Setup

Two-way payment sync video

Take a look at this video to learn how you can seamlessly pay for sales and purchase orders from either inFlow or QuickBooks Online.

This video doesn’t cover setup. Take a look at the Connecting inFlow to QuickBooks Online section below for complete setup instructions.

How does this work?

With inFlow, you can easily create new sales and purchase orders that can be seamlessly sent to QuickBooks Online. Plus, you have the flexibility to make payments within inFlow or QuickBooks Online using the handy two-way sync payments option.

If there are missing records in QuickBooks Online, inFlow can create new products, customers, and vendors for you. Currently, records made in QuickBooks Online can’t be pushed to inFlow.

As soon as the purchase order push is enabled, inFlow will push your inventory value to QuickBooks Online. Your inventory value must be accurate in inFlow and QuickBooks Online before enabling the integration.

Before setup checklist

We currently support QuickBooks US, Canada, UK and AUS.

• ✅ Are your product quantities and costs accurate in inFlow? If you intend to push purchase orders, ensure your stock levels and product costs are accurate! The integration adjusts Quickbook’s total inventory value to match inFlow’s, so you’ll want to ensure they match before you begin. See the “Push purchase orders and inventory” tab for details!
  
• ✅ Does your home currency in inFlow and QuickBooks Online match? Make sure that your main currency in both systems is the same. If you use more than one currency in your inFlow orders, turn on the Multicurrency setting in QuickBooks Online.
  
• ✅ Are your taxes in both systems? Ensure that your inFlow taxes are also in QuickBooks Online.
  
• ✅ Is your QuickBooks Online account using non-inventory product types? inFlow can only use QuickBooks Online’s non-inventory products.
  
  If your QuickBooks account uses inventory type, it will conflict with the integration and may cause double entries as both systems try to update the stock value.
  
  Make sure products are non-inventory types before connecting inFlow to QuickBooks Online to avoid making several corrections after the fact. If you have inventory-type products in stock, check the Adjust Inventory Items section of this QuickBooks Online guide to remove the product quantities.
  
  If you’re using inventory-type products in QuickBooks Online, you must make them inactive and re-create them as non-inventory products

QuickBooks Online doesn’t have an option to convert inventory products to non-inventory products.

• ✅ Does your inventory include serialized products? At the moment, QuickBooks Online doesn’t support tracking serialized products, so serial numbers won’t be pushed to your QuickBooks Online invoices or bills.
  
  When inFlow pushes a sales or purchase order with a serialized product, the product is sent to QuickBooks Online without the serial number information. There won’t be any errors in inFlow or QuickBooks mentioning the missing serial details.
  
• ✅ Creating an inFlow Adjustments account – inFlow must connect to a Cost of Goods Sold account (COGS) and a different COGS-based account to track adjustments. During the QuickBooks Online setup, select Create inFlow Adjustments account in QuickBooks.

• ✅ Do your inFlow customers have the correct currency settings? You can’t change the customer currency settings in QuickBooks after a sales order has been pushed. Verify that the currency set up in the inFlow customer profile matches one of the currencies set up in QuickBooks.
  
  To check, open inFlow and go to the Main Menu > Sales > Customer list. Open the customer profile and select the correct currency from the Pricing/currency drop-down menu.

QuickBooks Online explainer & setup webinar

Please note: the above webinar was recorded before the payment sync feature was added to this integration.

Exporting products from QuickBooks Online to inFlow

Connecting inFlow to QuickBooks Online is simple! You don’t need all your products ready in both systems first. inFlow will generate non-inventory-type products as needed. If you have products in QuickBooks Online, import them into inFlow to centralize your inventory management. Watch the video below for the complete steps!

1. In QuickBooks Online, Click on Sales, then Products & Services.
2. Before exporting, make sure all of your products are Non-inventory type for the inFlow integration to work correctly with QuickBooks Online. 
3. When ready, click Export and save the file to your computer. 

Connecting inFlow to QuickBooks Online

1. With an Admin account, log into inFlow’s integration settings. (Main Menu > Options > Integrations. )
2. Under Core integrations, click on QuickBooks Online.
3. In the pop-up, select Connect to QuickBooks.
4. Your browser will direct you to your QuickBooks Online account for authorization. If you have multiple QuickBooks accounts, select the account with which inFlow should connect. 
5. Click Connect to allow inFlow to view and update your QuickBooks data.

Sales orders push integration settings

1. Your browser will redirect to inFlow’s QuickBooks Online integration setup with the Sales order push setting toggled on. This means sales orders from inFlow will be pushed to QuickBooks Online as an invoice. 

2. In the General section, select the Product Income Account that inFlow should connect to.
   
   Typically, this is the account in QuickBooks Online you use to receive money for products sold. This account will be set as the Product income account for products created via inFlow in QuickBooks Online. Select the appropriate QuickBooks Online account from the drop-down. The Product Income account for existing products in QuickBooks Online will not change.
3. Select the customer name setting you prefer. When a sales order is pushed to QuickBooks, you can choose whether to include or exclude the customer name as part of the address in the resulting invoice in QuickBooks.

Sales order payment settings

1. Next are the Payment settings. When the Sync payments setting is toggled on, you can choose how you would like to manage and process payments. Select your preferred option. See the table below to learn about each payment option.

2. The Refund setting is toggled on by default. This allows you to process refunds in inFlow, and the refund information will be sent to the matching QuickBooks Online invoice. Toggle this setting off if you don’t want refunds sent to QuickBooks Online. Any refunds will need to be processed in inFlow and QuickBooks Online separately.
3. Next, select the Payments account from the drop-down menu. This is the account that updates when payments have been made on inFlow sales orders and QuickBooks invoices.

Sales order tax setup

1. At the bottom of the setup are the tax settings. Similar to mapping your accounts, you’ll need to map the taxes that are in inFlow to the tax rates that are in QuickBooks.
   
   Match the inFlow taxes to the QuickBooks Online taxes in the drop-down menu. If you see No matches found. Please create one in QuickBooks and check again it means QuickBooks doesn’t have a matching tax. Create the tax in QuickBooks Online, then click on Check again before you proceed.

2. Click Next to continue the Payment order and inventory value push integration settings.

QuickBooks has released an Automated Sales Tax feature that can calculate the taxes on your invoices for you based on shipping addresses and other order information on your invoices. If your account has this feature enabled, you won’t have to map any taxes, and the window will say, “Tax setup is complete”. Click Next to complete the setup.

Sales order push account setup breakdown

Purchase order and inventory value push settings

1. At the top of the screen, you’ll see that Purchase order and inventory value push settings are toggled on.
   
   This setting will push purchase orders from inFlow to QuickBooks Online as bills. In addition to creating a bill, inFlow will update the Inventory Assets and Cost of Goods Sold accounts in QuickBooks.

2. In the General settings, select the appropriate accounts inFlow should connect to. For the Adjustments/Other Costs account, we recommend that you select Create inFlow Adjustments account in QuickBooks to create a dedicated account for inFlow to make adjustments where needed. Don’t select the same QuickBooks Online account for more than one setting.

Purchase order payment settings

1. Next in the setup is Payment settings. The Sync payments setting gives you the option of how you would like to manage payments. Select your preferred option. See the table below for a breakdown of each option.

2. The Refund setting is toggled on by default. This allows you to process refunds in inFlow, and the refund information will be sent to the matching QuickBooks Online bill. Toggle this setting off if you don’t want refunds sent to QuickBooks Online. When this setting is inactive, refunds will need to be processed in inFlow and QuickBooks Online separately.
3. Next, select the Payments (Check) account and the Payments (Credit Card) account from the drop-down menus. These are the accounts that will be used for paying bills to your vendors in QuickBooks Online.

4. When done, click Complete, then click Done. And now inFlow is connected to QuickBooks Online.

Purchase order push account setup breakdown

If no payment method is selected on the purchase order in inFlow, then that payment will be deducted from the selected QuickBooks payment account.

Push sales orders

Now that inFlow and QuickBooks Online are connected, you can start processing sales orders and pushing them to QuickBooks Online. 

How to push a sales order to QuickBooks Online

In inFlow, when a sales order is marked as invoiced (meaning you’ve notified your customer that they owe you for the order), inFlow will push the order to QuickBooks Online as an invoice.

You can change the sales order status to invoiced when a sales order is partially paid or paid in full or when you select the Mark invoiced button. 

You can mark a sales order as invoiced in the following ways:

1. Printing a sales invoice. 
2. Emailing a sales invoice. 
3. Selecting the Mark invoiced button.  

Printing and emailing

Printing and emailing invoices are actions used to inform your customers that they owe money for this order. When clicking on these buttons, inFlow will automatically mark the sales order as invoiced. 

Mark invoiced button

If you want to mark the order as invoiced but don’t need to print or email it, you can click on the down arrow next to Mark paid to select Mark Invoiced. 

Which transactions will inFlow sales orders be in QuickBooks Online?

Sales orders pushed from inFlow will be created in QuickBooks Online as invoices, credit memos, journal entries, and payment transactions.

New to accounting? Take a look at QuickBooks Online’s common accounting terms to learn more. 

Where can I find invoices and other transactions in QuickBooks Online?

When your sales orders are invoiced, partially paid, or paid in inFlow, they can be found in the Sales section of QuickBooks Online (qbo.intuit.com/app/sales.)

You can click on any of the headings in the table to sort the view of your orders. Select Edit or View to look at the invoice. 

inFlow’s sales order number will show up as the Invoice number in QuickBooks, making information tracking simple. Payments, refunds, and adjustments will create different line items in your sales transactions list.

inFlow won’t push historical sales orders or quotes to QuickBooks Online. However, changing a historical uninvoiced sales order to invoiced or adding a payment in inFlow will push that order to QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Online’s Audit log is a handy way to see many transactions at once. 

Which sales order fields push to QuickBooks Online?

• Customer name
• Customer billing address
• Shipping address
• Invoice/Order date
• Invoice/Order number
• Products/SKUs sold
• Quantity of products purchased
• Payment details
• Payment terms
• Due date
• The subtotal on the sales order
• Freight
• Taxes on the sales order
• Balance left on on sales order
• Sales order remarks

Which fields won’t push to QuickBooks Online?

• P.O #
• Sales rep
• Location of items
• Non-customer costs
• Payments made by credit
• Custom fields
• Requested ship date
• Credits 

What customer fields push to QuickBooks Online?

Currently, inFlow only pushes your sales order with QuickBooks, not your customer records. When you save an order in inFlow with a customer that isn’t in QuickBooks, the push will create a new customer profile in QuickBooks, and inFlow will set the following fields:

• Name
• Billing Address
• Shipping Address
• Phone Number
• Email
• Currency

Other customer fields will need to be inputted in QuickBooks manually.

After a customer has been initially created, inFlow will not update the customer profile in QuickBooks Online, so if there are any changes, please enter them directly into QuickBooks and inFlow.

How will the products sync to QuickBooks Online?

The way products are pushed to QuickBooks Online will depend on the information available for the product in inFlow and QuickBooks Online. The matching priority happens automatically, but it goes as follows:

1. Matching by inFlow SKU to a QuickBooks Online SKU.
2. Matching by inFlow Product Name to a QuickBooks Online Product (SKU must be empty in at least one system)
3. If there is no match, inFlow will create a new non-inventory product in QuickBooks Online, matching your product name and SKU field (if a SKU exists in inFlow.)

Processing payments

When setting up the inFlow to QuickBooks integration settings, you can choose whether to process payments with the sales order push integration settings or not. 

If the Sync payments setting is active, there are three payment options to choose from: 

1. Push and pull payments
2. Push payments
3. Pull payments. 

Take a look below to learn how you can apply payments for each payment setting.

Push and pull payments

This is a two-way payment sync option. You can process payments in inFlow or QuickBooks online, and the payment will be pushed to the other system for you.

In this example, the payment was made in inFlow and the payment was pushed to QuickBooks Online. 

Paying multiple orders/invoices

In inFlow, you can pay for multiple sales orders at once, and the payments will be pushed individually to QuickBooks Online.

When using QuickBooks Online, paying multiple invoices with a single payment isn’t supported. Each invoice must have its own payment.

Push payments

With this payment option, payments can only be made on inFlow sales orders, and the payment information will be sent to the matching QuickBooks Online invoice. 

If a payment is added to the QuickBooks Online invoice, inFlow will not receive the payment information on the matching sales order. 

Pull payments

With this setting, payments are only added to the QuickBooks Online invoice, and the payment information will be sent to the matching inFlow sales order. 

If a payment is added to an inFlow sales order, QuickBooks Online will not receive the payment information on the matching invoice.

How are refunds handled? 

With this integration, refunds need to be processed from the sales order in inFlow. How you process the refund changes the transactions that you’ll see in QuickBooks Online. 

Refund options:

1. Returning/refunding products on an existing paid sales order. 
2. Returning/refunding products on a blank unpaid sales order. 

Returning/refunding products on an existing paid sales order

When processing refunds on sales orders, inFlow will push that information, and QuickBooks will track this in the form of a journal entry. 

1. To start, process the refund/return in inFlow. 
2. In QuickBooks, the matching invoice will show the refunded product, and the order total will be updated. 
3. When you look at your sales transactions you’ll see both the original full payment and a journal entry for the refunded amount. 

Returning/refunding products on a blank unpaid sales order

If processing a refund on a blank unpaid sales order, inFlow will push that information, and QuickBooks will track the refund as a QuickBooks credit memo. 

1. To start, process the refund/return in inFlow. 
2. In QuickBooks, a (debit) journal entry will be made with an accompanying credit memo with the matching order number will be created with the refunded product and funds.

To learn more about debits and credits, take a look at this QuickBooks Online blog post.

Customer Credits

Credits used in inFlow sales orders cannot be pushed to QuickBooks Online. If you need to issue a credit on a sales order, you will need to manually adjust your invoice in QuickBooks.

This also applies when a customer pays for a sales order with a credit. This information won’t be pushed and needs to be adjusted manually.

If a customer uses credit as payment in either inFlow or QuickBooks Online, the other system will only register a payment without noting that the customer used credit as the payment method.

Because inFlow and QuickBooks Online have different credit systems, both solutions may have different customer and vendor credits that will have to be managed.

Push purchase orders

Now that inFlow and QuickBooks Online are connected, you can start processing purchase orders and pushing them to QuickBooks Online. 

How to push purchase orders and inventory value to QuickBooks Online

When a purchase order is fully or partially received, inFlow creates a bill in QuickBooks Online. In addition to sending this information, your inventory value will also be pushed.

