Exact Online: merchant plugin guide

About this guide

This guide describes how to set up a connection between Exact Online and ChannelEngine.

Table of contents

Introduction

Features

Requirements

How to request an account

Setup

• Product and stock
• Orders
• Marketplace fulfillment
• Shipments
• Activate synchronization

How it works

FAQs

Introduction

Exact Online is a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that automates accounting, financial, human resource management, and customer relationship management processes. It is supported in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

ChannelEngine offers a merchant plugin that allows you to integrate your environment with your Exact Online account. As this plugin only supports some of Exact Online’s many features, it is recommended that you contact an implementation partner if you need to use any unsupported features.

Features

* To work with marketplace-fulfilled orders, configure a minimum of two warehouses – one for merchant fulfillment and another for marketplace fulfillment.

Requirements

• Exact Online Wholesale (a.k.a. Exact Online Handel).
• Each country supported by Exact Online needs its own dedicated app. It is not possible to connect a Belgian account using the Dutch app, for example. Presently, the app is only available in the Netherlands.
• An Exact Online user account can only be linked to one tenant, and each tenant can only have a single instance of the Exact Online plugin.
• A maximum of 18,000 products.

How to request an account

To get started with Exact Online, create an account on their website.

Setup

To establish a successful connection between Exact Online and ChannelEngine, you need to:

1. From the left-hand side menu, go to Plugins, and select the Exact Online plugin from the overview.
2. Go to the Setup page of the plugin. Scroll down to the Connection settings, and select the Exact Online country from the dropdown list. E.g.: Netherlands.
3. At the bottom of the page, click the Authorize button – and log in to your Exact Online account.
4. Once logged in, click Save and refresh the Setup page. When the authorization is complete, the Authorize button on ChannelEngine becomes green – and the Plugin-specific settings are filled out automatically.
5. In the Connection settings, enter your Division code, as stated in the Exact Online back-end. Click Save.
6. Ask your implementation specialist at ChannelEngine to schedule the Import plugin settings task. Once the task has been executed successfully, refresh the Setup page. The Plugin-specific settings are updated automatically to display division-specific information.

Product and stock

To synchronize your product content and stock between Exact Online and ChannelEngine:

1. On the Setup page of your Exact Online plugin, go to Settings.
2. Under Settings, enter the correct value for Warehouse for stock import – which is the unique identifier for your warehouse on Exact Online.
3. Ask your implementation specialist at ChannelEngine to schedule the Import product content task.
4. Once the task has been executed successfully, your product content and stock start being imported into ChannelEngine.

Orders

To synchronize your orders between Exact Online and ChannelEngine:

1. On the Setup page of your Exact Online plugin, go to Settings.
2. Under Settings, enter the values for:
   • Order export warehouse - the unique identifier for the warehouse used to fulfill orders.
   • VAT settings - the VAT/sales tax rate per country. The format is: [ISO country code]_[ VAT rate]=[VAT rate code],[I/E]. The VAT/sales tax rate code can be found on Exact Online under Master data, VAT codes. The last part indicates whether the VAT is included or excluded. E.g.: NL_21.00=4,I.
3. Optionally, enter the values for:
   • Payment condition - the payment condition code from Exact Online, used to determine the due date and discount terms assigned to orders and invoices.
   • Selection code - the selection code from Exact Online, used to classify orders, invoices, and quotations.
   • Journal code - the journal code from Exact Online, used for the invoicing of marketplace-fulfilled orders.
   • Order export classification - the type of classification on Exact Online, used for reporting and filtering of orders. After you select the correct classification type, provide a unique identifier for the corresponding marketplaces (e.g.: Classification for bol). The identifier can be found under the Plugin-specific settings of the Setup page. To learn more about the setup of classifications on Exact Online, refer to the Houdt het overzicht: classificeer uw relaties article (in Dutch).
   • Fulfillment by marketplace warehouse for [marketplace] - the unique identifier for the warehouse used for fulfillment by the marketplace.
4. Ask your implementation specialist at ChannelEngine to schedule the Export orders to merchant task.
5. Once the task has been executed successfully, your orders start being exported from ChannelEngine to Exact Online.

Marketplace fulfillment

To synchronize your marketplace-fulfilled orders between Exact Online and ChannelEngine:

1. On the Setup page of your Exact Online plugin, go to Advanced settings.
2. Enable the Include orders fulfilled by marketplace setting.
3. Under Settings, provide the correct values for the following settings:
   • Journal code
   • Fulfillment by marketplace warehouse for [marketplace]

Shipments

To synchronize your shipments between Exact Online and ChannelEngine:

1. In the Exact Online back-end, make sure that each shipment has the correct Shipment method and Tracking code. To learn more about shipment methods on Exact Online, check out Create and modify shipping methods article.
2. Ask your implementation specialist at ChannelEngine to schedule the Import shipments task.

Activate synchronization

Once the configuration is completed, proceed to the Activation tab and switch on the Activate synchronization for Exact Online toggle. This triggers a test API call to your plugin environment. If this call returns an error, instead of a green highlight, the credentials are invalid. Double-check the settings and try again.

How it works

Once Exact Online is connected with your ChannelEngine tenant, ChannelEngine starts importing product content and shipments from Exact Online – and exporting orders to Exact Online.

FAQs

Can multiple administrations (a.k.a. divisions) be connected?

No, the plugin can only be connected to one division. Stock and shipments are imported from this division, and orders are exported to this division.

Can the plugin be added multiple times to a single tenant?

No, there can only be one instance of the plugin per tenant.

Can I connect the same administration to different tenants?

No, Exact Online only allows a user to be connected to one tenant.

Can I connect my Belgium Exact Online account?

No, currently, the plugin only supports Dutch Exact Online accounts.

Can I use third-party logistics (3PL) providers, such as Transmart and Sendcloud, in combination with the Exact Online plugin?

Yes, as long as you ensure that those 3PL providers synchronize with Exact Online – and provide the shipping method and tracking code for each shipment.