In short: Connecting your online shop to your management software automates orders, stock, prices, customers, invoices and payments. You can do it with an off-the-shelf connector, a custom integration or a single system that does both. The tax obligations of online sales (Italian daily takings records, VAT by country, OSS) should be agreed with your accountant before you automate.
Anyone who has been selling online for a while knows the routine: an order comes in and someone retypes it into the management software. Then they update the stock level and prepare the invoice. With only a few orders, it holds up. As orders grow, the mistakes and the lost hours become a real cost.
What to connect
Orders
The order is created in the shop and reaches the management software with the customer, order lines, shipping and payment. Picking and packing start from there. When the parcel leaves, the status goes back to the shop with the tracking code and the customer is notified.
Stock and prices
The warehouse updates the shop, not the other way round. If you also sell on marketplaces and in a physical shop, the management software is the system that must have the final say on stock. See stock and the online shop.
Customers
Personal details, billing addresses and tax codes or VAT numbers. For Italian business customers, also the recipient code (codice destinatario) and certified email address (PEC).
Invoices and tax documents
In Italy the electronic invoice is generated by the management software from the order and sent to the Sistema di Interscambio, the tax authority's e-invoicing exchange. For online sales to consumers and to other European countries the obligations (daily takings records, VAT by country of destination, the OSS one-stop shop) have rules of their own: go through them with your accountant before you automate.
Payments and receipts
The management software must be able to tell which orders have been paid and which are awaiting a bank transfer. Better still if payments are reconciled with the management software automatically.
Three ways to build the connection
- Off-the-shelf connector. There are extensions for the most widely used management software. They cost less than custom development but only work in the cases they were designed for. Test them with real orders before you trust them.
- Custom integration. A small program that talks to the interfaces of both systems and applies your rules. It costs more but follows the way you work.
- A single system. If you are starting from scratch, choose a tool that is built to connect to online sales from day one.
How to avoid the usual problems
- A unique ID for each order: no order goes in twice.
- An alert when the connection stops. Better a message than a discovery at the end of the month.
- Test orders for every special case: international shipping, discount, return, business customer with a VAT number.
- A rule for exceptions: what happens if a product isn't recognised or an address is incomplete.
Where to start
List the steps you do by hand every day. Connect first the one that takes the most time or causes the most errors. It is usually the order going into the management software. Then move on to stock and finally to documents.
Further reading: integrations and synchronisation · custom management software · VAT and selling in Europe
Frequently asked questions
What should you connect between your shop and your management software?
Orders, stock and prices, customer records, invoices and tax documents, payments and receipts. Start with whatever takes the most time or causes the most errors, usually orders going into the management software.
What are the typical problems with a connection?
Duplicate orders, a connection that stops without any alert, unforeseen exceptions (an unrecognised product, an incomplete address) and special cases that were never tested.
Who decides the tax side?
Your accountant. Electronic invoicing and daily takings records in Italy, and VAT on European sales, all have rules of their own.