1. To push a purchase order, click the fulfill button, or select the go to the Receive tab to partially receive the order. 
2. Once the purchase order is partially or fully received, it will be sent to QuickBooks Online as a bill. 

When a purchase order is unfulfilled and is partially or fully paid in inFlow creates an expense until the purchase order is fulfilled.

Partially received purchase orders

For partially received orders, when the order is pushed to QuickBooks, it will only include items that have been received. As the remaining items are marked as received in inFlow, the same QuickBooks Bill will be updated to include those items.  

If you’d like to create separate QuickBooks bills when partially receiving items in inFlow, you’ll need to split the order by received items to create two separate purchase orders in inFlow.

Which purchase order fields are pushed to QuickBooks Online?

• Vendor name
• Purchase order number
• Purchase order date
• Products/SKUs sold
• Quantity of products purchased
• Payment details
• Payment terms
• Due date
• The subtotal on the purchase order
• Balance left on the purchase order
• Freight
• Taxes on the Purchase order
• Purchase order remarks

Which purchase order fields won’t push to QuickBooks Online?

• Vendor billing address (QuickBooks will use the address in the Quickbooks vendor profile)
• Shipping address 
• Vendor order #
• Location of items
• Non-Vendor costs
• Credits
• Payments made by credit
• Custom fields
• Requested ship date

Why don’t I see my vendor address in QuickBooks Online? 

When inFlow sends vendor information to QuickBooks Online for the first time, it transfers most of the vendor details from inFlow. However, inFlow isn’t able to update vendor records in QuickBooks. If inFlow sends vendor information without an address the first time, that address will stay blank in QuickBooks. You will have to add the address to your vendor records manually.

Pushing total inventory value 

inFlow calculates the inventory value by adding up all of the costs of the items you currently have in stock. When a purchase order is pushed from inFlow to QuickBooks, inFlow will update QuickBooks’s inventory asset account with the new inventory value.

As soon as purchase order sync is enabled, inFlow will sync inventory value. It’s important that your inventory value is accurate in inFlow before enabling the sync. Otherwise, the inventory value that is synced to QuickBooks Online will be inaccurate.

To check the current inventory value in inFlow, run the Inventory Details report with “Total Cost Value” selected as a column.

Your total inventory value in inFlow is affected by:

How does inFlow push the Cost of Goods Sold?

inFlow calculates the Cost of Goods Sold using a number of factors. When a sales order is marked Fulfilled, inFlow will update QuickBooks’s Cost of Goods Sold account with the Cost of Goods Sold value for that order. 

inFlow’s Cost of Goods Sold will update the QuickBooks Cost of Goods Sold account.

Note: if you disable sales order push, the invoice will not be created in QuickBooks, but the Cost of Goods Sold will still be pushed if you have enabled purchase order & inventory value push.

Which transactions will inFlow purchase orders be in QuickBooks Online?

Purchase orders pushed from inFlow will be created in QuickBooks Online as bills and bill payments or expenses if the payment is made on an unreceived purchase order.

To make the inFlow integration available to most of our customers, inFlow creates a bill instead of a purchase order. Purchase orders are available on select QuickBooks Online plans.

Where can I find bills and other transactions in QuickBooks?

When purchase orders are partially or fully received, inFlow pushes them as a bill, which you can find in the Expenses section of QuickBooks Online (qbo.intuit.com/app/expenses.)

You can click on any of the headings in the table to sort the view of your orders. Select Edit or View to look at the invoice.

How will the products sync to QuickBooks Online?

The way products sync to QuickBooks Online will depend on the information available for the product in inFlow and QuickBooks Online. 

The product matching priority happens automatically, but it goes as follows:

1. Matching by inFlow SKU to a QuickBooks Online SKU.
2. Matching by inFlow Product Name to a QuickBooks Online Product (SKU must be empty in at least one system)
3. If there is no match, inFlow will create a new non-inventory product in QuickBooks Online, matching your product name and SKU field (if a SKU exists in inFlow.)

Processing payments

When setting up the inFlow to QuickBooks integration settings, you can choose whether to process payments with the purchase order push integration settings.

If the Sync payments setting is active, there are three payment options to choose from: 

1. Push and pull payments
2. Push payments
3. Pull payments. 

Take a look below to learn how you can apply payments for each payment setting.

Push and pull payments

This is a two-way payment sync option. You can process payments in inFlow or QuickBooks online, and the payment will be pushed to the other system for you.

Paying multiple orders/invoices

In inFlow, you can pay for multiple purchase orders at once, and the payments will be pushed to QuickBooks Online.

When using QuickBooks Online, paying multiple bills with a single payment isn’t supported. Each bill must have its own payment.

Push payments

With this payment option, payments can only be made on inFlow purchase orders, and the payment information will be sent to the matching QuickBooks Online bill. 

If a payment is added to the QuickBooks Online bill, inFlow will not receive the payment information on the matching purchase order. 

Pull payments

With this setting, payments are only added to the QuickBooks Online bill, and the payment information will be sent to the matching inFlow purchase order. 

If a payment is added to an inFlow purchase order, QuickBooks Online will not receive the payment information on the matching bill.

Troubleshooting

If you are having trouble using QuickBooks Online with inFlow, go to inFlow’s Integration settings and look at the error messages that are preventing your orders from syncing. (Main Menu > Options > Integrations.)

We currently support QuickBooks Online US, Canada, UK and AUS.

What if the product exists in inFlow but not in QuickBooks Online?

If a product on an order doesn’t exist in QuickBooks Online, inFlow will create the product in QuickBooks Online as a non-inventory item when an invoice/bill is pushed. Depending on which setting you enable, it’ll also fill in either of these checkboxes in QuickBooks Online:

• “I sell this item” and sets the income account for this product to the same one that is mapped in the inFlow setup. 
• “I purchase this item” and sets the expense account for this product depending on the inFlow product type:
  • stocked products: Inventory Asset account
  • non-stocked products: Adjustments / Other Costs account
  • service products: Adjustments / Other Costs account

At the moment there isn’t an option for inFlow to push all product information to create new products in QuickBooks Online. New products can only be made when invoices/bills are pushed from inFlow.

Does this sync inventory quantities?

No – the integration only pushes purchase orders, sales orders, total Cost of Goods Sold, and total Inventory value from inFlow to QuickBooks Online. 

If I make changes to an order, product, vendor, or customer in QuickBooks Online, will it be updated in inFlow?

No – the integration is one-way. All data is pushed from inFlow to QuickBooks Online (no data gets pushed back from QuickBooks Online to inFlow with the exception of payments with the Push and pull payments option). 

Seeing duplicate payments?

Duplicate payments can happen if payments are made directly into inFlow and QuickBooks Online (or another software integration) when the payment settings are set to Push payments. See the steps below to correct this issue.

1. Go to the inFlow’s integration settings and click on QuickBooks Online.
2. Select Sales orders or Purchase orders and inventory values.
3. Under Payment settings select Push and pull payments. This setting makes sure payments stay in sync between inFlow and QuickBooks Online to avoid discrepancies.
4. Click Save.

How to create new accounts & make accounts inactive in QuickBooks Online

To connect inFlow with QuickBooks Online, it’s important to have all the right accounts set up in your QuickBooks chart of accounts. Check out the video below for steps on creating a new account and how to make any accounts inactive if you don’t need them anymore.

The inFlow team does not offer official support for QuickBooks Online. For the most current instructions, refer to the QuickBooks Online support center.

Creating a new account

1. In QuickBooks Online, click on Settings, then Chart of Accounts. 
2. Click New, then fill out the fields on this screen. 
3. Click Save when done. 

How to remove an account

1. In QuickBooks Online, click on Settings, then Chart of Accounts. 
2. On the chart of accounts screen, locate the account you want to make inactive, then select the down arrow to the right of the screen and select Make inactive. 
3. On the confirmation screen, select “Yes, make inactive.”

How to enable shipping for sales in QuickBooks Online

1. Click on the settings icon > Account and Settings.
2. Select the Sales tab.
3. In the Sales form content section, select the toggle next to Shipping.
4. Click Done.

How to set the accounting period in QuickBooks Online

1. Click on the Settings icon
2. Account and settings, then click on Advanced
3. Select the toggle next to Close the books and select the Closing date below.
4. Click Save, then click Done.

Common alerts/errors

If you have saved orders in inFlow and you don’t see those orders in QuickBooks Online, check inFlow’s Integrations screen to see what is causing the errors not to sync. You can also look below for common errors and how you can fix them.

Once you have made the changes, click on the Retry all button to sync your orders.

[Product] has different SKUs in inFlow and in QuickBooks Online. The SKU in inFlow is [xxxx], and the SKU in QuickBooks Online is [xyxy].

Reason: inFlow and QuickBooks have the same product, but there are different SKUs. 

Solution: Correct the SKU in either inFlow or QuickBooks Online so that the product has the same SKU in both systems.

Customer [Name here] has spaces at the start or end of the name, which QuickBooks Online does not allow. Please remove the extra spaces and try again.

Reason: An extra space at the end of the customer name prevents the order from being pushed to QuickBooks Online.

Solution: Go to the customer profile, remove the extra space, and save the customer record. When you’re done, click the Retry button.

Business Validation Error: Enter a transaction amount to continue.

Reason: This can happen when multiple transactions make changes to the same accounts receivable/accounts payable account (saving an order multiple times or multiple edits).

Solution: Check if the inFlow order has created a matching invoice/bill in QuickBooks Online. If it has, and payments/changes also push to QuickBooks Online, then you can click the Dismiss button from inFlow’s Integration settings.

The QuickBooks Online payment must have only one invoice selected.

Reason: Multiple invoices/bills were paid at the same time in QuickBooks Online.

Solution: Remove the bulk payment in QuickBooks Online and process payments on the outstanding invoices/bills individually.

Product/Service assigned to this transaction has been deleted. Before you can modify this transaction, you must restore [Product name]

Reason: The product on this inFlow sales order has been deleted or marked inactive in QuickBooks Online.

Solution: Log into QuickBooks Online and make this product active/available in order to sync this sales order.

The “[Name]” Payment Term details in inFlow and QuickBooks don’t match

Reason: The Days Due in inFlow and QuickBooks are different.

Solution: in the inFlow Windows App check the Days Due by going to

1. Main Menu>Options>Settings>References>Payment Terms (Windows.) Or go to the inFlow Order settings and click on Payment terms (Web.)
2. Besides the terms that aren’t syncing, check the Days Due. Now in QuickBooks, go to Settings>All lists>Terms>Click edit beside the term you just checked for in inFlow that the Days Due match. If they don’t update them too.

The name supplied already exists. : Id=X

1. This is a generic QuickBooks Online error that may be caused by a vendor with the same name as a customer (QuickBooks Online doesn’t allow this).

Solution: Check if you have a customer or vendor in QuickBooks Online with the same name as the customer or vendor on the order you’re trying to sync. If you do, QuickBooks Online recommends adding an indication to the names so it can handle them as two different entries: E.g., DebraC (C for customer) and DebraV (V for vendor).

2. This error can also occur if the Product name, Customer name, Categories, or Payment Terms have extra spaces in between or after them.

Solution: Please check your Product List/Customer/Vendor in inFlow and see if you can find that extra space at the end of the name. Once found, remove it save the product/customer/vendor, and retry the error.

If there are several products in the same order, you can check it also through an export. If there are extra spaces, please remove them and import the products back again with the updated CSV file (of course, you could also do the same process manually in every product on your account). The system should recognize the changes, and you can then retry the error on the Integration page.

3. There are some characters that QuickBooks does not accept. For example, product names containing the colon “: ” will cause this error.

Solution: Go through the Product names, Customer names, and Categories to see if there are characters other than the accepted ones listed by QuickBooks Online.

The name supplied already exists. : Another product or service is already using this name. Please use a different name.

Reason: If a product on your inFlow order has a different name than the product in QuickBooks Online, e.g., there is an extra “space” at the end of the name like “Apple ” vs. “Apple,” QuickBooks Online reads it as a different product.

Solution: check the product in the affected sales order in inFlow to see if there is an extra “space” at the end of the product name.

The name supplied already exists. : Another customer, supplier, or employee is already using this name. Please use a different name.

Reason: If a customer name in inFlow is different from the name in QuickBooks Online. e.g., the customer name in inFlow has an extra “space” at the end of it, like “John” vs “John “, QuickBooks Online reads it as a different customer.

Solution: check the customer in the affected sales orders in inFlow to see if there is an extra space at the end of the customer name.

Business Validation Error: You must set a transaction amount.

Reason: This error appears whenever there is a payment entry for either a Sales Order or Purchase Order with the value of 0 as the payment amount/amount applied.

Solution: On the order page, click on Paid, and on the Payment Details page, then delete that row. After that, you can retry the error on the Integration page, and the error should disappear.

Element contains invalid characters.

Reason: This error means you have an invalid character either in your company name, Customers, Suppliers, Products and Services, or the Chart of Accounts.

Solution: Please check and remove any special characters. You can check for QuickBooks Online acceptable characters here.

String length specified does not match the supported length.

Reason: Some fields have limited character lengths in QuickBooks but no limit in inFlow. If there is a field on the inFlow order that has reached the character limit for the matching field in QuickBooks Online, the sync will fail.

Solution: The error will specify a field’s character limit in QuickBooks (there is a list of their fields and character limits here). Check the corresponding field in inFlow to see that it hasn’t exceeded this character limit.

Object Not Found: Something you’re trying to use has been made inactive. Check the fields with accounts, customers, items, vendors or employees.

Reason: There’s a customer, product, or vendor on the order that has been deactivated in QuickBooks Online.

Solution: check to see if the customer or product in the affected sales order in inFlow has been deactivated in QuickBooks Online and then reactivate them before retrying the sync.

 Business Validation Error: You are not allowed to modify the quantity of an inactive stock item.

Reason: A product or service on the inFlow order is inactive in QuickBooks.

Solution: Check that the products or services that are on the inFlow order are not deactivated in QuickBooks Online and activate them if necessary. You can find more details here.

Invalid account type: You can’t associate a product or service with accounts of certain types (such as Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable). If the product or service is something you sell, use an income account. If the product or service is something you buy, use an expense account.

Reason: Products inside of QuickBooks have an account associated with them. An item on the affected order has an account associated with it that is not allowed.

Solution: Check the accounts that are set up for the items on the affected order in QuickBooks Online. The accounts should be set up as income and/or expense accounts (depending on if it’s a sales order or a purchase order). Here’s how you can change the account associated. 

This transaction has been deposited. If you want to change or delete it, you must edit the deposit it appears on and remove it first.

