Plan your first Integration

Twenty minutes of planning saves days of untangling. The two things that most often delay a go-live are an unclear idea of what should flow where, and product codes that do not match between systems. In this module you will connect a real pair of systems, using Hilltop Coffee's Shopify and Unleashed setup as the worked example. This first lesson is the preparation.

Step 1: check your systems are supported

Supply Lens connects to many systems. The help centre groups them like this (a selection):

When you add an Integration you can search the full list. If a system you need is missing, ask the Support Team; they may be able to add it.

Some Integrations have their own step-by-step setup guide in the help centre (Shopify, WooCommerce and Unleashed among them). Read the guide for your systems alongside this module, because each one lists exactly which document types it supports and in which direction.

Step 2: decide what flows where

Write down each flow as document type, from, to. Each line becomes one Mapping, and tells you which Configurations each Integration needs.

Step 3: gather credentials and access

Each system authorises Supply Lens in its own way. For Hilltop:

• Shopify uses a collaborator request. You share your store's 4-digit Collaborator Code with Supply Lens, Supply Lens sends a Collaborator Request, and a store owner approves it. You need admin access to the store.
• Unleashed uses an API ID and Key, which the Unleashed account owner can find on the Unleashed API Access page.

Step 4: line up your SKUs

When Supply Lens passes an order to your ERP or inventory system, it matches each line by its product code, the SKU. If the SKU on the order does not match a product in the receiving system, Supply Lens holds the Document and raises an error rather than creating a partial order. SKU mismatches are the single most common cause of integration errors and go-live delays.

By default the match must be exact. These all count as different:

Before go-live, work through this checklist for every product you plan to sync:

• Every SKU that will appear on orders exists in your ERP or inventory system.
• SKUs match exactly across systems: case, separators and leading zeros.
• There are no duplicate SKUs in either system.
• Each variant (size, grind, colour) has its own unique SKU.
• Bundles and kits are accounted for: either the bundle SKU exists in your inventory system, or you have agreed with your Supply Lens contact how component lines will be handled.
• Where a connected system uses different codes for the same product (a retailer's own codes, for example), cross-reference records are in place in Supply Lens.

Supply Lens does not check alignment for you, so do it by hand: export the active SKUs from each system and compare the lists. Fix gaps by adding missing products or correcting formats, or ask Support about a cross-reference, which translates one code into another without changing your existing data.