For product businesses in Ireland and the UK
25 things to check before you connect your online store to your operations
Five areas, five checks each. Each check is a question you can answer today, by looking at one order, one shelf or one invoice. Where the honest answer is "by hand" or "nobody knows", an integration pays for itself first.
How to use this listGo through the list with the people who pick, pack, invoice and answer customers. Write the real answer, not the one you would like. Mark the checks where the answer is "by hand", "nobody knows" or "it depends who is in that day".
Orders
5 checksEverything else depends on how an order enters the company and who touches it.
Count how many times one order is typed.
Follow one order from the store to the invoice and the delivery note. Write down every place where someone retypes it.
Check that every sales channel ends in the same order list.
Website, phone, email, marketplace and trade orders should appear in one list with the same statuses.
Write down the order statuses your team actually uses.
New, paid, picked, shipped, invoiced: agree on the names and on who changes each one.
Decide what happens to an order you cannot fulfil.
Backorder, partial shipment or refund: the rule should exist before the integration, not inside the code.
List the orders that need a person to approve them.
Trade orders over a credit limit, custom products, exports: these need a stop in the flow, not an automatic path.
Stock
5 checksAn integration can only be as right as the stock figure it reads.
Pick the one system that holds the true stock figure.
The store, the inventory software or a spreadsheet: one of them is the source and the others read from it.
Check how often the stock on the website is updated, and by whom.
Hourly, daily or when someone remembers: write the real answer, then the one you want.
Walk the warehouse with the stock list and count ten products.
The difference between the list and the shelf tells you how far the integration can trust the data.
Write down how reserved, damaged and returned stock are recorded.
If they are not recorded, the website sells them.
Check bundles, variants and units of measure.
A kit sold as one product and stocked as five parts needs its own rule in every system.
Delivery
5 checksThe delivery is where the customer finds the mistakes made earlier.
List every courier and service you use, and where each label is created.
If someone types the label, the address is copied one more time.
Check that the address on the label is the one the customer typed.
Every copy between systems is a chance for a typo.
Decide who tells the customer the order has shipped, and from which system.
The store, the courier or a person: one of them, with the tracking number.
Define what the warehouse sees when an order is paid.
A pick list on paper, a screen or a scanner: the integration needs to know the format.
Check how returns come back into stock and into accounting.
A return that is received but not booked skews both the stock and the VAT figures.
Documents and invoicing
5 checksMost of the retyping happens here, and most of it can be generated.
List the documents you produce for one order.
Order confirmation, pro forma, invoice, delivery note, packing slip, certificate, export paperwork.
Check which documents are typed by hand or filled in Word.
Each of them can be generated from the order data.
Agree on the moment the invoice is issued.
On payment, on dispatch or at month end: Xero or Sage need the same rule as the store.
Check that prices, VAT rates and discounts are the same in the store and in accounting.
A product with two prices produces an invoice that someone has to correct.
Check how trade customers receive invoices and statements.
From accounting, from the store or from a person: a customer portal can take this over only if the rule is clear.
Reporting
5 checksIf the numbers come from exports, the systems are not connected yet.
Write down the three numbers you check every morning.
Orders, stock value, cash in: the integration should show them on one screen without exports.
Check which reports are built in Excel from exports.
Each export is a sign of two systems that do not share data.
Compare the sales figure in the store, in accounting and in the bank.
If the three figures differ, find out why before connecting anything.
Check who can see the margin per product and per customer.
If nobody can without a spreadsheet, the integration has to carry cost prices too.
Decide which reports the owner needs and which the team needs.
The person who picks needs a different screen from the person who approves credit.
What to do with your answers
Count the checks marked "by hand" or "nobody knows". Those are the places where an integration saves time first. Bring the list to a call and we go through it with you, or start with the store and operations audit.