Reason: This error may be due to an inFlow sales order that had previously synced with QuickBooks Online, and the payment was marked as deposited, but the payment was updated in inFlow after the initial sync to QuickBooks Online.

Solution: remove the payment deposit in QuickBooks Online or click “dismiss” on the error in the Cloud integration page to clear it.

Email Address does not conform to the syntax rules of RFC822.

Reason: There are issues with the syntax/format of the email in question. (e.g., extra white spaces or rouge symbols like “,com” instead of “.com”)

Solution: check the specific sales order, and look at the email of that order to see if there are any obvious extra spaces or incorrect email symbols. (easier to see on the Windows application)

Product has a duplicate SKU in QuickBooks Online.

Reason: QuickBooks Online allows different products to have the same SKU, while inFlow does not. When a sales order is pushed to QuickBooks Online, inFlow will look at items on the order to see if they already exist in QuickBooks Online by matching the SKU in both programs first. If you have more than one product with the same SKU in QuickBooks Online, inFlow doesn’t know which product it should match. Instead, it will match the first product in QuickBooks Online that has the corresponding SKU, which may be incorrect.

Solution: Check QuickBooks Online to see what items have the same SKU as the one in the inFlow error. Make sure that you don’t have duplicate SKUs in QuickBooks Online. You will also need to correct any sales orders that were pushed to QuickBooks Online with the item listed in the error and swap out the incorrect product for the intended one.

Sales Shipping is disabled in QuickBooks but specified in the inFlow transaction.

Reason: QuickBooks Online needs to have Shipping enabled so shipping information can be synced from inFlow to QuickBooks Online.

Solution: In QuickBooks Online, find the cogwheel on the top right. Click Account and Settings. Click Sales on the left bar. Edit the Sales form content section so that the Shipping setting is on.

QuickBooks Online can’t connect

If too many sales orders are saved in inFlow at the same time (for example, while importing sales orders), you may get an error saying: “Cannot connect to “QuickBooks Online at the moment.” This error will also be accompanied by a red exclamation mark on the top right-hand corner of the QuickBooks Online image and a warning on the inFlow for Windows app.

Don’t panic! QuickBooks Online has a system that prevents too many orders from being synced at once, so your orders are still able to sync. You’ll just need to wait a little, then click the Retry all button to sync again.

 If the Retry all option doesn’t work, please contact the inFlow team so we can further assist you.

The post Connecting QuickBooks Online to inFlow appeared first on inFlow Inventory.

The easiest way to create your import file is to export your existing product details. This feature is only available for products with a bill of materials. Learn more below. 

Please note: Importing manufacture settings is only available is only available on inFlow Manufacturing for Web.

Before getting started

1. Make sure you import your product details into inFlow first. 
2. Create or import the bill of materials for products to which you want to add manufacture settings.

Exporting product details CSV from inFlow

1. Go to Main Menu>Export. 
2. Select Product details from the Data type section. 
3. Click Export to save the CSV file to your computer. 

Editing the product details CSV

1. Open the product details CSV. 
2. Scroll to the right to the end of the CSV and look for the CombineQuantityBuildable and AutoManufacture columns. 
3. In CombineQuantityBuildable, enter TRUE if you want the buildable quantity to be included with this product’s available quantity.
   
   Enter FALSE if you don’t want inFlow to include the buildable quantity with this product’s available quantity.
   
4. For the AutoManufacture column, enter TRUE if you want inFlow to build this product with a manufacture order automatically when added to a picked/fulfilled sales order. 
   
   enter FALSE if you don’t want inFlow to build this product with a manufacture order automatically when added to a picked/fulfilled sales order. 
5. Save the file as a CSV to import to inFlow. 

Importing the CSV to inFlow 

1. Go to Main Menu > Import data.
2. In the Data type drop-down menu, select Product details. Click Select a file to upload your CSV to inFlow, then click Next.
3. A preview of your product details will appear. If you would like to edit the way the fields are mapped from your spreadsheet, click Edit Data Mapping.
4. Match the inFlow product name field (to the left) to the product name field in the drop-down menu. 
5. Match the inFlow AutoManufacture and CombineQuantityBuildable fields to the matching fields in the drop-down menu. 
6. Click Import. The import will run in the background, and you’ll be emailed the results when done. 

The post How to import bundle products in bulk (manufacture settings) appeared first on inFlow Inventory.

Import file

Please note: Importing manufacturing operations is only available on inFlow Manufacturing for Web.

Creating the CSV

To start, you’ll need to create a CSV import template. You can export a blank template from inFlow or manually add the headings to your spreadsheet. 

How to export an operations CSV 

1. From the inFlow Homepage, click on the Main menu, then Export.
2. In the Data type list, select Operations.
3. Click Export and save the file on your computer. 
4. Open the CSV in the spreadsheet software of your choice. 

Create the CSV manually 

On a spreadsheet, add the following headings:

1. ProductName
2. OperationType
3. OperationPerUnitCost
4. OperationPerHourCost
5. OperationEstimatedDurationSeconds
6. OperationInstructions

Note: You might have noticed that the headings don’t have any spaces. Leaving the headings like this will allow inFlow to read the information on the CSV faster. 

Editing the operations CSV

Once you have a CSV with the appropriate headings, fill out the rows and columns starting with ProductName. 

The ProductName field is a unique identifier and must be filled out. inFlow flags an error if the field is left empty.

Import field breakdown

Adding multiple operations for a product

To add multiple operations, copy the product name to another row and fill out the remaining columns on that row. 

The operations listed on the CSV will be listed in the same order as they are listed in the Manufacturing tab of the product record. 

Note: at the moment, there isn’t an option to change the order of operations. You can reimport the CSV file to change the display order.

Import steps

Importing to inFlow

If you have your import file ready to go, read on for how to import your file to inFlow.

1. Click on Main Menu > Import.
2. In the Data type drop-down menu, select Operations.
3. Below, select the CSV file from your computer, then click Next.
4. A preview of your import file will appear and will let you know how many line products you have in your file.
5. To edit the mapping of CSV columns to inFlow fields, click on Edit data mapping.
6. Match the inFlow fields on the left to the fields in your CSV file that are in the drop-down menus.
7. Once you’re satisfied that all the fields you need match, click Import.
8. A confirmation message noting that your import is in progress will be displayed. You’ll be emailed the import results when it’s done.

The post How to import manufacturing operations to inFlow appeared first on inFlow Inventory.

Before connecting

Shopify webinar

Check out the webinar below to learn more about connecting inFlow to Shopify.

How does inFlow connect to Shopify?

When you connect your Shopify store to inFlow, you’re creating a link for both systems to stay up-to-date for all orders and product information. 

See below for a basic overview of how inFlow and Shopify will work together. 

Shopify orders 

• Shopify orders will create an inFlow sales order where you can manage the fulfillment of the order. 
• inFlow will send shipping updates to the matching Shopify orders. 

Shopify & inFlow products 

• When products are updated in inFlow, that data will sync to your Shopify products.
• New products created in Shopify will also be made in inFlow. (New products made in inFlow aren’t able to be created in Shopify)
• Product changes made in inFlow are sent to Shopify to keep products in both systems updated with the same details. 

Before you connect 

Below is some good-to-know information about inFlow and Shopify.

Product matching
If you have products in both inFlow and Shopify, the product SKUs in inFlow must exactly match those of the products in Shopify.

If there are no product SKUs in inFlow, the product names in inFlow must exactly match those in Shopify.

We recommend using SKUs in both inFlow and Shopify to reduce inaccuracies.

If you don’t have any products in inFlow, this integration lets you pull products from your Shopify store into inFlow.

Pricing Schemes
By connecting inFlow to Shopify, you’ll have the option of inFlow updating your product prices and sending the updated prices to matching products in Shopify. For this to work, you’ll need to connect the Shopify Price (and the optional Compare at price) to a matching pricing scheme in inFlow. 

If you don’t have pricing schemes in inFlow before connecting to Shopify, you can create them during the setup by clicking on +Pricing scheme. For more information on pricing, take a look at this pricing scheme article. 

Currencies 
It’s recommended that inFlow and Shopify are set to the same default currency. If you’ll be accepting multiple currencies in Shopify, you can make sure that the setting is active from these Shopify steps. 

Locations
When you connect Shopify to inFlow, you can select which inFlow location should be used for order fulfillment and product inventory. 

If you don’t have locations created in inFlow before connecting to Shopify, you can create them during the setup by clicking on +Location. If you prefer to add your locations before setting up, then take a look at the tracking inFlow locations article. 

When setting up, you can choose for inFlow to use inventory from all your locations or choose a specific inFlow location to push product data to Shopify. It’s recommended that if you have multiple locations in Shopify, you select specific inFlow locations to avoid any inventory inaccuracies. 

Are you using Shopify POS? If yes, you can connect inFlow to your Shopify store. However, make sure to turn off order archiving to allow inFlow to pull orders from your Shopify.

Connecting inFlow to Shopify

To connect inFlow to Shopify, you’ll need to access the Shopify App Store and your Shopify Store Admin settings. 

1. Log in to your Shopify store, and select the store you want to connect to inFlow. 
2. In Shopify, click on Apps and search for “inFlow Connector”. 
3. A new tab or window will open, taking you to the Shopify App Store. Click on inFlow Connector. 
4. Click on Add app if it hasn’t already been installed. Then select Install app on the next screen.
   
   
   
   
5. If you’re not logged into inFlow, you’ll be asked to log into your inFlow account.
6. Once logged in, you may be redirected to a permissions screen if you’re connecting Shopify to inFlow for the first time. Click on Yes, Allow.
   
7. You’ll be directed to the Shopify integration setup page.
8. Click Connect for any shop location you wish to pull orders from and push inventory to (optional), along with the remaining settings. 

Take a look at the Setup tab for a complete guide on connecting inFlow to Shopify. 

Setup

Locations

Once you’re in the inFlow Connector App settings, the first thing you’ll need to set up is the locations. This is to set which inFlow location(s) you’ll connect to your Shopify store location(s). 

inFlow’s integration with Shopify doesn’t support App locations (3PL locations.)

1. You’ll see a list of your Shopify store locations. Click Connect for the locations you want inFlow to have access to. 

2. You can choose which inFlow location to connect to your Shopify store. Select either Connect to one location or Connect to all inFlow locations.

If you don’t have all locations created in inFlow before connecting to Shopify, you can create them during the setup by clicking on +Location in the drop-down menus. This will create the location directly in inFlow from the inFlow Connector app. 

Note: If you haven’t personalized inFlow before setting up this integration, you can connect the Default location to connect to Shopify. At a later time, you can rename this location to match the name of your inventory location.

When done, click Next to continue to the Product Sync tab. 

Product sync

On this tab, you’ll be able to choose how you’d like inFlow to handle updating products for both inFlow and Shopify.

Pricing settings

The first setting in this section is the pricing settings. This is for connecting your Shopify prices to your inFlow pricing schemes*. This will apply to both pushing and pulling from Shopify. 

*Pricing schemes are different pricing options such as retail, wholesale, etc. that you can add to your inFlow products.

1. Price is what your products normally sell at in your Shopify store. In the drop-down menu, select a matching inFlow pricing scheme.
2. Shopify has the option to show a discount price too. If you want to use this option, map the Compare at price to a different inFlow pricing scheme from the drop-down menu.

If want to add more price options to inFlow, you can click on the +Pricing scheme button to add product pricing from this setup screen. 

Helpful inFlow pricing scheme articles: 

• How to add pricing schemes to inFlow.  
• How to import multiple product prices to pricing schemes. 
• How to mass adjust product prices for a pricing scheme. (inFlow Inventory for Windows only)

Push settings (inFlow to Shopify)

“Pushing” is the act of sending information from one system to another. In this case, data is sent from inFlow to Shopify to update products.  

This means you can make changes to your products in inFlow, and inFlow will send those changes to Shopify. This will cut down on double-entry for updating your products in both systems. 

inFlow can push stock levels, images, weight, dimensions, and pricing. To use this feature, toggle on the product details you want inFlow to push. 

Note: inFlow will only update the quantity levels that match the products in the location(s) you’ve set in the Location tab. 

Additional information 

If a product isn’t found in Shopify

This is a setting designed to alert you about products that inFlow has but are missing in your Shopify store. You can choose Let me know or Don’t let me know. Take a look below for explanations for both options. 

Note: inFlow isn’t able to create new products in Shopify.

Product pull settings (Shopify to inFlow)

“Pulling” is the act of getting information from another system. For example, inFlow will collect data from Shopify. This means new orders and products made in Shopify will be created in inFlow. 

This pull setting can only be done once per product. After the product is pulled into inFlow, you can add more information to that product from the inFlow side, and if the product push settings are enabled, those changes will be sent to Shopify to keep everything up-to-date with products with a matching product name/SKU. 

If you want inFlow to create products from Shopify, click on the Activate button under Pull settings. When this setting is active, the new Shopify products will be added to inFlow. This includes quantity available, images, barcode, weight, price, compare at price (optional), and cost.

Note: If you’re setting up Shopify with an empty inFlow database, you can use the pull option to add products from Shopify at the end of the setup.

Additional information

Which products will inFlow push to Shopify?
For inFlow to push product details, the product must exist in both systems. This means the product SKU in inFlow must be the same as the product SKUs in Shopify. If there is any difference, inFlow won’t be able to find the product in Shopify. 

Can inFlow create products in Shopify?
inFlow doesn’t create new products in Shopify. If a new product is added to inFlow, the product will need to be added manually to Shopify.

If you make a new product in Shopify, the integration can pull the new product to inFlow, so you don’t have to manually add the product to both systems.  

What product type will products pulled from Shopify be?
All products pulled from Shopify to inFlow were pulled as stocked products. If you want a product to have the product type of serialized, non-stocked, or service, you will have to create the product in inFlow first. Once made, create that product in Shopify with a matching SKU.

Click Next to proceed to the Orders tab. 

Orders sync

This tab is where you can choose settings related to how Shopify orders are pulled to inFlow. inFlow will be able to only pull open/unfulfilled orders from the last 365 days.

Set Customer name from

This setting is where you can choose how you’d like the customer information to pull from Shopify to inFlow. Select one of the following options for how the customer name will display on inFlow sales orders. 

Import order numbers

This setting is where you can set the naming for orders that are created from Shopify to inFlow. You can choose for the order numbers to pull: As is or Add prefix. 

The prefix option lets you add the store name should you wish to have a quick way to see which sales orders are created from Shopify and which have been made from inFlow directly. 

Import orders into inFlow as

This setting is to choose how inFlow should import your orders.

• As is: inFlow will match the fulfillment status of the Shopify order. 
• As Fulfilled: This will mark all pulled orders as fulfilled, no matter the status of the order in Shopify. 

