To be clear, we do have a couple of apps that are not embedded and require us to use their portal. Earlier in this thread, I said:
”So many apps are not embedded, and unless the functionality is critical AND unavailable to a “built for shopify” app, we skip it.”
My poor phrasing is admittedly a bit confusing but at the end of the day, all I am saying that it’s a value judgement. If we need the functionality and we can’t find a decent embedded, “Built for Shopify” app, we will always consider alternatives. The factors are cost (of course,) ramp-up time for a new employee, throughput once we’re past ramp-up and effectiveness at it’s job. Customization is also a huge plus—however, I don’t mean the “Call us to make mods to our app to accommodate you” kind of customization.
I wasn’t trying to slam your app, just giving you some real-world feedback from a somewhat sophisticated merchant. Not being “Built for Shopify” will always cause some purchase friction for us and maybe more like us. That friction could certainly be overcome by an amazing app – but it starts a bit behind. That’s all.
No worries! I didn’t take it that way at all. I’m very proud of the app and it addresses many needs for retail stores, but I also recognize it isn’t a perfect fit for everybody. Because of this, I’m actually very open to changing aspects so it appeals to as many people as possible. I hate to say FyreTrail is “changing” rapidly, but it’s more like it is “evolving” into something more flexible, more powerful and more “supportive” of retail needs in general. This last 4 weeks of being “live” has been amazing for both it and for me.
Anyway, didn’t mean to put you on the spot either. I appreciate how open you’ve been actually so thank you. I do encourage you take a look at it, but when you do, keep in mind - it’s not a Stocky clone. It does the things right for retail that even Stocky limped through and it’s gaining more an more features daily (mostly from customer feedback mind you) to do the same.
We ran into the same issue building our inventory app (Pasilobus Stock Take). Without a PO API, we ended up adding purchase order management directly into the app so merchants can receive stock against POs during their counts. It also works in POS, which has been useful for retail stores doing receiving on the floor. Definitely agree that Shopify needs to expose this via API though, it would make the whole ecosystem better.
With the Transfer API recently released, I personally expect Purchase Orders API sometime next year unless a preview is announced this summer.
@uurcank I tend to agree, althought i would have been good to see a General Release of Both Inventory and Purchase GraphQL endpoints at the sometime. As it is limits the use of one without another.
There seems to be a shift in this question now that Purchase Orders can be linked to Inventory Transfers. I might just be too naive but I think this and stocky being sunset could mean that we will have something like more useable Purchase Orders or even an API as soon as the next Shopify Edition rollout. I would love a confirmation from a staff member about the planned features, but Editions being this close probably means we will only know this for certain in the upcoming weeks.
You have to start the creation of the PO manually setting the Supplier, Destination, Shipment details, etc. Then you can manually create a transfer and import the products? And there is a way to link the Transfer to the PO? I am not seeing this option. Has it not been released?
You need to create PO, and then on the PO screen you can click “Duplicate” → “As transfer”. There doesn’t seem to be any link between POs and Transfers after that point.
That seems like it could get confusing fast, as the merchant needs to be careful not to receive both the PO and the Transfer. They have to remember to delete the PO, I guess.
Based off the schedule of DotDev and this talk, I think it’s coming…
The Physical Ledger: Inventory gets GraphQL APIs
Real world inventory is messy. We’re bringing it natively into Admin with new GraphQL primitives for purchase orders, stateful counts, and bins. Come see the schemas and build high-scale warehouse integrations.
Yeah, that makes sense. I have been working with a store that was holding out on their updates this month. Unfortunately, with the latest updates and now this potential nugget it seems they’re not hitting the expected level. I honestly feel bad for that store.
