Commerce: Difference between revisions
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=== 1. Connect to Sellware === | === 1. Connect to Sellware === | ||
[[File:Commerce module - Side nav - Discover Channels.png|border | [[File:Commerce module - Side nav - Discover Channels.png|border]] | ||
Click the '''Commerce''' module in the side nav, and then click '''Discover Channels''' under it. You will see the logos of six ecommerce platforms that are given as examples of ones you can connect your Fishbowl Drive account to: | Click the '''Commerce''' module in the side nav, and then click '''Discover Channels''' under it. You will see the logos of six ecommerce platforms that are given as examples of ones you can connect your Fishbowl Drive account to: | ||
Revision as of 14:01, 25 March 2024
- The Commerce module enables you to automatically import and export data between Fishbowl Drive and a variety of ecommerce platforms to keep them all in sync.
- This module exports Fishbowl Drive’s sale-item and inventory data to our multi-shopping cart app, Sellware, which then sends that data to every ecommerce platform it is connected to.
- The Commerce module also imports order data from ecommerce platforms into Fishbowl Drive to help with order fulfillment and recordkeeping.
- To get started, you must first connect to Sellware by going to the Discover Channels page under the Commerce module in the side navigation. Follow the instructions below to create a Sellware account and integrate with your ecommerce platforms.
How to create a Sellware account and connect it to Fishbowl Drive
Follow these steps to integrate a new Sellware account with your existing Fishbowl Drive account.
1. Connect to Sellware
Click the Commerce module in the side nav, and then click Discover Channels under it. You will see the logos of six ecommerce platforms that are given as examples of ones you can connect your Fishbowl Drive account to:
- Amazon
- eBay
- Walmart
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- WooCommerce
These logos are not clickable, but you will be able to connect them later on in Sellware. On this page, there is only one clickable button. Click the CONNECT TO SELLWARE button to begin the connection process.
2. Enter your Fishbowl Drive password
When you click the CONNECT TO SELLWARE button, you will be brought to a Sellware page requesting that you enter and confirm a password.
Since Sellware is part of the Fishbowl suite of products, all that is required is to have an active Fishbowl Drive account. Thus, you just need to enter your Fishbowl Drive password into the two fields (or create a new one for Sellware at this point if you choose) on this page to connect Fishbowl Drive to Sellware.
Please Note - Sellware will use the same user email credentials from Fishbowl Drive, so your Sellware username will be the same as your Fishbowl Drive username.
Click the blue button underneath the text fields to both create a Sellware account and connect it to Fishbowl Drive. When you click the button on that page, it will automatically return you to the Commerce module in Fishbowl Drive. And you are now connected to a new Sellware account. Additionally, the Sellware app will have a newly created Primary Channel indicating an active connection with Fishbowl Drive. We explain what a Primary Channel is in Sellware below.
Please Note - Whenever you want to log into Sellware in the future, simply use your Fishbowl Drive username and password, and they will work.
You’ll note a dialog appears in the Commerce module after completing the initial connection process.
There are two buttons you can click:
- SKIP FOR NOW - This closes the window and leaves you on the Discover Channels page to resume setting up the connections to your shopping carts at a later time.
- VIEW CHANNELS - This option opens a new browser window and links you to the My Channels page to begin adding linked ecommerce channels.
New pages under the Commerce module
If you opt to skip adding ecommerce channels for now, you’ll notice there is an important change on the Discover Channels page you started on. You will see that the CONNECT TO SELLWARE button has been replaced by the ADD CHANNELS button. Also, a message pops up informing you that the connection was successfully established, and you can now start the process of adding channels.
After you have gone through the process of creating a Sellware account and connecting it to Fishbowl Drive, the Commerce module will change. There will be two new pages in addition to Discover Channels in the side nav:
- My Channels - This opens a page displaying actively connected ecommerce channels with their respective configuration status. From this page, you can add new channels by linking out to the Sellware app.
- Settings - This allows you to configure Global Sellware settings, ensuring that product and inventory data gets accurately exported from Fishbowl Drive.