Push shipping information 

Once inFlow pulls orders from Shopify, they’ll be processed and fulfilled in inFlow. When the order is processed, the shipping information will be sent to the matching sales order in Shopify. 

To enable shipping updates, click on Activate  

Click Next to proceed to Order conflicts. 

Order conflicts

There are times when there could be differences between inFlow and Shopify, creating a conflict. You can set how inFlow will treat conflicts with the settings on this tab.

Tax conflicts

Can’t find a matching taxing scheme
The setting Can’t find a matching taxing scheme can occur if inFlow pulls a Shopify order that has different taxing settings (taxing schemes) than inFlow has. You can choose from the below options for how you’d like inFlow to handle this situation. 

Pricing scheme conflicts

Can’t find a matching pricing scheme

In Shopify, there aren’t any pricing scheme settings like inFlow has. So what inFlow will do is take a look at the currency that Shopify has on the order and match it with a pricing scheme with the same currency. 

If inFlow has multiple pricing schemes that match the currency on the Shopify order, then inFlow will choose either the inFlow default of that currency or use the pricing scheme that is set on the inFlow customer record. 

If there isn’t a matching currency/pricing scheme from Shopify to inFlow, you can choose from the below options for how you’d like inFlow to handle this situation. 

Customer record conflict

Can’t find a matching customer
When inFlow pulls orders from Shopify, it checks the customer name on the Shopify order to make sure there’s a match in inFlow. If there isn’t a matching customer record, you can choose how you’d like inFlow to handle this conflict.

inFlow and Shopify calculations

If the imported order total doesn’t match inFlow’s calculations 
There are times when calculations from one system to another will end up with a different sum. Because of this, you can set how inFlow should handle these situations. 

Shopify setup complete

Once you’ve gone through all the tabs, you can click Complete. inFlow will now connect to your Shopify store going forward. When you want to proceed, click the Pull now button.

If you choose to pull products, then both products and Shopify orders (open and pending orders from the last 365 days) will be pulled to inFlow.

If you’re not pulling products to inFlow, click on the Pull now button to continue.

While your products and orders are pulling, you can close this window. When this process is complete, there will be a green checkmark on the Shopify logo in inFlow.

Additional information

I didn’t pull products when first setting up. Can I pull products from Shopify later? 

Yes, once inFlow connects to Shopify, you can access the Pull now button from the inFlow Connector app. 

Can I click the Pull now button again if I made updates to my products in Shopify? 

No, the Pull now button only works once per SKU. If you click the Pull now button after the products have been made in inFlow, only new Shopify products will be created in inFlow. With product pull enabled, inFlow will continue to pull new products made in Shopify to inFlow for you.  

We’d encourage you to make product updates in inFlow with the product push settings enabled. This will send product updates to your matching Shopify products. 

Did you connect the wrong Shopify store to inFlow?

If you need to change which store is connected to inFlow, you can find full steps on how to remove a Shopify store in the How to disconnect Shopify from inFlow section of the Customization tab.

Customization

Edit Shopify integration settings 

Once you’ve connected inFlow to Shopify, you can make changes to the integration settings at any time. To do this, you’ll repeat similar steps as the initial setup. 

1. With an Admin account, go to https://app.inflowinventory.com/options/integrations.   
2. Click on the Shopify icon.
3. Click on the blue arrow next to your Shopify store name.
4. This will redirect you to the inFlow Connector app within your Shopify store. 

From here, you can make changes to the settings. Click on the Save button when done. 

Connecting to multiple Shopify stores 

If your team has multiple Shopify stores, you can connect them all to inFlow. Each Shopify store counts as one integration to inFlow. Be sure to check how many integrations your inFlow plan can have before continuing.

How to connect another Shopify store to inFlow

To connect to another store, you can repeat the same steps as you did for connecting the first store by using the inFlow Connector app in the Shopify app store. 

1. Log in to your Shopify store, and select the store you want to connect to inFlow. 
2. In Shopify, click on Apps and search for “inFlow Connector.” 
3. A new tab or window will open, taking you to the Shopify App Store. Click on inFlow Connector. 
4. Click on Add app if it hasn’t already been installed. Then select Install app on the next screen.
5. You’ll be directed to the Shopify integration setup page. From here, click on Manage settings. 
6. Click Activate for any shop locations and go through all the setup sections. 

How to disconnect Shopify from inFlow

If you ever need to disconnect your Shopify store from inFlow, you do so with the steps below.   

1. With an Admin account, go to https://app.inflowinventory.com/options/integrations.   
2. Click on the Shopify icon.
3. Click on the blue arrow next to your Shopify store name.
4. This will redirect you to the inFlow Connector app within your Shopify store. 
5. Click on the Danger Zone tab, then click on the Disconnect button. 

Additional information

If I have multiple Shopify stores, can inFlow create the products for all my stores?

At the moment, inFlow doesn’t have the ability to create new products in Shopify. For the connection between inFlow and Shopify to work, both systems have the exact SKU in both systems.

This means either creating the SKU in Shopify first or creating the SKU in both systems. 

Product push example: 

You have three Shopify stores connected to inFlow. All three stores should be selling SKU: 12345. All three Shopify stores need to have a product created with an SKU of 12345 for inFlow to push product updates. 

If only one Shopify store has SKU 12345, then only that store will get product updates for that SKU from inFlow. 

Product pull example:

You have three Shopify stores connected to inFlow. If you’ve set inFlow to pull products from Shopify, then you need to create the product in all three Shopify stores. inFlow will create the product with a matching SKU from one of the Shopify stores. 

Going forward, inFlow can update those SKUs in all your Shopify stores with the product push feature. 

How orders sync

Pulling orders from Shopify

As mentioned, orders made by a customer or a Shopify admin will be pulled to inFlow. 

What order information can inFlow pull from Shopify?

Paid or Pending payment Shopify orders will sync to inFlow Inventory as soon as they’re made. See below for a list of fields from your Shopify orders that sync to inFlow.

• Customer Name
• Title (Product Name) 
• SKU 
• Pricing Scheme
• Taxing Scheme
• Contact Name
• Customer Billing and Shipping Address
• Item Price (does not override product default)
• Any applied discounts
• Order Remarks (called Notes in Shopify)
• Payment Method

When orders are pulled from Shopify, they will use the currency of the Shopify store and not the currency of the individual order. For example, if your Shopify store’s currency is USD and the customer paid in CAD, inFlow will pull that order with USD.

Using Shopify POS/order archiving?

Are you using Shopify POS? If yes, you can connect inFlow to your Shopify store, but you’ll need to turn off order archiving to allow inFlow to pull orders from your Shopify.

1. Under “After an order has been fulfilled and paid,” uncheck the option to automatically archive the order.
2. Log into your Shopify account: https://accounts.shopify.com/store-login. 
3. Go to Settings > Checkout.
4. Scroll to Order processing.

When are the updates sent to the Shopify order?

When Push shipping information is enabled, inFlow pushes updates on shipping to the matching Shopify order.   This means you can partially fulfill, completely fulfill your order, or remove shipments from the inFlow sales order, and Shopify will be up to date.

Pushing Shipping information 

If you’ve opted to have inFlow update shipping information, every time you update your sales order with any shipping details, that information will be sent to Shopify, which can notify your customer of the updates, too.

The updates that will be pushed from inFlow include the carrier, tracking number, and products in the shipment. 

How are fulfillment locations set on Shopify?

The fulfillment locations in inFlow and Shopify are set from the locations you picked in the Location tab of the integration settings. If you’d like to review these settings take a look at the Edit Shopify integration setting section of the After setup tab on this article.

What if there’s no location set on the sales order?

If your sales order location is not mapped to a specified location, then inFlow will try to find a Shopify location that is set to take stock From all your inventory locations.

If no matches are found, an integration error message will be displayed to let you know that the shipping information couldn’t be pushed on that order since there is no specific Shopify location to set as the fulfillment location.

How are refunds handled?

If you need to issue a refund, first process it through Shopify and then in inFlow. Refunds are not automatically processed when the order is updated in Shopify.

1. Process the refund on the Shopify order. 
2. Open the matching inFlow sales order. The funds will be updated to show the refund. 
3. On the sales order, discard or put back the refunded product.

How products sync

Product Push and Product pull settings

When inFlow and Shopify are connected, there are options for products to sync updates to both systems. 

Product Push

When inFlow connects to Shopify, it can update your products when you make changes, from inFlow to update Shopify products. This cuts down on double-entry when entering updates to both systems.

What product information can inFlow push to Shopify?

When inFlow has product push settings active, inFlow will continuously connect to your Shopify store and update products that have had changes in inFlow. The changes could be from an update in 

• Stock levels (quantity available)
• Images
• Barcode (default barcode)
• Weight 
• Price
• Compare at price
• Cost

Note: inFlow can only push product updates to products that exist in both Shopify and inFlow (products with matching SKU/product name)

If you want to push your product updates manually to Shopify, you can do so with the Push now button in the inFlow Connector app.

1. With an Admin account, go to app.inflowinventory.com/options/integrations.   
2. Click on the Shopify icon.
3. Click on the blue arrow next to your Shopify store name.
4. This will redirect you to the inFlow Connector app within your Shopify store. 
5. Click on the Product sync tab, then click on Push now.  

 Note: inFlow’s non-stocked and service product types can push all product details except stock levels to Shopify.

Product Pull

When the product pull settings are active, inFlow will pull in any products that are new in Shopify. New products are pulled into inFlow only once with this feature. 

If you want to trigger a product pull from Shopify, you can do so with the Pull now button in the inFlow Connector app from the Shopify app  Shopify integration settings.

1. Go to https://app.inflowinventory.com/options/integrations.  
2. Click on the Shopify icon.
3. Click on the blue arrow next to your Shopify store name.
4. Click on the Product sync tab. 
5. In the Pull settings section, you will see when products were last pulled from Shopify. Click the Pull now button to start pulling product details from Shopify to inFlow. 

What product information can inFlow pull from Shopify?

When the product pull settings are active, inFlow will connect to Shopify and automatically pull in any new products that have been made in Shopify. The details that will be created with the pull are 

• Product name
• SKU
• Stock levels
• Images
• Barcode
• Weight 
• Pricing. 

This setting has a limitation where all products can be pulled from Shopify to inFlow only once per product. 

Products pulled from Shopify will be created as stocked products. 

How inFlow connects to Shopify variant products

If your Shopify store has products with different options, then you’ll want to review this section. inFlow doesn’t have a dedicated feature to support product variants, but that doesn’t mean you can’t connect your Shopify store to inFlow. 

For this to work, inFlow and Shopify need to have matching SKUs. Each Shopify product variant SKU can match one inFlow product that acts as a variant.

Because inFlow doesn’t have a variant product type, inFlow will have to ignore the main Shopify variant product and only connect to the variant options that have a matching SKU. This means when inFlow sends products updated to Shopify, you’ll notice only the variant options are updated, but not the main product that houses all the variants.  

See below for a visualization of what information will be synced to inFlow when it comes to variants. 

Additional information

Why isn’t there an option to update the description?
At the moment, inFlow isn’t able to update the description field for Shopify products. This is due to Shopify having different technical formatting on their description field compared to the inFlow description field.

Our aim with connecting inFlow to Shopify is to make things easier for you and your team. So by not syncing the description, it’ll avoid formatting troubles that could occur. 

How will inFlow determine the stock level/quantity level to push to Shopify? 
inFlow syncs the quantity available based on purchase orders, sales orders, work orders, and stock adjustments that have been made. This only applies to products that exist in both inFlow and Shopify; having the Pull settings active can ensure that no products are missed from the Shopify side. 

How will inFlow and Shopify handle pulling and pushing product costs?
As mentioned, products with matching SKUs have the option to get updates from inFlow pushed to Shopify. This is to cut down on double entries for product updates. 

The product cost field will do the same and update the matching SKU in Shopify. Changes made to the unit price on purchase orders or with manual entry changes on the product record will be sent over. Take a look at the following guide for how inFlow calculates cost. 

How will inFlow handle different product weight units in Shopify? 
When inFlow pushes updates to Shopify, if there’s a difference in units, then inFlow will push the weight units that are in inFlow to the matching SKU in Shopify. 

When inFlow pulls a product from Shopify that has different weight units, then inFlow will convert the weight from what’s in Shopify to match the equivalent in inFlow. 

Troubleshooting

I cleared fields on the inFlow product record, but it didn’t clear in Shopify. How come?

To make sure no data is erased or overwritten, inFlow won’t push blank data to Shopify. This means if you need to clear any information such as price, weight, etc., you must make the changes in both inFlow and Shopify. 

Orders from Shopify aren’t showing up in inFlow

If you have automatic archiving of orders enabled in Shopify, your Shopify orders will not be pulled into inFlow. To check and turn off this feature:

For details on Shopify’s automatic archiving of orders feature, please see Shopify’s documentation here.

1. Log into your Shopify account: https://accounts.shopify.com/store-login. 
2. Go to Settings > Checkout.
3. Scroll to Order processing.
4. Under “After an order has been fulfilled and paid,” uncheck the option to automatically archive the order.

Error in the Shopify App Store

If you are in the Shopify App Store and see the error that reads: app.inflowinventory.com refused to connect, you can still set up your integration without trouble. Simply access the inFlow Web app directly from app.inflowinventory.com to continue.

If you leave the setup idle, you may need to refresh or re-login to your Shopify store.

Products in Shopify aren’t updating

Check if the Shopify product SKU matches an inFlow product SKU. inFlow can only update products that have a matching SKU or product name.

The post Connecting inFlow to Shopify appeared first on inFlow Inventory.

Please note: CartRover is now Extensiv Integration Manager.

Overview

What is Extensiv Integration Manager, and is it right for you?

Extensiv Integration Manager (CartRover) is a third-party application that can connect inFlow Inventory to multiple ecommerce platforms so that you can keep track of your inventory levels, shipping information, and order fulfillment all in one place. The three functions that we support are:

• Pushing inventory levels
• Pulling orders
• Pushing shipping information

In order to use this integration, you will need to create a paid account with Extensiv Integration Manager. For more information on their features and pricing, please take a look here:

• Single Merchant
• EDI Merchant

Note: We currently only support the Single & EDI Merchant accounts with Extensiv Integration Manager.

What are the differences between Extensiv Integration Manager integrations and the inFlow core integrations?

As mentioned, you can use the Extensiv Integration Manager integration to pull orders into inFlow. However, Extensiv Integration Manager only pulls in orders once. 

