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DEAR provides advanced, multi-directional integration with the Vend Point-of-Sale platform.


In general, integration between DEAR and Vend works in the following way:

  • Customer purchases goods in store via Vend POS.
  • Vend sends sale order details to DEAR.
  • DEAR creates a pending order in the staging area for each sale. Stock is immediately allocated to the sale.
  • Depending on how the integration between DEAR and Vend is set up, pending sales are converted to DEAR Inventory Sales Orders and stock is then written off from the inventory account immediately. 

Depending on how the connection between the two systems is set up, the advantages of their integration may include the following:

  • automatic update of stock levels from DEAR to Vend
  • synchronisation of inventory costs and movements with your accounting application
  • centralised inventory management for all locations
  • a single, comprehensive view of wholesale and retail transactions.


NOTE: Multiple Vend shops can be linked to a single DEAR account, with each linked shop having its own location in DEAR for inventory quantity management. Each shop also has its own low stock reorder points and an independent catalog, logs and settings.


NOTE: When a refund is processed for an unfulfilled sale, this will cause an error with restocking the unfulfilled items. These will appear on the Log as Pending fulfillment. If you are experiencing this error, you will need to enable the Ignore restock for non-fulfilled sales setting. This setting is not enabled automatically in order to preserve system logic continuity for users.


Prerequisites

  • Administrative access to a Vend account
  • Familiarity with the Processing a Sale process (required)
  • Familiarity with Products and Product Management (required)
  • Users will need the Integration: POS - Vend permission in order to use this feature. 
  • Users will need to add an External integration licence to their subscription if they do not have one available.


Table of Contents


Setting Up Vend Integration in DEAR

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If you already have your store set up in Vend, you only have to complete the integration setup in DEAR to connect your Vend store with DEAR.


Connecting DEAR to Vend

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To connect DEAR to your Vend account:

  1. Navigate to Integrations   → Vend.
  2. Click + to connect a new store.
  3. Enter your Vend shop's URL in the box, then click Connect to Vend.
  4. On the Vend sign-in page, click Next.
  5. To give DEAR access to your Vend account/shop, click Allow Access. You will then be taken back to DEAR.


Integration Settings

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Once you've connected DEAR to your Vend account, you can then configure the integration settings between the two systems under the Setup tab on the Vend Integration page in DEAR.


Capture of Orders in DEAR

When you connect DEAR to your Vend store, DEAR is able to receive notifications for important events occurring in Vend, such as:

  • Vend Order is created
  • Vend Order is completed.

The capture of these Vend orders in DEAR depends on this setting. Depending on your order capture setting, DEAR captures the Vend order and saves it as a pending order when the Order is created or completed.


When the Vend Order is completed option is selected, DEAR will not capture On Account sales that are not yet fully paid.


Select whichever is appropriate for your setup. Note that this setting is also taken into account when you manually trigger the download of historical orders from Vend.


Order Consolidation

Sales in Vend are processed in DEAR using any of the two Consolidation Types.

  • No Consolidation indicates that all walk-in/cash register sales will be created as individual sales orders in DEAR. 
  • Daily Consolidation will consolidate all Vend sales for the day into a single sales order. This mode does not support returns and refunds for walk-in sales.

When Daily Consolidation is chosen, a Consolidation Time setting becomes available. This is your local time when all pending orders aggregated during the day will be processed.


NOTE: Regardless of the consolidation method, On Account and Layby sales will always be created in DEAR as individual sales orders, allowing you to fulfil the orders as well as attach the relevant payments to the orders when necessary.


Customer

An existing customer in DEAR Inventory will need to be selected for pending order processing to work in certain scenarios. 

  • When Consolidation Type = Daily Consolidation, this customer is used to create a new sales task which will combine all daily sales into a single sale. 
  • When Consolidation Type = No Consolidation, this customer is used in cases where customer information is not attached to the Vend sales order, for example, in case of a walk-in sale. 
  • If customer info exists in the Vend sales order, then this setting is ignored.


Sale Price Tier

This setting determines which Product Price Tier to use in DEAR Inventory when publishing products from DEAR to Vend. Prices used within DEAR must be tax exclusive. Otherwise, incorrect tax calculations within Sales Orders might subsequently be imported to your accounting application.


