eBay

eBay is an e-commerce platform offering sales order and inventory management.

Overview

Acctivate can be integrated with your eBay store using our pre-configured eBay web store template.

The template is easy to setup and includes various configuration options relating to the import and export of data between Acctivate and eBay. Likewise, data mapping changes can be made allowing for complete control over the data flow from eBay to Acctivate.

The eBay template allows for importing and exporting the following information:

Import

• Sales Orders

Export

• Inventory availability
• Shipment information

Setup

Acctivate integrates with the eBay API using a pre-configured integration template which can be modified as needed.

Add a Template

1. Go to File → Import Sales Orders and click Create to create a new template.
2. In the Add Template screen, enter the following information:
   • ID: Enter the web store ID. This name must be unique and it's recommended that there are no spaces . It is limited to 15 characters. This name can be displayed in the Order Manager as the Origin ID.
   • Name: This is the user friendly name that will appear in the Web Store Sync window. This can be up to 50 characters and may contain spaces.
   • Notes: Optionally, enter any Notes. Notes entered here are only visible when editing this web store template.
   • Type: Select the Type of Web Store.
3. Click Next.

Source

1. On the Source screen, use the drop-down in the upper right and select eBay.
2. Do not change the Service URL.
3. Click Next until you reach the Import screen.
4. On the Import screen, run a sync.
5. The sync should fail with an error. The sync log will contain a URL to allow Acctivate to access the user's web store. Double click or Ctrl+C the URL in the Web Store Sync window. This will open a browser, log in with eBay credentials, press the button to authorize the connection.
6. Run a new web store sync.

Note

Authentication URL expires in 5 minutes from the time it is generated. There may also be a time limit between the pressing the authorize button and re-running sync. Therefore, it is important to complete the above steps promptly. Steps 4 and 5 above will generate an an Access Token stored as a template option. That token will expire after 18 months. Once it is expired, the user will then have to clear the Access Token template option and repeat steps 4-5.

Options

The Options screen allows you to adjust various import and export options. A description of the available options are listed below, however the default options are recommended for most cases.

If you want to sync orders from a certain time point, set the Timestamp of the last web order imported option.

Click Next to proceed.