Any updates made to an existing order in the Extensiv Integration Manager cart will not be reflected in inFlow automatically. Instead, they must be manually made in inFlow.

Extensiv Integration Manager also does not support refunds. These must be manually adjusted in inFlow and the cart.

We do, however, have various direct integrations with the following ecommerce platforms that do not have these limitations. Please take a look below for more information on each integration:

• Shopify
• WooCommerce
• Amazon
• Squarespace

Setup

Before connecting inFlow to Extensiv Integration Manager

Set up matching products in inFlow and your ecommerce platform

In order for your products to correctly sync from inFlow to your ecommerce platform, you must make sure you have matching SKUs in both platforms. As long as the SKUs match, the product names can be different.

If you already have matching products in inFlow and your ecommerce platform, proceed to the next section of this article: Getting Started.

You can update your product SKUs in inFlow in bulk by importing the product details, and we have an easy import template that you can download from here to get you started.

To import to inFlow, go to: 

1. Main Menu > Import Data.
2. Select Product details from the Data type drop-down menu. 
3. Click Select file to locate the CSV from your computer. 
4. Click Next. Your import will now start, and when it’s done, you’ll be notified by email. 

For more information, you can take a look at our product details importing article.

Setup locations in Extensiv Integration Manager

To track inventory accurately, create locations in Extensiv Integration Manager that match your inFlow locations.

To learn more, take a look at this Creating Locations guide from Extensiv Integration Manager.

Getting started

inFlow Inventory for Windows App

1. Go to Main Menu > Options > Integrations.
2. The inFlow integration page will open on your computer’s default browser.
3. Click on the logo of any of the third-party integrations developed by Extensiv Integration Manager, and a window with an introduction to Extensiv Integration Manager’s supported functionalities will be displayed. Click on the Set up button to continue.

inFlow Inventory for Web

1. Log into https://app.inflowinventory.com/options/integrations
2. Click on the logo of any of the third-party integrations developed by Extensiv Integration Manager, and a window with an introduction to Extensiv Integration Manager’s supported functionalities will be displayed. Click on the Set up button to continue.

Connecting inFlow to Extensiv Integration Manager

Create an Extensiv Integration Manager account

1. To sign up for a new Extensiv Integration Manager account, go to the Extensiv Integration Manager-up page and sign up as a “Single Merchant”
2. If you already have an Extensiv Integration Manager account or have finished signing up for one, you can click on Next

Connect Extensiv Integration Manager API user and key

1. Go to your Extensiv Integration Manager WMS Setup page 
2. Select API Access Only as your WMS selection
3. Click on the Test WMS Connection button to generate your API user and key
4. Copy your API User and API Key into inFlow and click on connect
5. Once inFlow verifies that your API User and Key are correct, you will see a checkmark and a “Connected” badge
6. Remember to click Save on Extensiv Integration Manager’s page before coming back to inFlow to click on Next

Set up carts in Extensiv Integration Manager

Carts or Order sources in Extensiv Integration Manager are the platforms from where you want to pull your orders from, push inventory available or push shipping information to such as eBay, BigCommerce, etc.

1. To set up a cart on Extensiv Integration Manager, go to your Extensiv Integration Manager Carts page
2. Click on the “New Setup” button
3. Click on the logo for the cart you want to add
4. For each cart, you will have these three options:

• Order Download is how often you want to pull in orders from your cart intoinFlow. We recommend setting this to every five minutes to keep inFlow in sync as closely as possible.
• Shipment Upload is how often you want Extensiv Integration Manager to send shipping information on your orders to your Cart after it’s been updated from inFlow. We recommend this to be set as Automatic, meaning as soon as Extensiv Integration Manager receives shipping information on that order, it will be pushed to the cart.
• Inventory Upload is how often you want Extensiv Integration Manager to send the quantity available for a product after it’s been updated in inFlow. We recommend this to be set as Automatic, meaning as soon as Extensiv Integration Manager receives any changes to the quantity available for a product, it will be pushed to the cart.

Each cart setup steps can be slightly different, so you will need to follow the instructions on Extensiv Integration Manager to properly set them up. Click on the ? on the top left to see more information.

Once you’re done setting up your carts in Extensiv Integration Manager, you can go back to the inFlow settings and click on the Check for carts button. The logo for any connected carts should show up now. Once you are done adding your carts,  you can click on Next.

Configure integration settings

Clicking on Configure integration settings will bring you to the final step.

Once you’ve connected Extensiv Integration Manager, all of your Extensiv Integration Manager locations are listed separately. Each Extensiv Integration Manager location can be toggled on/off separately to determine if your inventory available will be pushed to each one.

If enabled, you can control what inventory location to push from, either a single inFlow inventory location or combine all of your inFlow inventory locations.

We recommend mapping each Extensiv Integration Manager location to a single inFlow location to make sure they’re not being double-counted in Extensiv Integration Manager.

Push inventory

Pushing inventory levels to Extensiv Integration Manager

What do we mean when we say “push inventory” to Extensiv Integration Manager? To “push” data means inFlow will send data out of inFlow to another source (in this case, Extensiv Integration Manager).

When Push inventory levels is enabled in the inFlow integration settings, this will apply to all of the locations that were enabled in your integration settings.

Anytime a product’s quantity available is updated in inFlow, it will automatically push that amount to Extensiv Integration Manager, which will update all of your carts where the product with the matching SKU is found.

If your location mapping in your integration settings is set to take stock from all your inventory locations, this means that inFlow will push the total quantity available across all of your inFlow locations.

If your location mapping in your integration settings is set to take stock from a single location, this means that inFlow will only push the quantity available from the specified inFlow location.

Extensiv Integration Manager Settings

There are some settings in Extensiv Integration Manager that are specific to your cart, such as how orders are pulled in or how your products are matched. One setting to be careful about is your Sync Inventory with Location setting under your General Inventory Options.

In Extensiv Integration Manager, you can have multiple locations. In our example above, we have a location named Retail store and another location named Warehouse A.

You can either push inventory levels to your cart only from a single location or the combined total across all Extensiv Integration Manager locations to your cart.

In a later step, you’ll be able to match each of your Extensiv Integration Manager locations with your inFlow locations as well.

Pull orders

Pulling orders from Extensiv Integration Manager

Now that we’ve covered pushing data, the opposite applies to the term “pull”. This means inFlow will sync data from another source through Extensiv Integration Manager to bring it into inFlow. inFlow pulls your sales information from Extensiv Integration Manager to create sales orders for you, so you don’t have to do any double-entry. 

Select your preferred settings in this section to match your company’s preferences. 

Note: Item description will only be pulled from Extensiv Integration Manager/CartRover products if you have set Display Product name and description in your Company Settings.

By default, we will add a prefix to any orders that are being pulled in from Extensiv Integration Manager into inFlow. As a general rule of thumb, we try to use the first two letters of your integration as the prefix so that you can easily tell from the order number where the order originally came from.

For example, for BigCommerce orders, we add the prefix “BI:” in front of the order number. In rare cases, the prefix can be three letters if it conflicts with other integrations.

You can always customize the prefix as well. The only requirement is that the prefixes are unique and do not duplicate one another.

Order update limitation

Extensiv Integration Manager supports pulling in discounts, taxes, and cancellations of orders. However, Extensiv Integration Manager only pulls in orders once. 

Ex. Let’s say you created an order in BigCommerce and it was pulled into inFlow through the integration. If the order is modified within BigCommerce, those updates will not transfer over into inFlow automatically. You would need to manually update inFlow to reflect the changes.

Extensiv Integration Manager also does not support refunds. These must also be manually adjusted in inFlow and the cart/order source.

Push shipping info

Pushing shipping information to Extensiv Integration Manager

When Push shipping information is enabled in the inFlow integration settings, inFlow will be able to update any orders that originated from a cart through Extensiv Integration Manager when the order is fulfilled.

inFlow only pushes shipping information once, and this happens when the entire order is fulfilled. The information that inFlow pushes to Extensiv Integration Manager is:

• Shipment dates
• Shipment carrier
• Tracking number
• Shipment contents (which products and the quantity)

Note: Extensiv Integration Manager does not support updates to shipping information. This means that when an order is completely fulfilled in inFlow, we will push the information only once. Any updates after that will have to be manually done within the cart itself.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

If I update my product SKU in inFlow, will it be updated in Extensiv Integration Manager and my carts as well?

No. Product information updates are not supported through Extensiv Integration Manager. If you update a product SKU anywhere, make sure you also update the corresponding product in the other platforms (either in inFlow or your cart) to make sure they continue to match properly.

I see PayPal is supported by Extensiv Integration Manager. Can I take payments through PayPal on my inFlow orders?

No. inFlow does not push orders that were created from inFlow, so you would not be able to push an order from inFlow to PayPal to receive payments. The only function that we would support is pulling orders that were created from PayPal into inFlow. However, we do have a payment component built directly into inFlow called inFlow Pay! To learn more, please take a look here. 

I see SalesForce is supported by Extensiv Integration Manager. Can I sync my customer information between inFlow and SalesForce?

No. inFlow does not push or pull customer information, so you would not be able to manage your customer information through Extensiv Integration Manager. The only function that we would support is pulling orders that were created from SalesForce into inFlow.

I see ShipStation is supported by Extensiv Integration Manager. Can I purchase shipping labels on my orders through the Extensiv Integration Manager integration?

No. inFlow does not push orders that were created from inFlow, so you would not be able to purchase shipping labels through ShipStation. The only function that we would support is pulling orders that were created from ShipStation into inFlow. However, we do have a shipping integration with EasyPost that allows you to purchase shipping labels directly in inFlow! To learn more, please take a look here.

Troubleshooting

Extensiv Integration Manager alerts vs. errors

Extensiv Integration Manager alerts

Extensiv Integration Manager alerts are shown in inFlow whenever there is an issue between Extensiv Integration Manager and your connected carts. We provide a view-only list to give you a heads-up that there has been an issue, but you will need to go to Extensiv Integration Manager to fix it.

If you don’t want the alert to show up on your list anymore, you can go to your Extensiv Integration Manager Alerts list and dismiss each one. Clicking on any of these alerts in inFlow will open up a new tab to bring you to your Extensiv Integration Manager alerts dashboard.

Extensiv Integration Manager errors

Extensiv Integration Manager errors are displayed separately from Alerts. These are shown when there is an issue between inFlow and Extensiv Integration Manager. Generally, these will have the option to either be dismissed or retried once the issue has been resolved.

Common Extensiv Integration Manager errors and how to resolve them

How come my orders from my cart didn’t get pulled into inFlow?

The first thing to check would be to see if your order made it from your Cart to Extensiv Integration Manager.

1. Login to your Extensiv Integration Manager account.
2. Click on Orders
3. Do you see your order listed here? If not, then the issue is between Extensiv Integration Manager and your cart
4. Check your cart settings by going to your Carts on the navigation menu on the left, then click on your cart (in this example, we’re going to check our BigCommerce cart settings)
5. Check when the last time the Last Order Run happened. Is this the date/time after your order was created? By default, the times displayed in Extensiv Integration Manager are in Pacific Standard Time (PST). Was it successful? If it failed, you will need to check your Extensiv Integration Manager Alerts to see what the reason was.

If it was successful and the last order run happened after your order was created, then you should click on “Edit Setup” to double-check your cart settings.

Each cart has their own unique set of settings, but one common mismatch is that the order being created is not in the right status to be pulled. For example, the settings here show that it is set to only pull in orders with order status Awaiting Fulfillment.

If that is not correct, then you can update the status of the settings here or update the order status from your cart and try again.

How come my inventory level between inFlow and my cart is different?

1. Double-check that the products both have the same SKU in inFlow and your cart. If not, you will need to update them to match and trigger another change in your inventory levels from inFlow to see the update go through.
2. If the SKUs match, then the next step is to check if the inventory from inFlow matches Extensiv Integration Manager.
   • In Extensiv Integration Manager, go to Merchants > Locations & Products > Select the location you want > Look for the product SKU and check the quantity available
3. If the quantity available in Extensiv Integration Manager matches inFlow, the problem is between Extensiv Integration Manager and your cart.
4. The next best place to check is your cart settings in Extensiv Integration Manager. Check your cart settings by going to your Carts on the navigation menu on the left, then click on your cart.
5. Double-check the date and time of the Last Inventory Run and whether or not it was a success. If it failed, check your Extensiv Integration Manager Alerts to see why that happened.

If it was a success, then the last thing to check is your cart settings. Click on Edit Setup from here and check your Sync Inventory with the Location setting.

Make sure that it is set correctly to what you expect it to – either a single location or COMBINE ALL LOCATIONS, which would push the total quantity available to your cart.

How come my shipping information wasn’t updated in my cart?

1. Make sure that your order in inFlow is entirely fulfilled. Extensiv Integration Manager only allows us to push shipping information once, so the shipping information is only pushed when the entire order has been shipped out and fulfilled within inFlow.
2. If the order is completely fulfilled, the next place to check is to see if Extensiv Integration Manager received the shipping information. Check your order by logging into Extensiv Integration Manager and then going to your Orders
3. The order status should be shipped. Click on the affected order, and you should see shipment(s) on the right-hand side.
4. If all of this information is correct, then the issue is between Extensiv Integration Manager and your cart.

Check your cart settings by going to your Carts on the navigation menu on the left, then click on your cart. Double-check the date and time of the Last Shipment Run and whether or not it was a success. If it failed, check your Extensiv Integration Manager alerts to see why that happened.

The post Connecting ecommerce shops to inFlow with Extensiv Integration Manager (CartRover) appeared first on inFlow Inventory.

Remove inFlow branding plan add-on

If you want to remove the inFlow branding, contact the inFlow team to learn how to add this to your plan.

Online Showroom

This add-on gives you the option to remove inFlow branding from the following:

• Footer from all pages, including the Showroom special access login page.
• “Powered by inFlow” title in the webpage title.
• inFlow branding from Showroom emails.
• “An inFlow Inventory Showroom” title in the Showroom footer.

inFlow documents

The plan add-on will remove inFlow branding from the following:

• inFlow footer from emailed and shared documents.
• inFlow branding from emails.

The emails won’t have any inFlow branding other than the “via inFlow Inventory” in the email sender. All replies will still continue to go to the inFlow user.

If you’re using Showroom Pro, the inFlow branding is removed by default.

The post How to remove inFlow branding appeared first on inFlow Inventory.

Preparing images

Getting your images ready

In order to import your images, they must be stored online and have a public URL. If you have them stored locally on your computer, we recommend using Airtable to generate URLs for your images.

