Customer Synchronization: To Synchronize Customers with Multiple Locations

The following activity will walk you through the process of setting up the synchronization of customer locations and performing the synchronization of customers with locations between MYOB Advanced and the Shopify store.

Story

Suppose that the SweetLife Fruits & Jams company works with corporate customers that order items to be delivered to multiple locations. The company keeps track of customer addresses in the Shopify store and wants these addresses to be in sync with customer locations in MYOB Advanced.

Acting as an implementation consultant helping SweetLife to set up the integration of MYOB Advanced with the Shopify store, you need to configure the synchronization of customer locations between the two systems, as well as test it and explore how the synchronization works in both systems.

Configuration Overview

In the U100 dataset, the following tasks have been performed for the purposes of this activity:

  • On the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, the Business Account Locations feature has been enabled.
  • On the Customer Classes (AR201000) form, the DEFAULT and ECCUSTOMER customer classes have been configured.
  • On the Customers (AR303000) form, multiple customer records assigned to the DEFAULT customer class have been created.
  • On the Numbering Sequences (CS201010) form, the ECCUSTOMER and ECLOCATION numbering sequences have been defined.

Process Overview

In this activity, you will do the following:

  1. On the Shopify Stores (BC201010) form, update the settings of the Customer and Customer Locations entities.
  2. In the admin area of the Shopify store, create a new customer with two addresses.
  3. On the Prepare Data (BC501000) form, prepare the customer and customer address data for synchronization.
  4. On the Process Data (BC501500) form, process the customer and customer address data prepared for synchronization.
  5. On the Customers (AR303000) form, review the imported customer data.
  6. On the Customer Locations (AR303020) form, review the imported customer address data and update one of the customer locations.
  7. By using the Sync History (BC301000) form, synchronize the updated customer location with the Shopify store.
  8. In the admin area of the Shopify store, review the updated customer address.

System Preparation

Before you perform the instructions in this activity, do the following:

  1. Make sure that the following prerequisites have been met:
  2. Launch the MYOB Advanced website with the U100 dataset preloaded, and sign in with the following credentials:
    • Username: gibbs
    • Password: 123
  3. Sign in to the admin area of the Shopify store as the store administrator in the same browser.

Step 1: Configuring the Synchronization Settings of the Customer and Customer Location Entities

To review the synchronization settings of the Customer and Customer Locations entities, do the following:

  1. Open the Shopify Stores (BC201010) form.
  2. In the Store Name box of the Summary area, select SweetStore - SP.
  3. On the Entity Settings tab, do the following:
    1. Make sure that the Active check box is selected in the rows of the Customer and Customer Location entities.
    2. In the row of the Customer entity, make sure that Sync Direction is set to Bidirectional.

      Notice that the settings of the Customer Location entity are the same as those of the Customer entity and cannot be edited.

  4. On the Customer Settings tab, make sure that the following settings have been specified:
    • Customer Class: ECCUSTOMER

      When a new customer is imported from the Shopify store to MYOB Advanced, its default settings are defined based on the customer class selected in this box.

    • Customer Auto-Numbering: ECCUSTOMER

      Each new customer imported from the Shopify store will be assigned an identifier based on the numbering sequence selected in this box.

    • Location Auto-Numbering: ECLOCATION

      Each new customer location imported from the Shopify store will be assigned an identifier based on the numbering sequence selected in this box.

  5. On the form toolbar, click Save to save your changes.

Step 2: Creating a Customer in the Shopify Store

To create a customer and a first address, in the admin area of the Shopify store, do the following:

  1. In the left menu of the Shopify admin area, click Customers.
  2. On the Customers page, which opens, in the upper right, click Add customer.
  3. On the page that opens, specify the following details in the Customer overview section:
    • First name: Isabelle
    • Last name: Bober
    • Email: hoppy_info@example.com
  4. In the Country/region box of the Address section, select United States. The State and ZIP code box appears in the section.
  5. In the same section, specify the following details:
    • First name: Isabelle
    • Last name: Bober
    • Company: Hoppy Place Coffee and Cakes
    • Address: 3690 Taylor Street
    • City: New York
    • State: New York
    • ZIP code: 10007
  6. In the upper right, click Save to save the customer record.

    The customer page opens for Isabel Bober. Notice that in the Customer section, the email address is displayed, and the Default Address section shows the address lines that you entered in this step.

Step 3: Adding an Address for the Customer

To add a second address for the customer you created in the previous step, while you are still viewing the Customers page for Isabelle Bober, do the following:

  1. In the Customer section, click Manage > Manage addresses.
  2. In the Manage addresses dialog box, click Add new address. The Add new address dialog box opens.
  3. In the Country/region box of the dialog box, select United States. The State and ZIP code boxes appear in the dialog box.
  4. Fill in the boxes as follows:
    • First name: William
    • Last name: Duncan
    • Company: Hoppy Wellby
    • Address: 2671 Simons Hollow Road
    • City: New York
    • ZIP code: 10001
  5. Click Save to save the address.
  6. In the Customer section, click Manage > Manage addresses.

