Routing Documents to and from a warehouse
Lesson 2 of 28 6 min read
Turn the four flows into Configurations and Mappings. Learn which direction is Send and which is Receive, and how one order can go to two places.
Knowing the four flows is half the design. The other half is telling Supply Lens about them. Two records do that: Configurations on the warehouse Integration say which Document types it sends and receives, and Mappings say where each Document goes next.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to list the Configurations and Mappings a typical 3PL setup needs, and avoid the most common direction mistake.
Configurations: what the Integration handles
Each Integration has a Configurations card on its tile. You add one Configuration per Document type, choose Send, Receive or both, and click Create Default JSON to fill in the starting settings.
Send and Receive are from Supply Lens's point of view
Send means Supply Lens sends the Document to the warehouse. Receive means Supply Lens receives it from the warehouse. So a Warehouse Order is a Send Configuration on the 3PL Integration, and a Shipment is a Receive Configuration. Getting this backwards is an easy mistake when you think from the warehouse's side.
For the four flows, a full 3PL Integration typically carries:
| Document type | Direction on the 3PL Integration | Flow |
|---|---|---|
| Warehouse Order (or Order) | Send | Orders out |
| Shipment or Warehouse Shipment | Receive | Shipments back |
| Goods Inbound | Send | Goods in (advice) |
| Goods Inbound Receipt | Receive | Goods in (counted) |
| Inventory | Receive | Stock levels |
The settings you edit in the rest of this course live inside these Configurations. Each connector's settings are grouped by Document type, such as "Mintsoft Order" or "Clarus WMS Goods Inbound".
Mappings: where Documents go
A Mapping moves Documents of one type from a source Integration to a target Integration. Each arrow in a flow diagram is one Mapping. The help centre's standard warehouse patterns look like this:
| From | Map | To | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERP | Warehouse Order | 3PL Integration | Send an order to the warehouse once it is ready for fulfilment |
| 3PL Integration | Shipment | Shopify | Return tracking to the storefront after despatch |
One order, two destinations
You can create several Mappings from the same source to send one Document type to more than one place. A shop with no ERP step before the warehouse might send every order to both the ERP and the 3PL:
| From | Map | To |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Order | Unleashed |
| Shopify | Order | 3PL Integration |
Supply Lens processes each Mapping independently. If the 3PL rejects an order, the copy sent to the ERP is not affected, and the reverse is also true.
Northbank Botanicals' Mapping list
Northbank's implementer writes the list before building anything:
- Shopify → Order → Unleashed
- Unleashed → Warehouse Order → 3PL
- 3PL → Shipment → Unleashed
- 3PL → Shipment → Shopify
- Unleashed → Goods Inbound → 3PL
- 3PL → Goods Inbound Receipt → Unleashed
- 3PL → Inventory → Unleashed
On the 3PL Integration that means three Receive Configurations (Shipment, Goods Inbound Receipt, Inventory) and two Send Configurations (Warehouse Order, Goods Inbound). Shipment appears in two Mappings but needs only one Configuration.
Recap
- Configurations switch Document types on for an Integration; Mappings route them between Integrations.
- Send and Receive are from Supply Lens's point of view: orders and goods-in advices are Send, shipments, receipts and stock are Receive.
- Each connector's settings live inside the matching Configuration.
- One source can feed several targets, and each Mapping succeeds or fails on its own.
Quick guides for this topic
Your progress is saved in this browser. Create a free account to keep it everywhere, take quizzes and earn certificates.