Template Option	Value	Definition
Access Token	Text	The eBay access token. This token expires every 18 months and required re-establishing the connection by following steps 4 and 5 of the setup instructions found in the Source section above.
Automatically retry importing skipped orders	Yes/No	If the Skip orders with warnings web store option is enabled, skipped orders will be added to the Web Orders tab of the Business Alerts window. If this option is set to Yes, Acctivate will try to import the skipped orders after completing the import of new orders. If set to No, Acctivate will not attempt to resync the skipped orders as part of the web store sync. Instead, you must resync the orders from the Business Alerts window.
Comma-separated Warehouse IDs for inventory export	WH ID	Applies to products that have the Available on web option enabled. Leave blank to export availability for all warehouses, or specify Warehouse IDs to export. For multiple warehouses, separate each ID with a comma. The total availability will be sent to eBay.
Create customers for guests	Yes/No	When set to Yes, Acctivate will create a customer for "guest" customers (customers who have checked out without setting up a customer account for your eBay store) by using the customer information included in the Sales Order. When set to No, if Acctivate cannot match to an existing customer, the customer will be left blank on the sales order. Regardless of the option selection, Acctivate will always attempt to match to an existing customer first.
Create reminders for warnings (Business Alerts)	Yes/No	When set to Yes, if orders are imported with warnings (e.g., the Skip orders with warnings is not enabled), Acctivate will create a note with the warnings and assign it to the user who performed the sync. Notes can be viewed in the Reminders tab of the Business Alerts window.
Current eBay API Version Number	API Number	eBay webservice calls require an API version number parameter which expires periodically.
Date/Time format	yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'Z'	Acctivate will use this date/time format instead of the syncing computer's date/time format when parsing eBay date/times. If this option value is blank, Acctivate will use the syncing computer's date/time format.
Default ship qty 1)Invoiced 2)Ordered 3)Scheduled	1, 2, 3	Send Invoiced Quantity back to web store as the "Shipped" qty Send Ordered Quantity as the "Shipped" qty Send Scheduled Quantity as the "Shipped" qty If set to "3", the web store sync should be run before invoicing since invoicing will change the Scheduled quantity. 1 (Send Invoiced Quantity) is the recommended option. When using the Invoiced qty, kit products will have their shipped quantity exported based on the total number of kits that can be made from the packaged/shipped components. If no shipment detail lines exist, e.g. Packaging Manager was not used, the invoiced qty will be sent.
Default tax code on detail disc/charge to parent's	Yes/No	If an item has a discount or additional charge, the discount or charge will be imported as it's own order line. When this option is set to Yes, that discount/charge line will use the tax code that is assigned to the related "parent" product. If set to No, the discount/charge will default to the tax code assigned to it.
Export carrier when exporting shipments	Yes/No	Allows the carrier information to be sent back with shipping information from order
Export inv by both ItemID (Web Alt ID) and SKU	Yes/No	If an eBay product listing wasn't created with Inventory Tracking Method set to SKU, then this option should be set to Yes so that both Item IDs (the Alternate Product ID associated with this template on the Alt ID's tab of the Enter Product window) and SKU (the Product ID or the Primary Alt Product ID if the "Export inventory by alternate product ID" option is set to "Yes") are exported.
Export inv qty by stocking unit not sales unit	Yes/No	When set to No, a product's Available quantity will be converted to the product's default sales unit and exported (when the "Export inventory" option is set to Yes). If set to Yes, the product's Available quantity will be exported in stocking units.
Export inventory	Yes/No	Applies to products that have the Available on web option enabled. When set to Yes, the product's Available quantity is sent back to eBay. If enabled, it is suggested you also review the following options: Comma-separated Warehouse IDs for inventory export Export inv by both ItemID (Web Alt ID) and SKU Export inventory by alternate product ID Export inventory by Item ID instead of SKU For more information on the inventory availability export, refer to the Additional Setup and Considerations section of this guide.
Export inventory by alternate product ID	Yes/No	Applies to products that have the Available on web option enabled. When set to No, Acctivate will export inventory availability by the Acctivate Product ID. When set to Yes, the inventory availability will be exported using the product's Primary Alt Product ID. Note: If the product has a web store specific Alternate Product ID (i.e., an Alternate Product ID linked to this template on the Alt ID's tab of the Enter Product window), then this option will be ignored and the web store specific Alt Product ID will be used for the inventory availability export (the Product ID and Primary Alt Product ID will not be exported).
Export inventory by Item ID instead of SKU	Yes/No	Applies to products that have the Available on web option enabled. If set to Yes, Acctivate will export the inventory by the Item ID, which is the Alternate Product ID defined for this eBay template (on the Alt ID's tab of the Edit Product window). If set to No, inventory will be exported by the SKU, which is the Acctivate Product ID.
Export shipments	Yes/No	If set to Yes, Acctivate will export shipment information to eBay during the web store sync.
Export shipments having empty packages	Yes/No	At the time of invoicing, Acctivate will determine the quantities shipped based on the items packaged in Packaging Manager, or the invoiced quantities (see Default ship qty option). If the items are not packaged in Packaging Manager, Acctivate will be unable to determine the products and quantities per package, therefore all the items and quantities will be associated with the first package in a shipment. When this option is set to Yes, only packages with items and quantities will be exported. When this option is set to No, no packages will be exported if there are one or more packages in a shipment that aren't associated with items. If you package shipments outside of Acctivate and then import in multiple package tracking numbers for a single order, it is recommended that this option be set to Yes in order for the first package to export properly.
Import customers	Yes/No	When this option is set to No, Acctivate only imports orders and then creates customers from the sales order information. With this option set to Yes, customer information will be imported separately from Orders and customers will be created based on the eBay customer account information. In some cases, a customer may create an account your eBay store, but not create an order, so it's possible for customers to be created without a related order.
Import orders	Yes/No	When set to Yes, Acctivate will import sales orders from eBay. When set to No, Acctivate will not import orders, but will (optionally) import customers.
Locale for Date formats	en-US and more.	Dates are formatted based on the locale defined here. Represented as the ISO 639-1 code followed by the ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 code, e.g., en-US, en-GB, en-CA, etc.
Retrieve all item data for all order details	Yes/No	To minimize the number of API calls, this option is set to No by default. When set to No, the order details respose from the API may only include the Item ID and not the SKU. Typically, the Item ID is enough (the Item ID should be setup as an Alternate Product ID for eBay on the Alt ID's tab of the Edit Product window), however changing this option to Yes will result in an additional call the eBay API to get the SKU.
Show advanced configuration settings	Yes/No	Generally used by the Acctivate Support team. Setting this option to Yes will unlock more advanced template options as well as allow the adding and editing of the Source Values.
Site id (0 = eBay US, 3 = eBay UK, etc)	Number	Enter the Site ID for your eBay web store. Refer to eBay's Site ID documentation for more values.
Timestamp of the last web order imported	Timestamp	Each sync will start at this value. After a sync is completed, this timestamp will update to reflect the creation timestamp of the last order imported so that the next sync looks for orders created since the last sync.
URL is for webservice instead of storefront	Yes/No	Typically, this option should remain it's default setting (No). When set to No, the store front URL entered on the Source screen will be formatted to match the web store's web service URL (this formatting is not seen in the template, but rather occurs during the API calls made by Acctivate). If the URL entered on the Source screen is the web service URL, then set this option to Yes to prevent additional formatting of the URL.
Verbose logging	Yes/No	When set to Yes, Acctivate will create a command file with all the transformation commands.

