Synopsis:
- How can I set up automatic Order importing?
- How often can I run an import?
Webinar transcript
APT University: Automatic Order import
Preset notes: Use pre-filled sheet
(Show Title Slide)
Hello and welcome to AdvancePro University. Today we’ll be discussing Automated excel order importing – This is a powerful technology that can be used to link advancepro with other technologies you might be using to take a customer or vendor order, or a customer return. Previously We’ve dealt with the process of formatting the sheet and performing a manual import – today we’ll be covering how to set up an automated process so that you can import sheets hands free once you have an excel or CSV file that is successfully importing into AdvancePro.
So to configure this feature, you’re going to navigate to Admin > Utilities> Order import
You’ll need to have a schema configured – which tells advancepro exactly what it’s going to be looking for in your xls or csv file. You can set this up from Load Import tools. Check our previous video for details on this.
So First we’re going to choose the Order type and the schema – New in AdvancePro 11 you can do this for more than one schema, just repeat these steps
So you’re going to enable auto import, list the interval and go ahead and hit save. Here we’ll use 15 minutes, which is the minimum allowed interval
What this does, it it creates a folder inside of your advancepro installation folder, and every 15 minutes advancepro will check this folder for new files that match the schema you specified. When you enable auto import for another schema, Advancepro will make a new folder to check for files that match that schema or format.
You can click the folder button to open explorer to the folder that was created, you’ll see that this is the advancepro installation folder, subfolder order import, subfolder schema underscore and your schema name. Inside this folder we have three subfolders, NEW, Failed, and processed.
You want your files to arrive in NEW – this is the folder that advancepro is going to be checking on the interval you set. If advancepro finds a file in the NEW folder that it successfully brings into AP using your settings, then the file will be moved to processed. If it can’t bring the file into AP – the file will be moved to Failed. If you’re finding your orders aren’t showing up in advancepro, check the failed file and try to do manual imports based on it.
So in AdvancePro – we have some settings available to tell AdvancePro what to do with orders that get imported You’ll see auto process order – this will automatically send your order to the warehouse and reserve any stock. It will also create vendor orders for any stock you’re missing. The print picking slip will send the picking slips to the default printer automatically.
And auto process vendor order will automatically mark every vendor order generated by a processed import as processed –
On the right, you’ll see allow duplicate order number – this allows the PO# in an import to match a previous PO number, if it’s not checked off, orders with a PO that match a previously used PO number will be rejected.
Along the bottom you’ll see an import button – this manually runs an import from your automatic import folder, and is used to test the automation process and make sure your files are in the right place. You’ll also see the save button, and a paper trail button which allows you to see a report on all of the orders that have been brought in automatically, and to see what actions were taken based on your automation settings.
Now the last thing I’d like to discuss is – what are some methods you can use to get an export file into this installation folder – and the answer is going to depend on a few things:
Do you run your own AdvancePro server? Or are you running on AdvancePro Cloud?
Do you Run your own webserver?
What are the export capabilities or API capabilities of the technology you want to connect to AdvancePro?
What is your level of technical skill?
The first thing is – can your technology export a file that is suitable for AdvancePro importing – if not – you might need a macro or a script that will get you that file. If you don’t know how to make a macro or a script – reach out to our professional services department and we’ll help you with this part if it’s required for your integration.
Now once you’re able to get the file, you have to be able to put it somewhere, some technologies will email you the file as an attachment, some technologies will allow you to download it to a folder. If you’re not able to set this up on your advancepro server directly – or if your webserver and your Advancepro server are separate systems, we recommend using a technology like dropbox, google drive, or onedrive to move the file seamlessly between systems.
If you can get the file into a folder on your advancepro server – but can’t for one reason or another get it into the NEW folder in the import subfolder of your advancepro system, you can use the windows symbolic link feature – which is a trick that gives a file two paths – this is called the Mklink command, and you would delete that new importing folder, then create a symbolic folder using the Mllink command – generally this is done from the command line.
Essentially MK link takes a folder, and creates a complete clone of that folder elsewhere – so any file placed in folder A will be immediately placed in folder B – and any file removed from folder B is removed from folder A as well – in effect it lets a folder be in two places at once.
For more information on MkLink please check the great articles available on Microsoft’s technet or on Howtogeek.
I should stress that a big part of this setup should be done by your systems administrator and we welcome consultation with Advancepro support to make sure that this is successful.
This concludes our lesson today. if you have any questions please feel free to enter them in the questions tab on your gotowebinar control panel, otherwise feel free to reach out to your AdvancePro Advisor.
Question 1: Is this how I would integrate with Shopify or Woocommerce?
For Shopify, no, you might want to look at our video on the Shopify API integrator, as we now support two-way syncing back and forth with Shopify.
For Woo – the same API integration features are coming soon – but currently if you wanted to set up an integration between Woocommerce and AdvancePro Today – you would use this process.
Question 2: What if I want to export data from advancepro into some other system?
AdvancePro is built to work seamlessly with Quickbooks, and we now offer two way sync with with shopify. If there is some other software you would like to work with – please reach out to your advancepro advisor, we definitely have done these types of integration projects in the past and our professional services team would love to hear from you.