An overview of the features available when integrating Acctivate with a webstore platform as well as which webstores Acctivate supports.
The Acctivate Web Store Integration can synchronize new customers, orders, item availability and tracking numbers in a single click from one or multiple web sites. The web store integration does not export product, pricing, or customers from Acctivate to the webstore. For example, if you create a product or customer in Acctivate, it will not automatically export from Acctivate and create that record on the webstore. This information in addition to product pricing will need to be created on the webstore. After reading this help article, please reach out to Acctivate support if you have any questions on the functionality of the Acctivate web store integration.
Acctivate uses the term “Web Store” to refer to the commerce portion of your web site. A Web Store typically consists of the following:
- Customer List
- Item List with Pricing
- Quantity Available for Items
- Shopping Cart
- Sales Orders
- Payment Processing
- Shipment Tracking
Below you will find videos, screen guides and specific articles. To view the complete archive of Web-Store articles, click here. We also covered the Acctivate Web Store Integration in a previous webinar. To view the Web-Store webinar, click here.
Supported Web Stores
Acctivate does not provide a “Web Services API”. Instead, we leverage the existing API provided by your Shopping Cart / eCommerce platform. Acctivate supports the following popular platforms:
- Adobe Commerce (Magento)
- BigCommerce
- ChannelAdvisor
- eBay
- Shift4Shop
- Shopify
- Volusion
- WooCommerce
Please contact us if your Web Store is not listed above. We are actively developing integrations with other Web Store platforms. Acctivate can usually be integrated with any shopping cart that provides an XML-based API to download sales orders, update status, etc. However, we have also published our own, native XML schema that can be implemented by your web developer. This creates integration options for custom and less-popular shopping cart software. Documentation on the native Acctivate Web Store Template can be found here.
Templates
Acctivate uses a “Template” for each Web Store. Each template includes the following:
- Web Store Type (e.g., Magento)
- Web Service API URL
- Login and/or Password
- Field Mapping
- Field Conversions
- Default Field Values
- Last Sales Order Number imported
- Other Configuration Options (e.g., Create customers from orders)
Customers
- Acctivate can be configured to automatically create new customer records when a sales order is received from a new customer.
- There is a configuration option (per Template) to create new customers in Acctivate from the Web Store. We keep the original “Web Customer ID”, so you can rename the customer record in Acctivate or QuickBooks and maintain the link to the website.
- There is also an option to NOT create the customer in QuickBooks. The “Synchronize as [Customer]” option allows the new customer to be created in Acctivate, but all invoices/payments are synchronized to QuickBooks as a single, bulk customer.
- Alternatively, you can also configure the Web Store Template to import all sales orders linked to a single, bulk customer record (e.g. “Web Orders 2021”).
Sales Orders
Acctivate downloads new sales orders directly from the Web Store API. New orders are imported by order ID/number sequentially. All preconfigured templates are already setup to import Sales Orders. However, there may be custom mappings that need to be implemented per customer requests. Each webstore template has tools in place to allow more advanced mappings and customizations:
- A mapping utility is provided to handle most special circumstances. For example, you may want to include a custom field on your web site to the Acctivate Sales Order Reference field. Default mappings are provided
- A mapping and conversion utility is included to handle most special circumstances and data discrepancies. For example, the “checkmo” payment method in your Web Store may be mapped to the “Check” payment method in Acctivate/QuickBooks. Another example would be mapping a custom field to the Acctivate Sales Order Reference field.
- There is also a mechanism to define “Default Values” for constant values for all imported sales orders. For example, you could set the Marketing Code, Salesperson and/or Branch for all sales orders from the Web Store.
- Acctivate can process credit cards using the Intuit Merchant Services or Authorize.net. However, we can import the CC transaction ID from Magento for offline processing. Please let us know if you’re using another Payment Gateway or Merchant Service. We are reviewing options to integrate with other payment processors.
- We include a function to re-import any specific orders that previously failed. For example, an order may be skipped if an unrecognized field value is discovered (e.g., unknown product). Skipped sales orders will appear on the Web Stores tab of the Business Alerts window.
Item Availability
- Acctivate will use the Web Store API to update item availability on the web site. All products with transactions since the last Web Store sync and are checked as "Available on Web" are included. We require that the Web Store Item ID match either the Acctivate Product ID or Alternate Product ID.
- In the template settings, you have the option to export the sum of item availability from all warehouses or a particular list of warehouses.
NOTE: This functionality may not be available for all Web Stores and does not include a sync of the item list itself.
Shipments
- Acctivate will use the Web Store API to mark sales orders as “Shipped”. We include the carrier and tracking number(s).
- Typically when Acctivate exports the tracking number(s) and Order status of "Shipped" to the webstore, the web order is then automatically fulfilled/completed.
- Acctivate keeps track of the original web Store Order ID, which may or may not be the Acctivate order number.
NOTE: This functionality may not be available for all Web Stores.
For more information about webstore, check out our docs page.