My Channels page
Initially, when you navigate to the My Channels page, it will be blank, and a message on it will inform you that you don’t have any connected channels in Sellware yet. Once you add channels, they will be listed on this page under the following headers:
- Vendor - The name and logo of each ecommerce platform you are connecting to Fishbowl Drive via Sellware.
- Name - Your preferred channel store name from the ecommerce platform. It can also simply be the name of the ecommerce platform again.
- Status - The condition of the connection between Fishbowl Drive and the commerce platform. It can be either Connected or Configure Your Settings.
- Synchronized - The most-recent date and time that the integration synchronized your configured order and fulfillment settings in the integration. The sync happens each time you open, edit, and save the settings for that channel.
Click MANAGE CHANNELS IN SELLWARE in the action bar to get started adding channels. Clicking that button takes you to the Channels List module in Sellware. Before you go there, you may want to visit the Settings page of the Commerce module in Fishbowl Drive. From there, you’ll be able to configure your settings and get rid of the red warning message at the top of the interface.
Settings page
When you first go to the Settings page, a red notification banner will display across the top of the interface until your Global settings are configured. You must map the various fields so that product and inventory can be begin syncing between the apps. This can be done before or after you add channels on the My Channels page.
Please Note - You may notice that, whether you update these Global product and inventory settings here or in Sellware, the connection automatically updates the other app’s Global settings. This is a measure to ensure settings parity between the apps.
There are two main sections on the Settings page of the Commerce module:
Product export
You can select which fields in Fishbowl Drive will be the source of data for the following fields in the product export to Sellware. Required fields are marked by an asterisk and must have a value set in order to create a record in Sellware.
- Master SKU* - The name/number of the item.
- Product Title* - Readable, descriptive text identifying the item.
- UPC - The universal product code for the sale item.
- Short Description - Additional identifying text with a greater text limit.
- Long Description - Large text field for additional data on the item.
- Tags - Descriptive markers assigned to the sale item for categorization purposes.
Inventory export
You can map the following fields in an inventory export to Sellware here. Both of these are required fields:
- Quantity Type* - Select either Available or On Hand from Fishbowl Drive to update the Available quantity in Sellware.
- Locations* - Select one or more of your Parent/Root locations from which inventory quantities will originate. At least one location must be selected as the inventory quantity source for sale items.
When you are finished creating these basic settings in the Settings page of the Commerce module, you are ready to begin adding your ecommerce channels to Sellware. To do this, return to the My Channels page and click the MANAGE CHANNELS IN SELLWARE button in the action bar. This will take you to the Sellware app.
Primary Channel vs. Linked Channel
It’s important to note that there is a difference between Primary Channels and Linked Channels in Sellware.
- Primary Channel - Also known as the System of Record, this channel is the source of all product and inventory information that can be sent to every Linked Channel via Sellware. It is also where all updates and sales are sent from Linked Channels to revise inventory quantities and generate orders for fulfillment. It’s possible to have multiple Primary Channels, but for typical selling workflows, Fishbowl Drive will be the focus of this documentation.
- Linked Channel - A channel that enables you to list sale items on an ecommerce platform and sell them. Linked Channels accept information from the Primary Channel about current inventory quantities and product details. They also feed shopping-cart orders back to the Primary Channel. There can be multiple Linked Channels, which you add by clicking the link on the bottom-right of the Linked Channels section in Sellware’s Channels List module.
If you created your Sellware account from the Commerce module in Fishbowl Drive, your Primary Channel will be Fishbowl Drive. Examples of your Linked Channels are Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and many other ecommerce platforms.
In summary, Fishbowl Drive is the source of all inventory data, while your Linked Channels are where your customers check out, process transactions, and submit payments to be passed through Sellware and onto Fishbowl Drive for fulfillment.
Channels List view and columns
The Channels List view in Sellware enables you to add, modify, and remove both Primary and Linked Channels. Primary Channels are listed under the following headers in that module:
- Channel Name - The name of the channel that is connected to Sellware.
