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The Sphera integration connects Nectar to SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability. Nectar pushes per-bill utility data into Sphera and reads stored values back to compare them against your Nectar data month by month. Setup takes two passes: collect credentials in SpheraCloud, then paste them into Nectar’s setup wizard.

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Channels

Sphera exchanges data over channels. Nectar uses two, and each has its own GUID, connection key, and connection secret. You can run the integration with DI alone. Without DA, you lose site discovery, the monthly usage comparison, and the Push/Sync resolution actions.
You need a SpheraCloud user with access to Management > Connection Center. If that menu item is not visible, ask your Sphera administrator to grant Connection Center permissions, or to create the channels and send you the values.

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Step 1: Get your Sphera credentials

1

Open the Connection Center

Sign in to SpheraCloud at your company host (for example https://yourcompany.cs.spheracloud.net) and confirm the product switcher is on Corporate Sustainability. In the left navigation, expand Management and click Connection Center, then expand the Channels section.The Channels table lists every channel with its Type, Name, Online checkbox, and Auth Type. Nectar uses WSSE, which is Sphera’s default.
2

Find or create the Data Import channel

Look for a row where Type is Data Import. If your administrator already created one for Nectar, open it and skip to the next step.To create one, click the + dropdown at the top right, choose New Channel, and set:
  • Type — Data Import
  • Name — anything recognizable, for example Nectar upload channel
  • Online — leave checked. An unchecked channel rejects incoming data.
  • Save on behalf of — a Sphera user with write access to every site Nectar will push to. Imported data is written under that user’s permissions.
  • Mapping — the Sphera import mapping that matches Nectar’s CSV column names. Create it under Mappings first if none exists.
  • Transformer — leave blank. Nectar sends a flat CSV that needs no transposition.
Mapping is required on Data Import channels. A mismatch between the mapping’s expected columns and Nectar’s CSV headers is the most common cause of failed imports — see Column names.
3

Find or create the Data Acquisition channel

Repeat for a row where Type is Data Acquisition. This channel is read-only, so it has no Mapping or Transformer field. Set Save on behalf of to a user who can read the sites and questionnaire data you want to compare.
4

Copy the GUID, key, and secret

Open a channel to show its detail panel. At the top of the Info tab is a bordered box labelled “Click to copy connection parameters to send them to the sending system.” Click it once to copy the whole block:
The same values are listed individually further down the Info tab as URL, Endpoint URL, Connection key, and Connection secret.
Do the DI channel and the DA channel separately. Their GUIDs, keys, and secrets are all different, and the endpoint path differs (/api/di vs /api/da). Pasting DI credentials into the DA fields is the most common setup mistake — the connection test fails with an authentication error.

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Map Sphera values to Nectar fields

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Step 2: Connect Nectar to Sphera

Go to Data Export > Integrations > Sphera and start the setup wizard. If the integration already exists, edit it from Settings > Company > Integrations > Sphera instead.
  1. Channels — Enter your Sphera host and API route, and turn on the Data Acquisition (DA) channel toggle if you have one.
  2. Credentials — Paste the GUID, connection key, and connection secret for each channel. Verify & continue tests every channel against the live Sphera API, saves the configuration, and discovers your Sphera sites through the DA channel. Site discovery can take a minute.
  3. Site mapping — Match each Nectar site to its Sphera site. Smart match suggests pairings by name, and you can exclude sites you never want pushed. On the same step, pick the Sphera questionnaire template that holds each commodity’s data — Nectar pre-fills these from the discovered template names.
  4. Review — Confirm the host, channels, mapped and excluded site counts, and configured commodities, then Finish setup.
Steps 3 and 4 need the DA channel. With DI alone you can skip site mapping — the push export still works, but Nectar cannot read values back.

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Integration hub

The Sphera integration page at Data Export > Integrations > Sphera is a single-page layout:
  • Page header — Archive (deactivate the integration) and Settings (credentials, site mapping, questionnaires, column names)
  • Warning banners — Legacy push-only configuration, or sites not yet mapped to a Sphera site
  • Status card — DI + DA connected, DI only (push), Legacy config (push only), or Not configured, with an Export button
  • Recent syncs & downloads — Your latest Sphera exports and DI pushes. Use Data Export > History for the full cross-integration log.
  • Monthly usage comparison — When the DA channel is configured, a per-site Nectar vs Sphera comparison
Unmapped and excluded sites are skipped when pushing to Sphera via API. Map or exclude every site so the push covers what you expect.

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Exporting

Click Export to open the export dialog: The export is recorded in your Export History.
Sphera DI imports append — re-pushing a period does not overwrite the previous rows. To correct data already in Sphera, delete the affected entries in Sphera first, then re-push. Nectar shows this reminder before every re-push.