Pick, Pack and Ship processing mode

When pending orders from Vend are processed in DEAR, new sales tasks are created. This feature allows you to automate the Pick, Pack and Ship steps when a pending sale is converted into a sales order in DEAR. By default, these tasks are configured to No Picking. You can change this to tell DEAR that it should try to Auto Pick, Auto Pick + Pack, and Auto Pick + Pack + Ship these tasks. 


This field can also be set to Draft Order, meaning that, if there is not enough stock on hand to fulfil the order, then Pick will remain as a Draft Order, and Pack and Ship won’t be completed.


NOTE: Even if the processing is set to any of the automated picking options, if there is not enough stock of a product, the order status will remain at Picking. This may lead to discrepancies in the sales reported by Vend and those in DEAR. These discrepancies will be addressed as soon as stock becomes available and the pending orders are processed.


Process Auto-Assembly as

This dropdown field has two options:

  • For ordered quantity: Does not check stock quantity. An assembly order is created for the quantity specified in the sale order, regardless of stock availability. 
  • For minimum quantity required for picking: Assemble stock required to meet the quantity of specific sale order. 
    • If stock availability is negative, auto-assembly will produce a finished goods quantity which is more than the quantity ordered through sale order. 
    • If there is already stock available in inventory but not enough to fulfill the sale order quantity, auto-assembly will assemble the difference in quantity needed to meet the sale order requirement.
    • If stock availability exceeds sale order quantity, auto-assembly is not triggered. 

Stock availability is validated against the sale order location and does not take On Order quantity into account.


Ignore Restock for non-fulfilled sales

When a refund is processed for an unfulfilled sale, this will cause an error with restocking the unfulfilled items. These will appear on the Log as Pending fulfillment. If you are experiencing this error, you will need to enable this setting. Restock/stock allocation quantities will be edited to match the fulfilled items of the sale. This setting is only applicable when Pick, pack, and ship mode for processing online sales is set to Auto Pick + Pack + Ship.




Invoice Status

You can control the Invoice Status for sales tasks created as a result of pending order processing. By default, an Invoice will not be authorised and will be in Draft state, adjustable and waiting for authorisation. However, if this setting is changed to AUTHORISED, the invoice will be automatically created and authorised. It can then be synced with your preferred accounting application.


Gift Card Liability Account

DEAR will use this Liability account instead of a Revenue account for Gift Card sales. This account should have the ability to accept payments. If a sale containing a gift card is made, this sale will remain in the Pending Orders area until a Gift Card Liability Account is specified. 


Optional Revenue Account

The revenue account to be used for all sales downloaded from Vend. This will override the settings at the Product/Customer level and any other Account mapping. 



List Products as Draft

By default, all products from DEAR that are imported into Vend are in Completed status. Turn On this option to ensure that all products from DEAR are listed in Draft status when imported into Vend.


Sales Representative Name

This option allows the entered name to be used as the Sales Representative for the sales task.


By default, this is left blank, meaning that incoming sales transactions from Vend do not have an attached sales representative.


Update Stock Levels in Vend

By default, DEAR does not automatically update stock levels in Vend. This may be useful if you are manually managing stock levels in Vend and do not want DEAR to update stock levels. Ensure you have the correct stock quantities entered in DEAR before you turn on this option as these values will override the stock quantities in Vend.  Enabling Update Stock Levels in Vend will display the Use Buffer Inventory setting. 


Use Buffer Inventory

Displayed when Update Stock Levels in Vend is enabled. Allows for an inventory buffer on stock quantities pushed to Vend. Sync quantity passed to Vend when updating stock levels will be equal to Actual Stock - Buffer Inventory. Enabling this setting will enable the Buffer Inventory field. 


Buffer Inventory

Displayed when Use Buffer Inventory is enabled. Enter an integer number of stock to act as a buffer. Sync quantity passed to Vend when updating stock levels will be equal to Actual Stock - Buffer Inventory. When this setting is enabled, Sync Quantity and Buffer Inventory quantity will be added as fields to the Catalog and Bulk Listing tables alongside stock availability.


