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Inventory Synchronization

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Overview

The Order Manager is able to synchronize inventory with multiple shopping carts that are defined within a single store data file, either on a manual or "real-time" basis, for shopping carts that support those inventory synchronization processes.

To determine a shopping cart's manual QOH capabilities, check its Shopping Cart Functions screen synonymous with the Microsoft Access Form Object or user interface..

To find out which shopping carts support Real-Time Inventory Synchronization, please see the "Real Time Inventory" column on the Shopping Cart Matrix. If there is an "S" in that column, the shopping cart an e-commerce software system that allows a merchant to sell products on the Web. In the context of the Order Manager, it refers to the settings that describe a merchants web store to the program, allowing it communicate with the online shopping cart and import orders, and other information etc. only offers the ability to synchronize inventory at the SKU the abbreviation for Stock Keeping Unit; a unique identifier used to track product inventory level, rather than at the attribute (option one of the possible choices for a product's attribute; for example, blue is an option for the product attribute of color) level.

Some shopping carts also require additional third-party add-ons, service subscriptions, or special setup activities at the Web store. Look for specialized instructions in the Knowledge Base topic with the title, Real-Time Inventory Tracking with ______ Cart, for the shopping cart in question.

The majority of shopping cart systems that support Real-Time Inventory Synchronization follow the same basic steps that are outlined below,  or refer to the osCommerce topic as an example of the standard synchronization process. If there is no specific shopping cart topic for real-time inventory synchronization, then it most likely does not support that feature. Refer to the Shopping Cart Matrix to confirm that conclusion.

Manual Inventory Updates between Order Manager and Shopping Carts

Manual inventory updates can be performed at a single point in time by clicking the [Send QOH To Website] or [Get QOH from Website] buttons found on the Shopping Cart Functions screen. Some carts allow QOH information to be pushed to or pulled from the Web site, some may only allow the information to be transferred in a single direction, while others do not allow any QOH information to be transferred to or from the Order Manager. To determine the capabilities of the shopping cart in use, check its Shopping Cart Functions screen to see which buttons are active for that cart, or review the Shopping Cart Matrix.

Figure 1: Upper right-hand portion of the Shopping Cart Functions screen when the cart supports Push and Pull actions

The buttons seen in Figure 1 only push or pull the current QOH numbers from Order Manager or the Web site at a single point in time, unlike the Real-Time Inventory Synchronization process.

This process should be used to initialize inventory counts with all affected shopping carts just prior to enabling Real-time Inventory Synchronization.

Real-time Inventory Synchronization should be stopped before these buttons are clicked again.

If the Shopping Cart Functions screen for the cart in use does not contain these buttons, the shopping cart does not support inventory synchronization. If only one of these buttons is visible, the transfer of QOH data can only be performed in one direction.  

Follow these general guidelines to manually synchronize your inventory QOH count:

1. Determine whether the Order Manager or your shopping cart contains the most accurate count of your inventory. In cases where the shopping cart only permits the transfer of QOH data from the Web site to the Order Manager, verify the QOH counts at the Web site before continuing with step 2.

2. If your shopping cart contains the most accurate inventory count, use the to [Get QOH From Website] button on the Shopping Cart Functions screen. If an item in your shopping cart store does not exist in the Order Manager, the program adds that item to the Order Manager tables if the Create Records for New Products check box is checked.

3. If the Order Manager count is more accurate, use the [Send QOH to Website] to send the most current data to the web store.

The [Maximum number of items to send] is intended to prevent server time-out errors, by limiting the number of records that are sent at one time. For example, if you have 100 QOH updates to be sent, two groups of 50 records each will be sent. Do not alter this number unless you experience time-out errors.

Real-Time Inventory Synchronization

Real-time inventory synchronization is the dynamic transfer of QOH information between the Order Manager and the Shopping Carts (Web sites) that are defined within a single store data file, for those shopping carts that support this feature.

Once this process is configured, changes that are made to the quantity on hand (QOH) of an inventory item are communicated directly to the shopping cart(s) almost immediately. The changes can occur by several means, such as manual QOH adjustments, POS abbreviation for Point of Sale. The cash register interface for use with walk-in business at "brick and mortar" stores. Used with barcode scanners and cash drawers. Sales made on the POS screen draw from the same inventory as orders imported from online stores. sales, manually placed or imported orders, as well as the receiving of new inventory. For example, if the Order Manager and the Web site both show 100 pieces in stock for a given item, and an additional 100 pieces is received from the supplier vendor and added into inventory, the Order Manager will tell the shopping cart(s) to increase their QOH for that product by 100 pieces, as well. Similarly, when orders are imported from a shopping cart, the Order Manager will internally decrement the QOH for that product accordingly, and communicate the change in QOH to all other carts that are defined in the same store data file, if they are also configured for real-time inventory synchronization.

It is possible to temporarily prevent manual adjustments of QOH counts for individual products from being sent by the Order Manager to the Shopping Carts (Web sites) by un-checking the Send QOH changes to Web sites box on the Adjust Inventory screen.

To enable real-time inventory synchronization, follow these steps:

1. Follow steps 1 through 3 in the Manual Inventory Updates section above, to do an initial inventory synchronization, and then close out of the Shopping Cart Functions screen.

