Ways to connect a supplier

If your supplier gives you stock figures in any form, StockBoss can read them. Find your arrangement below. That is what to pick when you add the supplier.

Which one is yours

They gave you a login to their API. Pick their named profile. PenCarrie, Ralawise, BTC Activewear and Prestige Leisure all have one. See Suppliers with a named profile.

They publish a file at a web address. That is the sort of link that downloads a spreadsheet when you paste it into a browser. Pick a spreadsheet or feed at an address. After an API this is the best arrangement: it updates itself and needs nothing from anyone.

They leave a file on an FTP server and gave you a username and password for it. Pick the file server option, or their named profile if they have one. StockBoss reaches ftp://, ftps:// and sftp:// addresses. This is the most common arrangement in the trade, and often the freshest. BTC Activewear refresh their file every five minutes.

They email you a file, or you download one from their website by hand. Send that file to StockBoss. See Spreadsheets and stock feeds.

Something on your own server already fetches a file, such as a script or an automation you set up. Give StockBoss the path. It reads the file on every run.

Most of these routes need no permission from your supplier. They need a file, and you already have one, because you are their customer.

What will not work

A supplier who publishes nothing. If the only way to see their stock is to log into a portal and read a screen, there is nothing to fetch. Nobody can automate that one, us included. Ask them for a file before assuming they have none. Many wholesalers have one and simply do not advertise it.

A file with no quantities in it. An order export or a plain product list parses perfectly, and writing it would take your whole shop to zero stock. StockBoss refuses files like this and tells you what they are missing.

An address on a private network. For safety, StockBoss will not fetch addresses inside your own network, or a cloud provider’s internal addresses. See Security and privacy.

Will it stay fresh on its own?

Any file StockBoss can read, it can read. The question that decides how much of the morning job goes away is whether fresh figures arrive without you.

What you have	Can StockBoss read it?	Does it stay fresh on its own?
A named supplier’s API	yes	yes
A file at a web address	yes	yes
A file on their FTP server	yes	yes
A file your own automation fetches	yes	yes, as often as it runs
A file you send by hand	yes	no, sending it is still a job
A portal you log into and read	no	no

Sending a file by hand is the right answer for a supplier who emails a spreadsheet once a week. It is also the fastest way to see StockBoss work on day one. But only an address, an FTP server or an API removes the morning job completely.

You never describe the file

Whichever route you use, you are not asked to write a path, a column list or an expression.

StockBoss works out a spreadsheet’s columns and a feed’s fields from the file itself. It shows you three real values from each one, so you can see whether its guess is right and correct it if not. A stock feed is a wall of braces, and “which field is the quantity” is a question you can only answer by reading JSON. That is not a reasonable thing to ask of somebody who sells hoodies.

Choose what goes into your shop

Every stock supplier’s settings carry a Your stock numbers card. It decides what StockBoss writes when their figure arrives.

Show their figure is the default. Their number goes in exactly as it stands. That is right when you order from them straight away, or when their warehouse is effectively your shelf.

Take off what you have already sold is for shops that take orders first and buy from the wholesaler later. Units your customers bought, but you have not ordered yet, stay out of the figure. A fresh update cannot put sold stock back on sale. The card shows how many units are held back, across how many lines. When you place your order with the supplier, press I have ordered from them. The held-back units return to sale on the next update, and counting starts again.

Two more controls sit on the same card. Both work with either policy:

• Safety margin holds a few units out of every line. Use it when other shops buy from the same wholesaler between your updates.
• Never show more than puts a ceiling on the figure your shop shows. A wholesaler holding 40,000 of something does not need your product page to say 40,000. Set 500 and the page says 500.

Both default to 0, which means off. Neither ever writes more than the supplier really has.

Connect more than one supplier

Connect as many suppliers as you like. Each has its own schedule and its own settings.

You can also split one supplier across two routes. PenCarrie is the example: stock numbers change all day and come by token, while the product range changes about as often as they print a brochure, so it can come from a saved file. Each half is set up separately. Somebody who cannot get a token still has a shop that works.

Not sure what you have?

Send us the file your supplier gives you and we will tell you whether it works, usually the same day. You do not need an account to ask: [email protected].