Tracking, stock levels and refunds
Lesson 8 of 12 7 min read
Choose how tracking is recorded on orders, how stock updates behave for large or mismatched catalogues, and how refunds are imported.
Customers expect a tracking link, shoppers expect stock levels to be right, and finance expects refunds to match. Each of these has a small number of settings, but each one changes what happens on a busy day. By the end of this lesson you'll know which to choose for your store.
Shipments: how should tracking appear?
These settings are on the Shipments configuration.
| useShipmentTracking | When true, tracking is recorded on the order using the WooCommerce Shipment Tracking plugin. When false or not set, tracking is recorded as a standard WooCommerce order note. |
|---|
- Choose
trueif the Shipment Tracking extension is installed and enabled. Tracking is recorded through the extension. - Leave it unset if you don't use the extension. Tracking still reaches the order, as an order note.
Watch out
Don't set useShipmentTracking to true unless the extension is installed and enabled.
The setup guide lists the extension as a requirement for fulfilment and tracking.
Inventory: how should stock updates behave?
These settings are on the Inventory configuration.
| maximumProductsPerFile | When set, a stock update is split into several Documents, each with at most this many products. Prevents oversized Documents and improves performance for large catalogues. |
|---|---|
| failOnMissingProducts | When true, the stock update fails if any product in it can't be found in WooCommerce. When false, missing products are skipped without an error. |
Large catalogue? Set maximumProductsPerFile so each update stays a manageable size.
Should a missing product stop the update? Your inventory system often holds products
you don't sell online, such as raw materials or trade-only lines. If so, set
failOnMissingProducts to false so those are skipped and everything else updates. Choose
true only when every product in the update should exist in the store and you want to be
told immediately if one doesn't, accepting that the whole update fails until it's fixed.
Credits: when and how should refunds come in?
These settings are on the Credits configuration.
| setupDate | Only credits created on or after this date are imported. Set automatically when first configured; not normally changed. |
|---|---|
| lastImportDate | The time of the most recently imported credit, updated after each run. Managed by the system: don't edit it. |
| importDelay | How long to wait before importing a credit, so other systems can make their changes first. Written as a duration, for example 00:05:00 for five minutes. |
| disableExpectedPayableTag | When enabled, credits aren't given the expected payable tag, which is normally used to check that the calculated total matches the expected amount. Turning it on skips that check. |
Leave the total check on unless told otherwise
The expected payable check is a safety net: it catches a credit whose total doesn't add up. Turning it off makes the error go away, but doesn't make the credit right. Investigate a mismatch first, and only disable the check with your Supply Lens contact's agreement.
Fernbrook's stock and tracking
Fernbrook installs the Shipment Tracking extension, so Priya sets useShipmentTracking to
true. Unleashed also holds jars, labels and essential oils that aren't sold on the store,
so she sets failOnMissingProducts to false. The catalogue is small, so she leaves
maximumProductsPerFile unset. Her payments plugin updates refunds a minute or two after
they're created, so she sets the credit importDelay to 00:05:00.
Recap
useShipmentTrackingset totruerecords tracking through the Shipment Tracking extension; otherwise tracking goes in an order note.maximumProductsPerFilesplits large stock updates into smaller Documents.failOnMissingProductsset tofalseskips products the store doesn't sell;truefails the whole update.- Credits have their own
setupDate,lastImportDateandimportDelay. disableExpectedPayableTagskips a total check: investigate mismatches before you turn it on.
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