2. Go to the Main Menu > Maintenance Menu > Maintenance tab >Set System Parameters settings in the Order Manager that enable users to configure the program integrate with their business operations. The Order Manager includes hundreds of System Parameters to do just that. To change a system parameter, go to the Maintenance Menu> Set System Parameters. activity.

3. Select to mouse "left-click" on an object, usually a row in a table, in the context of Order Manager documentation the Program parameter group.

4. Highlight the SynchQOH parameter and set the parameter value to TRUE. Click [Save].

5. Click [Close]  to exit the Set System Parameters screen.

6. Click on the Main Menu > Quick Clicks > [Create/Edit Shopping Cart] activity.

7. On the Shopping Carts screen, select the appropriate shopping cart from the Current Carts List and click the [Edit Cart] button.

8. If your shopping cart supports inventory synchronization, the Synchronize Inventory check box will be visible in the upper right-hand area of the screen. Refer to Figure 2.

Figure 2: Upper portion of the Shopping Carts screen

9. Click in the [Synchronize Inventory] check box.

10. Click [Save] and then [Close] to exit the Shopping Carts screen.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTES electronic records, for internal use only, that contain additional details about program events, actions or customer information that are stored with order, customer, inventory and supplier records. Notes can be entered manually by the user or automatically entered by the program, based on parameter settings in some cases.:

Follow these recommendations to avoid severe inventory management problems:

• It is strongly recommended that these functions are performed outside of normal business hours when initially configuring this feature.

• Make sure that all outstanding orders have been imported from each cart that is defined within the same store data file before sending Manual QOH from Order Manager to those Web sites.

• If the shopping cart retains inventory in the shopping basket (e.g. Miva), make sure all baskets are emptied BEFORE turning on this feature.

• The Order Manager begins transmitting inventory changes immediately after the Synchronize Inventory check box is selected. If more than one site needs to be synchronized with Order Manager, make sure that products which appear on multiple sites all have the same beginning QOH before enabling that feature on each of the affected shopping carts.

• Inventory Synchronization at the item level, either via the Manual Update or Real-Time Synchronization processes, can be impacted by settings on the Web Fields tab of the Inventory form. Review them carefully.   

Inventory Adjustments on the Web Site

Once you have set up inventory synchronization in the Order Manager, you should not make manual inventory adjustments at the Web site(s) because those adjustments are not returned to the Order Manager unless the [Get QOH from Web Store] button on the Shopping Cart Functions screen is clicked (manual inventory synchronization process).

If it becomes necessary to reset the inventory counts manually, disable real-time inventory synchronization in Order Manager first. This can be accomplished by un-checking the Synchronize Inventory box on the Shopping Carts screen and saving the Shopping Cart definition. It can also be accomplished by setting system parameter SynchQOH to FALSE, however, be aware that if more than one shopping cart system in a single store data file is configured to perform real-time inventory, all shopping carts will be affected by the changing of this parameter. In that instance, it would be best to alter the specific shopping cart definition rather than change the system parameter.

Run through steps 1-3 outlined in the Manual Inventory Update section, based on the cart's capabilities and where the accurate QOH count exists, to get all of the affected outlets back to the same starting point before re-enabling Real-time Inventory Synchronization.
 

Inventory Synchronization and the Stack Controller

Adjustments or updates to your inventory quantities are recorded by the program and stored in a table commonly referred to as the  "Web Stack". The "Stack Controller the Stack Controller is a component of the program that is in charge of sending "posts," such as email, order status, and inventory updates from the Order Manager to various destinations. It can be configured to run on each PC that uses the Order Manager (local - default setting), or it can be configured to run only on a single workstation in the complex (shared), or an entirely separate program, provided by Stone Edge Technologies, can be used to send data to other applications (external)." sends the information waiting in the Web Stack to the appropriate Web site. For more information, refer to the Knowledge Base topic, The Stack Controller, for more detailed information about this process.

If the Order Manager runs on more than one computer, it may be beneficial to designate a single machine to act as the Shared Stack Controller, to improve the performance of the Order Manager on the remaining PCs in your configuration. By default, the program is set to have each PC Personal Computer, or workstation send updates that originate at that PC from that PC (Local). The downside to this is that the action of sending a lot of records can bog down the program, negatively impacting the performance of other tasks similar to a note but tasks have an action assigned to a particular user. The security system must be enabled to use the task feature of the Order Manager. the user may be trying to perform. By choosing the Shared Stack Controller, the workload of sending updates to Web sites can be shifted onto a low usage machine, improving the performance of the remaining workstations in the complex. It is advisable to select a PC that is always on, and it must have Microsoft Access and the Order Manager installed on it.

Troubleshooting

If you sense that real-time inventory adjustments are not being made at your Web site, check the Stack Controller for error messages (CTRL+Shift+S from Main Menu of Order Manager). If the Local stack is being used, check the stack on each machine to look for errors. Check the value in the Attempts column of the first record in the Web Stack to see the number of times the Stack Controller attempted to transmit that data. If it has been attempted more than 10 times, the record should be bypassed by the program. If that is not the case, check the value in the Last Response column for information as to why the record could not be sent. For further assistance, contact the Technical Support Department of Stone Edge Technologies, Inc. at support@stoneedge.com or (610) 994-3699, Option 2, between the hours of 9 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday EST.

Created: 5/24/11

Modified: 9/25/13

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