Before you start

• The product names/SKUs on your CSV must have a matching product name or SKU in inFlow. 
• This import doesn’t create new entries in inFlow, it will only import images to existing products. As such, you’ll want to ensure the image names match your product names so that they map accordingly during import.
• This import method only supports one image per product.
• Airtable URLs are valid for 2 hours.

Note: inFlow Inventory is not affiliated with Airtable. For up-to-date guides on the steps suggested below, please see the Airtable Help Center. 

Guide to Gallery view. 

Download a view to CSV. 

Uploading your images to Airtable

1. Sign up for a free account in Airtable (if you already have an account, skip this step and sign in).
2. On the Airtable homepage, click on Start from scratch.

3. Create 2 columns on the grid by clicking on the plus icon and name them (the naming convention is personal preference): one Single line text column named “FileName”; one Attachment column named “Attachments”.

4. Create a Gallery.

5. From the Gallery tab, drag and drop your images onto the Add Record circle in the bottom right corner and have each item be created as a new entry. This can take up to a few minutes depending on the number and size of the images being imported.

Note: If Airtable is not allowing you to add images and returns the error “To drop files, choose an attachment image field”, you’ll need to delete the Gallery, ensure you have an Attachment type column in your Grid View, then recreate the Gallery and try again.

6. Once the images from the Gallery have mapped over to the Grid view, you can download the CSV by clicking on Grid view in the top left corner, then Download CSV from the drop-down.

CSV setup

Article shortcuts

• Editing the CSV (created with Airtable)
• Creating/editing the CSV (without Airtable)

Editing the CSV (created with Airtable)

1. To import images to inFlow, you must remove the file name and the parentheses () from the Attachments field.
2. Add 2 empty columns in the middle (in columns B and C) and give them the similar headers as the other columns (A and D)

3. Add the following formula to cell B2 (in the new ProductName column) to delete the extension from the file names, and apply the formula to all cells in the column that contain values in the adjacent cell:

   =LEFT(A2,FIND(".",A2)-1)

4. Add the following formula to cell C2 (in the new Attachments column) to extract the URL from column D, and apply to all cells in the column that contain values in the adjacent cell:

   =MID(D2,FIND("https",D2),LEN(D2)-FIND("https",D2)-1)

5. Ensure that both columns B and C contain only the new values by copying the columns and pasting them back in the same spot. Otherwise, you’ll get errors when deleting columns A and D.

6. Delete columns A and D.

7. Save the file as a CSV to import to inFlow. Click on the Windows or Web article tab for steps for importing this CSV to inFlow.

Creating/editing the CSV (without Airtable)

If you already have URL links for your product images, you can create a CSV to upload to inFlow. 

You can download a template for your picture import by

1. Go to Main Menu > General > Export.
2. Select Product Images from the Data type section.
3. Click Export. 

You can also create your own file by adding the following columns to the spreadsheet. 

• Product Name / SKU (at least one field is required)
• Image URL

Things to note:

• The Product name or the SKU you enter in the spreadsheet must match the Product Name or SKU of your products in inFlow Inventory.
• If a product has multiple images, the first image that is imported will be set as the default image in inFlow.
• If you’re importing images for a product that already has them, they will be replaced with the imported ones. If you leave the URL column blank, it will delete all images associated with the product.

Saving as a .csv file from Excel

In order to import data which may contain special characters, save as CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)

Before you import, make sure your file is saved as a CSV. 

1. In your spreadsheet, click File > Save As.
2. At the bottom of the window, click the Save as Type drop-down and select CSV (comma delimited).
3. Click Save.
4. Excel will warn you about the loss of formatting. This is not a problem. Click Yes to complete your save.

If using another spreadsheet program, save the file as a CSV before you import to inFlow.

Windows

Importing in the Windows App

1. Go to  Main Menu > General > Import Data.
2. Select Product Images from the Data type drop-down menu.
3. Browse your file location and select the CSV you prepared earlier.
4. Click Next.
5. On the mapping screen, match the columns to the fields in the CSV drop-down menu
6. Click Import. You’ll receive an email when the import is complete.

Web

Importing in inFlow Inventory for Web

1. Go to  Main Menu > Import
2. In the Data type field, select Product Images.
3. Browse for the CSV you prepared earlier.
4. Click Next.
5. Match the columns in the CSV to the fields. Once you match the URL field, you’ll see a preview of the first image you’re importing.
6. Click Import. You’ll receive an email when the import is complete.

The post How to import images in bulk to inFlow appeared first on inFlow Inventory.

EasyPost is a quick and easy way to manage your shipping carriers in one place and then purchase shipping labels directly from inFlow.

Setup

Signing up and using EasyPost is free. However, monthly or yearly charges will occur if your company does volume shipping (more than 36,000 labels per year). See the EasyPost website for details.

Shipping Setup

You will need an EasyPost account (it’s free). This setup will walk you through creating and connecting your EasyPost account.

1. Log in to your inFlow account.
2. In the Main Menu, hover over the settings icon, then click Options.
3. Select Shipping.
4. Click Set up to begin.

Setup

1. Click Create an account with EasyPost. This will open EasyPost’s website in a new tab. Log in to EasyPost at the top right if you already have an account. Otherwise, sign up for a free account on this page.
2. After you’ve signed up or logged into your EasyPost account, click Account Settings, then API Keys. You’ll have 2 options here. Copy the chosen key depending on whether you want to test the connection or start using it fully.
   • Test API Key. This test key will connect your EasyPost account but will only generate VOIDED labels at no charge. Use this key for testing the connection and see how rates and labels will look inside inFlow.
   • Production API Key. This key fully connects you to your EasyPost account and will allow you to start purchasing valid labels right away.
3. When you’ve copied the key you want, return to the inFlow Inventory tab. Click Enter EasyPost API key.
4. Paste the copied key into the API key text box. Click Connect. Once you see EasyPost API connected, click Next at the bottom of the window.
   Note: You should see Test API key if using the test key or Connected if using the Production API key.
5. Click Next when finished.
6. Click Complete setup.

Optional settings

1. Click Set carrier accounts. From here, you can open your EasyPost carriers page and add the companies you wish to ship with. No changes are needed inside inFlow, so when you’re done, hit Next.
2. Click Shipment confirmation email. Here you can configure sending email confirmations to your customers when the shipping company picks up the parcel (On, by default) and if you would like that email to be copied to another email address.
   • Toggle On or Off Send shipment confirmation email.
   • Toggle On or Off Send a copy of confirmation emails
     • If turned on, enter the email address you would like copied. Multiple emails can be added by separating each email address with a comma.

Your EasyPost connection is complete, and you can start creating shipping labels! There are a few more options you can explore at this time if you’d like. If so, click on Explore Settings. Otherwise, you can revisit these additional settings at any time by returning to this Shipping option. 

Additional Settings

Now that you have inFlow connected with your EasyPost account, you can set up a few more settings to make purchasing shipping labels easier.

Please note, that clicking the left arrow at the top left of the settings window at any time will save the current settings you have entered and return you to the previous settings page. Clicking Save or Done buttons at the bottom right will save your settings and close the window.

From this window, you can modify the following:

Recording shipping costs – Set how to record shipping costs in your sales order and invoices in inFlow. Options:

Don’t record (default) – Shipping costs won’t be recorded on the sales orders.

Non-customer cost (recommended) – The shipping costs will not affect the sales order subtotal but will be placed in the non-customer cost field on sales orders. This is recommended because it will easily allow you to track how much is spent on shipping without showing these values to the customer.

Freight – The shipping costs will affect the sales order subtotal and be recorded in the freight field on sales orders.

Saved parcel sizes – This allows you to save preset parcel/box sizes for commonly used dimensions. This may make purchasing labels faster as you can select any of the existing box sizes.

To save a new parcel size:

1. Click Add saved size.
2. Enter a name, length, width, and height.
3. Choose whether it is recorded in cm or in 
4. Click on Save size.

VAT/Tax ID – If you ship internationally, you are required to have either a VAT or Tax ID. This allows you to enter or modify it here, so it will be prefilled when purchasing labels.

Shipment confirmation email – Allows you to notify customers when their order is on its way. A confirmation email is sent when the parcel is picked up by the carrier (on by default). You can also choose if you would like to copy any other email addresses on these confirmation emails. If adding multiple email addresses, separate them with a comma.

The following three options are related to your EasyPost account and require you to log in to your EasyPost account.

EasyPost API key – lets you change what API key you have entered, connecting inFlow to EasyPost. 

Connected carriers – Shows a list of the carriers that are connected to your EasyPost account. If you would like to add more, navigate to your EasyPost account, choose the carrier that you would like to add and log into your account right from EasyPost. When you add a new account, inFlow will automatically display it.

Billing – All label purchases are handled directly from the carrier themselves through your carrier-specific accounts (i.e. FedEx, Purolator, UPS, etc.). However, if you are using EasyPost’s USPS negotiated rates, purchasing insurance from EasyPost, or receiving alerts for overage fees, you will need to set up your billing account in EasyPost directly. Follow the link and instructions here.

Web

Buying a Label

As long as shipping is enabled on your Sales Order and EasyPost is connected, inFlow will automatically bring up the label purchase screen when you fulfill your order. If you don’t need to purchase a label for any reason, you can click “Skip, no label needed” to proceed without purchasing a label, and the item will be shipped via a manual shipment line.

Wherever possible, inFlow will try to pre-populate the form with as much information as possible. This includes things like addresses, product names and descriptions, weight, value, etc.

For more detailed steps, follow below:

1. Connect your EasyPost account to inFlow by adding your API key in the shipping settings.
2. Create a sales order and ensure that shipping is enabled.
3. There are two main ways to purchase a label.
   • Click Fulfill on the sales order, which will automatically bring up the label purchase screen.
   • Or enter the items in the Pick tab and the Ship tab of the sales order, then click the Ship it button beside the items on the Ship tab.
4. You will now see the Shipment Details window.

Shipment Details screen

1. Ensure that there is both a Shipping to and Shipping from address. If you need to modify either of these, click Edit and enter the information as needed.
2. Toggle whether a signature is required for delivery.
3. Enter the parcel weight, and you can choose either kg or lbs.
4. Choose the parcel size either by selecting a pre-existing saved size if you have created it or by entering the length, width, and height of the parcel. You have the option to save these sizes from this screen if you so choose. Click Save parcel size, enter a name, length, width, and height for the saved parcel, and click the Save button before proceeding.
5. Click the Next button to continue.

Shipment Customs screen

1. If customs is required for your item, toggle the Customs required for this shipment either on or off. If no customs are required, toggle Off and hit Next to continue to the Rates screen. If On, continue filling out the form.
2. Select a Contents Type.
3. Add a description of the contents.
4. Select if there are any restrictions for the items.
5. Enter the value for each item in the box, including Country of Origin, total weight, HS Code, and value.
6. Fill in the EEL / PFC field (sometimes also known as AES / ITN). This value is required for some international shipments.
   • If shipping from the US and the total value of goods is less than $2,500, inFlow automatically will use the code “NOEEI 30.37(a)”. 
   • If shipping from the US and goods are more than $2,500, you will need to apply for a number via https://ace.cbp.dhs.gov/ 
   • If shipping from outside the US, please follow your country’s specific exporting/importing rules.
7. Set the Tax and duty payment terms.
8. Choose what should happen to the parcel if it cannot be delivered.
9. Read and check the certification checkmark at the bottom and enter your name in the Certified by field.
10. Click the Next button to continue.

Shipment Rates screen

1. You will be shown a list of available carriers and their rates based on the information you entered previously. Select the carrier and rate you would like to continue with.
2. You can filter the results to only specific carriers by pressing the checkboxes on the left-hand side or arrange the list by price or shipping priority with the toggle at the top right.
3. Click Next to continue.

Review & Purchase Label screen

This screen shows a summary of all the information entered for this label. Review and edit any information as needed, and if the sales order is in USD and under $5,000 USD in value, you can choose to purchase insurance on the parcel.

When satisfied with all the information, click the Purchase Label button. 

You’ll see a summary screen with the tracking information and be able to choose the label size: either 8.5 in x 11 on standard paper or 4 in x 6 on A6 paper/labels.

Once you are finished, click “Done”. 

What if I need more than one box per sales order? Purchasing multiple shipping labels.

On the Ship tab, make sure to enter the same corresponding box number on each product that is going in the same box. For example, you may have 1 case of Pepsi in box 1 and 1 case of Coke in box 2.

Click the words buy label beside one of your items, and you will see a Shipment Contents screen confirming the items in that box. If the contents are correct, click Confirm to continue with the regular shipping label purchase process. Once finished with this label, repeat the steps for any other boxes that need shipping.

Viewing a Label

Once you have purchased a label you can easily view/print it again by returning to the sales order it was created for.

1. Open the original Sales Order the label was purchased for.
2. Click on the Ship tab.
3. In the Ship tab, click View shipping details near the bottom right. You will see each box in the shipment, the ship date, the carrier, and the tracking number. Click the right arrow beside one of these tracking numbers to view the purchased label.

Removing a Label

Once a label has been purchased for an order, you can remove it from within inFlow. Note that removing a label from inFlow does not refund or cancel the label. To cancel or return your label, you must do this from within your EasyPost dashboard. Return policies vary from carrier to carrier. You can read more about refunding labels on the EasyPosts website here.

Removing the label will allow you to purchase a new one inside inFlow or modify the shipment information if no label is needed.

To remove your label from inFlow:

1. Open the original Sales Order the label was purchased from.
2. Click on the Ship tab.
3. In the Ship tab, click View shipping details near the bottom right. You will see each box in the shipment as well as the Ship Date, Carrier, and Tracking Number. Click the right arrow beside one of these tracking numbers to view the purchased label.
4. Click  X Remove shipment from inFlow to remove the shipping label.
5. A confirmation message will be displayed. Click Remove shipment to finalize the removal.
6. Repeat for any other labels as needed.

Windows

Buying a Label

As long as shipping is enabled on your Sales Order and EasyPost is connected, inFlow will automatically bring up the label purchase screen when you fulfill your order. If you don’t need to purchase a label for any reason, you can click “Skip, no label needed” to proceed without purchasing a label, and the item will be shipped via a manual shipment line.

Wherever possible, inFlow will try and pre-populate the form with as much information as possible, this includes things like addresses, product names and descriptions, weight, value, etc.

For more detailed steps, follow below:

1. Connect your EasyPost account to inFlow by adding your API key in the shipping settings.
2. Create a sales order and ensure that shipping is enabled.
3. There are two main ways to purchase a label.
   • Click Fulfill on the sales order, which will automatically bring up the label purchase screen.
   • Or enter the items in the Pick tab and the Ship tab of the sales order, then click the Ship it button beside the items on the Ship tab.
4. You will now see the Shipment Details window.