NOTE: Once buffer inventory is enabled and specified, it will be applied across all products listed on the Catalog and Bulk Listing tabs. However, sync quantities will only be updated in the channel if the user updates or lists a product.



Use Vend as Master Source for DEAR Products

By default, products are manually maintained in DEAR. This means that product categories, brands and all other product-related information from DEAR are uploaded to Vend, updating the information in Vend in the process. Turn on this option if you want Vend to push this information to DEAR instead. 


Automatically Import Stock Operations from Vend

By default, DEAR does not import stock operations from Vend, which does stock orders, returns, transfers and stocktakes. Turn On this option to enable periodic polling of Vend stock operations and their automatic import into DEAR.


Default Supplier

If DEAR is set to automatically import stock operations from Vend (see above), you can enter the name of the default supplier to be used when creating Purchase tasks. This option is helpful when Vend stock orders are not bound to any Supplier. 


Link Vend and DEAR Tax Rules

When DEAR processes a pending sale, it creates a sales task with order and invoice lines completed. This setting ensures consistent application of tax rules between Vend and DEAR. It is recommended to initially set up tax rules in your accounting application, import these settings into DEAR, and ensure Vend has an identical setup. You will be required to map tax rules loaded from Vend to tax rules set up in DEAR Inventory by selecting the relevant option from the DEAR Tax Rules list.


Link Vend Outlets to DEAR Locations

Each Vend outlet should be created as a Location in DEAR Inventory from Settings → Reference Books → Locations & Bins. This enables maintenance of separate inventory quantities and individual low stock reorder points for each location. The latter can be set at the product level from Inventory → View All Products → Specific Product → Reorder Levels.



Link Vend Payment Methods to Payment Accounts

DEAR captures payments made against sales in Vend and automatically adds payments to created sales tasks. If you want DEAR to create these payments, you need to map an account with the ability to receive payments from your Chart of Accounts. If this account is not selected, payments will not be created.


Disconnecting from Vend Store

When you disconnect from your Vend store, DEAR removes all associations between DEAR and Vend, including all Logs and your Product Catalog. Please take care when disconnecting from your Vend shop, as there is no way you can link DEAR and Vend again automatically without going through the initial setup operations again.

If Payment Account is specified, DEAR also captures a payment transaction associated with the captured order (either already processed or still in pending orders) when the Vend Order is partially or fully paid.


When the Vend Order is cancelled or deleted, DEAR automatically finds and voids the corresponding sales task if already created or just removes any associated pending order if not yet processed.


At times, it may take up to 10 minutes for the order to be picked up by DEAR because Vend may send notifications with some delay.


Catalog

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The Catalog tab on the Vend Integration page is where you manage products and product quantity. From the Catalog tab, you can perform the following:

  • download products from Vend to DEAR
  • list/update individual products from DEAR to Vend
  • delete links between DEAR and Vend products
  • trigger full catalog stock level update from DEAR to Vend
  • trigger the download of Suppliers/Customers from Vend as reference data.

When products are imported from Vend to DEAR, simple products are mapped using the following pattern:

  • DEAR Product SKU = Vend Product handle
  • DEAR Product barcode = Vend Product SKU.

In the case of product families, they are mapped using the following pattern:

  • DEAR Product Family SKU = Vend Product handle

  • DEAR Product SKU = Vend Product variant SKU

  • DEAR Product barcode = Vend Product variant SKU.


Downloading Products

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From the Catalog tab, you can download either new products from Vend to DEAR, or update information about existing products in DEAR based on updated product information from Vend.


To download products from Vend to DEAR:

  1. Under the Catalog tab, click Load Products.
  2. On the Load Products from Vend window, click Load from Vend.


In Vend, each product needs to have a unique SKU. DEAR will not create composite products from Vend automatically, though it will create composite products in Vend when published via Catalog.


NOTE: Stock quantities are not imported during the initial download of products from Vend to DEAR.


Downloading Customers

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From the Catalog tab, you can either create new customers in DEAR with Contact, Billing and Business addresses captured from Vend or update information about existing customers in DEAR based on updated information from Vend.


To download customer information from Vend to DEAR: 

  1. Under the Catalog tab, click More Actions → Download Customers.
  2. On the Load Customers from Vend window, click Load from Vend.