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Monthly usage comparison

When the DA channel is configured, the comparison section reads the values stored in Sphera and diffs them against Nectar’s calendarized monthly usage. Use it to confirm Sphera holds the right numbers and to re-push the ones it does not.
  1. Set the scope with the filters:
    • Site (pinned) — One mapped Sphera site at a time. Only sites mapped through the DA channel appear.
    • Commodity — The utility type to compare. Only commodities with a configured questionnaire template appear.
    • Months (required) — The month range to compare; clearing it resets to the current year.
  2. Read the usage chart — Nectar’s calendarized monthly usage and the values stored in Sphera are plotted side by side.
  3. Scan the monthly comparison table — Each row shows the month, Nectar value, Sphera value, the percentage difference, and a status. Expand a month to list the bills that make up Nectar’s total; click a bill to open it, or open the matching bills in Data Inventory.
Statuses:
  • Synced — Sphera matches your data for that month
  • Diff — Both sides have data but the values differ
  • Not on Sphera — Nectar has data Sphera never received
  • Missing in Nectar — Sphera holds a value your data no longer produces
Resolving discrepancies:
  • Per row — Click Push (for Not on Sphera) or Sync (for Diff) to re-push that month.
  • In bulk — Click Resync N discrepancies above the table to re-push every drifted or not-on-Sphera month at once.
Because DI imports append, delete the existing entries for those months in Sphera before re-pushing, or the data is duplicated. If Sphera’s data collection is locked through a cutoff date, months in the locked range are skipped and Nectar tells you which ones.
Sphera processes each import asynchronously, so re-pushed values can take a few minutes to appear. If a month is wrong on the Nectar side, fix the bills in Data Inventory before re-pushing.

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Settings

Manage the integration in Settings > Company > Integrations > Sphera:
  • Connection — Sphera host, API route, and the GUID, connection key, and secret for each channel. Saving always verifies the credentials first, so invalid ones never reach the stored configuration. Leave a secret blank to keep the stored value.
  • Site mapping — Nectar sites mapped to the Sphera sites discovered through the DA channel, with exclusions. Refresh sites re-discovers sites after you add them in Sphera.
  • Questionnaires — The Sphera questionnaire template that holds each commodity’s data. The same template applies to every site.
  • Column names — Header names for the CSV that Nectar pushes to the DI channel.

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Column names

Each exported row is one bill, carrying the bill’s account, meter, invoice, and audit-link metadata so values can be traced back to their source. Most headers are fixed, but these eight are configurable so they can match your Sphera import mapping:

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Rotating credentials

Open the channel in the Connection Center, click More (···) in the detail panel header, and choose Reset the API credentials (the circular-arrow icon). Copy the new key and secret into Settings > Company > Integrations > Sphera and save.
Resetting invalidates the old key and secret immediately. Nectar pushes and reads fail until you update the credentials in Nectar. Reset one channel at a time.

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Troubleshooting

The Log tab on each channel is the authoritative record of what Sphera received. Sphera 8.19+ also offers a downloadable error report listing failed rows with per-row reasons. Still stuck? Email support@nectarclimate.com.

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FAQ

In SpheraCloud, go to Management > Connection Center, expand Channels, and click the channel. The Info tab shows a “Click to copy connection parameters” box containing the endpoint, the full URL with the channel UUID (that UUID is the GUID), the connection key, and the connection secret. Do this once for the Data Import channel and once for the Data Acquisition channel.
Connection Center sits under Management in the Corporate Sustainability app and requires administrator permissions. Ask your Sphera administrator to grant access, or to create the DI and DA channels and send you the GUID, key, and secret for each.
The Data Import (DI) channel receives data — it is how Nectar pushes bills into Sphera. The Data Acquisition (DA) channel is read-only — Nectar uses it to discover your Sphera sites and read stored values back for the monthly comparison. You can run the integration with DI alone, but the comparison requires DA credentials.
Electricity, natural gas, fuel, water, sewer, waste, and district / steam. The options you see depend on your Nectar data and Sphera configuration.
Most SpheraCloud instances use api. Self-hosted installations typically use ws/rest.php. The value is the URL prefix before the channel path in your Endpoint URL — Nectar appends /di and /da itself.
First delete the affected entries in Sphera — DI imports append, so re-pushing without deleting duplicates the data. Then use the Push, Sync, or Resync action on the monthly comparison to re-push the corrected values.
Open Settings > Company > Integrations > Sphera and click Refresh sites on the site mapping card. Nectar re-discovers sites through the DA channel.
Yes. Go to Export History, find the export, and click to open the detail sheet. A Download button is available if the file is still within the 90-day retention period.