- Status - A link that enables you to configure your settings if you have not yet mapped fields between Sellware and the channel. For Fishbowl Drive, this section of Sellware is in parity with the Settings page under the Commerce module.
- Synchronized - The month, day, and year (MM/DD/YYYY) that Sellware was most-recently updated with product and inventory data from the channel.
- Connection - The status of the connection, whether Connected or Unconnected.
- Actions - This is where you can modify or delete channels and run tasks within channels.
- Edit Channel - This cog icon takes you to the Channel Settings page for a particular channel.
- Manage Channel Jobs - This clipboard icon allows you to manually synchronize data in Sellware from Fishbowl Drive. It opens a Jobs popup for you to check when tasks were most-recently run and when they’re going to run next. You can also enable and run tasks from here. You will probably use this button frequently to import product and inventory updates from Fishbowl Drive.
- Delete Channel - This trashcan icon brings up a popup message asking you to confirm that you really want to delete the channel.
The same headers listed above are also found at the top of the Linked Channels section of the Channels List module, and there is one other header that is not in the Primary Channels section:
- Channel Code - A unique identifier for the ecommerce channel that is used in the connection process.
How to configure Fishbowl Drive settings in your Primary Channel in Sellware
As noted above, you can click the link in the Status column next to Fishbowl Drive to configure and map your product and inventory settings between the two solutions. This is a necessary step to be able to synchronize your Fishbowl Drive data with Sellware and all of your Linked Channels.
If you feel more comfortable using the Settings page in Fishbowl Drive, that’s totally fine. If you configure your settings there, they will automatically be applied to the Channel Settings page in Sellware. The settings in Sellware are just a bit more extensive than the ones in Fishbowl Drive, so we recommend that you go through them in Sellware.
Here are the steps you should take to configure Fishbowl Drive and Sellware’s connection:
1. Click the “Configure your channel to get started” link
Click the link under the Status header, which says Configure your channel to get started. This will bring up the Channel Settings page. The Channel Name is at the top, and you can change it if you like.
2. Choose Product Settings
Under the Product Settings tab, select one of these three options for how Sellware will handle product data received from Fishbowl Drive:
Product Catalog Settings
- Create new products and update existing products within Sellware.
- Create new products only. Existing products will not be modified.
- Update existing products only. Products must be created using the Sellware user interface or import files.
There are also three dropdown menus to select the following settings:
- Storefront - The name of the storefront that products are sold from, which will likely match the Channel Name.
- Warehouse - The Root location that products get created from.
- Default Currency - The default currency that imported products get set to for pricing.
If you want to limit products coming into the Sellware catalog from Fishbowl Drive, a filter is available using product tags from Fishbowl Drive. Select those tags in Fishbowl Drive within the Global settings, and their values will appear in the field for Import Products Filters.
3. Map fields to Fishbowl Drive
The following fields in the Importing Products Fields Mapping section match up with the ones in the Product Export section on the Settings page in Fishbowl Drive’s Commerce module. You are welcome to select them in either place. Required fields are marked by an asterisk:
- SKU* - The stock-keeping unit (typically Name or SKU in Fishbowl Drive) that identifies each unit of a sale item that is in stock.
- Title* - The Description of the sale item in Fishbowl Drive.
- UPC - The universal product code for the sale item. Also called UPC in Fishbowl Drive.
- Short Description - A brief explanation (or Notes in Fishbowl Drive) of the sale item.
- Long Description - A more-detailed explanation (or Notes in Fishbowl Drive) of the sale item. If you leave this open, you’ll be able to fill it with a different description from a URL or other source in Sellware.
This information will come from Fishbowl Drive to Sellware. That is why it’s referred to as an import in Sellware and an export in Fishbowl Drive.
Please Note - The current integration between Fishbowl Drive and Sellware assumes that there are sale items in Fishbowl Drive waiting to be sent to Sellware. If you already have products in Sellware, you will need to export them into a CSV file, reformat the columns, and import them into Fishbowl Drive in order to move them over.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: There is currently no mechanism for exporting products from Sellware to Fishbowl Drive as sale items. That will change in the future.
