Everything in this article is work you can do today, whenever you’re ready, because none of it depends on a stock count. It’s the bulk of your cutover preparation: your catalogue, your connections, and your settings. The one thing to hold back — anything that touches a real stock number — is covered separately in Cutover day, step by step.
What to set up now
Work through these in order, starting with your locations, then your store connection and its catalogue. None of them depends on a stock count, so there’s no reason to wait. Rehearsing is optional. If you’re going straight to your production store, connect it here, and know that its orders start coming into Qoblex from then on (see Bring in open sale orders). If you’ll rehearse first, connect your staging store here instead; your production store gets its own connection and product import later (see Rehearse your switch on a staging store).
- Locations. Set up the Qoblex warehouse locations you’ll stock from. If you sell on Shopify, you need at least as many Qoblex locations as your store has, because each Shopify location must map to a different Qoblex location, and the store’s settings won’t save otherwise. The mapping table’s Create location button adds any you’re missing. You map them once the store is connected (next bullet).
- Connect Shopify and choose your sync settings. A newly connected store does not default to safe-for-rehearsal settings: in Inventory levels Synchronization, the How would you like us to sync your inventory levels (quantity adjustments, stock transfers, purchases…)? dropdown defaults to Sync from Qoblex to Shopify with every mapped location’s Sync Inventory? switch already on, and the Product Synchronization section’s How would you like us to sync your products information? control defaults to Sync both ways, with both Would you like to automatically sync new products created in Qoblex to Shopify? and Would you like to automatically publish newly created products to your web channel? switched on. Change the inventory sync dropdown to Do not sync as soon as you connect, before you save or run the product import. For Product Synchronization, set the sync-direction control to Do not sync and turn both automatic new-product switches off — with Do not sync, a Shopify product import still creates every Shopify product Qoblex doesn’t have yet. For a product that’s already in Qoblex, it leaves the product’s details alone and updates only its Shopify mapping and, while Pricing Synchronization is on its default Sync from Shopify to Qoblex, its prices in the store’s Price and Compare At price lists. If the Shopify product has more variants than the Qoblex one, it also adds those variants and refreshes variant details and images. To keep the prices you’ve set in Qoblex, set How would you like us to sync your product prices? to Do not sync as well. Don’t choose Sync from Shopify to Qoblex or Sync both ways for this: either direction lets the product import overwrite a matched product’s info and images, and delete any of its Qoblex variants that Shopify doesn’t have (unless that variant is part of a bundle, already allocated to an order, or mapped to another store) — a risk you don’t need while you’re still setting up. Cost sync already defaults to Do not sync, so it needs no change. This is also the moment to set your matching strategy — the How would you like Qoblex to identify and match similar products across different stores? control, right above the sync-direction one: Match products by SKU is usually more reliable than the default Match products by name once you’re matching against a second system, since names are more likely to differ slightly. You’ll set it again for your production store’s own connection later (see Rehearse your switch on a staging store). On the store’s settings page, map each Shopify location to a Qoblex location under Location Mapping (Qoblex fills it in for you if you have only one Qoblex location); see Shopify locations, currency, and price lists. See Connect Shopify and choose your sync settings and Shopify sync settings at go-live.
- Connect WooCommerce and choose your sync settings. A new WooCommerce connection isn’t safe for rehearsal on its defaults: Inventory levels Synchronization starts on Sync from Qoblex to WooCommerce, Product Synchronization on Sync both ways (with Would you like to automatically sync new products created in Qoblex to WooCommerce? on), and Pricing Synchronization on Sync from WooCommerce to Qoblex. As soon as you connect, set all three to Do not sync, so WooCommerce can’t overwrite the products and prices you’re building and Qoblex doesn’t push new products to your live store (see WooCommerce sync settings at go-live for exactly what each default does). Set your matching strategy here too, then run the one-off WooCommerce product import (next bullet). See Connect WooCommerce and choose your sync settings and Import products from WooCommerce.
- Import your store’s catalogue. Run the one-off product import as soon as your sync settings, matching strategy, location mapping and price lists (plus an exchange rate, if your store’s currency differs from your Qoblex currency) are right and saved. It brings in your store’s products, so you don’t build them by hand. See Import products from Shopify or Import products from WooCommerce.
- Products your store doesn’t sell. Once your store’s catalogue is in Qoblex, add anything you stock that isn’t sold there: a CSV import, or create the products by hand. See Product imports and bulk edit.
- Suppliers. Import your supplier contacts from a CSV file. Importing them from Xero instead only becomes available once Xero’s setup wizard is finished, and that’s also when postings start (see Accounting, last below). If you want the Xero route, leave suppliers until then. See Import Suppliers.
- Bundles and bills of material. Converting a variant into a bundle or a bill of material only defines its recipe. It doesn’t move any stock on its own. See Bundles and Bills of Material.
- Accounting, last. Before you connect, untrack (Xero) or deactivate (QuickBooks) any pre-existing item that overlaps with a product Qoblex will manage, and make sure none of your Qoblex products are still tracked as inventory on the other side — see Line up Xero or QuickBooks with your opening stock. Then connect Xero or QuickBooks and work through its setup wizard when you’re ready. Its account, tax-rate and tracking-category mapping is only saved when you choose Save & Finish, and that’s also when postings start: nothing posts before then, and nothing posts until a document is authorized in Qoblex. But once the wizard is finished, posting isn’t something you separately switch on later: an authorized invoice, bill, or payment goes to Xero or QuickBooks on its own, and several actions in this plan authorize a document without you doing anything (see the callout below). Xero only syncs a sale order or purchase order created after you connected Xero. Anything created before that is skipped with a “created before the Xero integration was installed” notice. Because accounting comes last, that includes the open orders your store’s product import pulled into Qoblex, and any order your store synced in before you connected Xero. That’s expected and safe: those orders belong to the books you kept before the switch, so you don’t need to do anything about them. The same applies to QuickBooks: an order created before you connected QuickBooks is skipped with a “created before the QuickBooks integration was installed” notice. See Xero Integration Overview or QuickBooks Integration Overview.
What to leave for cutover day
Hold these back until you’re ready to make Qoblex the stock master, because each one sets or moves a stock quantity:
- Your opening stock count (the stocktake).
- Importing open or part-received purchase orders (stock still in transit).
- Importing open sale orders (backorders, pre-orders, anything not yet shipped).
- Switching on live inventory sync for a connected channel (Shopify, WooCommerce, or both).
See Cutover day, step by step for how these come together.