How should orders be numbered and labelled?
Lesson 11 of 24 7 min read
Decide on the sales order number, the customer reference and the Sales Order Group, and pull references out of incoming orders.
When a customer rings about "order 1047", your team needs to find it in Unleashed in seconds. And when finance wants sales by channel, the orders need to be labelled consistently. This lesson covers the settings that number and label each sales order: the order number, the customer reference, the Sales Order Group, references extracted from the order, and tags in comments.
Decision 1: whose order number?
| useSourceOrderNumberAsSalesOrderNumber | When true, the source system's order number (for example the Shopify order number) becomes the Unleashed sales order number. When false or unset, Unleashed generates its own. |
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| useSourceOrderNumberAsSalesOrderNumberTagMap | Overrides the setting above per order, by tag. Each rule maps a tag to true or false. |
Choose the source number when one channel feeds Unleashed and your team searches by the channel's number. Let Unleashed number orders when several channels feed in, because their numbering may clash, or when you want one continuous sequence. Use the tag map when only some orders should keep their own number.
Decision 2: what goes in the customer reference?
| useBuyerOrderNumberAsCustomerRef | When true, the buyer's purchase order number is used as the customer reference. When unset, the order number is used. Choose true for B2B and EDI orders, where the buyer quotes their PO number. |
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| customerReferenceStringManipulationsBySourceIntegration | Transforms the customer reference per source Integration, for example trimming it, adding a prefix or replacing part of it with a pattern. |
Decision 3: how should orders be grouped?
Unleashed's Sales Order Group field categorises orders, which is useful for reporting by channel or type. Several settings can fill it, and they are evaluated in this priority order: tag map, then store key map, then store key, then default.
| setSalesOrderGroupFromTagValue | A list of tag patterns. The first matching tag's value, or an explicit data value, becomes the group. Highest priority. |
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| setSalesOrderGroupToStoreKey | When true, the group is set to the source Integration key, such as the Shopify store identifier. |
| storeKeyToSalesOrderGroupMap | Gives each store key a friendlier group name. Only works when setSalesOrderGroupToStoreKey is true. |
| defaultSalesOrderGroup | The fallback when nothing else gives a value. |
| salesOrderGroupFinancialStatusMap | Sets the group from the order's payment state, such as paid or pending. |
For per-channel reporting, turn on setSalesOrderGroupToStoreKey and use storeKeyToSalesOrderGroupMap so each store shows as a readable name like Web or Wholesale rather than a raw key. For per-order categories, use setSalesOrderGroupFromTagValue.
Decision 4: pull references out of the order
| referenceMatches | Rules that read a field on the incoming order, match it against a pattern, and write the result to a document reference such as a purchase order number. A rule marked requiredForImport rejects the order if it finds no match. |
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Each rule names the reference type to fill, the source field to read, a regexPattern (a text pattern), an optional regexReplacement, and which captured part to keep (groupName or groupIndex). This is an implementer's setting: if you need it, agree the pattern with your Supply Lens contact and test it on real orders.
Decision 5: keep tags visible
| includeTagsInComments | When true, the order's tags are added to the sales order comments. Handy while testing, or when your team relies on channel tags to make decisions. |
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Hilltop's numbering
Hilltop has one Shopify store, and customer service always quotes the Shopify number. Priya sets useSourceOrderNumberAsSalesOrderNumber to true. For reporting, she turns on setSalesOrderGroupToStoreKey and maps the store key to Web. Café orders carry their PO numbers, so she sets useBuyerOrderNumberAsCustomerRef to true.
Recap
- Use the source order number when one channel feeds Unleashed; let Unleashed number orders when several do.
useBuyerOrderNumberAsCustomerRefputs the buyer's PO number in the customer reference, ideal for B2B.- Sales Order Group is set by tag map, then store key map, then store key, then default.
referenceMatchesextracts references with patterns and can make a match mandatory.includeTagsInCommentsshows tags on the order in Unleashed.
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