4. Turn on order synchronization
Click the Order Settings tab, and you will find a single setting underneath it: Order Synchronization. Click the toggle next to it to enable Approved orders in Sellware to be exported from Sellware to Fishbowl Drive.
Please Note - If this option is disabled, the Primary Channel data sync job, Upload Orders, will not export orders to Fishbowl Drive.
5. Choose inventory settings
Click the Inventory Settings tab. This corresponds to the Inventory Export section on the Commerce module’s Settings page in Fishbowl Drive.
Click the Quantity Type dropdown menu, and select either Available or On Hand to import those quantities into Sellware from Fishbowl Drive.
Then go down to the Enabled Warehouses section. You will see all of the Root locations you have created in Fishbowl Drive under the Disabled Warehouses header on the right. To bring sale-item quantities from specific locations, you will need to click and drag them from Disabled Warehouses to Active Warehouses on the left.
If you don’t see a location that you recently created in Fishbowl Drive, you will need to return to the main page of the Channels List module in Sellware and do three things. First, click the Manage Channel Jobs button to the right of the Fishbowl Primary Channel. Second, click the Enabled toggle next to Import account on the bottom. Third, click the Start Now button under Actions.
Then close that popup window, return to the Inventory Settings tab of Fishbowl’s Channel Settings, and you will see the new locations listed under Disabled Warehouses.
6. Check payment/shipping methods, accounting classes, and currencies
Click the Configuration Lists tab. There are four sections in this tab:
- Payment Methods - These are the methods by which customers can pay for orders.
- Shipping Methods - These come from the Carriers module in Fishbowl Drive.
- Accounting Classes - These come from the Classes module in Fishbowl Drive.
- Currencies - This is your Default home currency from the Settings module in Fishbowl Drive.
7. Click the Save Settings button
When you’re done making changes to your Fishbowl Settings, click the blue Save Settings button on the top-right of the Sellware interface. You can actually click this button at any point in the configuration process and continue working. But after you’ve visited every tab, it’s especially important to save all of your changes.
As soon as you click the Save Settings button and exit the Fishbowl Settings, you will see that the Status of the Fishbowl Primary Channel has changed to Configured.
Please Note - Saving the Primary Channel Settings also enables the job dataflows. With these enabled jobs, data will begin to sync between Sellware and Fishbowl Drive as the Primary Channel. These jobs can be manually disabled if desired.
Manage Channel Jobs button
Once you have configured the Global settings of the Fishbowl Drive/Sellware integration, you may want to revisit the Manage Channel Jobs button. This is the middle clipboard icon under the Actions header on the main page of the Channels List module in Sellware. Click it next to the Fishbowl Primary Channel, and you will find the following tasks that you can enable and manually run:
- Download all products - Import sale items in Fishbowl Drive to Sellware as products. If enabled, this will automatically attempt to run as soon as you configure your settings and click the Save Settings button.
- Download changed products - Import sale items that have been modified in some way since they were first imported from Fishbowl Drive.
- Upload orders - Export all orders that have been received from Linked Channels to Fishbowl Drive to generate sales orders and begin the order-fulfillment process.
- Download orders fulfillment - Import all completed shipments from Fishbowl Drive to update shipments onto orders for eventual fulfillment to the Listed Channels.
- Download changed inventory - Similar to Download changed products, this only imports sale-item quantities that have been updated either up or down since they were most-recently recorded.
- Download all inventory - Similar to Download all products, this imports the quantities of all sale items that have been imported from Fishbowl Drive, once per day.
- Import account (shipping and payment methods, locations and accounting classes) - This imports all of your shipping methods, payment methods, Parent locations, and accounting classes from Fishbowl Drive. If any of these have been added, modified, or deleted, then running this task will update the records in Sellware.
