Set up Qoblex before you switch

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 is anything that touches a real stock number. That’s 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. Which store you connect here depends on whether you rehearse:

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. 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 step).

Connect Shopify and choose your sync settings

A newly connected store does not default to safe-for-rehearsal settings. Check these as soon as you connect, before you save or run the product import:

What the product import does with Do not sync

With Product Synchronization on 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. It updates only:

• the product’s Shopify mapping;
• its prices in the store’s Price and Compare At price lists, while Pricing Synchronization is on its default Sync from Shopify to Qoblex.

If the Shopify product has more variants than the Qoblex one, it also adds those variants and refreshes variant details and images.

Why not Sync from Shopify to Qoblex or Sync both ways

Don’t choose Sync from Shopify to Qoblex or Sync both ways for product sync. Either direction lets the product import:

• overwrite a matched product’s info and images;
• 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.

That’s a risk you don’t need while you’re still setting up.

Set your matching strategy

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.

Map your locations

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.

At go-live, tick Sync Inventory? for each location that should push stock to your store, then save. Until you do, Qoblex sends no stock to Shopify for that location.

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. As soon as you connect, set all three to Do not sync:

That way 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 step).

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 these are right and saved:

• sync settings;
• matching strategy;
• location mapping;
• price lists, plus an exchange rate if your store’s currency differs from your Qoblex currency.

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.

Your stocktake at cutover overwrites those imported quantities with your actual count, for every variant the stocktake includes.

Products your store doesn’t sell

Once your store’s catalogue is in Qoblex, add anything you stock that isn’t sold there. Use a CSV import, or create the products by hand. See Product imports and bulk edit.

Suppliers

Import your supplier contacts from a CSV file. See Import Suppliers.

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.

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

See Line up Xero or QuickBooks with your opening stock for both of the first two steps.

1. Before you connect, untrack (Xero) or deactivate (QuickBooks) any pre-existing item that overlaps with a product Qoblex will manage.
2. Before you connect, also make sure none of your Qoblex products are still tracked as inventory on the other side.
3. Connect Xero or QuickBooks, and work through its setup wizard when you’re ready.

When postings start

The wizard’s account, tax-rate and tracking-category mapping is only saved when you choose Save & Finish. That’s also when postings start:

• nothing posts before then;
• 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.

Those are:

• a live-synced Shopify order raises an invoice that Qoblex authorizes automatically;
• an imported purchase order or sales order line that carries a Billed/Invoiced quantity or an Is Paid flag creates and authorizes a bill, invoice, payment, refund, or return, the same way it creates a GRN or a shipment.

Orders created before you connected

Xero and QuickBooks only sync a sale order or purchase order created after you connected them. Anything created before that is skipped with a 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.

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.

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.