Before you start

Most delays in an Unleashed project are not technical. They come from a missing API key, product codes that do not match, or a decision nobody has made yet, such as which status wholesale orders should arrive in. This lesson gives you a checklist to work through before you open the Integrations screen, so setup is a single sitting rather than a week of back and forth.

Accounts and access

You need:

• An Unleashed account for the business you are connecting.
• A Supply Lens account with permission to manage Integrations.
• The Unleashed API ID and API Key. Every Unleashed account has an API ID and Key that trusted third-party platforms use to connect. Only an Account Owner in Unleashed can see them, on the Unleashed API Access page. If you are not the Account Owner, ask them early.
• An Unleashed Sandbox and its own API ID and Key. A Sandbox is a separate copy of your live account, taken at the moment the Sandbox was created. It has its own API credentials, so you connect it as a separate Integration in Supply Lens.

Product codes that match

Supply Lens matches order lines to Unleashed products by SKU, the product code. If a code on an incoming order does not exist in Unleashed, the order is held with an error rather than created half-right. Work through this checklist for every product you plan to sync:

• Every SKU that will appear on inbound orders exists in Unleashed.
• SKUs match exactly across systems, including letter case (Widget-A and widget-a are different), hyphens versus underscores, and leading zeros.
• There are no duplicate SKUs in either system.
• Every variant (a size or colour) has its own unique SKU.
• Bundles and kits are accounted for: either the bundle SKU exists in Unleashed as a single product, or you have agreed with your Supply Lens contact how component lines are handled.
• Where a connected system uses different codes for the same product, such as a retailer's own codes, cross-reference records are set up in Supply Lens before go-live.

Reference data to collect

Gather these from Unleashed so you can fill in settings without guessing:

• Warehouse codes, and which warehouse each channel's orders should use.
• Sales order statuses, including any custom statuses your account has defined.
• Customer types, sell price tiers, payment terms and tax codes you want new customers to receive.
• Delivery methods and how they relate to your channels' shipping options.
• Salesperson names or email addresses, exactly as they appear in Unleashed.
• Product codes for non-stock lines, such as shipping, discounts or surcharges, if you want those as named lines.
• A handful of representative sample orders from each channel, including awkward ones: a discount, a gift order, a foreign-currency order, an order with a missing SKU.

Decisions to make

These are business decisions, not technical ones. Agree them with whoever owns order processing:

1. Which status should new orders arrive in? Does it depend on the channel or on payment?
2. Should Unleashed use the channel's order number, or generate its own?
3. How should customers be matched: one account per real customer, or a shared account per channel?
4. Should Supply Lens update existing customer records, or only create new ones?
5. How should shipping, discounts and surcharges appear on the sales order?
6. What should happen to orders for customers on stop credit?
7. How far back should you import orders when you first switch on?

The settings deep-dive module walks through each of these in turn.