The job feeds are automatically scheduled to import and export data between Fishbowl Drive and Sellware, and the frequency is managed by the Sellware platform. The integration runs best when jobs are left to run on the backend of Sellware, but these jobs can be run manually for implementation and support needs.
How to add a Linked Channel to Sellware
For Linked Channels, it’s important to note that when their settings are configured and saved, the job flows between the store and Sellware will automatically begin synchronizing order data to Sellware.
To connect a new Linked Channel to Sellware, follow these steps:
1. Click the “Add another linked channel” link
Click the Add another linked channel link on the bottom-right of the Linked Channels section in the Channels List module.
2. Choose the Linked Channel and enter required channel credentials
The Connect New Channel popup dialog will appear. Enter the channel name and required connection data in the appropriate fields. Make sure the domain you enter is the URL of your storefront when applicable. Click the Connect Your Account button on the bottom-right of the popup.
Please Note - Each channel has its own connection and authorization flow. Refer to the store’s administrative settings to obtain these credentials.
3. Verify the connection
You may be required to use your login credentials for the respective store you are connecting to. The connection wizard may ask you for your username and password to verify your identity. Enter the admin user credentials for the store, as most API connections require administrative rights to connect. Then click the Confirm Installation button on the bottom-left.
This will take you back to the main page of the Channels List module in Sellware. The new Linked Channel now appears in the list of Linked Channels.
Complete the setup by configuring the channel and stepping through the various settings for orders, inventory, pricing, and mappings. You can find all of these details in the Sellware documentation here: Channel Settings. We will also cover them below.
Configuring a Linked Channel in Sellware
Follow these steps to configure a Linked Channel in preparation for sharing data between it, Sellware, and eventually Fishbowl Drive.
1. Click the “Click here to complete your configuration” link
Click the link under the Status column that says Click here to complete your configuration. This will open the Channel Settings page for that storefront.
There are five tabs in this page:
- Info
- Order
- Inventory
- Pricing
- Mappings
2. Verify the information on the Info tab
You will begin on the Info tab of the Channel Settings. There are three fields on this tab. Required fields are marked by an asterisk:
- Channel Name* - The URL of your storefront. This will automatically be filled with the Channel Domain you previously entered in the Connect New Channel popup.
- Channel Code* - A short identifier of the source of orders from this storefront. This will automatically be filled with the name of the ecommerce platform, e.g., amazon, ebay, shopify, woocommerce, etc. If you have multiple storefronts on the same platform, the second one will be called amazon-2, the third will be called amazon-3, and so forth.
- Color Label - A color that helps to identify orders in Sellware. This color label serves as a visual marker to differentiate each store from the same ecommerce platform when viewing listings and orders in Sellware grid views.
3. Select order settings (Order tab)
Click the Order tab and fill in the following Order Settings. These settings affect how the order passes through the Sellware lifecycle and how data is mapped back to Fishbowl Drive:
- Sales Orders - This section controls how sales orders are imported into Sellware, which determines if they get sent along to Fishbowl Drive or not. There are only three lifecycle stages in Sellware: Draft, Approved, and Archived. However, there are numerous statuses that orders can have coming from the ecommerce platforms, such as Pending, Paid, Refunded, Shipped, etc. So you can map all of those order statuses from the Linked Channel to the three lifecycle stages in Sellware by using this table. When orders are imported into Sellware with the Draft stage, they will remain in Sellware and not be sent to the Primary Channel – Fishbowl Drive. Only Approved orders will be exported to Fishbowl Drive. This distinction is an important consideration when planning order workflows for your business. Orders in the Draft stage are held for error troubleshooting, payment, and manual approval.
- Please Note - Sellware continues to receive updates from the selling channels for orders that remain in the Draft stage.
- Archive orders - This determines when orders will be removed from the Active lifecycle stage in Sellware and placed in the Archived module. Doing this keeps your Active modules free of clutter while still maintaining access to historical orders. However, you are not required to archive orders.