Shipment Details screen

1. Ensure that there is both a Shipping to and Shipping from address. If you need to modify either of these, click Edit and enter the information as needed.
2. Toggle whether a signature is required for delivery.
3. Enter the parcel weight, and you can choose either kg or lbs.
4. Choose the parcel size either by selecting a pre-existing saved size if you have created it or by entering the length, width, and height of the parcel. You have the option to save these sizes from this screen if you so choose. Click Save parcel size, enter a name, length, width, and height for the saved parcel, and click the Save button before proceeding.
5. Click the Next button to continue.

Shipment Customs screen

1. If customs is required for your item, toggle the Customs required for this shipment either on or off. If no customs are required, toggle Off and hit Next to continue to the Rates screen. If On, continue filling out the form.
2. Select a Contents Type.
3. Add a description of the contents.
4. Select if there are any restrictions for the items.
5. Enter the value for each item in the box, including Country of Origin, total weight, HS Code, and value.
6. Fill in the EEL / PFC field (sometimes also known as AES / ITN). This value is required for some international shipments.
   • If shipping from the US and the total value of goods is less than $2,500, inFlow automatically will use the code “NOEEI 30.37(a)”. 
   • If shipping from the US and goods are more than $2,500, you will need to apply for a number via https://ace.cbp.dhs.gov/ 
   • If shipping from outside the US, please follow your country’s specific exporting/importing rules.
7. Set the Tax and duty payment terms.
8. Choose what should happen to the parcel if it cannot be delivered.
9. Read and check the certification checkmark at the bottom and enter your name in the Certified by field.
10. Click the Next button to continue.

Shipment Rates screen

1. You will be shown a list of available carriers and their rates based on the information you entered previously. Select the carrier and rate you would like to continue with.
2. You can filter the results to only specific carriers by pressing the checkboxes on the left-hand side or arrange the list by price or shipping priority with the toggle at the top right.
3. Click Next to continue.

Review & Purchase Label screen

This screen shows a summary of all the information entered for this label. Review and edit any information as needed, and optionally, you can choose to purchase insurance on the parcel if the sales order is in USD and under $ 5,000 USD value.

When satisfied with all the information, click the “Purchase Label” button. 

You’ll see a summary screen with the tracking information and be able to choose the label size: either 8.5 in x 11 on standard paper or 4 in x 6 on A6 paper/labels.

Once you are finished, click Done. 

What if I need more than one box per sales order? Purchasing multiple shipping labels.

On the Ship tab, make sure to enter the same box number for each product that is going in the same box. For example, you may have one case of Pepsi in box 1 and one case of Coke in box 2.

Click the button Buy label beside one of your items, and you will see a Shipment Contents screen confirming the items in that box. If the contents are correct, click Confirm to continue with the regular shipping label purchase process. Once finished with this label, repeat the steps for any other boxes that need shipping.

Viewing a Label

Once you have purchased a label you can easily view/print it again by returning to the sales order it was created for.

1. Open the original Sales Order the label was purchased for.
2. Click on the Ship tab.
3. In the Ship tab, click View shipping details near the bottom right. You will see each box in the shipment, the ship date, the carrier, and the tracking number. Click the details button beside one of these tracking numbers to view the purchased label.

Removing a Label

Once a label has been purchased for an order, you can remove it from within inFlow. Note that removing a label from inFlow does not refund or cancel the label. To cancel or return your label, you must do this from within your EasyPost dashboard. Return policies vary from carrier to carrier. You can read more about refunding labels on EasyPosts website here.

Removing the label will allow you to purchase a new one inside inFlow or modify the shipment information if no label is needed.

To remove your label from inFlow:

1. Open the original Sales Order the label was purchased from.
2. Click on the Ship tab.
3. In the Ship tab, click View shipping details near the bottom right. You will see each box in the shipment as well as the Ship Date, Carrier, and Tracking Number. Click the details button beside one of these tracking numbers to view the purchased label.
4. Click  X Remove shipment from inFlow, to remove the shipping label.
5. A confirmation message will be displayed. Click Remove shipment to finalize the removal.
6. Repeat for any other labels as needed.

Mobile

Buying a Label

As long as shipping is enabled on your Sales Order and EasyPost is connected, inFlow will automatically bring up the label purchase screen when you fulfill your order. If you don’t need to purchase a label for any reason, you can click “Skip, no label needed” to proceed without purchasing a label, and the item will be shipped via a manual shipment line.

Wherever possible, inFlow will try to pre-populate the form with as much information as possible. This includes things like addresses, product names and descriptions, weight, value, etc.

For more detailed steps, follow below:

1. Connect your EasyPost account to inFlow by adding your API key in the shipping settings.
2. Create a sales order and ensure that shipping is enabled.
3. Click Ship order on the sales order, which will automatically bring up the label purchase screen.
4. You will now see the Shipment Details window.

Shipment Details screen

1. Ensure that there is both a Shipping to and Shipping from address. If you need to modify either of these, click Edit and enter the information as needed.
2. Toggle whether a signature is required for delivery.
3. Enter the parcel weight. You can choose either kg or lbs.
4. Choose the parcel size either by selecting a pre-existing saved size if you have created it or by entering the length, width, and height of the parcel. You have the option to save these sizes from this screen if you so choose. Click Save parcel size, enter a name, length, width, and height for the saved parcel, and click the Save button before proceeding.
5. Click the Next button to continue.

Shipment Customs screen

1. If customs is required for your item, toggle the Customs required for this shipment either on or off. If no customs are required, toggle Off and hit Next to continue to the Rates screen. If On, continue filling out the form.
2. Select a Contents Type.
3. Add a description of the contents.
4. Select if there are any restrictions for the items.
5. Enter the value for each item in the box, including the country of origin, total weight, HS Code, and value.
6. Fill in the EEL / PFC field (sometimes also known as AES / ITN). This value is required for some international shipments.
   • If shipping from the US and the total value of goods is less than $2,500, inFlow automatically will use the code “NOEEI 30.37(a)”. 
   • If shipping from the US and goods are more than $2,500, you will need to apply for a number via https://ace.cbp.dhs.gov/ 
   • If shipping from outside the US, please follow your country’s specific exporting/importing rules.
7. Set the Tax and duty payment terms.
8. Choose what should happen to the parcel if it cannot be delivered.
9. Read and check the certification checkmark at the bottom and enter your name in the Certified by field.
10. Click the Next button to continue.

Shipment Rates screen

1. You will be shown a list of available carriers and their rates based on the information you entered previously. Select the carrier and rate you would like to continue with.
2. You can filter the results to only specific carriers or arrange the list by price or shipping priority by clicking the buttons at the bottom of the screen.
3. Click Next to continue.

Review & Purchase Label screen

This screen shows a summary of all the information entered for this label. Review and edit any information as needed, and optionally, you can choose to purchase insurance on the parcel if the sales order is in USD and under $ 5,000 USD value.

When satisfied with all the information, click the “Purchase Label” button. 

You’ll see a summary screen with the tracking information and be able to choose the label size: either 8.5 in x 11 on standard paper or 4 in x 6 on A6 paper/labels.

Once you are finished, click “Done”. 

What if I need more than one box per sales order? Purchasing multiple shipping labels.

While labels can be purchased for multiple boxes using the mobile app, currently, it is not possible to select which items go in each individual box inside the app. So to purchase multiple labels, you must first specify which items belong in each box on either the Web or Windows app.

Viewing a Label

Once you have purchased a label, you can easily view or print it again by returning to the sales order it was created for.

1. Open the original Sales Order the label was purchased for.
2. Click on the +Actions button.
3. Select Ship from the menu.
4. Click on any of the shipments listed to go to the shipment details screen.

Removing a Label

Once a label has been purchased for an order, you can remove it from within inFlow. However, removing a label from inFlow does not refund or cancel it. To cancel or return your label, you must do so from within your EasyPost dashboard. Return policies vary from carrier to carrier. You can read more about refunding labels on the EasyPost website here.

Removing the label will allow you to purchase a new one inside inFlow or modify the shipment information if no label is needed.

To remove your label from inFlow:

1. Open the original Sales Order the label was purchased from.
2. Click on the +Actions button.
3. Select Ship from the menu.
4. Click on any of the shipments listed to go to the shipment details screen.
5. Click  Remove shipment from inFlow, to remove the shipping label.
6. A confirmation message will be displayed. Click Remove shipment to finalize the removal.
7. Repeat for any other labels as needed.

The post Shipping with EasyPost and inFlow appeared first on inFlow Inventory.

Setup

Xero explainer & setup webinar

How does this work?

This one-way integration* will have inFlow act as the main hub for your inventory tracking needs. It will create new records for products, customers, and vendors if they don’t already exist in Xero.

* one way from inFlow to Xero.

When sales orders in inFlow are marked as invoiced, meaning you’ve notified your customer that they owe you for the order, inFlow will then send this sales order to Xero as an invoice.

Purchase orders work in a similar way – when a purchase order is fully or partially received, inFlow will sync this purchase order to Xero, and it will appear as a bill. Along with sending this information, your inventory value will also be pushed.

As soon as the purchase order sync is enabled, inFlow will sync your inventory value to Xero. It’s important that your inventory value is accurate in inFlow and Xero before enabling the integration.

Before setup checklist

• Are your quantities and costs for products accurate in inFlow? If you intend to push purchase orders, make sure that your stock levels and product costs are accurate! The integration adjusts Xero’s total inventory value to match inFlow’s, so you’ll want to make sure they match before you begin. See the “Push purchase orders” tab for details!
  
  
• Does your home currency in inFlow and Xero match? Make sure that your main currency, Xero and inFlow, are the same. The home currency is set when you create your Xero account. For information on how you can use multiple currencies in Xero, take a look here.
  
  
• Are the taxes in both systems the same? Make sure that the tax rates found in inFlow are also added to Xero. For guides on taxes in Xero, take a look here.
  
  
• Have you set up SKUs for your inFlow products? Xero requires your products to have SKUs, and it will display product SKUs as Item Codes on invoices and bills. You can either add SKUs to inFlow manually or through an import or let inFlow generate them for you.
  
  
• Is your Xero account using Non-Tracked (untracked) inventory? Xero suggests that third-party inventory integrations should only use non-tracked inventory products. If you are not using this, you need to change your products to non-tracked inventory instead. Xero’s tracked inventory uses a special “Inventory” type account to track stock levels and value, which will conflict with the integration and cause double entries.
  
  Take a look here for more on tracked inventory. If you already have tracked products in Xero, you can convert them to non-tracked products.
   
  
• Have you added a Current Assets account? All non-tracked inventory needs to be connected to a Current Assets account type in Xero instead of the Inventory account type that is made for tracked inventory. For a full guide on creating accounts, take a look at Xero’s guide.
  
• Creating an inFlow Adjustments account – inFlow must connect to a Cost of Goods Sold account (COGS) and a different COGS-based account to track adjustments. During the Xero setup, select Create inFlow Adjustments account.

Connecting inFlow to Xero

1. Log in as an inFlow’s integration settings as an administrator (Main menu > Options > Integrations.)
2. Click on the Xero tile. 
3. Click Connect to begin the integration setup. 
4. Your browser will direct you to your Xero account for authorization. If you have multiple Xero accounts, select the one with which you’d like inFlow to communicate. 
5. Click Allow Access to allow inFlow to view and update your Xero data. 

Once you’ve connected the two programs, you’ll be able to configure what inFlow will push to Xero. This includes payment options, account selection, tax setup, and more. Click on the different tabs to learn more about each section.

Push sales orders

Push inFlow sales orders to Xero invoices

Once you’ve connected Xero to inFlow, the next screen will direct you to the Sales settings. Here, you can choose to push sales orders from inFlow to Xero.

Sales Orders are pushed to Xero when they are marked as invoiced, paid or partially paid in inFlow.

inFlow pushes sales orders as Xero invoices, credit notes, and payments (if payment push is enabled). The payment push setting is optional if you have already handled payments in Xero. In Xero, these can all be found under the Sales Overview section.

If you don’t want to push sales orders from inFlow to Xero, you can click to toggle this setting off.

Account types

inFlow needs to know which Xero accounts to update for you during the push. It’s always best to confirm account mappings with your company bookkeeper or accountant if you’re unsure of something.

Product income account: When items are created in Xero via inFlow, we have to set their Product Income account, and it can be any income type account. This is the account used to receive money for products when they are sold. 

Shipping income account: This is an optional account if you ship products to your customers. Since Xero does not have a specified field for shipping, freight is added as a line item to the invoice in Xero. Ideally, shipping should not be included with actual product income. You may make a separate account in Xero to keep track of freight charged to your customers.

Payments account: This can be any bank or asset type account used to receive payments from your customers when a sale is made. It is recommended that it is turned off if you record payments in Xero directly; otherwise, there will be double entries. 

Taxes: Make sure that the tax rates found in inFlow are also added to Xero. 

Push purchase orders

Push inFlow purchase orders to Xero bills and inventory values

The integration settings allow inFlow to push purchase orders and inventory values to Xero. 

Keep in mind as soon as the first purchase order is pushed from inFlow to Xero. InFlow will push your inventory value, too. It’s important that your inventory value is accurate in inFlow before connecting to Xero. Purchase orders will appear as bills in Xero.

When are purchase orders pushed to Xero?
Purchase orders are pushed any time an order is paid*, partially paid*, fulfilled, or partially fulfilled. 

*if payment push setting is enabled.

For partially received orders in inFlow, Xero will only include products that have been received in inFlow so far. When the remaining products are marked as received in inFlow, the related Xero Bill will be updated to include those items.  

If you’d like to create separate Xero bills when partially receiving products in inFlow, you’ll need to split the order by received items and create two separate purchase orders in inFlow. 

How to set up purchase order push

If you don’t want to push purchase orders and inventory value from inFlow to Xero, you can toggle off the Enable push setting at the top right to disable it. 

If you’ve enabled purchase order push, then the first time you push a purchase order to Xero, your total inventory value will also be pushed along with it. It’s important that your inventory value is accurate in inFlow beforehand. Otherwise, the inventory value that is pushed to Xero will be inaccurate, resulting in journal entries that will need to be reconciled. To check the current inventory value in inFlow, run the Inventory Details report with Total Cost Value selected as a column.

Make sure not to map the Xero Cost of goods sold account to the Adjustments / Other Costs Account. Otherwise your inventory value will push to that account incorrectly.

Account types

Push inventory value: You can manually update the inventory value from inFlow to Xero by clicking Push Inventory value in the inFlow integration settings.