Downloading Suppliers

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From the Catalog tab, you can either create new suppliers in DEAR with Contact, Billing and Business addresses captured from Vend or update information about existing suppliers in DEAR based on updated information from Vend.


To download supplier information from Vend to DEAR:

  1. Under the Catalog tab, click More Actions → Download Suppliers.
  2. On the Load Suppliers from Vend window, click Load from Vend.

NOTE: Prior to downloading your suppliers from Vend, you will be prompted to set an active tax rule for purchases under Settings → Reference Books → Taxation Rules.


Updating Quantities

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To update product quantities in Vend with the currently available quantities in DEAR:

  1. Under the Catalog tab, click More Actions → Update Quantities.
  2. On the Update Quantities in Vend window, click Start.


Managing the Catalog

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Individual products can be listed, updated, unlinked, set to sync stock levels, or removed from Vend from the Catalog tab. 


To list a product on Vend:

  1. Click on the product in the Catalog tab. 
  2. In the pop-up window, click List on Vend.
  3. Save your changes.


To send updated product information to Vend:

  1. Click on the product in the Catalog tab. 
  2. Any changes to the product information that have been made in DEAR can be exported to Vend by clicking Update on Vend.


To remove a product from Vend:

  1. Click on the product in the Catalog tab. 
  2. Click Remove from Vend.
  3. Click Save.


In addition to the above mass update methods, you can also set a product to NOT synchronise stock levels in Vend when there is a change in its stock level in DEAR. 

  1. Select the product from the list or search for it by entering its SKU or name in the search bar on the top right.
  2. Once you find the product, click it, then toggle the Sync Stock Level button to No.
  3. Click List on Vend for an unlisted product or Update on Vend for an already listed product. 


NOTE: Updating a product from the catalog will update stock level in Vend, regardless of the related Quantity Update setting status. 


Bulk Listing

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All products in DEAR can be bulk-listed to Vend through the Bulk Listing tab.


When Use Buffer Inventory setting is enabled from the Setup tab, Sync Quantity and Buffer Inventory quantity will be added as fields to the Bulk Listing tables alongside stock availability. See Buffer Inventory for more information. 


To list products from DEAR to Vend in bulk:

  1. Go to the Bulk Listing tab.
  2. Select products to upload in bulk. You can select products by Category, Brand, Family, Product Tag, Listing Status, Products Listed in (another sales channel or store), and through manual search.

NOTE: If you have multiple stores in another sales channel, e.g. two different Magento stores, these will be displayed separately in the list of sales channels from which products can be selected for upload.

  1. Click Start to upload all selected products.


When products are imported from DEAR to Vend, simple products are mapped using the following pattern:

  • Vend Product handle = DEAR Product SKU, where all non-alphanumeric symbols have been removed
  • Vend Product SKU/barcode = DEAR Product barcode (if not empty), otherwise DEAR Product SKU.

In the case of product families, they are mapped using the following pattern:

  • Vend Product handle (same for all variations in the family) = DEAR Product Family SKU, where all non-alphanumeric symbols are removed
  • Vend Product variant SKU/barcode = DEAR Product barcode (if not empty), otherwise DEAR Product SKU.


Buffer Inventory

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Instead of showing actual inventory values in e-Commerce storefronts, many retailers prefer to display an estimated display quantity where there is a safe buffer stock on their backend to avoid overselling products. DEAR allows for an inventory buffer on stock quantities pushed to Vend, both for the whole channel and at the product level. 


Buffer inventory levels for the whole channel are controlled from the Setup tab. Update Stock Levels in Vend setting must be enabled. 

  • Use Buffer Inventory: Displayed when Update Stock Levels in Vend is enabled. Allows for an inventory buffer on stock quantities pushed to Vend. Enabling this setting will enable the Buffer Inventory field. 
  • Buffer Inventory: Displayed when Use Buffer Inventory is enabled. Enter an integer number of stock to act as a buffer.  Sync Quantity passed to Vend when updating stock levels will be equal to Actual Stock - Buffer Inventory


When this setting is enabled, Sync Quantity and Buffer Inventory quantity will be added as fields to the Catalog and Bulk Listing tables alongside stock availability. However, sync quantities will only be updated in the channel if the user updates or lists a product. 