Source Values

This screen is only accessible when the Show advanced configuration settings option is set to Yes.

This screen allows for advanced mappings and is primarily used by the Acctivate Support team. See the Source Values configuration page for more information on the information and options found here.

To proceed, click Next.

Mapping

This screen includes the customer and sales order mappings.

The Customer Document mapping only applies when the Import customers option is enabled, otherwise, a customer record is created based on the Order Document.

When a Web store field is mapped to an Acctivate field, the web store's value will be imported into the Acctivate field. If a Default value is mapped, then Acctivate will use the Default value for all orders created. If both are mapped, the mapped field will take priority over the default value.

Conversion can be managed on this screen by clicking on the Acctivate field and then clicking Show Conversions at the bottom of the window. Enter the From value (the web store value) and enter the To value as the value it should be converted to.

See the Mapping configuration documentation for more information.

To proceed, click Next.

Import

The Import screen will allow you to begin the import by clicking Import Orders. Otherwise, close the window and confirm that you want to save the template when prompted.

Additional Setup and Considerations

Creating Customers in a QuickBooks Online company
QuickBooks Online requires non-taxable customers to have an exemption reason provided. Read our KB article on mapping options for non-taxable customers in QuickBooks Online companies.

Matching Products
When importing in sales orders from eBay, the eBay SKU will be used (if it exists, otherwise the eBay item ID will be used) to match to an Acctivate product according to the following hierarchy:

1. Web store specific Alternate Product ID
2. Product ID
3. Alternate Product IDs unrelated to this web store template
4. UPC
5. Customer Product ID for the Customer on the sales order.

Exporting Inventory
In order to export inventory availability, perform the following:

• In Acctivate, the Product must have the Available on web option enabled.
• The Export inventory option must be set to Yes.
  • Optionally, you can export inventory for specific warehouses. See the Comma-separated Warehouse IDs for inventory export option.

Additional information about exporting inventory:

• The option Export inv by both ItemID (Web Alt ID) and SKU will be evaluated to determine which ID to use to update eBay's inventory availability.
• When you run the first sync, no inventory availability will be exported. When you run the second sync (and subsequent syncs) only products with inventory transactions since the last sync will be included in the export. For that reason, when going live with your web store template it's recommended that you import or manually update your web store to match Acctivate's availability.
• Products that are marked as Available on Web are included in the ProductAvailabilityByTemplate data view. This data view includes the last transaction date, voided date, and updated date for certain transaction types. The most recent of these three dates for a product/warehouse combination (stored as the LastModifiedDate) is used to consider which products should be included in the web store inventory export. After a web store inventory export, the latest LastModifiedDate will be stored as a web store database option named LastTransactionDate. The next web store inventory sync will take the LastTransactionDate date and subtract one day from it, then compare this new date to the LastModifiedDate value. Any products with a LastModifiedDate date since the LastTransactionDate (minus one day) will be included in the export if it exists in the web store.

Exporting Shipments
If multiple tracking numbers are imported into Acctivate for a web order that was packaged outside of Acctivate, then you may only have one or no packages export to your web store depending on the Export shipments having empty packages option.

Usage

Refer to the Web Store section of the documentation for information on how to begin a sync with eBay.

Customer requests redact data
eBay gives their users a way to request that their personal data be deleted from eBay and any apps that use the eBay API, such as Acctivate.

After importing sales orders and exporting inventory and shipping information to eBay, Acctivate will check to see if any eBay users have requested their personal data to be deleted and their account closed. If any such requests exist, Acctivate will redact the customer's information.

For more information on the redaction criteria and fields to be redacted, see our web store redaction KB article.