Cost of goods sold: You’ll need to tell inFlow which Xero account to update when it pushes the total Cost of Goods Sold value from inFlow to Xero.

Inventory assets account: This can be any type of asset account (except INVENTORY) to track the inventory cost value of inFlow’s stocked products. This is also the account set for the stocked item’s Product Purchases account in Xero. To create a new account, take a look at this guide in Xero’s support center.

Adjustments/other costs account: This can be any direct costs type account, but we recommend selecting + Create inFlow Adjustment Account from the settings page. This account is used to balance out the Inventory Asset account and track the cost value of inFlow’s non-stocked items. This is also the account we use to set the Product Purchases to account in Xero for non-stocked / service items.

Payment push: This should only be enabled if inFlow is your only source of updating payments for purchase orders. If payment push is disabled, marking a purchase order as paid in inFlow will not mark it as paid in Xero. 

Depending on what payment method you have, inFlow will push the payment to Xero’s Cash or Check account or Credit Card account. A blank payment method will default to the Credit Card account. The table below shows which payment will go under each account.

Note: inFlow does not push Vendor Credit – any payments made with vendor credit will not be pushed to Xero.

Taxes: Make sure that the tax rates found in inFlow are also added to Xero. You will have to map those taxes in the taxes field.  

Discounts

Xero bills don’t have a discount column available, so any bills pushed from inFlow will show the discounted unit price from inFlow.

FAQs

When do sales orders get pushed to Xero from inFlow?

Sales orders are pushed to Xero when they are marked as invoiced, paid, or partially paid in inFlow. Another way to mark a sales order as invoiced is you manually enter an invoice date, print, or email the invoice.

What are these rounding adjustments on my sales and purchase orders?

The two programs handle rounding differently. inFlow sums everything up before rounding the final total, whereas Xero rounds each item and then sums it all up. In order to make your order totals match, inFlow may sometimes have to push a rounding adjustment.  

Will Xero also track my inventory?

This integration is only one-way, which means only information from inFlow will be pushed to Xero. Inventory in inFlow will also push the inventory value to Xero. This means all your day-to-day inventory will be tracked in inFlow, and Xero will only be used for accounting and bookkeeping purposes. If you create an invoice, bill, or credit note on Xero, it won’t be pushed to inFlow.

Please note this integration uses Xero’s non-tracked inventory product types. Inventory levels aren’t pushed from inFlow to Xero. 

Does inFlow push serial numbers?

Xero doesn’t currently support serial numbers, so products pushed from inFlow won’t include the serial information.

I selected the wrong Xero account; how can I disconnect the app?

In inFlow:

1. Log in as an inFlow’s integration settings as an administrator (Main menu > Options > Integrations.)
2. In the Xero section, click Edit.
3. At the bottom left-hand corner, click on Disconnect from Xero. 
4. Next, a warning message will appear. Click on the Disconnect button. 
5. Click Done to complete disconnection.
   

In Xero:

For full steps on how to disconnect inFlow from the Xero apps section, take a look here. Once both sides have been disconnected, you can reconnect inFlow to Xero again.

What happens when a return or a refund is applied to a sales order in inFlow?

If there is a return or refund on a sales order, this will create a credit note in Xero. The number will be similar to the original invoice number, and the original invoice in Xero will remain unchanged.

Can I apply a pending credit on a customer’s account to a sales order as a payment?

Applying a credit to a customer’s account for a sales order in inFlow will not push it as a payment on Xero. You will have to manually apply the credit as a payment to the order on Xero.

Why are the quantities different on the two invoices?

For sales orders, inFlow will push the standard UOM quantity of your product to Xero. For example, if the Sales Unit of Measure of Product A is set to 1 pack = 6 ea., and you sell 2 packs, inFlow will push the quantity for 12 units to the Xero invoice.

For purchase orders, inFlow will push the Standard UOM quantity of your product to Xero. For example, if the Purchase Unit of Measure of Product A is set to 1 pack = 6 ea., and you buy 2 packs, inFlow will push the quantity for 12 units to the Xero Bill.

What fields on a sales order and customer page are pushed to Xero?

The first time a sales order is sent to Xero, it’ll include the PO#. But if you make any changes to the PO# field in inFlow after that, those changes won’t update in Xero unless you un-invoice the sales order and then re-invoice it in inFlow.

I ship products to my customers; how will this work with inFlow & Xero?

If you don’t already have a dedicated shipping account in Xero, then you’ll need one to connect inFlow to Xero to track the shipping. For a full guide on creating accounts, take a look at Xero’s guide.  For the Shipping account, you can use Revenue -> Other Income, name it Shipping, and select how it is taxed. 

inFlow created new products in Xero, but they already existed now I have duplicates! Why did this happen?

inFlow looks for existing products based on SKU. If it doesn’t find any products matching the SKU, then it will create new products (using that SKU). To avoid duplicates, please make sure that the SKU is exactly the same.

What happens when a Purchase Order is pushed to Xero from inFlow?

When a purchase order is pushed to Xero, inFlow will create a corresponding Xero Bill. inFlow’s total Inventory Cost Value will update the Xero Inventory Assets account to match. Lastly, inFlow’s Cost of Goods Sold will update the Xero Cost of Goods Sold account.

What payment setting should I use if I enter payments in Xero? 

When enabled, inFlow will send all payment information on a purchase order from inFlow to Xero. Entering a payment on a purchase order in inFlow will create a corresponding Xero Payment.

If your business enters payments into Xero manually or with another software integration, duplicate payments can be caused if you mark an order Paid in inFlow. This is because there are now two sources trying to pay the same order. To prevent this, you can disable payment push. When the payment push is off, all orders that are partially paid or paid in inFlow will still sync to Xero, but payment information from inFlow will not be updated in Xero. That way, when you receive the payment in Xero, you can still mark it as paid in inFlow without worrying about duplicate payments.

How does inFlow calculate and push the Cost of Goods Sold?

inFlow calculates the Cost of Goods Sold using a number of factors, which are explained here. When a sales order is marked Fulfilled, inFlow will update Xero’s Cost of Goods Sold account with the Cost of Goods Sold value for that order. 

If you disable sales order push, the invoice will not be created in Xero, but the Cost of Goods Sold will still be pushed if you have enabled purchase order & inventory value push.

When does inFlow update the inventory value in Xero?

A lot of things can affect inventory value. When an item leaves or enters your stock, it decreases or adds to your total inventory value. Changing the costs of the products will also change your inventory value. This can include:

• Purchase of items 
• Sales of items, when purchase order push is enabled
• Stock adjustments/count sheets
• Work orders
• Cost adjustments 

In addition to the events above, inventory value push happens every day automatically at 2:00 a.m. your local time or manually from the integration settings page.

Why is the discount percentage on my purchase order not showing on the Xero bill?

Xero bills don’t have a discount column available, so any bills pushed from inFlow will show the discounted unit price.

I have marked a purchase order as paid, but it did not push to Xero!

If you have disabled payment push, then the purchase order will only be pushed when the products are fulfilled.

What happens when you return something on a purchase order?

Once any item on your purchase order is returned and it’s unstocked or refunded, Xero will create a credit note with the name <order name>-Credit. Applying credit from the vendor’s account to an order in inFlow will not push it as a payment to Xero.

I added a payment to my purchase order in inFlow, but it wasn’t pushed to Xero. Do I need to change something?

Check to see if you have payment push enabled! If it isn’t, then a payment alone will not push the purchase order. If it is enabled, check which payment accounts you’ve set up! inFlow defaults to the Credit Card account if you don’t specify a payment method. So, if you don’t have a credit card account in Xero, then make sure you select the specific payment method (e.g., cash, check, EFT).

I prepay my vendor when I purchase from them. How does the integration handle this? 

If your unfulfilled purchase order is marked paid or partially paid, this will still be pushed to Xero as a bill. In the bill, the accounts for those products will temporarily use your mapped Adjustment/Other Costs account (you can think of it as a temporary clearing account). As you fulfill the order, the received items will automatically update on the bill to show the mapped Inventory Assets account.

What fields on a purchase order and vendor page are pushed to Xero?

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting common errors

You may encounter errors from time to time as data is sent to Xero. Below are a few examples and instructions for fixing them. 

The contact name [Name] is already assigned to another contact. The contact name must be unique across all active contacts.

Reason: There is duplicate contact information in either the Name or Contact Name in Xero.

Solution: Change both the first and last name of the customer in either Xero (since these fields are separate) or add something to the Name or Contact Name in inFlow (first and last name share a field, so the change will apply).

A validation exception occurred: Invoice not of valid status for modification

Reason: Changes are being made in inFlow to an order/bill in Xero that has been voided or deleted.
Solution: Change the order number in inFlow, save, and then click the Retry button on the integration page.
Note: Before voiding or deleting an order in Xero, add “inactive” or some identifier so that it isn’t impacting the order with the same number in inFlow in case you want to make any edits.

Please enter a SKU for the following products.

Reason: All products must have an SKU in order to push purchase orders or sales orders.
Solution: Add SKUs to your products, then click the Retry button on the integration page.

A validation exception occurred: Payment amount exceeds the amount outstanding on this document.

Reason: An overpayment is applied to the Sales Order.
Solution: Click the Paid button in your sales order to check the payments. Change the lines to make sure that the payments don’t exceed the total amount of the order, then click the Retry button on the integration page.

A validation exception occurred: You must specify and Account code or Account ID for the payment.

Reason: A payment method hasn’t been added to the order, or there is no credit card account.
Solution: If there’s no payment method specified on the purchase order, inFlow defaults to using the credit card account. If you’re paying using other methods, please specify it in the order. Otherwise, if you want to keep a blank payment method, then you’ll need to add the credit card bank account in Xero.

Your home currency must match in inFlow and Xero.

Reason: The main currency in inFlow and Xero don’t match.
Solution: Check both programs to check the currency, and change whichever one needs correcting.

Xero doesn’t allow you to change your base currency once it’s set, so you may need to change your inFlow currency settings to have them match. Before changing currency settings in inFlow contact inFlow support so we can make sure everything is set up correctly.

A validation exception occurred: The SalesAccountId account is invalid.

Reason: Select a sales-type account (called a revenue account in Xero) in the integration settings.
Solution: Change the account to a revenue account. 

A validation exception occurred: Account must be valid: Tax rate must be valid.

Reason: Xero and inFlow handle rounding differently, causing a discrepancy. inFlow pushes the standard unit of measure price, and Xero rounds by the unit price rather than the subtotal.

Solution: If the unit price requires more than two decimal places, change the standard unit of measure in inFlow so that the price is two decimal places.

The post Connecting inFlow to Xero appeared first on inFlow Inventory.

Setup

Connecting your Amazon Store

1. With an inFlow administrator log into inFlow’s integrations settings.
2. Click Set up on the Amazon tile.
3. Click on Add an Amazon connection, select the country in which your Amazon store is and click Connect.

4. You’ll be redirected to a new window to log into your Amazon Seller Central account. After logging in, please read through the necessary authorizations and check the box on the bottom that allows the integration. Click Confirm.
5. You’ll now see your country’s store at the top. You can edit your Amazon Store name (this is pretty useful when you have to manage several stores from the same country – please make sure you give them different names!). You’ll find your Amazon Seller ID right below.

FBA Settings

If you’re using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), you can pull your inventory levels to inFlow so you can keep track of your stock. This means that when there’s an update in your items’ Quantity Available in Amazon, you’ll see an update in Quantity Available in inFlow.

If you don’t use FBA, please toggle Pull inventory levels from Amazon as this is on by default.

Take stock

Here, you’ll need to choose the location in inFlow that matches the location where you keep your FBA stock. Since your FBA stock is stored with Amazon, we recommend creating a special location for it and selecting it on this screen. FBA stock levels won’t interfere with FBM stock levels since the items’ SKUs are completely different.

Order fulfillment status

Order number

FBM Settings

If you stock and ship your Amazon products, you’re using Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM). inFlow pushes inventory quantity to keep your Amazon Store up to date.

If you don’t use FBM, please toggle Push inventory levels to Amazon as this is on by default.

Take stock

Here, you’ll need to choose the location in inFlow that matches the location where you keep your FBM stock. You can choose to take stock from all your inventory locations or from a single location. FBM stock levels won’t interfere with FBA stock levels since the items’ SKUs are completely different.

I was already using this integration previously. Will this automatically sync all products to their rightful location on Amazon FBM?

No. After you’ve set the locations, and in order to properly sync your current products on your integration’s side, you’ll need to export/import your Stock Levels (Export Data> Stock levels and then Import that same csv by going to Import Data> Stock Levels) so that your Amazon integration will update the products to each rightful location.

If the product isn’t found in Amazon

Order fulfillment status

Order number

General Settings

The General area applies to both FBA and FBM orders.

Pull orders that were created

Product description from

When a product is created via integration, you’ll have an opportunity to set its description from its Amazon title or SKU.

Note: Description will only be pulled from Amazon products if you have set Display Product name and description in your Company Settings.

Customize how Amazon conflicts are resolved

This area allows you to customize how you’d like inFlow to resolve conflicts with Amazon, from how to deal with taxes to creating products/customers that aren’t set in inFlow.

Note: When creating a product in inFlow from an Amazon order, Amazon’s Product title will become inFlow’s Product name, and the SKU field will be the same on both platforms.

FAQ

How are products matched?

Just like all our integrations, products in Amazon are matched to inFlow by SKU first. If a product in inFlow doesn’t have an SKU, the connection will be made from the product name in inFlow to the Amazon title.

Can I add multiple Amazon Stores?

Yes – you’ll just need to click on Add an Amazon connection and set up your store. You can add multiple stores from the same country, too – just make sure you give them different names!

Please be aware that each country marketplace counts as 1 integration.

Why do my Amazon orders come without a Customer name/email/address?

Unfortunately, Amazon’s new API no longer provides this information. Alternatively, inFlow creates a single customer for the marketplace the orders are coming from. For example, if you have set up a US Amazon store, all orders from there will come into inFlow under that same Customer. You’ll have to access Amazon to see the specific customer’s details.

If I have a product being sold in both FBA and FBM, can I use the same product in inFlow?

No. FBA and FBM items have a unique SKU, meaning that you actually have two of the same product in your Amazon Store, each with a different SKU. For the integration to work flawlessly, you’ll need two different products in inFlow.

How often is FBM pushed?

If there have been changes, FBM is pushed every 5 minutes (or every 24 hours at the very least).

How often is FBA pulled?

FBA inventory is pulled when FBM is pushed, as long as it’s been an hour since the last FBA pull. If there haven’t been any changes, every 6 hours at the very least.

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