Buffer Inventory for the whole channel can be overwritten by a product level buffer from either the Catalog or Bulk Listing page (Use buffer inventory must be enabled from the channel Setup tab). The product level buffer value will ALWAYS override the value set on the Setup tab. If the Setup tab buffer inventory value is changed, this will not affect products with product level buffers.


NOTE: Product level inventory buffer is disabled by default. In the case of wanting to turn off inventory buffer for certain products only, the user will need to enable buffer inventory and enter a value to apply it to the whole catalog, THEN set product level buffer to 0 for those products, then update or list the item to apply changes.

If the user wishes to apply inventory buffer ONLY to one or more specific products, inventory buffer should be enabled on the Setup tab and set to 0. Then, product level buffer inventory can be enabled and configured for products from either the catalog or bulk listing page. You will need to list or update the item to apply changes. 


On the Catalog page:

Click on a listed or unlisted item to open a pop-up window and slide Use Product Level Buffer Inventory to enable. You can then enter an integer value for Product level buffer which will overwrite the channel buffer value. You will then need to Update or List the product for the new stock level quantity to be displayed in the channel. Save and Close to continue.


On the Bulk Listing page:

Use this to update product level buffer for multiple items at once. Use the search box and filter options to filter items to list/update in bulk. 


The Use Buffer Inventory menu allows you to Turn on product level setting, Remove product level setting, or Don't update existing setting

Turning on product level setting allows you to then enter an integer value for Product level buffer. Click List to overwrite the channel buffer value for the filtered products with the product level buffer. 


Selecting Remove product level setting, then List, will remove the product level setting from the filtered products and return them to the channel buffer inventory value. 


Selecting Don't update existing setting will leave all buffer values, including product level buffer values, unchanged when updating listings or making a new listing.



Pending Sales

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Orders are automatically downloaded when the order is created or order status changes in Vend (e.g. Completed). Generally, you are not required to trigger manual order download. However, if an order was not captured by DEAR or to load historical sales, you can use the Manual Order Download option available from the Pending Sales tab on the Vend Integration page. DEAR allows loading historical sales data a maximum of one year old.


Loading Pending Orders from Vend

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To download pending orders manually:

  1. On the Vend Integration page, select the Pending Sales tab.
  2. Click Load Orders.
  3. On the Load Sales from Vend window, select a date for the Vend sales transactions to be loaded from the calendar, then click Load from Vend. DEAR allows loading historical sales data a maximum of one year old.


Take note of the following when loading pending orders from Vend:

  • Any downloaded order is saved to Pending Sales, which is a temporary storage of all sales and payments in DEAR. Only orders matching the defined capture option, with status set to either Created or Completed, are accepted.
  • If an order has an entry in Logs, or if it was already downloaded before, it will be skipped. This guarantees that DEAR will not create any duplicate sales from previous transactions.
  • While saving an order, DEAR captures customer information, billing and shipping addresses. All line items are captured together with quantities, prices and totals. Total order discounts are applied as additional charges to the whole order, without distribution by lines to reduce any chances of discrepancy.
  • For each line in a Sale, DEAR attempts to locate the corresponding product by SKU. If no product is found, DEAR attempts to download product info from Vend with the same logic as in the Download Products function. The Sale line is then saved to Pending Sales with all data from Vend, including Tax, Quantity and Total.


Processing Pending Orders

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After pending sales orders are reloaded from Vend, you should process pending orders next.


To process pending orders, click Process on the Pending Sales tab. This will generate the sales in DEAR.



Refunds

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DEAR captures refunds from Vend. DEAR will then capture the refund and return/restock and apply them to the associated sale task.


Please note that if the sale is unfulfilled, this will cause an error with restocking the unfulfilled items. These will appear on the Log as Pending fulfilment. If you are experiencing this error, you will need to enable the Ignore restock for non-fulfilled sales setting.


Submit returns request via RMA portal

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Customers can submit returns requests via Cin7 Core RMA Portal if your organization subscription has this feature, allowing customers to initiate the Cin7 Core RMA workflow, and view the status of their returns. This includes sales processed through connected eCommerce channels. 


