When setting up Tradebox One you'll need to choose a stock control method; telling the system where to look for product details, and the quantities available if you're a physical goods business. Your inventory choice is intrinsic to how the software will operate and will also have an impact on the features the software can perform now and in the future.

How it works

In the initial Tradebox setup wizard, you'll choose an accounts package (Sage 50, Xero or None) and a stock control method (Accounts Software, Tradebox or None).

Regardless which method you choose, Tradebox will always:

• Download orders from your online marketplace.
• Take the price of items on the order from the online marketplace.
  • Selling price is never read from your accounts package or from a value stored in Tradebox. This means the order in Tradebox will always show the amount your customer actually paid online. And when you change any prices, you don't need to worry about doing it anywhere else, just on your online marketplace or webstore.
• Use your regional VAT preferences to calculate the VAT due on an order based on whether the shipping address is UK, EU or Rest of World.

Your choice of stock control method will determine:

• Whether Tradebox can apply A VAT rule specific to what is being sold
  • If you sell a mix of VAT and non-VAT items within the UK, you'll need to use a stock control method of some kind. None isn't a valid stock control option for a mix of VAT treatments within-region.
• Whether any per-product reporting is available to you
• If inventory adjustments should occur to reflect an item being sold
• Whether a free stock quantity is tracked and available to upload back to your online marketplaces

The stock control methods

None

If you choose None there will be no requirement to set up products in Tradebox. Any features associated with products will not be available. In effect you will have a system that will provide order management and financial integration with your Accounts software. These are the main points to consider if you choose no inventory:

• No list of products or stock levels
• No ability to perform different VAT calculation based on what has been sold
• No ability to adjust stock levels and pass these back to the sales channels
• No product-based analysis
• Ability to create either Service Invoices which create an invoice document for print/email, or summary entry batch invoices which write transactions straight to the audit trail in Sage 50
• Ability to create Invoices without Inventory Items in Xero; these can either be an individual invoice for each online sale, or summary entries that represent many sales on one invoice

Tradebox stock control

This option should be used if you're running Tradebox standalone with no accounts integration, and you require a stock control system. It may also be used if you want a financials-only integration of summary entries into your accounts package.

If you are integrating Sage 50 or Xero and need a stock control system, you would usually choose Accounts Software rather than Tradebox as your stock control method. Your accounts package has a purchase ledger which will impact on your product reporting and stock control when you raise supplier invoices or purchase orders; this won't be taken into account if you choose Tradebox stock control. Xero and Sage both have more options for per-product reporting than Tradebox does, which is another advantage of using your accounts package as your stock control system.

If you choose Tradebox as your stock control method you will need to set up your products and stock levels in Tradebox. Products can be created manually, imported from a spreadsheet, imported from Sage or (for some channels) imported from the online sales channel. Any upload of free stock levels back to the marketplace will take their quantities from the stock level in Tradebox. These are the main points to consider if you choose Tradebox stock control:

• Calculate VAT based on what's being sold, each product record holds a default tax code
• Stock levels can be uploaded to sales channels from Tradebox if desired
• Ability to create Service Invoices, Product Invoices, Sales Orders or summary entry batch invoices in Sage
• Can sell a mix of vatable/non-vatable goods in Sage without using Sage stock control
• Ability to create individual invoices with inventory items, or either individual or summary invoices without inventory items in Xero
• Some product-based reporting from within Tradebox e.g. top selling SKUs
• No purchase ledger or reading of purchases from your accounts package. Use the Adjust Quantity In or Stock take options to reflect an increase in free stock in Tradebox.

Accounts Software stock control

If you choose Accounts Software your product list in Tradebox will be subservient to your product list in Sage or Xero. Stock will adjust out in your accounts package once it's sold, and free stock levels can be taken from your accounts software and uploaded to the sales channels you are integrated with, if desired. You'll need to create any new products within your accounts package, these will then automatically be imported into Tradebox.

If your online SKUs are exact matches of your Sage/Xero Product Codes then the relationships between these will be formed automatically; if your SKUs don't match your accounts products then you'll use Tradebox's Product Mapping features to forge a relationship between your online items and your products. These are the main points to consider if you choose to run stock control in your accounts software:

• Calculate VAT based on what's being sold, each product record holds a default tax code
• Free stock levels can be uploaded to online marketplaces from the accounts software if desired
• Ability to create Product Invoices or Sales Orders in Sage
• Ability to create Invoices with inventory items in Xero
• Your accounts package's purchase ledger will impact on the free stock quantities
• Product-based reporting in your accounts package, and within Tradebox

Generic products

A fairly common query is from users who don't want or require stock control or a product list, but do sell a mix of VATable and non-VATable goods. In this instance, we advise users to set their stock control method to Tradebox and process with generic products.

If you're a Sage/Xero user you'd first set up a handful of generic product records in your accounts pacakge, you'll need one product record each tax code that you'll be selling. The tax code is the only important part of the product record. and best practice is to set the product code as 'STANDARDVAT', 'ZEROVAT' etc, the product description as something like 'Standard VAT product' and the product type as Nonstock. Once you've created your dummy products, import these into Tradebox via Products > Actions > Import Products.

If you're not integrating Sage or Xero, create these generic products directly in Tradebox via Products > New. The Default Tax Code is the only important part of the product record, and best practice is to set the SKU as 'STANDARDVAT', 'ZEROVAT' etc, the product description as something like 'Standard VAT product' and the product type as Nonstock.

Next, you'll set up your sales channels. Once your channels are in place, you'll need to map your products. Tradebox's normal Product Mapping routine is used but in this case you'll be mapping all online SKUs to your handful of generic products based on each item's tax treatment for a UK sale. It's normally easiest to do this in bulk by importing your product mappings from spreadsheet; click here for a guide to that process and a template file you can amend. Set up your spreadsheet as in the example below with Multiplier populated as 1 and Direct To Customer populated as False.

Orders viewed within in Tradebox will ignore your generic description on the product record and use the item descriptions from your online marketplace instead.
If you're integrating Sage or Xero, you'll need to set Tradebox to pass the online product description to your accounts package with each order. In each Sales Channel > Sage 50 or Xero tab > Postings, tick Use Marketplace Product Name. Then Save your channel.