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Install and connect a supplier

StockBoss keeps your shop’s stock in step with your wholesaler. Setting it up takes three steps: install the plugin, add your supplier, then link their stock to your products.

What you need before you start

Section titled “What you need before you start”

You need a way to get your supplier’s stock figures. That is usually one of:

  • a file they email you
  • a file at a web address
  • a file on their FTP server
  • a login for their API

Not sure which you have? See Ways to connect a supplier. Or just try the file you already have.

You also need WooCommerce with stock management switched on. Find the setting under WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory. StockBoss warns you if it is off.

Where to get StockBoss

StockBoss is sold from bossmage.com, not WordPress.org. Every plan starts with fourteen days free, no card needed. Want us to check your supplier's file before you start? Email [email protected] and we will look at it with you.

Step 1: Install the plugin

Section titled “Step 1: Install the plugin”
  1. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
  2. Upload the StockBoss zip and press Activate.
  3. Enter your licence key when the first screen asks for it. The key works the same during the free trial as after it.

A BossMage menu appears in your admin sidebar, with StockBoss inside it. If you already use BundleBoss or AddOnBoss, it is the same menu. StockBoss works on its own and needs no other BossMage plugin. If AddOnBoss is installed, imported colours arrive with their swatches already filled in.

StockBoss needs WordPress 6.4, WooCommerce 8.0 and PHP 8.1, or newer.

If your licence ever lapses

Nothing disappears. Everything already in your shop stays visible and editable. StockBoss just stops fetching new figures, building products and sending orders until the licence is back.

Step 2: Add your supplier

Section titled “Step 2: Add your supplier”
  1. Go to BossMage > StockBoss and press Add a supplier.
  2. Pick your supplier. PenCarrie, Ralawise, BTC Activewear and Prestige Leisure have ready-made profiles. If yours is not listed, pick what they give you instead: a spreadsheet, a stock feed, or a file on a file server.
  3. Name it if you like. Leave the name blank and StockBoss uses theirs.
  4. Fill in the form. It only asks for what your choice needs: a token, a sign-in, an address, or a file to send.
  5. Press Save. This stores your details. It does not contact your supplier yet.
  6. On the supplier’s card, press Check now. This fetches your first stock update.

Step 3: Check what came back

Section titled “Step 3: Check what came back”

Take a minute on this step. It is the one worth doing slowly.

StockBoss reads your supplier’s file and shows you what it found. For each column you see its best guess, such as “this is the product code” and “this is the quantity”. Three real values from your own file sit next to each one.

  1. Read each column’s example values. Do they look right?
  2. Pay special attention to the quantity column. If the file also has a price column, check the two are not swapped. Both are just numbers, and only the heading tells them apart.
  3. If a guess is wrong, change it. StockBoss remembers your correction and uses it from then on.
Why this check matters

If a price column is read as the quantity, every product's stock becomes its price. Nothing crashes, so nobody notices until the orders arrive. This one check prevents that.

Some suppliers skip this step entirely. BTC Activewear’s file is always the same shape, so StockBoss already knows which column is which.

Step 4: Choose how often it checks

Section titled “Step 4: Choose how often it checks”

On the supplier’s settings, pick an interval: every 15 minutes, hourly, every 4 hours, twice a day, or once a day. New suppliers start on hourly.

Nothing runs more often than every 15 minutes. Some suppliers set their own minimum, and StockBoss respects it. See Set how often it checks.

Section titled “Step 5: Link their stock to your products”

StockBoss needs to know which of your products matches which of their codes. There are two ways, and most shops use both:

What you should see when it is working

Section titled “What you should see when it is working”

Go to BossMage > StockBoss. Each supplier has a card showing when it last checked, what changed, and whether all is well. The history lists the recent runs.

You do not need to watch it. If a supplier stops working, you get an email. If you hear nothing, everything is fine.

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