Any Cin7 Core customer can submit a returns requests via the returns portal with an order number or invoice number and email address simply by accessing the relevant URL. We recommend adding the URL to the return portal to your default sale email template sent to customers. Please see detailed instructions at RMA Portal for returns requests


Please note that refunds/restocked processed in this way will not be automatically exported to the eCommerce channel, and will have to be added manually updated within the channel. You may prefer to use the returns workflow offered by Vend if you do not need the additional RMA workflow features in Core. 


Refunds for sales predating integration with DEAR

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Merchants with eCommerce channels occasionally have to process returns or refunds for a sale that predates integration of the eCommerce channel with DEAR. 


Sales and refund information is imported automatically from the eCommerce channel to DEAR, but can also be manually imported via the DEAR web portal. Historical refunds and returns are handled differently for each case. 


Automatic import: DEAR checks the sale order date against the date of integration with the eCommerce channel. If the sale order date predates the date of integration, credit note and refund are imported without the corresponding historical sale task. 

  • A sale is created without order lines or invoice lines. 
  • Credit note tab shows refunded items and if a refund was processed in the eCommerce channel it will be captured on this tab. 
  • Restock tab is left empty and no stock adjustments are made. 


Manual import: Manually loading orders from Vend functions in the same way whether the sale took place before or after integration with DEAR. 

  • From the Pending Orders tab, click Load orders and select a date to load sales, including historical sales as Pending Orders. Process the sale associated with the refund. 
  • The sale order with have order, invoice, pick, pack, and ship lines. It will also have credit note and restock lines. 
  • User will have to perform a manual stock adjustment to correct any discrepancies from the refund. 


Export Payments

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The Export Payments module allows the export of payments for On Account and Lay-By sales from DEAR to Vend. On Account sales refer to purchases either made on credit or paid for in partial amounts. Lay-By sales are similar – these are purchases that are not paid all at once.


To start the Export Payments process:

  1. On the Vend Integration page, select the Export Payments tab.
  2. Click Export to Vend.
  3. On the Export Payments to Vend window, click Start.


Stock

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The Vend Integration page allows capturing of Vend stock operations, namely, Inventory counts, Stock orders and Stock transfers into DEAR. These are then subsequently mapped to Stock adjustments, Purchase tasks and Stock transfers.


NOTE: When importing Stocktake/Stock adjustment data from Vend, the Inventory Discrepancy account from DEAR account mapping is used as the expense account. If Inventory Discrepancy is not provided, the COGS account is used as the expense account instead.


To capture Vend stock operations in DEAR:

  1. On the Vend Integration page, select the Stock tab.
  2. Click the appropriate tab (Purchases, Stock adjustments and Stock transfers).
  3. Click Download stock.


When dealing with stock operations, take note of the following:

  • Only fully processed, e.g. in Received state, stock operations are captured. 
  • If a product with a non-FIFO costing method is present in a stock operation prior to completion and an error occurs, this operation is saved and tagged as Draft in DEAR.
  • To maintain valid actual quantities in DEAR Locations, downloaded stock operations should be processed/completed in the same order as it was received/completed in Vend. 
  • You can turn on automatic stock operations download (on the Setup tab) or perform the historical import (filtered by receive date) of stock operations manually from the Stock tab. 


Log

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Each captured Vend order, once saved to Pending Sales, creates a Log entry to enable tracking of the linked Sale in DEAR and in Vend. This also helps avoid creating duplicate orders when capturing the same order several times during manual Order load.


To view Log entries, select the Log tab on the Vend Integration page.

Take note of the following considerations when it comes to Log entries:

  • They allow you to see which sales task links to a particular Vend sale. 
  • You have an option to delete Log entries manually. This will allow you to reprocess an order if required. Deleting log entries won’t void or delete sales tasks associated with these entries. 
  • For each captured Vend stock operation, DEAR creates a log entry to track the link between the stock operation in DEAR and in Vend. This helps avoid the creation of duplicate stock operations when capturing the same Vend stock operation several times during manually triggered stock loads.


Troubleshooting FAQs

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For information on troubleshooting issues in DEAR's Vend Integration module, see Vend FAQs.

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