EziSolution Retailman Integration? Exporting Sales Data

We are looking at setting up a store for our nonprofit organization. We currently use Retailman POS software, when we sell items in person. It has an feature called “Weblink” that allows product/stock information to be uploaded to the webstore (basically creating an importable CSV file). It also allows for importing sales data from the webstore into the main Retailman POS for sales tracking and stock managing.

The uploading seems straight forward, but the format for the sales needs to be in a specific format and I don’t know if anybody knows if it can be done as is within woocommerce or if it can be done at all. I will include the text of the help file that explains the process below.

Thank you in advance for any insight you might be able to offer.

Web Link

Purpose: EziSolution WebLink are a group of utility programs designed to link EziSolutionsoftware programs to the web.

This is useful for businesses that run EziSolution Programs in house(Such as Retailman POS, EziSolution Invoicing, Ezi Accounting etc.) and also have a web site tosell their products or services.WebLink is used to automatically upload stock data to the user’s web site and download sales datafrom the user’s web site back to the EziSolution programs to help control the business in a muchfaster and more efficient way.

EziSolution WebLink consists of the following programs that can perform the different functionsneeded to accomplish the stated task.

They are listed in the order of setting up.The first step is to create a stock template file that lists the fields you need to upload in the correctorder. Once you decide what information is needed and in what order, you need to go toMaintenance > Files Export/Import and export the stock data you need to a template file (you cansave it on any folder of your choosing and name it a meaningful name) but note the file type MUSTbe a dbf file type.Note that we are only interested in the field headers and not the data itself (for now), so make sureyou include all the required fields and in the order needed.

Once you press the Export button, the program creates the required template file that will be used inthe FTP upload setup section, this is the very first and important step of your setup.

WebLink Setup: The main setup screen for EziSolution WebLink is contained in the mainprogram used by the business, such as Retailman POS or Ezi Accounting, to open the setup screen,go to Maintenance > System Setup > Web Link TabTo setup WebLink properly, you need to have an FTP server running on your web site where youhave setup your web sales and your stock file. You also need to know the ftp server name, username and password.

1 – FTP Server Setup:

FTP Server Name: Enter your FTP server name such as https://ftp.myftp.com

FTP User Name: Enter the FTP user name such as [email protected]

FTP Password: Enter the FTP password

Transfer Mode: Choose between Active or Passive modeOnce you have entered the required information, you can test your FTP setup by pressing the TestFTP button, the system will try to connect and then report back the status if connected successfullyor failed to connect.Failure to connect can be caused by a number of reasons including the incorrect ftp server name,user name or password, or the wrong transfer mode (Active or Passive), you can also have a fail ifyou do not have access rights to the ftp server.

2 – Stock Data Upload Setup:

Stock Template File: Enter the stock template file that was created in the Files Export/Importscreen

Remote File Name: Enter the file name as needed on the FTP server. Note that the file name MUSTinclude its extension type which will decide the way the stock data is uploaded to the FTP server.The valid extension types are XLS, CSV, TXT and XML. We highly recommend using either theCSV or TXT (Tab delimited text file) due to their small size (hence faster transfer) and easier tohandle. We do not recommend using XML type stock file uploads for large stock files due to theoverheads that are added to the xml file which will mean a very long upload time.Valid file name examples are:MyStock.XLS (for Excel type)MyStock.CSVMyStock.TXTMyStock.XMLWeb Store Flagged: Tick to upload all stock items that have their web store flag ticked on the stockcard, unticking this option will upload all of the stock file items to the web.Once you enter the correct data, you can test the stock file upload by clicking the Test Uploadbutton, the uploaded file will contain a small sample of the stock file so the test is done quickly.The response should be back within a minute or so, depending on the transfer speed of your systemand internet connection.

3 – Sales Download Setup:

This step is necessary if you wish to download the sales data from your web site back to your localsystem to enable the local EziSolution program to assimilate your web sales in to your localdatabase.If you do not want to download the sales data, you can just skip this section, otherwise, you willneed to setup the following fields:

Remote Sales Folder: Enter the remote folder name you are importing your sales data from. If youwill be downloading the sales data from the top folder, then just leave blank.

Local Sales Folder: Enter the name of the local folder you need the downloaded sales data to bestored in, we recommend using a folder inside your EziSolution program, to do that, just enter thefolder name such as WebSales\. Note that if the folder does not exist, the program will try to createit for you.

Sales Processing: Choose Manual if you want to process the paymant manually, or Automatic ifyou wish to let the system import the data directly as it sees it available in the local sales folder.

Print Invoice: Tick to cause the system to print the imported sales data as invoices with eachseparate sale printed on its own invoice. The printing will be done on the Windows Default Printer

Print Delivery Note: Tick to cause the system to print a delivery note for each downloaded sale thathas been processed. The printing will be done on the Windows Default Printer.To verify the Sales download setup is correct, press the Test Download button to check. Note thetest will only test the download section but will not import or print any data.

Stock Upload Status: The stock upload status tab will display the uploaded stock file statusincluding the start date and time, and if the upload was a success or a fail.

Sales Download Status: The sales download status tab will display the status of the downloadedfiles.

DownloadSales.exe:

This is a stand alone program that needs to be run to download the sales data from the FTP server, it can be run interactively or included in the Windows Scheduler to run at certain times of the day such as every half an hour or one hour. It will run in the background with the option of showing feedback or run

silent.

