Getting started with the ready2order integration for WooCommerce

This article describes how to get started with our ready2order integration for WooCommerce

Connecting the plugin to ready2order

When you first get started with the ready2order plugin the first thing you need to do is to connect it to your ready2order account. All you need to do to accomplish this is to:

• Go to WooCommerce -> Settings -> ready2order
• Enter the email you want associate with your integration – preferably your work email. Don’t forget to save the settings after the email has been entered.
• Click the Authorize button and go through the steps in the Authorization process.
• You’re done – congratulations!

Choosing the master system

Next you’ll have to decide how you want the integration to be setup. First you’ll need to decide where you want to host the “master data”. Typically this is the system you create products in, update prices, add images etc. This could either be WooCommerce or ready2order. While the plugin is capable of syncing most of the data in both directions at the same time, we always advice that you choose to have one system as the master as this will be much easier to maintain long term. We recommend that you use WooCommerce as your master system as the plugin is capable of more sophisticated syncing in this type of setup

Once you’ve chosen the master system, you need to make sure that the non-master system has a clean product library. For example, if you’ve chosen WooCommerce as the master system you should clear out all products in ready2order so you start with a clean product library. And vice versa if ready2order is the master system. The reasoning behind this is that when the initial sync between the two systems is made, the integration will create new products in the non-master system based on the products present in the master system. If the product library is not empty in the non-master system, you therefore risk ending up with a lot of duplicates that you need to clear out later on. Before you clear out the data in the non-master system please make sure that all product data that you want to keep and use in the future is present in the master system.

Setting up the sync

Now we can proceed to setup how the syncing process should be done. We always advice that you set up the sync in one direction first (i.e WooCommerce -> ready2order) and testing out that the sync works flawlessly in that direction first before setting up syncing in both directions.

Setup 1 – WooCommerce is the master

Syncing to ready2order

• Go to the Export products section and start to select which product information you want to sync from WooCommerce to ready2order.
• Once the settings look good – press the Start button located at the top portion of the Export products section.
• Now the syncing process is started. Please note that is initial syncing can take some time – especially if you have a lot of products in your WooCommerce store
• When the sync is done validate in ready2order if the products have been exported correctly. If not, clear the product library in ready2order, adjust the settings in Export products and click the Start button again.
• If everything looks good in ready2order, please enable the setting Automatic update to enable the automatic syncing of products to ready2order.

Syncing from ready2order

Typically the only data you want to sync from ready2order is the stock level of the product. This can be achieved inside the Import products section of the plugin.

Changing the WooCommerce product stocklevel directly

• Go to the Import products section
• Enable the Automatic product update option
• Set the Product Actions option to Update products in WooCommerce
• Enable the Stock option
• Make sure that the other options under Import products are blank
• Save the settings
• Change the stocklevel of a product in ready2order, either directly or through a purchase
• Validate that the stocklevel on the corresponding product in WooCommerce changes
• If everything looks good – congratulations! You’re now up and running with the ready2order integration!

Setup 2 – ready2order is the master

Syncing from ready2order

• Go to the Import products section and start to select which product information you want to sync from ready2order to WooCommerce
• Once the settings look good – press the Start button located at the top portion of the Import products section.
• Now the syncing process is started. Please note that is initial syncing can take some time – especially if you have a lot of products in your ready2order store
• When the sync is done validate in WooCommerce if the products have been imported correctly. If not, clear the product library in WooCommerce, adjust the settings in Import products and click the Start button again.
• If everything looks good in WooCommerce, please change the setting Product actions to what you want to happen in WooCommerce whenever a change happens in ready2order. If you want ready2order to have full control over WooCommerce please choose Create, update and delete products in WooCommerce for the best results. This will enable the automatic syncing of products to WooCommerce.

Syncing to ready2order

Typically the only data you want to sync from WooCommerce is the stock level of the product. This can be achieved in three ways with our plugin:

• The stocklevel can either be changed directly on the product (when you manually change the stock or an order is made in WooCommerce for example). The stock value in WooCommerce will then overwrite the stockvalue in ready2order.
• (IN BETA) You can choose to have the plugin create a ready2order invoice whenever a purchase is made in WooCommerce which indirectly changes the stocklevel of the product in WooCommerce (exactly the same thing that would happen if a WooCommerce order was placed in the product).
• Or you can let orders in WooCommerce simply decrease the stock value in ready2order. The difference between this alternative and the first one is that this option will simply decrease the stockvalue that already exists in ready2order. The first alternative will overwrite the stock value in ready2order entirely – which makes it a bit more of a powerful option, but it also carries more risk.

Alternative 1 – Changing the ready2order product stocklevel directly (by overwriting it when changes happen in WooCommerce)

• Go to the Export products section in the plugin
• Enable the Automatic update option
• Enable the Stock option
• Save the settings
• Change the stocklevel on one of the products in WooCommerce temporarily.
• Validate that the stocklevel on the corresponding product in ready2order changes
• If everything looks good – congratulations! You’re now up and running with the ready2order integration!

Alternative 2 – Changing the ready2order product stocklevel through creating a ready2order invoice upon purchase (BETA)

• Go to the Order to Invoice section in the plugin
• Enable the Enable WooCommerce to ready2order invoice processing option
• Save the settings
• Set the Create Invoice on order status to the WooCommerce order status you want to trigger the creation of the ready2order invoice. The recommended option is Processing.
• Set the Bill Type option to whatever bill type you want the invoice to have when created.
• Set the Default user option to the ready2order user want the invoice to be associated with when created.
• Set the Payment method option to whatever payment method you want the invoice to have when created.
• (Optional) Enable the Include unpaid orders option to also allow the plugin to create ready2order invoices from WooCommerce orders that have not been marked as paid yet. Useful when you allow invoice payments inside your WooCommerce store.
• (Optional) Enable the Automatically trigger day to open if closed option to allow the plugin to open the day in ready2order order if it has not yet been opened that day.
• (Optional) Enable the Handle shipping items in invoice to enable the possibility of including shipping items in the WooCommerce order in the ready2order invoice
  • Note – If you enable this option you need to map each Shipping Zone and Shipping Method in WooCommerce to an article inside ready2order in order to properly include these items in the invoice. Once you enable the Handle shipping items in invoice option and save the settings – you’ll be presented with new settings that allows you to do this matching.
• Make a test purchase inside WooCommerce.
• Validate that the stocklevel on the corresponding product in ready2order changes and that the invoice has been created in ready2order.
• If everything looks good – congratulations! You’re now up and running with the ready2order integration!

Alternative 3 – Changing the ready2order product stocklevel through WooCommerce orders

• Go to the Stocklevel from order section in the plugin
• Enable the Adjust stocklevel from orders option
• Save the settings
• Set the Change at statuses option to which WooCommerce order statuses you want the plugin to use to possibly decrease the stocklevel in ready2order.
  • Note – The plugin will only decrease the stocklevel once from a single WooCommerce order. Therefore it is completely safe to add more than one order status in the Change at statuses option.
• Save the settings
• Make a test purchase inside WooCommerce (and possibly change the order status of the order to something that matches the Change at statuses setting)
• Validate that the stocklevel on the corresponding product in ready2order changes
• If everything looks good – congratulations! You’re now up and running with the ready2order integration!

Final notes

Now that you’re up and running with the ready2order integration data should pass effortlessly between both systems. However, if you happen to require a more advanced setup, encounter any issues along the way or have any other questions that aren’t answered in our knowledge base then feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].