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Inventory Management
Bulk Deduct, Auto-Deduct, and ShipStation deduction in combination with Master of Inventory
Bulk Deduct, Auto-Deduct, and ShipStation deduction in combination with Master of Inventory

An introduction to the complexities involved in multi-channel fulfillment and inventory management.

Updated over a week ago

Warning: Do not change how you ship orders without contacting SKULabs in chat or email at [email protected] with 24-48 hours notice. Automated deductions for orders shipped outside of SKULabs are available on the Pro plan.


You can choose to continue fulfillment on your existing software in combination with SKULabs while also using SKULabs as a master of inventory.

Automated inventory deduction

This configuration is not recommended, but is a viable solution for specific operations where your shipping providers are not supported by SKULabs or if you cannot process orders in SKULabs using normal deduction methods.

Single warehouse vs. complex multi-warehouse auto-deduction

With Auto-deduct enabled, orders are automatically deducted from a single location within a single warehouse linked to a store. If orders from the same store require automated deduction from multiple locations, there will not be enough real-time information from your third-party software to automatically determine which warehouse fulfilled specific inventory.

If possible, scanning/verifying all order items from locations within SKULabs before shipping the order outside will allow the deduction from multiple locations. Otherwise, in certain cases, shipping rules can be leveraged for fulfillment decisions based on order criteria. Contact SKULabs support for more information.

Requirements

Whether you are using the Auto-Deduct system or ShipStation, there are a few key requirements:

  • Your sales channel must support importing shipped orders status or ShipStation

  • Store names must match between SKULabs and ShipStation

  • Order listings must be linked to items within SKULabs

  • Items must be assigned to the warehouse they will be deducted from.

    • If you remove items from assigned locations due to transfer orders, manual reconciliations, or enabling the warehouse option to "remove items from locations with 0 inventory", you will be required to manually track failed deductions

  • It is recommended to periodically review your shipped orders tab for any orders with failed deductions.

  • ShipStation sync is not monitored by the SKULabs team. You will be required to monitor your ShipStation sync log under Sync Reports to ensure your orders are being deducted as expected.

Auto-Deduct (preferred)

The simplest and most preferred method. Auto-deduct automatically adds shipments to orders based on order criteria. The most common configuration is to monitor and deduct an order when its status appears "shipped" directly on your channel, but this can be easily customized.

ShipStation sync

Only recommended if your business creates a large number of partial shipments.

Imports shipments created on ShipStation into SKULabs as they occur. SKULabs does not have to support the sales channel that you ship with for ShipStation sync to work. Splitting orders is not officially supported, but improvements in ShipStation split order support are continual.

Import shipments via API

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