamino read PDFs, spreadsheets, and contracts in your shared drives. Useful when the answer lives in a vendor agreement or a board deck rather than a transactional system.

🛠️ You have a system Zamino doesn't list

Use the Custom Webhook connector. Push events from any system that can send HTTP — internal tools, niche SaaS, ad platforms — and Zamino will treat them as a first-class source.

What the connect flow looks like — every time

  1. Pick from the catalog

    🔌 Connectors → Browse → Connect. Each tile shows what scope Zamino requests and a brief feature list.

  2. Approve via OAuth

    You sign in to the source's normal login. No API keys to hunt for. Zamino only ever requests read scopes.

  3. Wait for the initial sync

    2–10 minutes for most sources, longer for years of bank history or high-volume POS. You'll get an in-app notification when the source is ready.

  4. Start asking questions

    Switch back to 💬 Chat. Zamino joins data across sources automatically — so when you connect Plaid alongside QuickBooks later, questions like "what's my gross margin on SKU X versus what hit the bank" get richer with no extra config.

Where to go next