How to Sync Item Details Into Orders

Overview

If you need to add extra item details to the items in your orders as they come into Order Desk, you can do so by adding those details to your inventory items here in Order Desk and syncing them into orders.

As an example, this order came in with a product that only has the name, the SKU and the price:

However, before sending this order for fulfillment, it needs to have extra details included. Those details can be saved to the item in Order Desk, so long as it has the same SKU:

If inventory sync is enabled on the store, when an order for this item comes in, the extra details will be synced into the order:

This guide will go over the steps necessary to set this up in your store as well as how to enable automatic sync, how to sync manually, and how to sync with a rule.

Add Inventory

If you need to sync extra item details into your orders, you will first need to add your inventory items to Order Desk. There are a few ways to do this. This inventory guide goes into detail about your options.

If you have a print on demand store, you can follow the instructions in the print on demand fulfillment guide for more specific details to your product requirements.

Enable Automatic Sync

If you want your inventory items to sync into all orders as they come into Order Desk, you will need to enable the automatic sync option in your store.

To do this, go into your Store Settings (under the Settings menu in the left sidebar) and look under the Inventory Settings section for the Add Inventory Details to Order Items option.

Check to enable:

If you do not want to sync item details into every order that comes into your Order Desk store, leave this setting unchecked and follow the instructions below for manually syncing orders or syncing orders with a rule.

Item Metadata In Orders

Item metadata can come in from the shopping cart, be added from a spreadsheet if the orders were imported from a file, or will need to be added by syncing details in from the inventory.

To see if the details you need are already in an order, click on the down arrow button on the item. The information that drops down is item metadata:

Sync Orders Manually

Enabling automatic sync will not work for orders that are already in Order Desk. The easiest way to sync these orders is to choose one of the two manual sync methods:

1. If the inventory item details are already accurate in Order Desk, you can update or re-save the item in the order to sync the details into it.
2. If you need to update the inventory item first, you can manually sync the entire order after the inventory is updated.

1. Update the order

If the inventory item details are already accurate, click on the item name in the order and make any changes necessary (if you need to fix the SKU, for instance), and then re-save.

When you save the item, it will pull in the inventory details as long as the SKUs match each other:

2. Sync the entire order

If you need to update the inventory item details first, the quickest way to sync the order when you're ready is to scroll to the bottom of the order details page and click the Sync Item Details With Inventory button:

Sync Orders with a Rule

To sync inventory into specific orders, rather than all orders, create a rule with the Sync Order Items With Inventory Details action. If you aren't familiar with the Rule Builder, see the How to Work with Rules guide for more information.

Create a rule using the Order Rule rule type, and select the event you want to happen for the sync to run:

Add the filters necessary to tell Order Desk which orders this rule should run on, and then select the Sync Order Items with Inventory Details action:

Sync Orders with a Custom Button

Similar to this rule, you can also create a custom button if you would prefer to sync the orders you select on the click of a button. To create a custom button, follow these instructions, making sure to set your filters and the Sync Order Items with Inventory Details action.

Sync Price

You may notice that the price doesn't sync into orders from the inventory. This is because Order Desk honors the price already on the order (typically from the shopping cart) to ensure that reporting between stores and vendors remains consistent.

If you need to sync a different price into orders, you can do so by using a special item metadata field in your inventory items stored here in Order Desk.

Use price_override set to 1 (for true) to set the price for the item:

This price will be synced into the order as the price for that item, overriding what is already on the order.