- Order Number Assignment - This determines how identifying numbers will be assigned to sales orders that are imported to Sellware and Fishbowl Drive from the Linked Channel. Select one of these options from the dropdown menu:
- Use order number provided by primary channel - Sellware will use the next sales order number according to what is in the Settings module in Fishbowl Drive.
- Use order number generated by Sellware - Sellware will generate its own sales order number according to its settings.
- Use order number provided by Linked Channel - The order number that was created by Amazon, eBay, Shopify, etc. will be used by Sellware as the sales order number.
- Use alternate number provided by Linked Channel (e.g., PO number) - The purchase order number or the unique ID in the URL assigned by the ecommerce platform will be used by Sellware as the sales order number.
- Amazon FBA/Shopify POS/Walmart WFS Orders - This mapping decides the progress of orders that are fulfilled by Amazon and Walmart or that originate in the Shopify POS channel rather than being picked, packed, and shipped by you. This will follow the same logic as the Sales Orders mapping table above, and it gives you the ability to treat these alternate-fulfillment methods as their own channel with distinct identifying data for accounting and reporting.
4. Select tax settings
Scroll down to the Tax Settings section on the Order tab. Fill in the following fields:
- Override default tax calculation? - This toggle should only be switched on and used for tax-inclusive locales (i.e., places that use GST or VAT).
- Tax Handling - Select how taxes will be handled on incoming orders with the following options:
- Honor and display tax on all orders received from [channel] - This setting includes taxes from the selling channel onto orders for your accounting and tax-remittance purposes.
- Remove tax on orders facilitated by [channel] when not received by merchant - Use this option for marketplace orders that remit taxes on your behalf.
- Remove tax on all orders received from [channel] - Use this option to block all taxes from the store.
- Please Note - This option could result in order-total disparity between Sellware and the selling channel.
5. Select customer and address settings
Scroll down to the Customer & Address section of the Order tab to select customer overrides and addresses for billing and shipping purposes. There are four fields to fill:
- Customer Override (Web) - Enter a default customer name for all incoming orders as a means of grouping orders from the same channel or filling this field if there is no data for customer name on the order.
- Please Note - Fishbowl requires a customer name on all orders.
- Customer Override (FBA/POS/WFS) - Enter a default customer name for incoming alternate-fulfillment orders for posting to the same account in Fishbowl Drive and the accounting app.
- Billing Address - Select one of the following options to decide what to do when the billing address on an incoming order is left blank.
- Please Note - Fishbowl requires a billing and shipping address on all orders.
- If the billing address is not provided,
- do nothing and leave blank. The order will error if attempting to import to Fishbowl Drive.
- assign the warehouse’s physical address from Sellware’s assigned warehouse (see Fulfillment Locations settings below).
- assign the warehouse-returns address from the Sellware-assigned warehouse.
- Shipping Address - Select one of the following options to decide what to do when the shipping address on an incoming order is left blank.
- If the shipping address is not provided,
- (Same three options as above).
- assign the billing address if it exists on the order or gets created from the options above.
- If the shipping address is not provided,
6. Set up fulfillment locations and priorities
Scroll down to the bottom of the Order tab until you reach the Fulfillment Locations section.
Please Note - This location will be assigned to the order items in Sellware. Fishbowl Drive will assign an order location based on the first item on the order in Sellware. This location mapping will take precedence over Channel Settings in Fishbowl Drive.
- Fulfillment Priority (Store Orders) - Select the warehouse/location priority to which orders will be assigned if they have Available inventory:
- Active Warehouses - Drag and drop Sellware warehouse locations into this window in the sequence for which you want orders assigned based on Available inventory. Having only one Active warehouse will ensure that orders get assigned to just that location.
- Disabled Warehouses - Drag and drop Fishbowl Drive Root locations that you don’t want to use to fulfill incoming orders from this Linked Channel.
- Fulfillment Priority (FBA/POS/WFS Orders) - (see above for description) This table assigns warehouse locations to orders that have alternate-fulfillment methods – FBA/POS/WFS.