Make sure you allow enough time between downloads to make sure there is no conflict.

The downloaded sales data must be in an XML file format and must follow the exact format (note you can remove lines that are not needed in the data fields), these files

need to be generated by the web store, so you will need to talk to your web designer and give them the file format so they can generate these files for you.

Each sale must generate a separate xml file and the file name need to have a meaningful name such as YYYYMMDDHHMMSSNNNN.XML where YYYY is the

year, MM is the month, DD is the day, HH is the hour, MM is the minutes, SS is the second and NNNN is the sale number for that day (example of the file name

201402052345120016.xml for year 2014, month 02, day 05 time 23:45:12 and sale number 16 for that day)

Usage: DownloadSales.exe “Silent” “Station_Number”

Silent : this is an optional parameter to suppress any user feedback while running.

Optional values are .T. for user feedback (Default) or .F. for suppressing user feedback.

Station_Number: An optional station number (default=1)

The XML file data should follow the example below:

<?xml version = “1.0” standalone=”yes”?>

<!– must have one file per sale, file name can be YYYYMMDDHHMMSSNNNN.xml for year, month, day, time, sale sequence number for that day such as 201401311259010005.xml>

<!– Can remove none required fields but make sure you include the required fields

such as codes, names, qty and price>

<Sales>

<debtors>

Client Code

<prefix>Saluation such as Mr. Mrs. etc.</prefix>

<name>Client Name</name>

<firstname>Client First Name</firstname>

<surname>Client Surname</surname>

<dob>Date of Birth YYYYMMDD</dob>

<address1>Address Line 1</address1>

<address2>Address Line 2</address2>

<suburb>Suburb</suburb>

<state>State</state>

<postcode>Postcode</postcode>

<country>Country</country>

<address3>Delivery address/notes </address3>

<phone>Client Tel number</phone>

<fax>Client Fax Number</fax>

<mobile>Client Mobile</mobile>

<email>Client email address</email>

<www>Client Web Address</www>

<contact>Contact Name</contact>

<note>Notes line 1</note>

<note1>Notes Line 2</note1>

<loyalty>Loyalty enabled .t.=True, .f.=False</loyalty>

</debtors>

<payment>

<paid_by>1=cash, 2=Credit card etc.</paid_by>

<amount>amount paid</amount>

</payment>

<payment>

… (if more than one payment method is used, then add more payment sections)

</payment>

<invoice>

<number>Invoice number (leave 0 or blank for Rman to assign a number)</number>

<status>’P’ for paid, blank for outsanding (optional)</status>

<type>’SI’ for sales invoice optional</type>

<inv_time>time in seconds since midnight</inv_time>

<date>date in format yyymmdd 20080701</date>

<reference>reference text (up to 20 characters long) optional</reference>

<amount>total invoice amount (required)</amount>

<rounding>Rounding if any 0.000</rounding>

<paid>Total Amount Paid (required)</paid>

<tax>Total Tax Amount (required)</tax>

<tax1>2nd Total Tax Amount (optional)</tax1>

<taxinc>Tax Inclusive .t.= True or .F.=False(Required)</taxinc>

<salesman>Salesman index number (if not supplied, 1 will be used)</salesman>

<shop>Location number (if not supplied 1 will be used) if not multilocation, then always 1</shop>

<cur_code>Currency Code (optional)</cur_code>

<cur_rate>Currency Rate (optional)</cur_rate>

<station>Station number (1 to 999) optional, 1 will be used if not

supplied</station>

<sourcecode>Source Code (optional) such as ‘WEB'</sourcecode>

<points>Total reward points</points>

</invoice>

<!–must have as many invtrans entries as there are items on the invoice>

<!–If there is a shipping charge, it needs to be added as a line at the end of the invtrans entries>

<invtrans>

<part_no>Item Part Number (blank for notes)</part_no>

<details>Stock Item Details (Required)</details>

<qty>Quantity sold (Required)</qty>

<amount>Line Amount (price x quantity)</amount>

<discount>total Line Discount Amount</discount>

<taxamount>total Line Tax Amount</taxamount>

<taxcode>Tax Code</taxcode>

<taxamount1>2nd Tax Amount</taxamount1>

<taxcode1>2nd Tax Code</taxcode1>

<taxinc>Tax Inclusive .t.=True, .F.=False</taxinc>

<points>Line Reward Points</points>

</invtrans>

<invtrans>

…

…

</invtrans>

</Sales>

UploadStock.exe: This is a stand alone program that can be run just by clicking on it, or it can be included in the Windows Scheduler to run at a certain time during the day.

We recommend this program is setup to run after work to update the stock data on your web site.

This program can be run as many times during the day as you require but once a day should be more than sufficient.

You web site programmer will be able to let you know what stock data fields are needed, the format needed and the frequency of uploads.

Usage: UploadStock.exe “Silent” “Station_number”

You can add two optional parameters to control the behaviour of the program.

Slient: Run the program in the background with no user feedback

Station_number: Enter the station number (default=1)

How to Automate the stock file uploads and web sales downloads.You can use the Windows Scheduler to automate the process, you can set up the uploads anddownload at set times of the days to do the upload and download. Below are screen shots of how toautomatically upload the stock file at 12:00am every day from your local machine to the FTP server.Make sure you give the right permissions to the task to enable it to run daily.Open the Windows control panel and choose Task Scheduler to start the process.

Choose the period, times and the recurring periods.