    Notice that the address has been added.

Step 4: Preparing the Customer and Customer Location Data for Synchronization

To prepare the customer and customer location data for synchronization, in MYOB Advanced, do the following:

  1. Open the Prepare Data (BC501000) form.
  2. In the Summary area, specify the following settings:
    • Store: SweetStore - SP
    • Prepare Mode: Incremental

    This setting controls which data will be loaded. Incremental indicates that only the customer records that match the filtering conditions and have been modified since the previous processing of the data have been prepared for synchronization.

  3. In the table, select the Selected check box in the row of the Customer entity.
  4. On the form toolbar, click Prepare.

    Because customer locations are synchronized along with customers during the synchronization of the Customer entity, the Customer Location entity is not listed in the table and cannot be prepared separately.

  5. In the Processing dialog box, which opens, review the results of the processing, and click Close to close the dialog box and return to the Prepare Data form.

    Notice that the Prepared Records column shows the number of synchronization records that have been prepared and are ready to be processed.

Step 5: Processing the Prepared Customer and Customer Location Data

To process the customer and customer location data you have prepared for synchronization, do the following:

  1. While you are still viewing the Prepare Data (BC501000) form, click the link in the Ready to Process column of the row with the Customer entity.

    The Process Data (BC501500) form opens with the SweetStore - SP store and the Customer entity selected in the Summary area. The table displays all synchronization records of the Customer entity that you prepared.

  2. In the table, select the unlabeled check box in the only row that has a number in the External ID column but does not have any value in the ERP ID column.

    The empty ERP ID indicates that the record has been created in the Shopify store but has not yet been synchronized with MYOB Advanced.

  3. On the form toolbar, click Process to process the selected synchronization record.
  4. In the Processing dialog box, which opens, click Close to close the dialog box.

Step 6: Reviewing the Imported Customer and Customer Locations

Perform the following instructions to review the customer and customer locations that have been imported to MYOB Advanced:

  1. Open the Customers (AR3030PL) form.
  2. In the list of customers, in the Customer Name column, locate the Isabelle Bober customer, and click the link for this customer in the Customer ID column.
  3. On the Customers (AR303000) form, which opens for Isabelle Bober, on the Locations tab, review the locations the system created when the customer record was synchronized.

    Notice that the table displays the following locations, as shown in the screenshot below:

    • The location with the MAIN identifier, which was created for the customer first in the Shopify store. This location is also marked as the default (that is, the Default check box is selected for this location).
    • The location with the identifier that the system assigned to it based on the numbering sequence selected for locations in the store settings on the Shopify Stores (BC201010) form.
    Figure 1. Customer locations imported from the store


  4. Click the MAIN link in the Location ID column.
  5. On the Customer Locations (AR303020) form, which the system has opened in a pop-up window, on the General tab, review the location details that have been imported from the Shopify store.

    Notice that the Company value from the address in Shopify has been imported as the Location Name of the Location Info section and the Account Name box of the Additional Location Info section.

    The address lines, city, state, country, and postal code have been imported to the appropriate boxes of the Location Address section.

    The first and last name of the address in Shopify have been imported to the Attention box of the Additional Location Info section.

Step 7: Updating the Customer Location

Suppose that you need to update the contact and address details of the MAIN customer location for Isabelle Bober. You do the following:

  1. While you are still viewing the Customer Locations (AR303020) form with the MAIN location of the Isabelle Bober customer, on the General tab, in the Additional Location Info section, type Gail Anderson in the Attention box.
  2. In the Location Address section, change Address Line 1 to 3650 Taylor Street.
  3. On the form toolbar, click Save & Close to save your changes.

Step 8: Synchronizing the Updated Location with the Shopify Store

To synchronize the updated customer location with the Shopify store in order to update the address in the store, do the following:

  1. On the Sync History (BC301000) form, in the Summary area, specify the following settings:
    • Store: SweetStore - SP
    • Entity: Customer Location
  2. On the Processed tab, select the unlabeled check box in the row of the MAIN, Hoppy Place Coffee and Cakes location, and on the form toolbar, click Sync.
    Tip: When you change a location of a customer, the e-commerce connector recognizes the customer record as having been modified as well. So in this step, you could have selected the synchronization record for the Isabelle Bober customer and clicked Sync, and the updated customer location would have been synchronized as part of the customer synchronization process. Alternatively, you could have prepared the Customer entity for synchronization on the Prepare Data (BC501000) form and then processed the prepared synchronization records on the Process Data (BC501500) form.

Step 9: Reviewing the Updated Customer Address in the Shopify Store

To review the updated customer address in the Shopify store, do the following:

  1. While you are still viewing the Sync History (BC301000) form, in the row of the MAIN, Hoppy Place Coffee and Cakes customer location, click the link in the External ID column.

    The customer page of the admin area of the Shopify store opens for Isabelle Bober.

  2. Under Default Address, review the updated details of the customer address.

    Notice that the first name, last name, and the address line have been updated to reflect the changes that you made to the customer location. The name is now Gail Anderson, and the address has been changed to 3650 Taylor Street.