7. Set up an inventory sync (Inventory tab)
Click the Inventory tab, and then click the Inventory Sync toggle to automatically update your listing quantities to match your Available inventory that can be sold on the Linked Channel.
When the Inventory Sync toggle is switched on, up to three fields will appear below it:
- Maximum Stock to List - Enter the highest quantity of Available inventory you want to show to customers on this channel. If you want the actual quantity of Available inventory to appear, leave this field blank.
- Inventory Reserve - Also known as Safety Stock, this is the number of units of each sale item you want to keep in stock to avoid stockouts while you wait for a new shipment to replenish your Available quantity.
- Inventory Location (if supported by selling channel) - Select a channel location to which inventory totals will be sent.
8. Set up a pricing sync (Pricing tab)
Click the Pricing tab, and then click the Pricing Sync toggle to automatically update your listing prices on the Linked Channel to match your sale items’ prices in Fishbowl Drive.
When the Pricing Sync toggle is switched on, the following field will appear below it:
- Price Adjustment - Enter + or - and then a number to add or subtract a dollar amount to each sale item’s price (e.g. -5 for a $5,00 decrease). Add % after the number to change it to a percent increase or decrease in the price (e.g., +10% for a 10-percent increase). Leave this field blank to leave the price as is.
9. Map payment and carrier methods (Mappings tab)
Click the Mappings tab, and you will be able to map your payment methods and carrier methods (or services) from the Linked Channel to those in Fishbowl Drive. There are two sections of this tab:
- Payment Methods Mapping - This lets you select the Fishbowl Drive equivalent of each payment method you have in the channel, and then click the Save button on the right to add it to the list in this section:
- Payment ID - Payment methods from the channel will be created here as they occur on imported orders.
- Payment Label - Select the corresponding payment method in Fishbowl Drive.
- Carrier Methods Mapping - This helps you ensure that your carriers and shipping services match up between the channel and Fishbowl Drive. Be sure to click the Save button to create each of these new mappings:
- Carrier ID - Shipping services are created here from the channel as they occur on orders.
- Label - A brief description of the shipping service.
- Carrier Name - The name of the carrier from Fishbowl Drive.
- Service Name - The corresponding name of the shipping service in Fishbowl Drive.
10. Save your settings
Click the blue Save Settings button on the bottom-right corner to preserve all of the settings you have created for the Linked Channel. This will return you to the main page of the Channels List module in Sellware.
After you finish selecting and saving these settings, you are welcome to click the Manage Channel Jobs button again and turn on all of the synchronization jobs you want for the integration between the new channel and Sellware/Fishbowl Drive. Then either wait for the automatic tasks to run or manually run the tasks to sync your data.
Please note that there is not perfect parity between the settings in Sellware and the Commerce module in Fishbowl Drive, so we recommend you revisit the My Channels page in Fishbowl Drive to ensure that every setting is satisfactorily assigned (including ones that aren’t in Sellware).
Selecting settings on the My Channels page in Fishbowl Drive
Many of these settings are unique to Fishbowl Drive and allow you to choose which data gets set on orders per channel. Once you have added at least one Linked Channel to Sellware, return to the Commerce module in Fishbowl Drive and go to the My Channels page. You will see the new channel listed on a line item. Click it to open its Settings page.
This is where you can review and select all of the settings governing orders, product imports from the order, customers, and alternate fulfillments. If you have already entered information into Sellware, some of these settings may be populated with those selections.
Most of the fields on this page are required, so be sure to fill in all of the fields marked with an asterisk before saving.
Order Settings
These settings affect incoming orders that will be fulfilled in Fishbowl Drive:
- Default Location* - Select a Root location to use as the main location associated with incoming orders from this channel.
- Prefix - Enter text that will go in front of order numbers from this channel to differentiate them from ones that come from other sources.
- Sales Tax Item (Flat Rate)* - Select the tax rate that you created in the Tax Rates module to associate with every incoming order from this channel.
- Please Note - Fishbowl Drive uses a flat-rate tax on all orders that come through the integration with Sellware. All taxes will be totaled onto this line item
- Shipping Terms* - Select a shipping term to include on every incoming order from this channel.
- Prepaid & Billed - The shipment was paid by the seller and billed to the customer.
- Prepaid - The shipment was paid by the seller.
- Freight Collect - The deliveryman will accept payment for a shipment upon delivery to the customer.
- Import Order Number As* - This determines what the order number will be when it is imported into Fishbowl Drive:
- Use Fishbowl’s Next Order Number - This uses the next sales order number in Fishbowl’s Settings module.
- Use Channel’s Order Number - This uses the order number generated by Amazon, BigCommerce, eBay, Shopify, etc.
- Use Channel’s Alternate Order Number - This uses the ecommerce platform’s alternate sales order number.
- Shipping Item* - Select a Shipping type item from the Items module that can be added as a line item to an incoming sales order.
- Order Status* - Select one of these three order statuses to classify incoming orders as:
- Estimate - This corresponds to Draft in Sellware.
- Issued - This corresponds to Approved in Sellware.
- Fulfilled - This corresponds to Completed in Sellware.
- Accounting Class - Select an accounting category from the Classes module to organize transactions.
Product Import Settings
These settings affect certain aspects of how sale items are measured and categorized when they are imported into Fishbowl Drive within sales orders:
- Fishbowl Drive Accounting Class - Select an accounting class that will be used to categorize each order that is imported into Fishbowl Drive from this channel.
- Product Dimensions UOM* - Select a unit of measure to always use in conjunction with sale items’ size and shape from this channel. The options are:
- Inches
- Feet
- Yards
- Millimeters
- Centimeters
- Meters
- Product Unit of Measure* - Select a UOM for each sale item that is on sales orders. These are created in the UOMs module in Fishbowl Drive.
- Product Weight UOM* - Select a UOM for each sale item’s mass as it is brought into Fishbowl Drive from this channel. The options are:
- Pounds
- Ounces
- Tons
- Kilograms
- Grams
Customer Settings
These settings affect payment terms, sales representatives, and priorities assigned to incoming sales orders:
- Default Payment Terms* - Select a payment term from the Payment Terms module that will be used by default on each incoming order.
- Sales Representative - Select a sales rep from the Representatives module to be assigned to incoming orders by default.
- Priority - Select a level of urgency that will be assigned to each incoming order. The options are:
- Highest
- High
- Normal
- Low
- Lowest
Amazon FBA/Shopify POS/Walmart WFS
As noted before, Amazon, Shopify, and Walmart offer their own fulfillment services, so they will fulfill orders instead of you having to do it. But you will still want to record those orders in Fishbowl Drive. Thus, there is an Amazon FBA, Shopify POS, or Walmart WFS section that you need to fill in for those channels to determine your alternate-fulfillment settings.
- Default Location* - Select the location that you store units of items at to be fulfilled by the channel.
- Sales Tax Item (Flat Rate)* - Select the tax rate that will apply to these orders, which may be different than the tax rate you use for regular orders from this channel that you fulfill yourself.
- Shipping Terms* - Select the shipping term associated with orders that are fulfilled by the channel.
- Shipping Item* - Select a Shipping type item from the Items module that will be added to each sales order as a line item if there is no shipping information that comes in from the channel.
- Order Status* - Select the condition you want orders to be in when they are imported into Fishbowl Drive. This will likely be Fulfilled, but you can also select Estimate or Issued if you prefer. Just know that these orders don’t need to be fulfilled in Fishbowl Drive. That is done automatically by the channel.
- Import Order Number As* - Select the order number that will be used with each incoming sales order that is fulfilled by the channel. This can be Fishbowl’s next order number, the channel’s order number, or their alternate order number.
Once you select all of the required fields, you will be able to click the SAVE or SAVE AND CLOSE button. Then you can start importing orders into Fishbowl Drive from this channel via Sellware.
Repeat these steps for every Linked Channel you sell products through.















